Touchstone Names New Sub-Advisor for Touchstone Flexible Income Fund

Touchstone Investments •
Touchstone subadvisor
  • Investment advisor Bramshill Investments, LLC, will be the new sub-advisor for the Touchstone Flexible Income Fund effective Nov. 30, 2018.
  • Bramshill’s active approach seeks to identify relative value across asset classes and capture opportunities primarily within the corporate, U.S. Treasury, municipal and preferred security markets.

Touchstone Investments (Touchstone) announced today that it has named investment advisor Bramshill Investments, LLC (Bramshill) as the new sub-advisor for the Touchstone Flexible Income Fund, effective Nov. 30, 2018.

As sub-advisor, Bramshill will manage the Fund in accordance with its Income Performance Strategy process, which Art DeGaetano, founder and chief investment officer of Bramshill, began in 2009. DeGaetano will be the Fund’s portfolio manager along with Derek Pines, Michael Hirschfield, CFA and Paul van Lingen.

Bramshill’s actively managed strategy focuses on tactical fixed-income investments. Bramshill will manage the Fund’s portfolio by rotating among asset classes and tactically hedging during various interest rate and market environments. Bramshill seeks to identify relative value and capture opportunities primarily within the corporate, U.S. Treasury, municipal and preferred security markets. The strategy focuses on liquid securities with transparent pricing and actively traded capital structures.

Bramshill Investments is a New Jersey-based asset management firm and registered investment advisor with $1.45 billion in assets under management. In choosing Bramshill Investments, Touchstone utilized its rigorous, multi-faceted and fully integrated process for identifying, evaluating and partnering with sub-advisors. Touchstone’s methodology evaluates managers for their organizational stability, personnel, investment discipline, infrastructure and results. Touchstone is a Distinctively Active® mutual fund company. It seeks sub-advisors with high-conviction, concentrated portfolios that significantly differ from their respective benchmarks.

The Touchstone Flexible Income Fund’s name will remain the same, as will its symbols: FFSAX for class A shares, FRACX for class C shares, MXIIX for class Y shares and TFSLX for Institutional shares. Bramshill will replace ClearArc Capital, Inc. as sub-advisor to the Fund. Learn more about the Touchstone Flexible Income Fund.

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 resources 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 Distinctively Active mutual fund company committed to providing investors with access to institutional asset managers who provide active management in a sub-advisory capacity. Managed by sub-advisors with high-conviction, concentrated portfolios, Touchstone’s entire equity fund lineup is composed of high Active Share funds, which means their holdings are highly differentiated 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. 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, 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. Find more information.

About Bramshill Investments

Bramshill Investments, LLC, is an employee owned alternative asset management firm that specializes in investment opportunities across the fixed income universe in sectors such as corporate bonds, preferred securities, municipal bonds, structured credit and credit-themed equities. The firm’s core investment strategy was spun out of a strategy managed at GLG Partners and has a proven track record of more than nine years with an absolute return objective. Today, Bramshill Investments has approximately $1.45 billion in assets under management. Bramshill Investments, LLC, is an investment adviser registered with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission. Find more information.

A Word about Risk

The Fund invests in equities which are subject to market volatility and loss. The Fund invests in stocks of large-cap companies which may be unable to respond quickly to new competitive challenges. The Fund invests in stocks of small- and mid-cap companies, which may be subject to more erratic market movements than stocks of larger, more established companies. The Fund invests in value stocks which may not appreciate in value as anticipated or may experience a decline in value. The Fund invests in foreign securities which carry the associated risks of economic and political instability, market liquidity, currency volatility and differences in accounting standards. The Fund invests in preferred stocks which are relegated below bonds for payment should the issuer be liquidated. The fixed dividend may be less attractive in a rising interest rate market. The Fund invests in REITs; the risks are similar to those associated with direct ownership of real estate. Shareholders will indirectly bear the additional expenses of investing in REITs. The Fund invests in convertible securities which are subject to the risks of both debt securities and equity securities. The Fund invests in debt securities which can lose their value as interest rates rise and are subject to credit risk which is the risk of deterioration in the financial condition of an issuer and/or general economic conditions that can cause the issuer to not make timely payments of principal and interest also causing the securities to decline in value and an investor can lose principal. When interest rates rise, the price of debt securities generally falls. Longer term securities are generally more volatile. The Fund invests in investment grade debt securities which may be downgraded by a Nationally Recognized Statistical Rating Organization (NRSRO) to below investment grade status. The Fund invests in non-investment grade debt securities which are considered speculative with respect to the issuers' ability to make timely payments of interest and principal, may lack liquidity and has had more frequent and larger price changes than other debt securities. The Fund invests in U.S. government and agency securities which are neither issued nor guaranteed by the U.S. Treasury and are not guaranteed against price movements due to changing interest rates. The Fund invests in mortgage-backed securities and asset-backed securities which are subject to the risks of prepayment, defaults, changing interest rates and at times, the financial condition of the issuer. The Fund invests in other investment companies such as closed-end funds and ETFs which are subject to substantially the same risks as those associated with the direct ownership of the securities comprising the portfolios; however, the price movements of the investment companies may not track the underlying securities or market index; the value of their shares may be lower than the value of the portfolio securities, and may be illiquid and shareholders will bear, indirectly, the additional expenses of investing in other investment companies. The Fund invests in derivatives such as forward currency exchange contracts, futures contracts, options and swap agreements. Derivatives can be highly volatile, illiquid and difficult to value, subject to counterparty and leverage risks and there is risk that changes in the value of a derivative held by the Fund will not correlate with the Fund’s other investments. Gains or losses from speculative positions in a derivative may be much greater than the original cost and potential losses may be substantial. The Fund may experience higher portfolio turnover which may lead to increased fund expenses, lower investment returns and higher short-term capital gains taxable to shareholders. Current and future portfolio holdings are subject to risk. The advisor engages the sub-advisor to manage the Fund's portfolio; the sub-advisor's judgment may impact the Fund's performance.

 

Company Contact:
Sharon Karp
Touchstone Investments
513-362-8026
sharon.karp@touchstonefunds.com

Media Contact:
José Marques
Western & Southern Financial Group
513-629-1488
jose.marques@westernsouthern.com

Investment return and principal value of an investment in a Fund will fluctuate so that investor's shares, when redeemed, may be worth more or less than their original cost. All investing involves risk.

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 professional or download and/or request one on the resources section or call Touchstone at 800-638-8194. Please read the prospectus and/or summary prospectus carefully before investing.

Touchstone Funds are distributed by Touchstone Securities, Inc.*
*A registered broker-dealer and member FINRA/SIPC.

Not FDIC Insured | No Bank Guarantee | May Lose Value