Associate Director

About the Role
The Group: The Morningstar Research Services manager selection team draws on core capabilities in manager research to provide innovative investment solutions to institutions, advisors, and investors worldwide. The team serves investors and advisors through its work with institutional clients, providing retirement plan and non-retirement investment selection and oversight services.
The Role: Morningstar Research Services seeks an associate director to join our Manager Selection team. Reporting to our Head of Manager Selection and working closely with colleagues in the Manager Research team, you will be part of our fund research and selection process, which forms a cornerstone of our Manager Selection Services (MSS). This will include assessing funds and other investment vehicles for possible use in select lists and retirement plan menus, as well as monitoring selected investments and contributing to advancing our assessment and oversight processes. Working closely with the other members of the MSS team, you will be part of the team's Fiduciary Services work, which involves evaluating, selecting, and monitoring funds for use in retirement plan lineups. As an associate director, you will join the directors in working with our clients, with the objective of eventually becoming the lead for some clients. You also will help to develop and promote best practices in retirement plan lineup design and management. You will work closely with members of the Morningstar Workplace team, which provides comprehensive retirement solutions. You also will participate in the broader work of the team, which involves assessing, selecting, and overseeing fund managers and funds, as well as model portfolios, to meet a variety of non-retirement portfolio and select-list criteria.
Job Responsibilities- Comprehensive assessment and oversight of investment offerings (primarily mutual funds), including strategy, management, and firm.- Coverage of an asset class or subsets of asset classes.- Work with colleagues in Workplace to provide excellent service to institutional clients, helping meet reporting deadlines.- Work collaboratively with MSS team and Manager Research analysts to set expectations for fund performance, identify areas of concern, and role in portfolio.- Contribute to memos and evaluations written quarterly or semi-annually.- Engage in the creation and ongoing maintenance of defined contribution engagements with plan providers and plan sponsors.- Develop presentations and present to clients.- Work collaboratively with team to assess and refine selection process on an ongoing basis, drawing on skills in using such tools as Excel, as well as Morningstar Direct and other Morningstar proprietary tools as needed.
Qualifications- Five or more years of experience in evaluating investment strategies from both quantitative and qualitative perspectives, interviewing fund managers, and assessing funds' long-term prospects.- Experience working with institutional clients such as retirement plan record keepers, wealth management firms, and broker-dealers.- Strong writing abilities, excellent quantitative skills, and meticulous attention to detail.
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