Touchstone Launches Campaign to Spotlight Value of High Active Share Equity Funds

- Announces Consultative Partnership with Professor Martijn Cremers

- Launches New Microsite Dedicated to Investor and Advisor Education Needs

- New Tagline Showcases Commitment to Managers with High-Conviction Portfolios

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Jan 21, 2015, 08:00 ET

CINCINNATI, Jan. 21, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Touchstone Investments has launched a multi-part campaign to highlight the firm's leadership position as a provider of high Active Share funds, including the new tagline, "Your Active Share Partner."

A key component of the Touchstone effort to educate investors and advisors about the importance of Active Share is a consultative partnership with Martijn Cremers, currently Professor of Finance at the University of Notre Dame, whose research defined the concept. Active Share measures the fraction of a fund's portfolio (based on position weights) that differs from its benchmark index.

"We are delighted to partner with Professor Cremers. Through his research, we finally have a measurement which squarely addresses the active-passive debate," said Steven M. Graziano, president of Touchstone Investments. "At Touchstone, we subscribe to the idea that a fund cannot outperform the benchmark if its composition mimics that of the benchmark. Active Share and active management are a vital part of Touchstone's DNA, demonstrated by the fact that we have no passive or index funds. Refreshing our brand to reflect Touchstone's leadership in the Active Share space reinforces our firm's commitment to delivering differentiated investment opportunities to our clients."

The term Active Share was originally coined by Cremers and his co-author Antti Petijisto in a 2006 study they conducted at the Yale School of Management. This groundbreaking work reviewed domestic all-equity mutual funds and discovered that funds with the highest Active Share tend to significantly outperform their benchmarks, while non-index funds with the lowest Active Share tend to underperform theirs.

Touchstone identifies managers who build highly concentrated, high-conviction equity portfolios to sub-advise its equity funds, through careful selection and ongoing due diligence. Due to the high-conviction approach of the firm's sub-advisors, Touchstone funds exhibit a high degree of Active Share (more than 60 percent).

Because Active Share is still an unfamiliar concept for many advisors and their clients, Touchstone has launched a new educational microsite. To learn more about Active Share and the mutual funds available through Touchstone, visit TouchstoneInvestments.com/active-share.

Active Share is not a performance measurement. There are no assurances that any strategy or investment approach will meet its objectives. This information should not be considered as investment advice or a recommendation of any particular security, strategy or investment product. Past performance is not indicative of future results.

Please consider the investment objectives, risks, charges and expenses of the 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/literature-center 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 mutual fund company committed to providing investors with access to institutional asset managers who act in a sub-advisory capacity. Managed by sub-advisors with high conviction, concentrated portfolios, Touchstone's entire equity fund lineup is currently composed of funds with high Active Share which means their holdings are significantly different 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 including domestic and international equity, U.S. fixed income, international fixed income, alternative investment and asset allocation funds.

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 Securities, Inc. and Professor Martijn Cremers are independent of each other. 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, please visit www.TouchstoneInvestments.com.