The organization's new unit covers a range of Morningstar capabilities.

Morningstar, the investment research group, has built a new wealth management business unit.

Taking effect from the start of this year, the US-listed firm’s Wealth Management Solutions group covers capabilities such as managed portfolios from Morningstar's Investment Management group, portfolio management software Morningstar Offices (sm), investment data aggregator ByAllAccounts®, and the individual investor experience across Morningstar.com®. 

The UK and international business from Praemium, for which Morningstar announced acquisition plans in December and awaits regulatory approval, would also sit among this group, the company said in a statement late last week.  

Daniel Needham has been appointed president of the business, expanding on his prior role overseeing Morningstar's Investment Management group as president and chief investment officer since 2015.

Later this year, Morningstar Investment Services plans to launch a direct indexing capability on its Turnkey Asset Management Platform for advisors, marking the first new product launch for the Wealth Management Solutions team.

The firm has made a number of additions to the wealth solutions group's leadership: 

Adley Bowden, head of the Individual Investor group; Elizabeth Durkee, head of marketing, Wealth Management Solutions; Katy Gibson, head of product, ByAllAccounts; John Harris, head of US platform distribution, Investment Management; Jonathan Linstra, Americas managing director, Investment Management; Jig Patel, chief technology officer, Wealth Management Solutions; Brian Verhoeven, head of design, Wealth Management Solutions; and Bjorn Widerstedt, head of product, Morningstar Office.