Combines advisor-training resources with investor-centric education. Morningstar has created an online retirement-education resource to help financial planners and advisors work more effectively with their clients. The Retirement Income Education Center (RIEC) is part of an overall strategy to serve investors nearing retirement, according to Morningstar.

“Education is a foundational step in helping investors create a comfortable retirement,” says David McClellan, a v.p. with Morningstar’s advisory-support unit, adding that few investors seem to understand the financial risks and costs they face in a retirement that – thanks to growing life expectancies – could stretch decades longer than they imagine “The Retirement Income Education Center can help advisors discuss complex investing concepts with their clients and start clients down the path of developing a prudent retirement income plan,” he says.

The REIC combines Morningstar’s research on retirement-income strategies with advisor tools and services and consumer-friendly articles and presentations on things like longevity, market risk, annuitization, withdrawal rates, and the effects of inflation.

Morningstar, a Chicago-based investment-research firm, says the REIC can be co-branded and licensed by financial institutions for advisor use. –FWR

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