Clarification for SMA and Models Morningstar Category Updates
Originally posted May 13, 2025
We previously shared updates to our Morningstar Categories, including enhancements to our grouping methodology and framework, and our regular April update. Below is important clarification regarding the timing and impact of changes for Separately Managed Accounts (SMAs) and Models related to introducing five new risk-based Global Allocation categories to replace the current single Global Allocation category.
- Timing for SMAs and Models: Updates for most universes take effect immediately. However, SMAs and models operate on a quarterly production cycle with a three-week lag. Their updates will appear in the July cycle due to the alignment with their Q1 production schedule ending March 31.
- Medalist Rating Impact: Star ratings and rankings will use the current category through March 31. Given the data and rating production cycles, Quantitative Medalist Ratings for SMAs and models in Global Allocation will pause from late May to late August.
The Regular April Category Updates and FAQs have been updated with additional details on the SMA and Model update timing and Medalist Rating impact. Contact Morningstar Support with additional questions or needs.
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FTP.morningstar.com Disaster Recovery Test – Jul. 26, 2025
Originally Posted on Jun. 11, 2025
On Saturday, Jul. 26, 2025, Morningstar will conduct the annual disaster recovery (DR) failover test for our FTP.morningstar.com service. This test confirms the readiness and effectiveness of our disaster recovery plan and ensures Morningstar's capability to seamlessly transition to backup systems if necessary.
On the day:
- 8:00 a.m. CST: Morningstar will perform failover and initial tests, which will last less than an hour and a 20-minute outage is expected during this period.
- 9:00 a.m. CST: FTP.morningstar.com live traffic will connect to its secondary disaster recovery site and be available for testing.
- 3:30 p.m. CST: Morningstar will switch back to the primary site with a second 20-minute outage. Failback may be delayed if testers require additional time.
Participation:
We recommend that clients participate in the testing, to verify all systems within their purview that utilize FTP.morningstar.com and have the proper configured to handle any potential service interruption in the event of an actual failover.
If your firm wants to participate, please contact your Customer Success Manager for assistance.
Preparation:
We have found that most failures during a DR test result from incomplete outbound firewall rules or connections being made directly to an IP address. Both, if left unaddressed, could result in a 5-hour outage during this test as the primary site will be down and Morningstar will be unable to reactivate it before 2:00 p.m. CST.
To avoid this, please follow the below steps:
- Validate that all firewall rules or access lists are complete and detail both IP addresses below.
- Do not perform testing to our secondary FTP site as it is only accessible when live. Testing in advance is not possible.
- Attempts to access the secondary site outside this test window will result in a connection error, which is the expected behavior.
Firewall rule details:
- SFTP
- 216.228.224.25 & 216.228.237.25
- Port: 22
- Active FTP
- 216.228.224.25 & 216.228.237.25
- Ports: 20,21
- Passive FTP
- 216.228.224.25 & 216.228.237.25
- Ports: 21, 24200-24249
- HTTPS
- 216.228.224.25 & 216.228.237.25
- Ports: 443
If you have any further questions or needs, please contact Morningstar Support.
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Upcoming Morningstar Category Updates - Oct. 31, 2025
Originally posted Jul. 10, 2025
As part of our ongoing effort to provide robust and relevant fund peer groups, we are introducing the following upcoming changes and refinements to the Morningstar Category system while continuing to implement the second phase of updates to our category grouping framework and methodologies. All these updates will launch on October 31, 2025.
What’s Changing?
- Retail Category Changes: Morningstar is making changes to the US and International Retail categories, including the introduction of new semiliquid fund categories, based on our observations of long-term market trends and how closely our categories reflect these changes.
- US Institutional Categories Retirement: Morningstar is retiring its Institutional Categories because they no longer serve their original purpose, and their distinctions can be reflected with other data points.
- Introducing Morningstar Category Groups: The new Morningstar Category Group will offer a more detailed linkage between categories compared to the existing Global Broad Category Groups. This update provides added granularity, empowering clients to perform more in-depth and insightful investment analyses using predefined groups curated by Morningstar’s experts.
- Updating the Global Broad Category Groups: The Global Broad Category Groups will be aligned with the new Category Groups to reflect our best insights into comprehensive groupings of fund types.
Category Grouping Change Release Timeline
The second phase of the implementation will occur on October 31, 2025, where we will:
- Rename the existing Global Broad Category Group field to “Morningstar Category Broad Group.”
- Update the names and identifiers within the Category Broad Group field.
- Consolidate Commodities and Property into a single Category Broad Group called “Real Assets.”
- Re-map each Category Group into the new Category Broad Group schema.
Preparing for the Changes
We encourage clients to review the detailed information below, which will help them further understand these changes and the specific actions they need to take to prepare for them.
- Retail Category Changes
- US Institutional Categories Retirement
- Category Grouping Changes
If you have further questions or require additional assistance, contact Morningstar Support.
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