Touchstone Investments Names Rockefeller Asset Management Sub-Advisor to Touchstone International ESG Equity Fund

CINCINNATI, Sept. 4, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Touchstone Investments announced the renaming of the Touchstone Premium Yield Equity Fund as the Touchstone International ESG Equity Fund (Fund) and the appointment of Rockefeller Asset Management, a division of Rockefeller Capital Management (Rockefeller), as sub-advisor.

The Fund as of last week is sub-advised by Rockefeller Asset Management co-portfolio managers David Harris and Jimmy Chang. They are supported by a team of equity and ESG analysts who have worked together over many years.

The Fund's investment goal and principal investment strategy have also changed. The Fund is actively managed and employs a high-conviction, bottom-up and fundamental investment approach that integrates ESG research to provide additional insight into a company's long-term competitive advantage and help identify risks and opportunities. The Fund seeks long-term growth of capital by primarily investing in equity securities of non-U.S. companies in developed markets, though it may invest up to 30 percent of its net assets in securities of companies in emerging and frontier markets.

"Rockefeller has a recognized legacy of actively managing portfolios of U.S. and non-U.S. holdings that fully integrate ESG research and shareholder engagement into the investment process," said Steve Graziano, President of Touchstone Investments. "While the recent popularity of ESG investing has increased the number of fund offerings, few investment managers, if any, have the distinctive pedigree and strong record that Rockefeller has of engaging with companies to positively impact corporate behavior."

The Fund draws upon Rockefeller's more than 30 years of experience in global and active equity investing. The firm is a pioneer in combining a global investment view with a framework of rigorous ESG-integrated fundamental research. Rockefeller's history with ESG investing dates to the 1970s when several of the Firm's patrons contended that investment decisions have environmental, social and financial dimensions.

"We have long held the view that ESG integration and deep engagement can potentially enhance alpha generation and identify risks and opportunities that traditional fundamental analysis alone may not uncover," said David Harris, Chief Investment Officer and President of Rockefeller Asset Management. Harris has worked at Rockefeller for more than two decades. "A core differentiator of Rockefeller's approach is our well-established practice of engaging shareholders in a way that drives long-term value creation across portfolios and improves ESG standards globally," Harris added.

The Fund retains its ticker symbols: TPYAX for A shares, TPYCX for C shares and TPYYX for Y shares. The symbol for the new Institutional shares is TPYIX. The Fund's previous sub-advisor was Miller/Howard Investments, Inc.

To learn more about Touchstone International ESG Equity Fund, go to https://www.westernsouthern.com/touchstone/mutual-funds/international-esg-equity-fund on the Touchstone website.

Please consider the investment objectives, risks, charges and expenses of a Fund carefully before investing. The prospectus and the summary prospectus contain this and other information about the Fund. To obtain a prospectus or a summary prospectus, contact your financial advisor or download and/or request one at TouchstoneInvestments.com/resources or call Touchstone at 800.638.8194. Please read the prospectus and/or summary prospectus carefully before investing.

About Touchstone Investments
Touchstone Investments is a Distinctively Active mutual fund company committed to providing investors with access to institutional asset managers who provide active management in a sub-advisory capacity. Managed by sub-advisors with high-conviction, concentrated portfolios, Touchstone's entire equity fund lineup is composed of high Active Share funds, which means their holdings are highly differentiated from their benchmarks. Touchstone's sub-advisor selection and monitoring approach is built upon the conviction that an asset manager's organizational stability, quality of its personnel, adherence to its investment discipline and infrastructure represent the elements of repeatable, value-added performance results over time. This philosophy has resulted in a diverse but focused product offering that gives investors a full breadth of investment options across styles and asset classes. 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., a registered broker-dealer and member FINRA/SIPC. Touchstone, Touchstone Funds and Touchstone Investments are federal service mark registrations and applications owned by IFS Financial Services, Inc. Touchstone Securities, Inc., Touchstone Advisors, Inc., and IFS Financial Services, Inc., are members of Western & Southern Financial Group. For more information, visit TouchstoneInvestments.com.

About Rockefeller Capital Management
Rockefeller Capital Management is a leading independent, privately-owned financial services firm offering global family office, asset management and strategic advisory services to ultra-high-net-worth individuals and families, institutions and corporations.

A Word About Risk
The Fund invests in equities which are subject to market volatility and loss. The Fund invests in stocks of large-cap companies which may be unable to respond quickly to new competitive challenges. The Fund invests in stocks of small- and mid-cap companies, which may be subject to more erratic market movements than stocks of larger, more established companies. The Fund invests in preferred stocks which are relegated below bonds for payment should the issuer be liquidated. The fixed dividend may be less attractive in a rising interest rate market. The Fund invests in convertible securities which are subject to the risks of both debt securities and equity securities. The Fund invests in foreign, emerging and frontier market securities, and depositary receipts, such as American Depositary Receipts, Global Depositary Receipts, and European Depositary Receipts, which carry the associated risks of economic and political instability, market liquidity, currency volatility and differences in accounting standards than U.S. markets and offer less protection to investors. The risks associated with investing in foreign markets are magnified in emerging markets, and further magnified in frontier markets due to their smaller economies. The Fund's environmental, social and corporate governance criteria may cause the Fund to forgo opportunities to buy certain securities and/or gain exposure to certain industries, sectors, regions and countries. The Fund may be required to sell a security when it could be disadvantageous to do so. The Fund's investments in other investment companies will be subject to substantially the same risks as those associated with the direct ownership of the securities comprising the portfolios of such investment companies, and the value of the Fund's investment will fluctuate in response to the performance of such portfolios. In addition, if the Fund acquires shares of investment companies, shareholders of the Fund will bear their proportionate share of the fees and expenses of the Fund and, indirectly, the fees and expenses of the investment companies. Current and future portfolio holdings are subject to risk. The Advisor engages a sub-advisor to make investment decisions for the Fund's portfolio; it may be unable to identify and retain a sub-advisor who achieves superior investment returns relative to other similar sub-advisors.

Company Contact:
Sharon Karp
Touchstone Investments
513.362.8026
[email protected]

Media Contact:
José Marques
Western & Southern Financial Group
513.629.1448
[email protected]

SOURCE Touchstone Investments