We are pleased to offer Morningstar Direct clients data on three new open-end mutual fund sub-universes available for sale in the following countries -- Iceland, Greece and Lithuania. Close to 7,000 open-end mutual funds are covered from these countries. The data can be found in the Open End Funds Universe by country in Morningstar Direct 3.3. Please contact your Morningstar account manager to learn more.

With mutual fund capital gains taxes at an all-time high, the Tax Barometer can help investors decide - from a tax standpoint - which investment might best serve their needs - a separate account or a mutual fund. By illustrating the percentage of tax overhang in nine domestic-equity Morningstar mutual fund categories, the Tax Barometer helps investors to analyze their investment options.

Please click here to learn more.

Morningstar's products currently support the upcoming NASDAQ stock symbol change. Please note that NASDAQ has rescheduled the implementation date to September 13, 2008. Any changes to NASDAQ stock symbols will be passed through to Morningstar clients. Please ensure that your systems can accommodate the pending changes.

NASDAQ will implement Phase 2 of the Stock Symbol System Changes including the adoption of a common suffix symbology for all issues trading on NASDAQ's system. For subordinate issue types, NASDAQ currently appends a fifth character to NASDAQ-listed issues. NASDAQ must adopt a new suffix symbology to assist customers in separating the root symbol from the subordinate issue modifier type.

Details from NASDAQ can be seen here.

Please contact your account team for additional details.

We are very excited to announce that Morningstar EnCorr 9.4 will be released in mid-March. We will provide more information and a link to the new version upon its release. As always, please follow the protocol outlined by your IT department regarding downloads. The new release includes risk budgeting functionality, forecasting using log-stable returns distribution assumption, enhanced resampling, expanded operational data among many other features and enhancements.

Please click here for a complete list of the new features in Morningstar EnCorr 9.4.

Morningstar is currently tracking more than 280 "leveraged net long" investment vehicles across its various proprietary databases. While we are working on ehancements to enable our clients to search on this data point, a list of the available investments is available upon request.

Please contact your account team for details.

Morningstar has changed our ratings for variable annuity underlying funds to compare with open-end mutual funds, effective Jan. 31, 2008. In order to support this enhancement, the following changes have occurred: Open-end funds that can be used in variable annuity subaccounts are now designated "available to insurance products" and any duplicate funds in the VA universe have been removed. These designated funds are included in both the U.S. VA and U.S. open-end universes. Category averages for both U.S. VA underlying and U.S. open-end now include these funds.

Please contact your account team for details.

Morningstar Direct 3.3 has been released to Morningstar Direct 3.1 users. Users with administrative download rights have received the download link via email. Please follow your organization’s protocol for executing downloads, and check with your IT department for administrative rights if necessary. If you do not have the right to update the application, please work with your IT resources to accommodate an alternate release date of Feb. 19, 2008. The newest release includes improved aggregate functionality, new alerts capability, enhancements to Report Builder, new charts, increased data coverage, and enhanced coverage of shorts and derivatives in portfolio statistics.

View enhancement details

We are restructuring our variable annuity rider description data to employ the use of “tags” to separate the description into a series of categories and sub-categories. Currently, rider descriptions are only available in paragraph format. This categorization will allow our clients to more easily search for and compare the features of death and living benefit riders in different policies. This enhancement will be available to Morningstar Annuity Research Center clients on March 13, 2008 and Licensed Data Clients in April deliveries.

Please contact your account team for details.

Effective March 31, 2008, Morningstar will be modifying our methodology for Investor Returns in order to accommodate fund mergers.

Additional details will follow.

Feb. 21, 2008- Morningstar announced its fourth-quarter and full-year 2007 financial results. The company reported consolidated revenue of $118.1 million in the fourth quarter of 2007, a 36% increase from revenue of $87.0 million in the fourth quarter of 2006. Morningstar’s fourth-quarter results included $8.9 million in revenue from the acquisition of the fund data business from Standard & Poor’s, which was completed on March 16, 2007. Consolidated operating income was $33.3 million in the fourth quarter of 2007, an increase of 64% compared with the same period a year ago. Morningstar’s net income was $20.0 million in the fourth quarter of 2007, or 41 cents per diluted share, compared with $13.6 million, or 29 cents per diluted share, in the fourth quarter of 2006.

Press Release

Feb. 26, 2008- The Wall Street Journal Online (www.wsj.com) today announced an agreement with Morningstar, Inc., a leading provider of independent investment research and global data, to provide new investor tools and international investment funds data to WSJ.com. The new resources are now available to users of WSJ.com free of charge. Morningstar now also provides daily price and performance data for the fund listings service published in the European and Asian print editions of The Wall Street Journal. In addition, new and enhanced advertising opportunities are also available around the fund listings, both in print and online.

Press Release

March 6, 2008 New York, NY

Morningstar is sponsoring two tables at this year's Mutual Fund Industry Awards Dinner being held at The Pierre in New York City. Don Phillips, Managing Director, will be in attendance.

March 13-14, 2008 Orlando, Florida

Each year, professionals across the financial services community gather to discuss the latest asset allocation investment strategies and research. The annual Ibbotson� Asset Allocation Conference unites prominent speakers from academic institutions, global companies, and financial service providers to present timely topics. This is a must-attend event for those interested in asset allocation theory and practice, global financial industry trends, new diversification opportunities, and the market environment.

Event Details

March 12, 2008 Orlando, Florida

Mark your calendars! This client-only event is designed to provide Morningstar Institutional Software subscribers a unique opportunity to learn how to increase productivity when using Morningstar research and analysis and about upcoming software developments. This event, held in conjunction with the Ibbotson Asset Allocation Conference, provides introductory to advanced level workshops for Morningstar DirectSM, Morningstar DirectSM Alternative Investment Edition, and Morningstar� EnCorr� to help you apply the newest techniques in asset allocation, portfolio construction, and portfolio monitoring. Exchange ideas for using Morningstar traditional and alternative research products, get answers to your questions and provide feedback on our products. Plus, hear and discuss important research and industry trends with Morningstar and Ibbotson thought leaders.

For more information, contact Quan Domaleczny at (312) 696-6848 or email quan.domaleczny@morningstar.com