Direct Portfolio

Direct Portfolio Age-Based Options

Age-Based Options are designed to take into account a Beneficiary’s age and your investing time horizon—i.e., the number of years before the Beneficiary is expected to attend a college or trade school. These options are designed to help you save for post-secondary education expenses and may not be appropriate for K-12 time horizons.

In general, the portfolios for younger Beneficiaries are more heavily weighted in stock funds to maximize returns and capitalize on the longer investment time frame. As time passes and they approach entering college, the account assets are automatically adjusted from stock funds to bonds and/or money market funds to minimize risk and preserve capital.

There are three choices within our Age-Based Options: Conservative, Moderate and Aggressive.

• The Conservative option offers a higher concentration of assets in bonds or short-term investments, which generally tend to be less volatile than stocks. These types of investments may not decline as far when markets go down, but also may not appreciate in value as much when markets go up.
• The Aggressive Option offers a higher concentration in stock funds.
• The Moderate Option falls between the two.