As a research firm, Morningstar has advocated from increased transparency. As a newly public company, it aims to live by its words. According to the Associated Press, the Chicago firm, known for its mutual-fund star ranking system, says it will hold monthly "forums" to answer questions from investors. The answers will be publicly distributed in Securities and Exchange Commission filings on the first Friday of every month. To ask questions, people will be able to submit questions by mail, email or fax. This sounds great in theory. The best barometer will be the kind of questions, and the kind of answers, the firm chooses to give.

> Here's the Associated Press article.