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Touchstone Investments to Acquire Assets of AIG (AIG) Life & Retirement's Retail Mutual Funds Business

February 8, 2021 4:01 PM EST

Touchstone Investments and AIG Life & Retirement, a division of American International Group, Inc. (NYSE: AIG), announced today that Touchstone Investments, a wholly owned subsidiary of Western & Southern Financial Group, has agreed to acquire select assets of AIG Life & Retirement's Retail Mutual Funds business.

AIG's Retail Mutual Funds business manages $7.8 billion in assets across 18 mutual funds as of Dec. 31, 2020. Under the terms of the purchase agreement, 12 of those funds – with approximately $7.5 billion in assets – will be reorganized and merged into either existing Touchstone funds or into newly created Touchstone funds. After the reorganizations, the funds will be advised by Touchstone Advisors, Inc.

See below for additional information about these funds.

Fort Washington Investment Advisors, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Western & Southern Financial Group, will serve as sub-advisor to the newly created Touchstone Dividend Equity Fund and Touchstone Strategic Income Opportunities Fund (see below for important disclosures about the funds). Each newly created Touchstone fund will employ established strategies that Fort Washington offers to its institutional clients. The existing Touchstone funds involved in the reorganizations will continue to be sub-advised by Fort Washington, Ares Capital Management II LLC, Barrow, Hanley, Mewhinney & Strauss, and Sands Capital Management, as applicable.

"In addition to significantly increasing our assets under management, we will be offering two new funds that we believe will be important to investors and Touchstone going forward," said Blake Moore, president and chief executive officer of Touchstone Investments. "We welcome AIG Fund shareholders and their financial professionals to the Touchstone family."

Touchstone Investments is known for its distinctive approach employing institutional asset managers in a sub-advisory capacity.

"We remain dedicated to our sub-advised mutual fund approach and are committed to offering investment solutions based on partnerships with premier institutional asset managers," Moore said. "This acquisition reflects Touchstone's continued commitment to providing investors with access to best-in-class investment management through our mutual funds."

Moore added that he believes strongly in the value that financial professionals provide to individuals, families, corporations and others. As such, Touchstone distributes its funds through third-party intermediaries like registered investment advisors, private banks and consultants, as well as through financial professionals at national, regional and independent broker-dealers.

"Our retail mutual funds platform has been a pioneer in rules-based investing and has generated long-term returns since its inception," said Kevin Hogan, executive vice president and CEO of AIG Life & Retirement. "While we determined that it was no longer core to AIG Life & Retirement's offering, we are confident that the shareholders will benefit from the experienced management, strong distribution platform, scale and service that Touchstone will provide."

Closing of the transaction is expected to occur in mid-2021, subject to customary closing conditions including the approval of AIG Retail Mutual Funds shareholders. The boards of trustees of the AIG Retail Mutual Funds and the Touchstone funds have approved the transaction. (See below for important disclosures about the transaction.)

J.P. Morgan Securities LLC and K&L Gates LLP advised Touchstone Advisors, Inc. and Western & Southern Financial Group on the transaction.

See below for information about these funds:

AIG Fund

12/31/2020

Net Assets

($ millions)

Touchstone Fund

AIG Fund

Existing Touchstone Fund

AIG Focused Alpha Large-Cap Fund

707

Touchstone Large Cap Focused Fund

AIG Focused Growth Fund

739

Touchstone Sands Capital Select Growth Fund

AIG Multi-Asset Allocation Fund

213

Touchstone Balanced Fund

AIG Active Allocation Fund

123

Touchstone Balanced Fund

AIG Strategic Value Fund

176

Touchstone Value Fund

AIG Senior Floating Rate Fund

150

Touchstone Credit Opportunities Fund

AIG U.S. Government Securities Fund

130

Touchstone Active Bond Fund

AIG International Dividend Strategy Fund

56

Touchstone International Equity Fund

AIG Fund

Newly Created Touchstone Fund

AIG Focused Dividend Strategy Fund

4,769

Touchstone Dividend Equity Fund

AIG Select Dividend Growth Fund

37

Touchstone Dividend Equity Fund

AIG Strategic Bond Fund

378

Touchstone Strategic Income Opportunities Fund

AIG Flexible Credit Fund

247

Touchstone Strategic Income Opportunities Fund

Information presented as of December 31, 2020:

AIG Fund

12/31/2020

Net Assets

($ millions)*

Existing Touchstone Fund

Touchstone

Share

Class

Touchstone Overall

Morningstar

Rating

Morningstar

Category/

Number

of Funds

AIG Focused Alpha Large-Cap Fund

707

Touchstone Large Cap Focused Fund

A

C

Y

★★★★★

★★★★

★★★★★

Large Blend/

1,232

AIG Focused Growth Fund

739

Touchstone Sands Capital Select Growth Fund

A

C

Y

★★★★★

★★★★

★★★★★

Large Growth/

1,197

AIG Multi-Asset Allocation Fund

213

Touchstone Balanced Fund

A

C

Y

★★★★★

★★★★

★★★★★

Allocation--50% to 70% Equity Category/

636

AIG Active Allocation Fund

123

Touchstone Balanced Fund

A

C

Y

★★★★★

★★★★

★★★★★

Allocation--50% to 70% Equity /

636

AIG Strategic Value Fund

176

Touchstone Value

Fund

A

C

Y

★★★

★★

★★★★

Large Value/

1,128

AIG Senior Floating Rate Fund

150

Touchstone Credit Opportunities Fund

A

C

Y

★★★★

★★★★

★★★★★

Nontraditional Bond/

269

AIG U.S. Government Securities Fund

130

Touchstone Active Bond Fund

A

C

Y

★★★★

★★

★★★★

Intermediate Core-Plus Bond/

543

AIG International Dividend Strategy Fund

56

Touchstone International Equity Fund

A

C

Y

★★★

★★★

Foreign Large Blend/

676

AIG Fund

Acquired

Net Assets

($ millions)*

Newly Created Touchstone Fund

Fort Washington Strategy***

AIG Focused Dividend StrategyFund

4,769

Touchstone Dividend Equity Fund**

Fort Washington Enhanced

Dividend Equity Strategy

AIG Select Dividend Growth Fund

37

Touchstone Dividend Equity Fund**

Fort Washington Enhanced

Dividend Equity Strategy

AIG StrategicBond Fund

378

Touchstone Strategic Income Opportunities Fund**

Fort Washington

Flexible Income Strategy

AIG FlexibleCredit Fund

247

Touchstone Strategic Income Opportunities Fund**

Fort Washington

Flexible Income Strategy



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