Morningstar bolstered its data aggregation capabilities on Tuesday through a $28 million acquisition of ByAllAccounts Inc., a company specializing in collecting financial account information.
ByAllAcoounts uses proprietary technology, including patented artificial intelligence technology, to eliminate manual data entry on retirement accounts, 401K and other held away assets. The company’s systems collect, consolidate, and enrich financial account data and deliver it to virtually any platform.
“ByAllAccounts is a trusted name with a reputation for high-quality and sophisticated aggregation technology that eliminates manual data entry and mitigates human error,” Morningstar’s CEO and Chairman Joe Mansueto said in a statement Tuesday.
According to the company, more than $730 billion in assets move daily through the ByAllAccounts aggregation engine. The company has built a network of more than 2,100 clients, including independent financial advisors, asset managers, family offices and broker/dealers—as well as 4,300 custodians, and 40 platform and service providers.
"The ability to efficiently provide a holistic view of an investor’s total financial portfolio is now a requirement for wealth managers—not a ‘nice to have’ capability,” Mansueto says. “We plan to integrate the service into our offerings as well as expand and develop ByAllAccounts’ third-party distribution relationships.”
With 60 employees, Massachusetts-based ByAllAccounts will continue to operate under the leadership of James Carney, president and CEO.
“Becoming part of Morningstar will broaden our distribution and give us access to its breadth of capabilities, including its vast investment data expertise,” Carney said in a statement. "As investment vehicles become increasingly global in nature, Morningstar’s international operations will also allow us to respond to the growing need for data aggregation outside the United States."
