Morningstar, Inc. (Nasdaq: MORN), a leading provider of independent investment insights, today announced significant updates to its Morningstar Medalist Rating™, its comprehensive forward-looking rating for managed investments. The updated methodology, which will go live globally in April 2026, is designed to simplify the rating structure, make the rating more transparent for investors, and enhance stability—empowering investors to more easily identify investments with the potential to outperform their Morningstar Category average.
“We’re simplifying key elements of our forward-looking Medalist Ratings to increase usability and give investors a clearer view into how ratings are determined,” said Laura Lutton, global head, manager research. “These updates provide the clear, easy-to-interpret insights the industry has been seeking.”
Key Enhancements to the Medalist Rating
- Transparent Pillars: Quant-driven fundamental pillars (People, Process, Parent) will now include greater visibility into the underlying inputs — including new metrics like Fund Manager Successful Experience1— so investors can better understand how a Medalist Rating is determined. There will continue to be a delineation between pillar ratings that come from an analyst or algorithm.
- Simplified Structure: Funds are evaluated against their Morningstar Category average rather than a benchmark, enabling investors to more easily identify Medalist options within a category and make meaningful peer comparisons.
- New Price Score: A Morningstar Medalist Rating Price Score from –2.5 to 2.5 will explicitly reflect whether an investment’s fee is a liability or competitive advantage, subtracting from or adding to the overall rating.
- Fixed Rating Thresholds: Medalist Ratings will be determined by a simple combination of fundamental pillar ratings and a Medalist Rating Price Score, increasing stability by eliminating a forced distribution of ratings that caused ratings to change based on updates to other funds.
Morningstar’s updated Medalist Rating uses a simplified structure and clearer input data to show how each pillar and Medalist Rating Price Score shape the overall rating.
The ratings scale will remain a five-tier system: Gold, Silver, Bronze, Neutral, and Negative. Analyst input is central, with algorithm-generated pillars activated only when an analyst rating is not available.
“Our updated methodology and approach reinforce the value of human expertise combined with data-driven rigor, resulting in assessments that are deeply informed by real-world experience,” Lutton said.
