Frost Investment Advisors, LLC Launches Innovative Mutual Fund

SAN ANTONIO, Jan. 20, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Frost Investment Advisors, LLC, a registered investment advisor, recently launched an innovative new fund, the Frost Diversified Strategies Fund (FDSFX), to provide investors access to alternative investment management strategies previously available to hedge and private equity fund investors. FDSFX combines traditional and alternative investment strategies seeking to give investors the advantages of hedge and private equity funds paired with the transparency, daily pricing and liquidity seen in traditional mutual funds. The fund's focus seeks asset preservation by reducing downside volatility while providing potentially attractive upside strategic investment opportunities.

"The Frost Diversified Strategies Fund is one of the first mutual funds to give individual investors access to a vehicle that acts similarly to a hedge or private equity fund," said Tom Stringfellow, CFA®, president of Frost Investment Advisors. "The fund will incorporate many aspects of our Optimum asset allocation strategies along with investments in alternative assets, which should help reduce the downside risk of large market drawdowns, while providing potential upside opportunities. The fund will complement our other offerings."

The fund seeks to appreciate in an up market and outperform a down market to preserve assets. The prospectus calls for the FDSFX allocation to include 60 percent investment in traditional investment assets, including stocks, bonds, cash and listed options. The hedge replication module will comprise 30 to 40 percent of the portfolio, using hedge beta strategies and hedge fund replication of indices, supported by publicly available products.

David Telling will serve as Lead Manager of FDSFX with co-managers Tom Stringfellow, CFA®, Brad Thompson, CFA® and Jeffery Elswick.

Frost Investment Advisors began offering mutual funds in April of 2008, initially to serve the needs of institutional clients, and expanding to offer retail shares in June 2008. With the addition of the Frost Diversified Strategies Fund, the first fund created by the advisor since 2008, the firm now provides investment advisory services to 14 mutual funds that include institutional and retail shares on approximately 200 platforms as of December 31, 2010.

Recent accomplishments and performance metrics include:

• Five of Frost funds (Institutional and Retail Share Classes) received the Five-Star Overall Morningstar Rating™ as of December 31, 2010, with six (Institutional and Retail Share Classes) receiving the Four-Star Overall Morningstar Rating™ for the same period.
• Of the Frost funds (Institutional and Retail Share Classes) rated by Morningstar, 52 percent of the assets are in four- and five-star rated funds as of December 31, 2010.
• Recognized by Barron's as one of the Best Mutual Fund Families in its February 1, 2010 issue.
• 19 percent overall growth in market value of all Frost funds over last 12 months.
• Share count in all funds increased to 225,523,740 as of December 31, 2010, from inception of the advisor in 2008.
• According to Morningstar, three of the four rated Frost bond funds, (Institutional Share Class), are in the top quartile of peer group managers over a five-year period, as of December 31, 2010.
• According to Morningstar, the Frost Dividend Value Equity Fund (Institutional and Retail Share Classes), and the Frost International Equity Fund are in the top decile over a five-year period when compared to a peer group of similar strategies, as of December 31, 2010.

The investment team, which has been managing some of the proprietary strategies since 1981 as employees of Frost, includes a staff of more than 40 investment professionals in the main office in San Antonio, and satellite locations in Austin, Dallas, Fort Worth and Houston.

About Frost Investment Advisors, LLC

Frost Investment Advisors, LLC, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Cullen/Frost Bankers, Inc. (NYSE: CFR), one of the oldest and largest Texas-based banking organizations, offers a family of mutual funds to institutional and retail investors. The company has offered institutional shares since April 28, 2008, with retail shares available since June 2008.

The family of funds managed by Frost Investment Advisors provides clients diversification by offering separate mutual funds for growth, value and balance across small-cap, small/mid-cap, multi-cap value and international equity classes, as well as taxable and tax-free bonds. Registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission in 2008, Frost Investment Advisors manages $7.23 billion in assets under management as of December 31, 2010.

About Frost

Cullen/Frost Bankers, Inc. (NYSE: CFR) is a financial holding company, headquartered in San Antonio, with $17.7 billion in assets at September 30, 2010 and more than 110 financial centers throughout Texas.  One of 24 U.S. banks included in the KBW Bank Index, Frost provides a wide range of banking, investments and insurance services to businesses and individuals in the Austin, Corpus Christi, Dallas, Fort Worth, Houston, Rio Grande Valley and San Antonio regions. Founded in 1868, Frost has helped clients with their financial needs during three centuries. Additional information is available at frostbank.com.

Mutual fund investing involves risk including loss of principal. There is no assurance that the Fund will achieve its stated objective. To the extent the Fund invests in other investment companies, the Fund will be subject to substantially the same risks as those associated with the direct ownership of the securities held by such other investment companies.  The Fund may also invest in derivatives.  Derivatives are often more volatile than other investments and may magnify the Fund's gains or losses.

To determine if the Fund is an appropriate investment for you, carefully consider the fund's investment objectives, risk, charges and expenses. This and other information can be found in the fund's prospectus which can be obtained by calling 1-877-71-FROST. Please read the prospectus carefully before investing.

The Frost Funds are distributed by SEI Investments Distribution Co. SEI Investments Distribution Co. is not affiliated with the Adviser or its affiliates.

© [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.

For each fund with at least a three-year history, Morningstar calculates a Morningstar Rating™ metric each month by subtracting the return on a 90-day U.S. Treasury Bill from the fund's load-adjusted return for the same period, and then adjusting this excess return for risk.  The top 10% of funds in each category receive 5 stars, the next 22.5% receive 4 stars, the next 35% receive 3 stars, the next 22.5% receive 2 stars and the bottom 10% receive 1 star. The Overall Morningstar Rating for a fund is derived from a weighted average of the performance figures associated with its three-, five- and ten-year (if applicable).

Morningstar Ratings metrics:

• FIDVX/FADVX were rated against 1120 (three years) and 956 (five years) US-domiciled Large Value funds and FIDVX received a rating of 5 stars for each period; FADVX received ratings of 4 and 5 stars respectively
• FICEX was rated against 1504 (three years) and 1286 (five years) US-domiciled Large Growth funds and received  ratings of 3 and 4 stars respectively;
• FIBTX was rated against 930 Moderate Allocation funds over the last 3 years and received a rating of 4 stars;
• FILKX was rated against 1504 (three years) and 1286 (five years) US-domiciled Large Growth funds and received a rating of 4 stars for each period;
• FITNX/FANTX were rated against 694 (three years) and 511 (five years) Foreign Large Blend funds and received a rating of 4 stars and 5 stars respectively;
• FIMUX was rated against 211 (three years) and 192 (five years) Muni National Intermediate Bond funds and received a rating of 3 stars and 4 stars for each period;
• FILDX/FADLX were rated against 376 (three years) and 322 (five years) Short Term Bond funds and received FILDX received ratings of 4 stars and 5 stars respectively; FADLX received ratings of 3 stars and 4 stars respectively
• FIJEX was rated against 1026 (three years) and 878 (five years) Intermediate Term Bond funds and received ratings of 5 stars and 4 stars respectively.

SOURCE Frost Investment Advisors, LLC