ATLANTA--(BUSINESS WIRE)--EARNEST Partners is pleased to announce the merger of the EARNEST Partners Fixed Income Trust with the Touchstone Total Return Bond Fund. Shareholders of the EARNEST Partners Fixed Income Trust had their shares exchanged for shares of the Touchstone Total Return Bond Fund.
The accounting survivor of the merger is the EARNEST Partners Fixed Income Trust, which incepted in 1991. The fund has outperformed its benchmark, the Barclay’s Capital Aggregate Bond Index, for the one, three, five and ten year periods. It has also outperformed its peer group for the same periods, according to Lipper and Morningstar. Further, the fund was ranked in the Top 10 Intermediate-Term Bond Funds for the Long Term by U.S. News & World Report in an article dated February 10, 2011. U.S. News cited the fund’s above-average yield and long-term performance as drivers behind the ranking. The full list and related article are available on the U.S. News & World Report website. U.S. News mutual fund rankings are based on data from Morningstar, Lipper, Zacks, TheStreet.com and Standard & Poor’s and consider factors ranging from absolute performance to capital preservation/risk adjusted return and quality.1
EARNEST Partners CEO Paul Viera commented: “An experienced team and a disciplined, effective process have been the keys to the Fund’s performance over time. We seek to build excess yield into an investment-grade portfolio that can provide the possibility of consistently outperforming the benchmark and preserving client capital. We’re delighted to have been selected by Touchstone to assume sub-advisement of the Total Return Bond Fund. The opportunity to leverage our expertise in security selection and Touchstone’s administration and distribution capabilities will make an established fund available to a broader investor base.”
About EARNEST Partners
EARNEST Partners is an independent, employee-owned asset management firm currently advising on more than $15 billion in assets for clients around the world. EARNEST Partners manages portfolios for more than 300 clients including corporations, government pension funds, sovereign wealth funds, jointly-trusteed plans, endowments and foundations. We offer equity investment products including U.S. Small, Mid and Large Cap strategies as well as Global/International strategies. Additionally, we offer both Core and Core Plus fixed income products across the duration spectrum. Our investment approach is long-term oriented and focuses on the merits of individual securities when making investment decisions. The firm is the sole subadvisor of the Touchstone Total Return Bond Fund, the Hancock Horizon Diversified International Fund, the Touchstone Large Cap Relative Value Fund and the Harbor Small Cap Value Fund. EARNEST Partners is headquartered in Atlanta, GA with offices in Beijing and Hong Kong.
About Touchstone Investments
Touchstone Investments, a member of Western & Southern Financial Group, is a mutual fund company committed to providing investors with access to institutional money managers who act in a sub-advisory capacity through a variety of strategically focused mutual funds across styles and asset classes. While its sub-advisors are held to strict performance standards, they work with a large measure of independence and operate within their own demonstrated areas of expertise. Touchstone regularly reviews each fund and its sub-advisor(s) and continually monitors its funds in the best interest of shareholders. Touchstone’s evaluation process focuses on both qualitative and quantitative factors with particular emphasis on aspects such as organizational stability, investment personnel, investment discipline, and performance results. The Touchstone Funds are advised by Touchstone Advisors, Inc., a registered investment advisor, and are distributed nationally through intermediaries including broker-dealers, financial planners and institutions by Touchstone Securities, Inc.
Link to the Touchstone press release: https://www.touchstoneinvestments.com/shared/formslit/pdf/TSF1600PR1108.pdf
An investment in the Fund is subject to investment risks, including the possible loss of some or all of the principal amount invested. There can be no assurance that the Fund will be successful in meeting its investment objective. Investment in the Fund is also subject to the following risks: market risk, credit risk, interest rate risk, maturity risk, investment-grade securities risk, junk bonds or lower-rated securities risk, investment advisor risk, market sector risk and portfolio turnover risk. More information about these risks and other risks can be found in the Fund’s prospectus.
Past performance does not guarantee future results.
An investor should consider the investment objectives, risks, and charges and expenses of the Fund carefully before investing. The prospectus contains this and other information about the Fund. A copy of the prospectus is available at the link below or by calling 800-543-0407. The prospectus should be read carefully before investing.
http://prospectus-express.newriver.com/summary.asp?doctype=pros&clientid=touchstll&fundid=89155T102
1 The U.S. News Mutual Fund Score is produced using an equal weighting of the overall ratings provided by Morningstar, Lipper, Zacks, TheStreet.com, and Standard & Poor's. Individual fund rating systems are normalized to a 100-point scale based on point totals assigned to individual scoring systems. For Morningstar's and S&P's five-star ranking and Zacks five-point scale, each star or point awarded would receive 20 points. In TheStreet.com's A-to-E scale, a highly rated "A" fund would receive 100 points, while a low-rated "E" would receive 20 points. The five Lipper Leader categories are each worth a total of 20 points, giving 4 points to each 1-to-5 point scale assigned to each section of the Lipper rankings. The U.S. News score is calculated by dividing total points awarded according to the above system by the number data sources (5). Funds must be ranked by all five data sources to receive a U.S. News Mutual Fund Score. Points are then normalized to a 1-to-10 scale, which constitutes the U.S. News score. The combined U.S. News Mutual Fund Score rates funds on a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being the highest. The U.S. News Mutual Fund Score groups funds by their Morningstar fund category.
Limitations associated with the compilation of the list may include, but are not necessarily limited to, the following: (1) since a fund must be ranked by all five data sources, there is a limited universe; (2) some systems use categorizations other than Morningstar when ranking funds; and (3) Lipper rankings are comprised of five unique measures (Total Return, Consistent Return, Preservation, Expense, and Tax Efficiency), each with a 1-to-5 score. While the U.S. News Mutual Fund Score combines all five equally weighted category scores to achieve its weighting in its score, Lipper intends its measures to be used as individual assessments of a fund's ability to meet specific goals, rather than as a cumulative measure of fund quality.
The Touchstone Total Return Bond Fund is distributed by Touchstone Securities, Inc.*
*A registered broker-dealer and member FINRA/SIPC