How does a mutual fund win the gold (or silver or bronze)? Starting next spring, a key industry watcher and investment research giant's team is changing the way they judge fundsters' wares.

Today, Laura Lutton, global head of manager research at Morningstar, reveals that, in April 2026, the Chicago-based firm's folks will make a host of updates to the methodology behind the forward-looking Morningstar Medalist Rating System. Lutton describes the move as "simplifying key elements" of the ratings process.

The M* team offers a detailed, 53-page description of the updated methodology, plus a 3-page FAQ on the changes. And Lutton justifies the changes by writing that "simpler is better."

The M* folks are making several changes to their medalist ratings system:

1) funds will be compared to their peers (specifically, their Morningstar Category averages) rather than to benchmark indexes;

2) fees will be rated with a new Medalist Price Score (MPS), with a range from positive 2.5 (for the cheapest funds) to negative 2.5 (for the most expenseive ones), to reflect how pricing can either positively or negatively affect a fund's rating. Note that MPS will account for 40 percent of the overall rating for index funds and 30 percent for active ones;

3) placement into different medal categories will be determined by fixed thresholds (a switch away from the bell curve-esque methodology M* currently uses); and

4) the M* team promises to add "greater visibility into the underlying inputs" for its people, process, and parent pillars when they are quantitatively driven.

Lutton clarifies that the specific rating scale — which goes from negative, to neutral, to bronze, to silver, to gold — will not change.

"These updates provide the clear, easy-to-interpret insights the industry has been seeking," Lutton states. "Our updated methodology and approach reinforce the value of human expertise combined with data-driven rigor, resulting in assessments that are deeply informed by real-world experience." 

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