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Ohio 529 Sends Putnam Packing, Gives Nod to BlackRock

May 13, 2010

The Ohio Tuition Trust Authority, the state agency administering Ohio's CollegeAdvantage 529 Savings Plan, Thursday announced that the Ohio 529 advisor plan will no longer offer an advisor plan management by Putnam Investments as of this fall. Putnam Investments has been the program manager for the Ohio advisor plan since October 2000.

Ohio's CollegeAdvantage Program offers two advisor plans managed by Putnam Investments and BlackRock, respectively. The Tuition Trust Board voted to retain BlackRock as the exclusive program manager. BlackRock is the world's largest investment management firm with over $3.4 trillion in assets under management.

Ohio's advisor-sold 529 plan is the seventh largest in the nation with over $3.5 billion in assets.

BlackRock plans to further enhance the Ohio plan by offering its industry leading iShares exchange-traded funds, age-based and target risk portfolios, and the BlackRock Global Allocation Fund (MDLOX), one of the best-performing allocation mutual funds.

Mutual fund analyst Greg Brown contributed to this report.

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