Morningstar has completed its acquisition of Praemium's operations in the UK, Jersey, Hong Kong, and Dubai in a deal valued at £35m.
The deal, first announced in December last year, will see Praemium's platform renamed as the Morningstar Wealth Platform. About 500 advisers currently use the service.
The deal also includes Wealthcraft, a full-service, end-to-end adviser practice management support tool, which includes digital factoring, engagement, and risk profiling.
"We are excited to welcome more than 100 new colleagues to Morningstar and expand our ability to offer advisers technology-enabled flexibility and choice," said Daniel Needham, president, Wealth Management Solutions, Morningstar. "The Wealth Platform and Wealthcraft are powerful tools that reduce friction and save time so advisers can serve more investors - and in more extensive ways than they do today."
The end-to-end Morningstar Wealth Platform adds to the data, research, portfolio analytics, and investment management capabilities offered to advisers by Morningstar and its subsidiaries, creating a "complete experience designed to help advisers empower investor success at scale", the business said.
"We are excited to have found a home with a long-term vision and commitment to our best-in-class platform experience," said Mark Sanderson (pictured), Praemium UK and international managing director, who now reports to Needham.
"Morningstar understands that our fast growth has come from a relentless focus on delivering for our customers, and as part of Morningstar, we will only accelerate our existing road map. We are dedicated to a disruption-free customer experience—with no plans to re-platform—and the work to separate our technology has already been completed without any impact to our clients, which is a testament to that commitment."
Praemium had previously signalled its intent to offload its international and UK business in order to focus on the Australian platform market in its homeland. Praemium was launched in 2001 and its UK business half a decade later in 2006 and in Jersey in 2012.