The Age Based Portfolio investment option allows you to open your account with a contribution to one of five age bands. You select the age band that matches the age of the beneficiary for whom you are saving. Account assets are automatically moved to the next appropriate age band as the account beneficiary reaches pre-determined ages.

In general, the age bands become more conservative over time. That is, a smaller portion of the age band is invested in equity funds that tend to gain or lose value in the short term, as the beneficiary gets older.

For example, Tom opens an account when his daughter Beth is 6 years old. He selects the 6-10 age band, which is 80% invested in stock funds. When Beth reaches age 11, account assets are moved to the 11-13 age band and the stock portion of the investment is reduced to 62%. Eventually, the stock portion will be reduced to 13%.

(You may change from an age-based portfolio to a single fund investment strategy. However, investment choices may be changed just once per calendar year or when the account beneficiary is changed.)

Here are the five age bands. You can see at a glance how each age band is invested - and how the age bands become more conservative as the beneficiary's age increases.

The age bands include the underlying funds listed below. See the Program Disclosure Booklet for more detail about these funds.

CASH: Acacia Principal Plus
BONDS: Calvert Income Fund
US LARGE CAP: CSIF Equity Portfolio*, State Street Equity 500 Index Fund
US MID CAP: Brown Capital Management Mid Cap Fund
US SMALL CAP: Calvert New Vision Small Cap Fund*, Calvert Small Cap Value Fund*
NON-US: Calvert World Values International Portfolio*