Founded in 1984, Morningstar, together with its subsidiaries, provides independent investment research to investors worldwide. The company s business operations are divided into three product divisions. The Individuals division includes the Morningstar.com Web site, Morningstar Equity Research and various print and online publications and products about stocks and mutual funds. The Advisor division provides investment advisors the proprietary Morningstar Managed Portfolios program, a fee-based discretionary asset management service that includes mutual funds and exchange-traded fund portfolios. The Institutional division provides Licensed Data, a set of investment data spanning databases; Investment Profiles & Guides, which communicates investment information to individual investors; Morningstar Direct, a Web-based institutional research platform; Investment Consulting, which focuses on investment monitoring and asset allocation; and Morningstar Retirement Manager, a suite of advice and guidance services for retirement plan participants. Morningstar is headquartered in Chicago, and has branch offices throughout the United States and the world.