Investors and advisors are converging on Chicago’s Navy Pier for the annual Morningstar Investment Conference on June 25 and 26. The draw: Morningstar’s signature research and analysis, as well as insights from thought leaders across the industry.
The agenda is packed with sessions to choose from. Scroll below for highlights on topics relevant to most investors today. For MIC attendees: Morningstar’s editorial director for financial advice Sheryl Rowling shares her panel picks for financial advisors here.
Even if you aren’t attending the conference, you can check out our video interviews below with some of the in-house and outside experts speaking this year.
And bookmark this page: Morningstar’s markets team is on site reporting on key investing and market insights, and you’ll find links to their coverage here as articles are published.
You can also join two livestreams on LinkedIn during the conference. In his keynote address on June 25, Morningstar CEO Kunal Kapoor shares insights into investing in private markets. To kick off the day on June 26, Kapoor and Apollo Global Management CEO Marc Rowan discuss the challenges and opportunities ahead as public and private markets converge.
The public/private market convergence is a headline topic this year. As asset managers eagerly develop private asset products for everyday investors, gatekeepers are analyzing the use cases and assessing the risks. Morningstar manager research’s Jack Shannon speaks with the heads of investment selection at Bank of America, UBS, and Wells Fargo. As Shannon recently wrote, “there is no guarantee that a private equity fund will outperform a basic public equity ETF.” Due diligence is a must.
Meanwhile, Morningstar director of passive strategies research Bryan Armour leads a discussion on the logistics of private assets in exchange-traded funds. As private investments make their way into publicly traded exchange-traded funds, everyday investors should learn more before leaping in. In a recent episode of Investing Insights, Armour gave an overview of what investors should know.
Video: Demystifying Private Equity and Private Credit ETFs: What Every Investor Should Know
Cutting Through the Noise
In a year when uncertainty is the watchword, it can be overwhelming to try to sort through all the commentary to make sense of it all. Rick Rieder, BlackRock CIO for global fixed income and the 2023 winner of Morningstar’s Outstanding Portfolio Manager award, is a voice worth listening to. The conference opens with his insights on the current landscape of government fiscal and monetary policy and the implications for the global economy and financial markets. Among other strategies, Rieder runs BlackRock Total Return MAHQX and its ETF counterpart, iShares Total Return Active ETF BRTR, both of which earn a Morningstar Medalist Rating of Gold.
Against this backdrop, Philip Straehl, Morningstar’s chief investment officer, Americas, and Dominic Pappalardo, Morningstar’s chief multi-asset strategist, offer up their global midyear outlook, including the best ideas on where to invest across global equity and fixed-income markets. If you can’t make the session, catch the Investing Insights podcast this Friday for an interview with Pappalardo and Straehl.
Morningstar equity research director Damien Conover and a slate of sector analysts discuss today’s top trends and strategic opportunities. Morningstar director Eric Compton, chief US market strategist Dave Sekera, and senior analyst Brian Colello explore the outlook for AI stocks after a yearslong tear. And director Karen Andersen and senior analyst Debbie Wang explain how revolutionary changes in healthcare are poised to drive growth for the sector, from the GLP-1 market in biopharma to new procedures for high blood pressure in medical devices.
Andersen recently published her 2025 Biopharma Industry Outlook, which delves into some of these themes, and gave a preview of the MIC session for Morningstar.com.
Video: The Future of Healthcare
Asset Manager Insights
The conference brings together some of the best portfolio managers for discussions moderated by Morningstar’s manager research analysts. The topics this year run the gamut from cryptocurrency to municipal bonds.
Morningstar analyst Stephen Margaria leads a panel with experts from T. Rowe Price, Bitwise, and BlackRock on the role of crypto as an asset class in a diversified portfolio. Margaria recently sat down with BlackRock head of digital assets Robert Mitchnick, who says bitcoin has emerged as a global monetary alternative that can serve as a unique diversifier. (Be careful trying this at home, though: Morningstar portfolio strategist Amy Arnott’s research shows that volatility and equities correlation make cryptocurrencies tricky to incorporate in a portfolio.)
Video: Bitcoin and Beyond: What Investors Should Know
While cryptocurrencies have surged this year, municipal bonds have lagged. Associate director Beth Foos leads a discussion with muni-bond managers from Capital Group, J.P. Morgan, and Pimco about finding opportunities in this volatile market. In a recent interview, Foos spoke with Capital Group’s Courtney Wolf, portfolio manager of Gold-rated American Funds Tax-Exempt Bond TFEBX, about finding compelling muni-bond yields today.
Video: Navigating a Choppy Municipal-Bond Market
Putting It in Perspective
The main stage of the MIC features interviews with the CEOs of two investment icons. A half century after the launch of Vanguard 500 Index VFINX brought low-cost indexing to the masses, Vanguard CEO Salim Ramji reflects on the firm’s first 50 years and what might lie ahead. (Ramji will also record a live episode of The Long View podcast with Morningstar’s Christine Benz and Dan Lefkovitz.)
Dodge & Cox exemplifies active—as well as low-cost—investing. Gold-rated funds Dodge & Cox Stock DODGX and Dodge & Cox Income DODIX have delivered enviable performance for decades. CEO and chair Dana Emery shares insight into why the Dodge & Cox model has worked and what changes may be coming at the firm and in the industry.
These firms have helped many investors reach their goals over the years—which is the end game of this whole endeavor. That’s why Christine Benz’s session on retirement planning for women is on Rowling’s must-attend list. “Given the longer life expectancies for women and their distinct financial journeys,” Rowling notes, this session is vital.
Panelist Jean Chatzky, founder of HerMoney.com, talked about how caregiving and longevity affect women’s investing plans in a recent episode of The Long View. Before the conference, Benz interviewed Carolyn McClanahan, founder of Life Planning Partners. Both a financial planner and a medical doctor, McClanahan dove into the long-term-care aspect of retirement planning.
Video: Plan Carefully for Long-Term Care
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