Advantages

The United Church Foundation offers United Church of Christ entities superior asset management services, allowing investors to focus on managing their ministry instead of their assets. Investors may make deposits and withdrawals as needed, or move assets among the Foundation's funds.

Here are four good reasons to let the United Church Foundation manage your permanent funds:

1. Active Fund Management. All of the United Church Foundation's funds are actively managed by rigorously selected institutional asset management companies. The performance turned in by these managers is continuously compared with appropriate benchmark indexes. Each managers's performance is also ranked and compared with that achieved by peers. This information is evaluated by the UCF's Chief Investment Officer, Mrs. Catherine Waterworth, and by our consulting firm, Summit Strategies, and again by members of the Foundation's Investment Committee, which is composed of 14 UCC members from across the country with considerable institutional investment management experience.

2. Risk Reduction Through Broad Diversification. Each of the UCF's Common Investment Funds spreads investment risk across many securities in the portfolio to minimize potential losses incurred by owning fewer securities. The UCF's funds of funds also diversify across assest classes (stocks and bonds), investment styles (growth and value) and capitalization size (large and small caps). While such broad diversification cannot prevent loss, it certainly can mitigate it since losses suffered in one part of the market are often offset by gains realized in another part.

   Result: Risk adjusted returns that avoid speculative excesses.

3. Corporate Social Responsibility. The United Church Foundation is actively involved in Corporate Social Responsibility activities and manages its investments in keeping with actions taken by the UCC's General Synod.

   Result: Earnings gained come from investing in businesses that share our church's basic social values.

4. Low Cost. The UCF's management fees are low when compared to the fees charged by comparable actively managed, socially responsible funds.

   There are no sales, transfer or redemption fees. As of January 1, 2009, the UCF's fund management fees ranged from 10 basis points (0.10%) to 108 basis points (1.08%), depending on the Fund. Most participants use the Moderate Balanced Fund which assesses a management fee of 71 basis points (0.71%). This is much lower than the average actively managed, socially responsible, balanced mutual fund offered commercially. According to the Lipper organization, the average expense ratio for such funds in 2006 was 145 basis points (1.45%).

   Lower cost numbers translate directly into better performance numbers.

   Result: More money for ministry!