Morningstar, Inc. and iCapital have formed a strategic relationship to provide users of the Advisor Workstation with access to alternative investments and analytics. The integration will give more than 170,000 users the ability to evaluate private assets alongside traditional investments and build diversified portfolios for their clients. The first phase of the integration has recently been completed, giving independent advisor clients access to iCapital Marketplace and iCapital Architect through a single interface. The second phase, planned for the first half of 2024, will extend the integration to Advisor Workstation’s Enterprise-level clients and generate Morningstar’s Portfolio Risk Score when alternative assets are added to client asset allocations.
The partnership comes as advisors increasingly respond to client demands and market uncertainty by offering alternative assets. Morningstar’s Voice of the Advisor study found that advisors who offer a wide variety of products say alternatives make up between 14% and 19% of their total assets under management. Additionally, an iCapital survey last year found that 50% of advisors said client interest in alternative investments increased over the past two years, and 95% plan to allocate the same or more to alternative investments in the coming year.
