Morningstar Inc., the Chicago-based research firm best known for its mutual-fund ratings, has started providing fee and return data on 3,000 hedge funds as more retail investors consider the private partnerships.
The data will help investors and financial advisers better evaluate and compare funds, Morningstar said Thursday. There are about 8,800 hedge funds worldwide with $1.2 trillion in assets, according to Hedge Fund Research Inc. in Chicago.
“Hedge funds are coming downstream trying to appeal more to Middle America and investors,” said Don Phillips, a Morningstar managing director. “You can’t do that and operate in the secrecy that this industry has today.”
Morningstar’s data is available on the company’s Web site and in other Morningstar products.
