|
Because the multi-manager format includes a variety of investment
styles and market capitalization ranges, there is no single benchmark
that ideally matches the asset allocation of the Fund.
Because of this, we created a Custom Equity Index against
which we measure performance. This index is composed
of a 70% weighting to the S&P 500 Index, a 20% weighting
to the Russell 2000 (small companies) Index, and a 10%
weighting to the MSCI EAFE Index. We believe this index
will roughly approximate the asset class exposure of
the Fund. However, because the fund has a slight value
bias, it is possible the fund's performance relative
to this benchmark will be slightly better in value driven
markets and slightly worse when value lags. Over the
long-term, we also compare the Fund's performance to
the Russell 3000 Index, which is a broad based index
that measures the performance of the 3,000 largest U.S. companies as measured
by market capitalization, and represents about 98% of the U.S. stock market. Finally,
the Lipper Multi-Cap Core Index represents the performance of other non-market
cap dedicated equity funds. This index is composed of mutual funds that invest
in a variety of market capitalization ranges, without
concentrating 75% of their equity assets in any one
market capitalization range over an extended period
of time. |
