According to a recent announcement, information on the structured notes platform Luma Financial Technologies will now be available to Morningstar Advisor Workstation customers. According to industry data cited by Luma, the two signed a deal that will provide advisors with Structured Notes data and analytics as more than $94.5 billion in structured notes were issued in the US in 2021.
Kevin Reed, Head of Strategic Partnerships at Morningstar, said, “As structured products continue to grow in popularity, we hope to highlight a rapidly growing, useful and strategic asset class that can play a key role in investor portfolios. ” “This is the first structured product platform collaboration with Morningstar’s Advisor Workstation.”
The increased transparency and information about Structured Notes comes as Morningstar works to “analyze, manage and allocate Structured products within the overall client portfolio context,” according to the announcement. In the coming year, Morningstar wants to organize and categorize structured products in a way that allows advisors to more easily assess their impact on clients’ portfolios.
Morningstar seeks to “illustrate the important trade-offs and empower investors to make better-informed financial decisions,” he said.
The partnership opens the door to single sign-on capabilities. Advisors using Luma will be able to access the Platform directly through the Morningstar Advisor Workstation and initiate transactions on Luma, if they are a customer of the Platform.
According to Luma CEO and President Tim Bonacchi, Luma chose Morningstar as a partner because of the latter’s reputation for “in-depth portfolio analysis”. It is Luma’s only partner for this type of portfolio analysis. About 180,000 advisors will have access to the firm’s data. As a result of the partnership, he said.
There is no extra charge for this Morningstar Advisor Workstation subscribers do not charge any fees for using the newly structured product data and for accessing the Luma Platform, Product issuers and manufacturers pay fees to offer their products to firms and consultants through Luma.
Structured Notes has been seeing renewed popularity over the past several years and Morningstar isn’t the first to provide consultants with Structured Notes data and analytics. Fidelity Institutional and Envestnet both added access to the structured notes platform Simon Markets. Simon completed a $100 million Series B funding round in July.
Fidelity made its integrations available through its web-based execution platform used by Wealthscape, RIAs, broker-dealers and family offices. The integration includes the Book of Business Management and Post-Business Analysis for Consultants.
According to plans announced by the firm, advisors using the integration of Envestnet will eventually be able to make structured investments in UMA and offers, while allowing advisors to “actively manage” the structured investment books of their business. Envestnet also wants to bring data from Structured Notes into its financial planning software, MoneyGuide.
Competitor Halo Investing raised $100 million in Series C last fall as it aimed to sell more products through advisors. It also included “simplified access” and “transparency” as benefits of its platform’s technology. Demand for the products was so strong that Chicago-based RIA Keybeck Wealth Management, a $1.4 billion firm, signed up for the platform last year.
Advisors using the alternative investment platform iCapital are also having access to systems from the structured notes platform Axio Financial. ICapital expanded into the structured note market with the purchase of the platform in September for an undisclosed amount.
