Morningstar Announces Agenda for Morningstar Institutional Conference Europe in Amsterdam, 17-18 March 2016

Morningstar, Inc. (NASDAQ: MORN), a leading provider of independent investment research, today announced the agenda and speakers for its sixth annual Morningstar Institutional Conference Europe.

The Morningstar Institutional Conference, to be held in Amsterdam on 17 and 18 March 2016, will explore key themes relevant to long-term investors and will provide a holistic view of the current investing environment through a diverse programme of presentations from leading investors, academics and industry experts. Morningstar expects more than 200 investment professionals from across Europe to attend.

Headlining speakers include John C. Bogle, Founder and former Chief Executive of Vanguard and creator of the first index mutual fund. In a conversation with Morningstar’s Scott Cooley, transmitted live from Pennsylvania, Mr. Bogle will share his views on building effective portfolios for long-term investors and will challenge assumptions about active management. Attendees will also hear from James Montier, member of GMO’s asset allocation team, renowned author and expert on behavioural finance and value investing, who will explore the features of an independent-minded approach to investing and the challenges of implementing such a strategy in a multi-asset environment.

Haywood Kelly, Head of Global Research, Morningstar, will examine the landscape for sustainable investing and explain what Morningstar is doing to help individuals, advisors, and asset managers invest in ways that are meaningful to them. In addition, Thomas Idzorek, Head of Investment Methodology and Economic Research, Morningstar Investment Management group, will update and expand upon his ground-breaking research on the use of popularity as an investment tool.

Additional highlights of this year’s conference include:

• Jason Hsu, Vice Chairman, Research Affiliates, on the cyclical nature of the value premium and investors’ performance-chasing nature
• Michael Krautzberger, Head of European Fixed Income, BlackRock, and Morningstar European Bond Manager of the Year 2014, on creating a diversified fixed income portfolio in today’s increasingly complex European markets
• Dr. Amlan Roy, Managing Director, Head of Demographics and Pensions, Credit Suisse, on global demographic change and its impact on growth, debt and inflation
• Ian Sims, Chairman and Chief Investment Officer, Colchester Global Investors Limited, on applying a valuation-driven approach to global fixed income investment

A number of break out streams will include evaluating funds using environmental, social, and governance (ESG) factors, the role of behavioural science in saving for retirement and the implications of companies’ increasing move toward share buybacks.

“This year’s institutional conference will showcase the best investment thinking from around the world on a range of topics relevant to long-term investors,” Dan Kemp, Chief Investment Officer, EMEA, Morningstar Investment Management group, said. “Each speaker has been hand-picked by our investment management and research teams and represents one of Morningstar’s core investment principles. The agenda includes discussions on value investing, alternative ways to measure risk, and the challenges posed by investors’ behavioural biases. As ESG considerations become increasingly important to investors, we will also explore the landscape for sustainable investing across Europe and Morningstar’s new approach to assessing funds based on ESG factors. I look forward to welcoming delegates to Amsterdam. There’s simply no other event that brings together this much interesting insight.”

For full details of the Morningstar Institutional Conference Europe, please visit:  http://global.morningstar.com/euconference. Conference updates will also be available on Twitter through the hashtag #MICEU.