Auxier Focus Fund Wins Silver Award in Standard & Poor's 'US Mutual Fund Excellence' Awards Program

LAKE OSWEGO, Ore., Nov. 15, 2010 /PRNewswire/ -- Sifting through 19,000 mutual funds, Standard & Poor's has named the Auxier Focus Fund a Silver award winner (Domestic Multi-Cap category) in its first Mutual Fund Excellence Awards Program.  AUXFX was picked for its "performance, quality of holdings, manager tenure, risk and cost factors." Jeff Auxier shares his strategies November 18th in Orlando, joining Newt Gingrich, Scott Burns, Margaret Patel and others, at the Advisors MoneyShow.  Auxier and Morningstar's Director of Fund Analysis, Karen Dolan, will speak at the "Undiscovered Fund Managers Panel: Managers Who Have Flown Under The Radar But Shouldn't Go Unnoticed", Thursday, November 18, 2010 11:15 am – 12:30 pm.  See www.moneyshow.com.  

As of September 30, 2010, the Auxier Focus Fund has:

• Outperformed S&P 500 by 92.58 percentage points. (As of 9/30/10 and since inception 7/9/1999, cumulative returns for AUXFX: 92.04% and cumulative returns for S&P 500 Index: 0.54%)
• Outperformed 98% of Morningstar Peers.  Morningstar Says Jeff Auxier Has "Delivered the Goods" With His Approach (As of 9/30/10 in its 3 year Morningstar Large Value category. The Fund's 1, 3, 5 and 10 year Morningstar rankings are, respectively, 393 out of 1264 funds; 14 out of 1127 funds; 29 out of 942 funds; and 14 out of 490 funds. Morningstar rankings are based on a fund's total return performance. Past performance is not an indicator of future results.)

Performance data quoted represents past performance and is no guarantee of future results. The Fund's 1, 5 and 10-year average annual total returns for the period ended September 30, 2010 were 9.29%, 3.56% and 6.26%, respectively.  Current performance may be lower or higher than the performance data quoted.  Investment return and principal value will fluctuate so that an investor's shares, when redeemed, may be worth more or less than original cost.  For the most recent month-end performance, please call (877) 328-9437 or visit the Fund's website. As stated in the current prospectus, the Fund's annual operating expense ratio (gross) is 1.25%. The Fund charges a 2.0% redemption fee on shares redeemed within six months of purchase. Please refer to additional important disclosure at the end of this release.

The Auxier Difference—Jeff Auxier defies statistics about many mutual fund managers. His 27 years of investment experience has guided him through every market bump and bubble.  He remains one of his fund's largest shareholders, investing more than 2 million dollars--his entire personal retirement.  He will not sell a single share while still manager, and effective 1/10/2010 lowered fees to investors by 10 Basis Points(1) To 1.25% (gross).  Jeff is also a profitable Oregon farmer (hazelnuts, cattle, wheat), who believes living far from Wall Street keeps him humble, focused, and far from the "financial herd".

Visit www.AuxierAsset.com to learn more.

Media:  [email protected]  503.781.4234

Lillian Widolff: [email protected] 503.885.8807 or 1.800.835.9556

IMPORTANT DISCLOSURE

Before investing you should carefully consider the Fund's investment objectives, risks, charges and expenses. This and other information is in the prospectus, a copy of which may be obtained by calling (877) 328-9437 or visiting the Fund's website at www.auxierasset.com.   Please read the prospectus carefully before you invest.

The recent growth rate in the stock market has helped to produce short-term returns that are not typical and may not continue in the future.  Because of ongoing market volatility, fund performance may be subject to substantial short-term changes.

Fund returns (i) assume the reinvestment of all dividends and capital gain distributions and (ii) would have been lower during the period if certain fees and expenses had not been waived.  Performance shown is for the Fund's Investor Class shares; returns for other share classes will vary.   Performance for Investor Class shares for periods prior to December 10, 2004 reflects performance of the applicable share class of Auxier Focus Fund, a series of Unified Series Trust (the "Predecessor Fund").  Prior to January 3, 2003, the Predecessor Fund was a series of Ameriprime Funds.  The performance of the Fund's Investor Class shares for the period prior to December 10, 2004 reflects the expenses of the Predecessor Fund.  

The Fund may invest in value and/or growth stocks. Investments in value stocks are subject to risk that their intrinsic value may never be realized and investments in growth stocks may be susceptible to rapid price swings, especially during periods of economic uncertainty. In addition, the Fund may invest in smaller companies which generally carry greater risk than is customarily associated with larger companies for various reasons such as narrower markets, limited financial resources and less liquid stock. Moreover, if the Fund's portfolio is overweighted in a sector, any negative development affecting that sector will have a greater impact on the Fund than a fund that is not overweighted in that sector.

The S&P 500 Index is a broad-based, unmanaged measurement of changes in stock market conditions based on the average of 500 widely held common stocks. One cannot invest directly in an index.

The S&P Equity Research Mutual Fund Excellence Awards is an annual awards program designed to recognize those US mutual funds that have achieved the highest overall ranking in their category on the most consistent basis during the previous measurement year based on S&P's proprietary, quantitative research methodology.  Among the factors the research process seeks to identify are consistently strong performance, high quality holdings as measured by S&P STARS equity research, S&P Credit Ratings and S&P Quality Ranks, and favorable cost factors for the period ending August 31, 2010. Additional the selection methodology is available within the article. Past performance is not indicative of future results. There may have been negative performance during the ranking periods.

2010 Morningstar, Inc. All Rights Reserved. The information contained herein: (1) is proprietary to Morningstar; (2) may not be copied or distributed; and (3) is not warranted to be accurate, complete or timely. Neither Morningstar nor its content providers are responsible for any damages or losses arising from any use of this information. Past performance is no guarantee of future results. The Fund may have experienced negative performance during one or all of the time periods listed.

Foreside Fund Services, LLC, distributor.

(1) A basis point can be summarized as follow: 1% change = 100 basis points.  0.10% = 10 basis point

SOURCE Auxier Focus Fund