My work with American customers clues me in that MorningStar is a ratings authority whom investors depend on for some investment guidance. The debate is not about whether MorningStar deserves that attention, but rather to point out that Americans have a lot of choices when it comes to analyst ratings for funds and investments with Barons, Lipper’s, S&P, Morgan Stanley and a host of other firms.

Where does this leave Canadian investors? We can depend on U.S. analyst firms regarding equity investments, but they are not much help when the topic is about Canadian mutual funds. MorningStar does hold a Canadian presence with MorningStar.ca. Admittedly, it is not the first media I would use or recommend for others to check out. I thought it’s about time I took a quick tour of the site.

I believe most investors think of GlobeFund.com first when they are researching mutual funds. Yet a quick comparison reveals that GlobeFund basically gets all its information and even ratings from MorningStar. Surprisingly, GlobeFund is more efficient at organizing all the important information on one page whereas you would have to click through different pages to get at the details on MorningStar.

I could not think of any other online authority or analyst firms that hold any threat to MorningStar’s rating reputation in the Canadian market. The unfortunate victim is the common investor who cannot wrestle out of the dominance and monopoly the Canadian banks have over investment guidance in our financial landscape. However, there are offline alternatives to research your stocks. Gordon Pape published an annual RSP and mutual fund guide but seems to have stopped since 2004. MorningStar also regurgitates its data in its annual fund guide too.

If you are a Canadian mutual fund investor and do not rely on GlobeFund or Morningstar for research, are there any websites you would recommend? How would you find out about fund companies like PH&N, ABC Funds, Chou Associates then?