Achieve Montana is making exciting improvements! Starting April 24, 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. You can also check out some detail, including a full fee chart on our FAQs page here
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%! You can find a detailed fee chart here.
We’re redesigning our age-based options to include seven total steps and redesigned portfolios throughout the glidepath. 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 as follows:
Beneficiary Date of Birth |
New Year of Enrollment Portfolios |
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, 2009-September 10, 2012 |
2029 Enrollment Portfolio |
September 11, 2006-September 10, 2009 |
2026 Enrollment Portfolio |
September 11, 2003-September 10, 2006 |
2023 Enrollment Portfolio |
September 10, 2003 and before |
College Portfolio |
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
|
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 |
After the close of business on April 24, 2020, your account balances will transition automatically to the new investment options on the dates outlined below. Your contribution allocations will also be updated and future contributions will be invested according to the new allocations.
You can change the allocation instructions for new contributions at any time with no annual restrictions. If you have an automatic contribution scheduled on April 24th, 25th, or 26th, your account will be credited with an April 27th, trade date.
04.23.20
Transaction and other account change requests are processed as usual until 2 p.m. Mountain time. Requests received after 2 p.m. Mountain time on Thursday, April 23, 2020 and until 2 p.m. Mountain time on Friday, April 24, 2020, will be processed on Monday, April 27, 2020 using portfolio net asset values as of Monday, April 27, 2020. Account assets are transferred from existing portfolios to new portfolios.
04.24.20 - 04.27.20
Automatic investments scheduled for Friday, April 24, 2020, and transactions or other account-change requests received by mail after 2 p.m. Mountain time on Thursday, April 23, 2020, and until 2 p.m. Mountain time on Friday, April 24, 2020, are processed under the new allocations using portfolio net asset values as of Monday, April 27, 2020.
Important: You won’t be able to initiate or request any transactions online or by phone, including withdrawals or investment option changes, between 2 p.m. Mountain time on Thursday, April 23, 2020 and 6 a.m. Mountain time on Monday, April 27, 2020. You also won’t be able to initiate or request any other account changes online or by phone during this period.
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. Additional information can also be found on our FAQs page here