Vantagepoint Model Portfolio Funds Celebrate 10-Year Anniversary

WASHINGTON, Feb. 14, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- The Vantagepoint Model Portfolio Funds recently marked their 10-year anniversary as registered mutual funds. The Funds' strong relative performance and growing popularity helped their assets grow to over $5 billion at the beginning of January 2011. Overall, 91 percent of actively-managed Vantagepoint Funds outperformed their respective Morningstar® category peer median over the 3-year period ending Dec. 31, 2010.

In a challenging investment environment, four of the Model Portfolio Funds were above their Morningstar® peer medians for the 10-year period ending Dec. 31, 2010, including the Vantagepoint Model Portfolio Long-Term Growth Fund, which delivered top-quartile performance for that 10-year period.(1)

Morningstar® gives the Model Portfolio Long-Term Growth Fund a 5-star Overall rating and the Model Portfolio Savings Oriented Fund a 4-star Overall rating. The Model Portfolio Conservative Growth Fund, the Model Portfolio Traditional Growth Fund and the Model Portfolio All-Equity Growth Fund are all rated 3-stars overall.(1)

The Vantagepoint Model Portfolio Funds are designed to provide investors with a choice of five target-risk levels — with each Fund using a different blend of asset classes by investing in other Vantagepoint Funds in proportions that seek to match a certain level of risk ranging from conservative to aggressive.

Two other Vantagepoint Funds also reached noteworthy milestones recently. The Select Value Fund and the Vantagepoint Discovery Fund each celebrated their 3-year anniversaries in October 2010. These funds are part of the Vantagepoint Funds family which encompasses a range of equity, fixed income, target-risk and target-date funds.

Both the Select Value Fund and the Discovery Fund outperformed their Morningstar® peer median for the three years ending Dec. 31, 2010 and the Select Value Fund delivered top-quartile performance for that 3-year period. Morningstar® gives the Vantagepoint Select Value Fund a 4-star rating and rates the Vantagepoint Discovery Fund three stars.(1)

"We are excited about these important Fund milestones and look forward to their continued strong performance," said Wayne Wicker, Senior Vice President and Chief Investment Officer for ICMA-RC.

About ICMA-RC

ICMA-RC is an independent financial services corporation focused on the retirement savings needs of the public sector. We serve more than 920,000 public employee participants and approximately 9,000 retirement plans. Our mission is to help build retirement security for public employees by providing investment tools, financial education, and other retirement-related services. The corporation also works to ease the administrative responsibility of local, city, and state governments that offer these benefits to their employees. For more information, visit www.icmarc.org.

Disclosures

Please read the Vantagepoint Funds prospectus or summary prospectus carefully for a complete summary of all fees, expenses, charges, financial highlights, investment objectives, risks, and performance information.  Investing in mutual funds and other investment vehicles involves risk, including possible loss of the amount invested. Investors should carefully consider the Fund's investment objectives, risks, charges and expenses before investing or sending money. The prospectus contains this and other information about the investment company. All Vantagepoint Funds invested through 401 or 457 plans are held through VantageTrust. Vantagepoint Funds are distributed by ICMA-RC Services LLC, a wholly owned broker-dealer subsidiary of ICMA-RC and member FINRA/SIPC. For a current prospectus, contact ICMA-RC Services, LLC. by calling 1-800-669-7400 (TDD: 1-800-669-7471) or writing to 777 North Capitol Street, NE, Washington, DC 20002-4240 or visiting us on the web at www.icmarc.org/vpprospectus.  

This information is offered for informational purposes only and is not to be construed or relied upon as investment advice. It is recommended that individuals consult with their personal financial advisor prior to implementing any financial or tax strategy.

(1)  For each fund with at least a three-year history, Morningstar calculates a Morningstar Rating based on a Morningstar Risk-Adjusted Return measure that accounts for variation in a fund's monthly performance (including the effects of sales charges, loads, fee waivers, and redemption fees), placing more emphasis on downward variations and rewarding consistent performance.  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 Rating metrics. Past performance is no guarantee of future results.   

SOURCE ICMA-RC