Putnam Investments Introduces Lower-Cost Pricing Options on Firm’s Retirement Advantage Target-Date Fund Series

BOSTON, February 20, 2018Putnam Investments announced today the availability of a new highly competitive pricing option on its Putnam Retirement Advantage Funds, a series of 10 target-date funds designed for the retirement marketplace. Putnam class X shares have a management fee of 0.35% and are available to defined contribution plans that have a minimum of $5 million invested in Putnam Retirement Advantage Funds. The new class X shares symbolize the 10-year anniversary of the suite, which has experienced noteworthy growth in recent years.

“We regularly evaluate our product offerings in an ongoing effort to provide retirement plans with an exceptional slate of actively managed investment strategies at competitive prices,” said Steven P. McKay, Head of Defined Contribution Investment Only (DCIO) at Putnam Investments. “The addition of the new share class for our Putnam Retirement Advantages series underscores our commitment to deliver performance and value to plan sponsors — to ultimately help their participants meet their retirement goals.”

Putnam Retirement Advantage Funds are designed for plan participants who want the risk/return profile of their asset allocation glide path to reflect their projected retirement date. The funds are actively managed by Putnam’s Global Asset Allocation team, a highly experienced group with a strong long-term track record of pursuing multi-asset investment strategies.

Putnam Retirement Advantage Funds, which currently have $3.8 billion in assets under management, are collective investment trusts, a pooled vehicle structure that can help to keep costs competitive by providing lower operational expenses and enhanced fee flexibility.

“Putnam is laser-focused on addressing the issues most important to plan sponsors and consultants, including fees, transparency and performance. We see our role as a critical piece of the equation, as we work closely with retirement plan sponsors and their advisors in providing an array of effective and innovative traditional and non-traditional investment strategies for participants,” added McKay.

Putnam’s DCIO business, with $20 billion in assets, offers numerous investment options for defined contribution plans.

About Putnam Investments

Founded in 1937, Putnam Investments is a leading global money management firm with 80 years of investment experience. At the end of January 2018, Putnam had $177 billion in assets under management. For more information, visit putnam.com.


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Putnam Investments Bringing New Focus and Definition to Several Products to Address Evolving Marketplace

BOSTON, February 1, 2018 – In a continuing effort to provide financial advisors and their customers with a broad and well-defined set of strategies to address specific investment objectives and larger portfolio construction needs, Putnam Investments today announced plans to reposition a number of funds to best serve the marketplace, pending SEC staff review.

“Putnam is continually evaluating and evolving its product roster in order to provide highly effective, differentiated and results-oriented active management offerings to clients and investors,” said Robert L. Reynolds, President and CEO, Putnam Investments. “We think it is imperative to have a product set that seeks to solve for a range of portfolio needs, utilizing thoughtful strategies, talented investment professionals, and an overall results-oriented approach.”

Reynolds indicated that Putnam will establish its first mortgage securities retail mutual fund, tapping a strong capability within the firm that has long been highly regarded by the institutional marketplace, and a short-term bond fund, leveraging the firm’s experience in ultra-short fixed income. In addition, the firm will be fine-tuning its suite of absolute return funds to provide financial advisors with an even sharper focus on the role these strategies can play in shaping client portfolios.

In particular, the firm is planning the following product moves:

  • Putnam American Government Income Fund will be merged into Putnam U.S. Government Income Fund, which is being repositioned as Putnam Mortgage Securities Fund. The repositioned fund, which is expected to have over $1 billion in assets, will deepen its investment focus to include a host of mortgage instruments. In addition, the repositioned fund will experience a substantial decrease in the fund’s total expense ratio, which is expected to fall from 64 bps to 50 bps (class Y shares).
  • Putnam Absolute Return 100 Fund will be repositioned as a short-term bond fund and renamed Putnam Short Duration Bond Fund. From a risk-return perspective, the repositioned fund will reside between the firm’s ultra-short fixed income offering, Putnam Short Duration Income Fund, and the firm’s intermediate-term fixed income offering, Putnam Income Fund. The fund is expected to have nearly $200 million in assets.
  • Putnam Absolute Return 300 Fund will be renamed Putnam Fixed Income Absolute Return Fund. The new fund, which is expected to have over $450 million in assets, will maintain its current investment strategy.
  • Putnam Absolute Return 500 Fund will be merged into Putnam Absolute Return 700 Fund, and the combined fund will be renamed Putnam Multi-Asset Absolute Return Fund. The new fund, which is expected to have over $2 billion in assets, will maintain the current investment strategy of Putnam Absolute Return 700 Fund.

“As we move ahead in helping our clients navigate the opportunities and challenges of today’s dynamic markets, we believe these changes will serve their current and future needs well, through a thoughtful, increasingly well-defined product lineup,” Reynolds said.

Addressing the specific product developments, Reynolds explained that Putnam has provided the institutional market with mortgage investing strategies for many years and is pleased to bring this area of expertise to the retail fund market in a focused, stand-alone product offering — to help advisors address this important asset class. Additionally, he pointed out that investors are also seeking new and differentiated offerings in short-term fixed income, noting the strong client experience that the firm’s ultra-short fixed income offering, Putnam Short Duration Income Fund, has brought to bear in the marketplace.

With regard to other planned changes, Reynolds said that the firm believes strongly that absolute return strategies can be an extremely valuable component of a broader investment portfolio — by providing key characteristics such as diversification, volatility management and the seeking of positive overall returns regardless of market conditions. “Moving forward, financial advisors and their clients will be able to choose between two distinct absolute return strategies, focused specifically on fixed income and multi-asset approaches,” he added.

As part of the continuing evolution of its product lineup, Putnam recently announced plans to offer two funds with dedicated environmental, social and governance (ESG) strategies to the marketplace toward the end of Q1 2018, pending SEC staff review. The new funds, to be named Putnam Sustainable Leaders Fund and Putnam Sustainable Future Fund, will bring two distinct investment lenses to identify opportunities driven by corporate sustainability practices and solutions, respectively.

Additionally, in September 2017, the firm launched its Putnam PanAgora suite of alternative offerings employing risk parity, managed futures and market neutral strategies.

About Putnam Investments

Founded in 1937, Putnam Investments is a global money management firm with 80 years of investment experience. At the end of December 2017, Putnam had $171 billion in assets under management. Putnam has offices in Boston, London, Frankfurt, Tokyo, Singapore and Sydney. For more information, visit putnam.com.

Putnam mutual funds are distributed by Putnam Retail Management.


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