Administration July 12, 2004

Ohio to Join Putnam Suit for 529 Plan

December 19, 2003 (PLANSPONSOR.com) - The Ohio Tuition Trust Authority, which uses Putnam Investments as manager for the state's CollegeAdvantage 529 plan, will join an existing class action lawsuit against the beleaguered fund company.
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According to a Trust Authority news release, it would ask to be named lead plaintiff in one of the lawsuits against the Boston-based Putnam, which accuses Putnam of market-timing abuses.

Putnam currently manages 17 CollegeAdvantage investment options and provides recordkeeping and marketing services in conjunction with the Tuition Trust. CollegeAdvantage assets managed by Putnam were more than $2.8 billion as of October 31, 2003.

The Putnam International Equity Fund and Putnam International Capital Opportunities Fund – two offerings affected by the market timing activities – are options in CollegeAdvantage, officials said.

The Tuition Trust also announced this week that it has started the process to hire additional investment managers for CollegeAdvantage. The Tuition Trust issued a Request for Proposal (RFP) on December 12, 2003 for the provider of low-cost index investment options for CollegeAdvantage.

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