Standard & Poor's Enters Into Agreement With Financial Research Corporation for Asset Management Data and Analysis

NEW YORK and BOSTON, June 17 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Standard & Poor's, a leading worldwide provider of financial market intelligence, and Financial Research Corporation, a leading market research firm focused on the asset management industry, today announced that the two firms have entered into a content licensing and distribution agreement.

The arrangement calls for Financial Research Corporation (FRC) to provide Standard & Poor's with specialized research products containing content that is specifically designed to meet the needs of financial advisors. Standard & Poor's will distribute the FRC research to the advisor audience through its innovative MarketScope Advisor online news and information resource.  

"We are pleased to be expanding the distribution of our research from mainly asset managers to the wealth management space," said Bruce Fador, CEO of FRC. "We intend to bring FRC's world-class research product more directly to individual financial advisors. By making our material available on Standard & Poor's MarketScope Advisor, we are taking a major step forward in achieving that goal." Financial advisors look to Standard & Poor's MarketScope Advisor for informative and actionable content. FRC hopes to complement and strengthen that content with its unique, quantitative and qualitative analysis of news, trends and products across the asset management industry.

"The hallmark of our MarketScope Advisor platform is the best functionality powering the richest and most insightful information and analysis," said William Okun, Standard & Poor's Executive Managing Director for investment research. "That's why we're excited about this agreement with FRC. Their unique views of the asset management world will be very valuable and useful to our financial advisor clients."

FRC will work with Standard & Poor's editorial staff to provide current, actionable information to help advisors provide the best and broadest service to their clients.

About MarketScope Advisor

MarketScope Advisor is an innovative, browser-based platform that provides financial professionals with access to comprehensive market commentary, independent investment analysis, and state-of-the-art analysis tools. Its broad asset class coverage includes:  stocks, mutual funds, bonds, ETFs, variable annuities, and options. Featuring multi-asset class rankings that are based on a proprietary mix of qualitative and quantitative factors, MarketScope Advisor delivers higher-quality analysis to financial professionals who need to advise their clients about the market.

FRC's Value-Added Research

Financial advisors look to MarketScope Advisor for informative and actionable content. FRC is complementing and strengthening that content with its unique, quantitative and qualitative analysis of news, trends and products across the asset management industry. FRC, which has provided quality research to institutional customers for more than 20 years, is now making those insights available to advisors to help them grow their business by successfully capturing new assets. Advisors will benefit from FRC's broad grasp of financial products, and its understanding of the nuances and implications that can either benefit or negatively impact particular products and firms. The research will cover an array of financial products and firms but will not extend to coverage of individual company stocks.  

About Standard & Poor's

Standard & Poor's Financial Services LLC, a subsidiary of The McGraw-Hill Companies (NYSE: MHP), is the world's foremost provider of independent credit ratings, indices, risk evaluation, investment research and data. With offices in 23 countries and markets, Standard & Poor's is an essential part of the world's financial infrastructure and has played a leading role for 150 years in providing investors with the independent benchmarks they need to feel more confident about their investment and financial decisions. For more information, visit www.standardandpoors.com.

About Financial Research Corporation

For more than 20 years, Financial Research Corporation (FRC) has assisted marketing, product development, and strategic planning professionals in the creation of innovative products and services. Based in Boston, FRC is at the forefront of assisting its clients to comprehend and respond to the rapid changes occurring in the manufacture and distribution of investment products. FRC's more than 200 clients include the world's leading asset managers and distributors. For more information, contact FRC at (866) 532-8009, [email protected], or visit www.frcnet.com.

SOURCE Standard & Poor's