News Release
June 23, 2005
Reporters may contact:
Jon Goldstein -- (617) 346-1419
jon.goldstein@bankofamerica.com
NEW YORK -- Columbia Management, the primary investment arm of Bank of America and investment manager to New York's 529 College Savings Program Advisor Plan, today announced that residents will now have access to an expanded array of investment choices in the state's college savings program accessed through financial advisors.
Select Nations funds, including certain Nations Marsico Funds, will now be offered within New York's 529 College Savings Program Advisor Plan. The enhancement is a result of last year's Bank of America-FleetBoston Financial merger, which combined management of the Nations Funds and Columbia Funds families.
The New York Higher Education Services Corporation and the Office of the New York State Comptroller jointly administer New York's 529 College Savings Program Advisor Plan, working closely with Upromise Investments, Inc., the program manager, and Columbia Management, the investment manager.
Among the underlying funds to be added to New York's 529 College Savings Program Advisor Plan is the Nations Marsico Growth Fund as a Customized Portfolio Investment Option, and the Nations Marsico MidCap Growth, Nations Strategic Growth and Nations International Equity Funds as underlying funds in some of the Asset Allocation Portfolio Investment Options.1
Nations Funds recently received the 2005 "Best Equity Fund Group" award from Lipper2, selected among 61 larger fund groups for its consistent performance. Columbia Management was hired in December 2003 to enable college savings program participation by New York State residents assisted by financial advisors. As of May 31, 2005, the company managed nearly 40,000 accounts representing approximately $225 million in investment assets for New York's 529 College Savings Program Advisor Plan.
"Columbia Management is highly committed to supplying the highest quality college savings products and services to the residents of New York," said Kevin Wasp, director of college savings plans for Columbia Management.
"We are pleased to be able to expand our investment mix in the New York 529 College Savings Program Advisor Plan to include the asset management experience and investment focus of a number of Nations Funds including certain Nations Marsico funds," Wasp explained. "Our company is enthused to be able to offer an increasingly strong investment lineup in our 529-advised programs," he added.
The New York State Higher Education Services Corporation is the state agency that administers the college savings program with the state comptroller. HESC is the nation's largest in-state student loan guaranty agency, providing more grant money to college students than any other state in the nation. In New York State fiscal year 2004-2005, the agency guaranteed almost $6 billion in new and consolidated student loans and provided $846 million through the Tuition Assistance Program (TAP) to nearly 390,000 students in academic year 2003-04.
Upromise is the country's largest non-governmental service helping families save for college. Membership is free and allows families to automatically save money for college while making everyday purchases at more than 20,000 grocery and drug stores, 14,000 gas stations, 8,000 restaurants, thousands of retail stores and over 250 online shopping sites. Upromise's partners include America Online, Citi®, Coca-Cola®, ExxonMobil Corporation, Kellogg Company, Kimberly-Clark, McDonald's®, SBC Communications, JCPenney.com, LandsEnd.com, llbean.com, sears.com, and hundreds of others. Upromise also makes it easy for families to invest in their own tax-advantaged college savings plan or use contributions to pay off student loans. The 529 college savings plans are offered through Upromise Investments, Inc. (member NASD/SIPC). Upromise is headquartered in Needham, Mass. For additional information, visit www.upromise.com or call 781.707.8400.
Bank of America is one of the world's largest financial institutions, serving individual consumers, small and middle market businesses and large corporations with a full range of banking, investing, asset management and other financial and risk-management products and services. The company provides unmatched convenience in the United States, serving 33 million consumer relationships with more than 5,800 retail banking offices, more than 16,700 ATMs and award-winning online banking with more than 13 million active users. Bank of America is the No. 1 overall Small Business Administration (SBA) lender in the United States and the No. 1 SBA lender to minority-owned small businesses. The company serves clients in 150 countries and has relationships with 98 percent of the U.S. Fortune 500 companies and 85 percent of the Global Fortune 500. Bank of America Corporation stock (NYSE: BAC) is listed on the New York Stock Exchange. www.bankofamerica.com
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Please consider the investment objectives, risks, charges and expenses of any Nations Fund or Columbia Fund carefully before investing. Contact Columbia Management for a prospectus, which contains this and other important information about our funds. Read it carefully before you invest.
Columbia Management is the primary investment management division of Bank of America Corporation. Columbia Management entities furnish investment management services and advise institutional and mutual fund portfolios. Nations Funds are distributed by BACAP Distributors, LLC. Columbia Funds are distributed by Columbia Funds Distributors, Inc., which also provides certain intermediary relationship management services to BACAP Distributors, LLC with respect to the Nations Funds. BACAP Distributors, LLC and Columbia Funds Distributor, Inc., members FINRA, SIPC, are part of Columbia Management and are affiliates of Bank of America Corporation.
New York's 529 College Savings Program Advisor Plan is described in the current applicable Program Brochure and Tuition Savings Agreement. Accounts are opened by completing an Enrollment Application. All of these should be read carefully before opening an account. None of the State of New York, its agencies, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), Columbia Management Group, Inc. or its affiliates, or Upromise Investments, Inc. insures accounts or guarantees the principal deposited therein or any investment returns on any account or investment portfolio. The value of your account will vary based on market conditions and the performance of the investment options you select, and may be more or less than the amount you deposit. Investments must be made through financial advisors who have entered into Advisor Plan selling agreements with Columbia Funds Distributors, Inc., distributor.
1 An investment in a plan portfolio does not constitute an investment in the underlying fund(s), and unit holders of a plan portfolio are not considered to be shareholders of the portfolio's underlying fund(s). Plan portfolios impose sales charges, fees and expenses in addition to those charged by the underlying fund(s).
2 Nations Funds won the "Best Equity Fund Group" among larger fund groups. In the Equity asset class, Nations competed with 61 other eligible fund families to win the award. Lipper determined the larger fund group awards by averaging the decile rank of the three-year Consistent Return scores for all of the firm's funds within the asset class, and the eligible group with the lowest average decile rank received the award for that asset class. In case of a tie, the group with the lower average percentile rank received the award. Larger fund groups must have at least three equity, three bond or three mixed equity portfolios that received Consistent Return scores as of December 31, 2004 to be eligible for a fund group award in the respective asset class.
Lipper Inc., a widely respected data provider in the industry, calculates an average total return for mutual funds with similar investment objectives as those of the fund.
Although Lipper makes reasonable efforts to ensure the accuracy and reliability of the data contained herein, the accuracy is not guaranteed by Lipper. Users acknowledge that they have not relied upon any warranty, condition, guarantee, or representation made by Lipper. Any use of the data for analyzing, managing, or trading financial instruments is at the user's own risk. This is not an offer to buy or sell securities.