Morningstar's plans to focus on the future with new ratings is catching attention of the Associated Press. The article outlines what Morningstar's Analyst Ratings will be -- they borrow from the institutional consultants "five p's" -- and alerts readers that they will debut next Tuesday.

Morningstar announced the new ratings earlier this year (See MFWire coverage), which will debut next Tuesday, the reports. If they catch on the new ratings would loosen the ties between portfolio managers and their mutual funds as PMs would be able to effectively take their track record with them. The loss of a strong PM could also immediately hurt a fund's rating, unlike under the star ratings which are based solely on historical data.

Morningstar reportedly plans to initially publish analyst ratings for about 300 funds. By the end of next year, Morningstar expects to have analyst ratings on some 1,500 funds. Some fund chiefs have expressed curiosity into how the funds that will be covered are selected.

The new ratings system, which will supplement, but not replace, the 1- to 5-star ratings, will give investors a sense of a fund's prospects on top summarizing its past results.

The system uses a a color scheme as well as a neutral and negative rating. Newbie fund managers can also rejoice in the fact that the ratings will be assigned to new and old funds, and not just ones with performance records of at least three years.

The five p's include: people, process, parent, performance and price. 

Edited by: Hung Tran


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