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Exciting New Changes
Exciting new
Changes
Achieve Montana has made some exciting improvements! We are reducing fees, updating the age-based options to expand the glidepath and focus on your beneficiary’s year of enrollment, adding two new individual portfolios and updating the underlying investments in which each portfolio invests.
These changes are automatic, so you don’t need to do anything. You’ll soon receive a Supplement to your existing Program Description that provides more detail, but here’s some highlights of what you can expect.
Reduced Fees
We’re helping you keep even more of what you save by reducing the expense ratios for all Portfolios. We are reducing asset based fees from a range of 0.47% – 0.83% to a range of 0.395% – 0.587%. That’s a decrease of as much as 29%!
Improved Investment Options
We’re redesigning our age-based options to include seven total steps and redesigned portfolios throughout the glide path. This change will allow a smoother transition from aggressive to more conservative investments as your beneficiary nears college age.
This tapered reduction, with its corresponding smaller portfolio reallocations, may help protect you from declines in the stock market while still allowing your account to benefit when the market goes up. In other words, the changes could provide account owners with the opportunity to increase their returns without significantly increasing their risk.
You can refer to the charts on this page for more details on the current and new glide paths for the new Year of Enrollment Option, as well as the portfolios that make up that option. Your assets will be moved to the new Year of Enrollment Portfolios based on the date of birth of the Beneficiary.
| Beneficiary Date of Birth | New Year of Enrollment Portfolios |
|---|---|
| September 11, 2021-September 10, 2024 | 2041 Enrollment Portfolio |
| September 11, 2018-September 10, 2021 | 2038 Enrollment Portfolio |
| September 11, 2015-September 10, 2018 | 2035 Enrollment Portfolio |
| September 11, 2012-September 10, 2015 | 2032 Enrollment Portfolio |
| September 11, 2012-September 10, 2012 | 2029 Enrollment Portfolio |
| September 11, 2012-September 10, 2009 | 2026 Enrollment Portfolio |
| September 11, 2012-September 10, 2006 | 2023 Enrollment Portfolio |
| September 10, 2003 and before | College Portfolio |
Changes to the Individual Portfolios
In order to continue to offer you best-in-class investment options, we’re updating the underlying investments in the Income Portfolio, Conservative Portfolio, Moderate Portfolio, Growth Portfolio, and Aggressive Portfolio. In addition, we’re changing how we refer to these portfolios. They will now be referred to as Asset Allocation Portfolios to more closely match the mix of investments in each portfolio.
The following table summarizes these changes. The funds listed on the left in the table below will be removed as underlying investments, the funds listed in the middle will be added as new underlying investments, and the funds listed on the right will remain as underlying investments.
ASSET ALLOCATION PORTFOLIOS
| Removed underlying investments | Added underlying investments | Remaining underlying investments |
|---|---|---|
|
DFA U.S. Large Company Portfolio
Vanguard Small-Cap Value Index Fund Vanguard REIT Index Fund DFA Short-Term Government Portfolio DFA Inflation-Protected Securities Portfolio Vanguard Total Bond Market Index Fund Vanguard Prime Money Market Fund Institutional |
iShares Total U.S. Stock Market Index Fund
Schwab U.S. REIT ETF Vanguard Total Bond Market II Index Fund iShares Core International Aggregate Bond ETF Vanguard High-Yield Corporate Fund New York Life Guaranteed Investment Account |
Vanguard Developed Markets Index Fund
Vanguard Emerging Markets Stock Index Fund Vanguard Short-Term Inflation-Protected Securities Index Fund DFA Two-Year Global Fixed Income Portfolio |
New Investment Options
We want to offer you more opportunities to customize your college savings. That’s why we’re introducing two new Individual Portfolios – the Equity Index Portfolio and the Bond Index Portfolio. Both are fixed investments – meaning that the underlying investments do not change over time the way a Year of Enrollment Portfolio’s assets gradually become more conservative as your beneficiary reaches school age.
The Equity Index Portfolio and the Bond Portfolio will offer the hands on investor more flexibility to choose the mix of investments that meets your higher education savings goals.
| Individual Portfolios | Underlying Fund | Asset Class |
|---|---|---|
| Equity Index Portfolio | iShares Total U.S. Stock Market Index Fund | Domestic Equity |
| Bond Index Portfolio | Vanguard Total Bond Market Index ETF | Core Bond |
| Capital Preservation Portfolio | New York Life Guaranteed Investment Account | Capital Preservation |
What to Expect After the Transition
As of the close of business on April 24, 2020, your account automatically transitioned to the new investment options.
We’re Here for You
As always, if you have any questions about these improvements or anything else about Achieve Montana, you can speak to one of our client service representatives at 877.486.9271 Monday through Friday from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m., Mountain time.
