Barron's has once again recognized MainStay Funds for delivering long-term results—naming it the #1 fund family for the 10-year period in its annual ranking of mutual fund families. In the February 9, 2013, Barron's article, "All in the Family," fund families were ranked over the one-, five-, and 10-year periods ended December 31, 2012, based on relative asset-weighted performance. The publication lauded MainStay Funds' 10-year track record as its #1 fund family as "an impressive feat." This is the fourth consecutive year that MainStay has ranked in the top three for the 10-year period —and fifth consecutive year in the top 10—in Barron's fund family rankings. MainStay Funds is the only fund family that has placed in Barron’s top 10 each of the past five years for the 10-year period.

In the tax-exempt bond category, MainStay Funds ranked in the top five for the one-year period, driven by the strong results of MacKay Municipal Managers^TM team, which subadvises our municipal bond funds. MacKay Municipal Managers is co-headed by John Loffredo and Robert DiMella, who have a combined 46 years of experience managing municipal bonds, including high-yield, investment grade, and state-specific strategies.

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MainStay Funds produced these long-term results throughout periods of extreme volatility marked by the housing bubble, credit crisis, U.S. debt downgrade, and the Great Recession of 2007-2009.

"We believe this strong long-term relative performance was the direct result of our multi-boutique model that consists of autonomous institutional asset managers, each of with its unique investment focus, process, and philosophy," said Stephen Fisher, Senior Managing Director and President of the MainStay Funds. "While the boutiques are independent of one another, they generally possess a quality bias and a focus on risk management as they seek to deliver consistently superior long-term performance." In fact, as of February 11, 2013, 88% of MainStay Funds had a Morningstar overall risk rating of "average," "below average," or "low."

Coming off three consecutive years as a Barron's top three fund family, MainStay Funds continued to garner market share in 2012. With now over $53 billion in assets under management and a top net flow leader in the mutual fund industry,¹ MainStay continued to enhance its multi-boutique lineup with the addition of Marketfield Asset Management LLC, subadvisor of the go-anywhere MainStay Marketfield Fund. This growth continued into 2013 with the addition of Cornerstone Asset Management LLC to the MainStay investment management lineup as subadvisor of the large-cap growth focused MainStay Cornerstone Growth Fund.

"Throughout the years, we believe our Barron's rankings are a testament to the quality and depth of the MainStay Fund lineup and our multi-boutique structure," said Fisher. "It is clear that our focus on high-quality securities across equity and fixed income has resulted in strong long-term results and has served our shareholders well through a variety of market cycles. Now more than ever, we remain committed to this model that allows us to put top investment managers in position to do what they do best."

And according to Barron's, that is just what they are doing.

About Risk
All mutual funds are subject to market risk and will fluctuate in value. Foreign securities may be subject to greater risks than U.S. investments, including currency fluctuations, less liquid trading markets, greater price volatility, political and economic instability, less publicly available information, and changes in tax or currency laws or monetary policy. Funds that invest in bonds are subject to interest-rate risk and can lose principal value when interest rates rise. Bonds are also subject to credit risk, in which the bond issuer may fail to pay interest and principal in a timely manner, or that negative perception of the issuer's ability to make such payments may cause the price of that bond to decline.

To qualify for the Lipper/Barron's Fund Survey, a fund family must have at least three funds in Lipper's general U.S.-stock category, one in world equity (which combines global and international funds), one mixed-equity fund (which holds stocks and bonds), two taxable-bond funds, and one tax-exempt fund. Fund loads and 12b-1 fees aren’t included in the calculation of returns because the aim is to measure the manager’s skill. Each fund’s return is measured against all funds in its Lipper category, resulting in a percentile ranking which is then weighted by asset size relative to the fund family's other assets in its general classifications. Finally, the score is multiplied by the general classification weightings as determined by the entire Lipper universe of funds.

Source: Barron's, 2/9/13. Overall, MainStay Funds ranked number 56 for the one-year period, 20 for the five-year period, and one for the 10-year period ended December 31, 2012, out of 62, 53, and 46 fund families, respectively. MainStay ranked number three for the 10-year period in 2009, 2010, and 2011 from among 48, 46, and 45 fund families, respectively. MainStay ranked number six from among 48 fund families for the 10-year period in 2008. MainStay ranked number five in the tax-exempt bond category out of 62 fund families for 2012. Past performance is no guarantee of future results, which will vary. For the most recent MainStay Funds performance, please visit our web site at mainstayinvestments.com. All mutual funds are subject to market risk and will fluctuate in value.

1. Source: Strategic Insights, 12/31/12.

Morningstar Risk: An assessment of the variations in a fund's monthly returns in comparison to similar funds, with an emphasis on downward variation. The greater the variation, the larger the risk score. If two funds have the exact same return, the one with the greater variations in its return is given the larger risk score. In each Morningstar Category, the 10% of funds with the lowest measured risk are described as Low Risk, the next 22.5% Below Average, the middle 35% Average, the next 22.5% Above Average, and the top 10% High. Morningstar Risk is measured for up to three time periods (three, five, and 10 years). These separate measures are then weighted and averaged to produce an overall measure for the fund. Funds with less than three years of performance history are not rated.