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At 10-years, GuideStone Funds rivals competitors
Roy Hayhurst, Baptist Press
September 21, 2011
5 MIN READ TIME

At 10-years, GuideStone Funds rivals competitors

At 10-years, GuideStone Funds rivals competitors
Roy Hayhurst, Baptist Press
September 21, 2011

DALLAS – GuideStone Funds, launched just 15 days before the

9/11 terrorist attacks, has prospered through a turbulent decade that included

two recessions and a national financial crisis.

The nation’s largest Christian-based, socially screened registered mutual fund

company, GuideStone Funds was launched as AB Funds Trust on Aug. 27, 2001, when

GuideStone was still known officially as the Annuity Board of the Southern

Baptist Convention.

A decade ago, GuideStone Funds offered 13 options; today, that number has

doubled.

Throughout GuideStone Funds’ first 10 years, third-party ranking firms such as

fi360, Lipper and Morningstar have ranked the funds as rivaling competitors.

For the quarter ending June 30 of this year, fi360 ranked the GuideStone Funds

family second out of 222 fund families nationwide.

“The historic launch of GuideStone Funds paved the way to providing our participants

with more flexibility and confidence in their portfolios through

industry-standard product offerings,” John Jones, president of GuideStone Funds

and chief operating officer of GuideStone Financial Resources, said in

conjunction with a 10th anniversary celebration by employees at GuideStone’s

offices in Dallas on Aug. 29.

“It heightened the level of service we provide our participants, as many of our

employees have more advanced training, securities licenses and professional

designations,” Jones noted. The launch of the registered mutual fund family

also provided enhanced disclosures and transparency for GuideStone’s

participants – today numbering more than 200,000 across all GuideStone product

lines – to understand their investment choices.

“It also opened the door to expanded savings opportunities with IRAs and

personal investment options as well as institutional investment opportunities

for operating, building reserves and endowment assets,” Jones said.

“The GuideStone Funds are built on the investment philosophy developed by the

funds adviser, GuideStone Capital Management,” Jones said. “The multi-manager,

multi-style investment approach allows GuideStone Capital Management access to

what they believe to be some of the best investment minds in the world.”

“Our investment structure is built for the long-term,” said Rodric E. Cummins,

senior vice president and chief investment officer of GuideStone Capital

Management. “It is designed to provide thoughtful, high-quality, strategic

investment options to our participants and is executed by world-class

investment management firms.”

In addition to the fi360 standings, Lipper noted 15 of 21 GuideStone funds

performed above the median for the one-year period ending July 31 of this year;

19 of 20 funds performed above the median in the three-year period; and 11 of

14 funds performed above the median for the five-year period. Morningstar has

ranked 17 of 19 funds GuideStone funds as either four- or three-star overall in

the three-year period and 12 of 12 funds in the five-year period.

Noting the fund family’s track record, Cummins said the first decade for

GuideStone Funds has been a story of sustainability through turmoil.

“Over the past 10 years we’ve been able to do more than stand strong,” Cummins

said. “We’ve been able to expand our fund offerings for the benefit of our

participants, implementing investment philosophies that we believe serve them

best without forgoing our convictions.

“In short, GuideStone Funds holds to the exact same tenets today that we held

to 10 years ago, and those will be the same tenets we hold to 10 or even 100

years from now,” Cummins said. “In addition, as the GuideStone Funds rankings

demonstrate, we believe we have dispelled the myth that if you want your money

to grow, you have to invest in things you might wish you didn’t have to.

“While past performance is no guarantee of future results, our participants can

see for themselves by looking at our results and recognizing that performance

and values-based investing do not have to be mutually exclusive,” Cummins said.

“They can walk hand-in-hand.”

(EDITOR’S NOTE – Roy Hayhurst is editorial services manager for GuideStone

Financial Resources of the Southern Baptist Convention.)

GuideStone offers new investment option

by Brock Anderson

GuideStone Financial Resources has announced a new

investment fund intended to achieve long-term returns consistent with the

equity (stock) market but with less short-term fluctuation.

The new Defensive Market Strategies Fund will be part of two GuideStone Asset

Allocation Funds: the Conservative Allocation Fund and the Balanced Allocation

Fund. It also will be part of the MyDestination Funds, which become more

conservative as the target date approaches. At its launch, the Defensive Market

Strategies Fund will be part of the MyDestination 2005, 2015 and 2025 funds.

The Defensive Market Strategies Fund also is available for direct investment. Participants

who want to determine if the fund is an appropriate part of their retirement

investment portfolio can access GuideStone’s free financial advice tool, GPS:

Guided Planning Services. Participants can access it by logging in to their

accounts at MyGuideStone.org or by setting up an appointment by calling

1-888-98-GUIDE (1-888-984-8433).

“GuideStone is privileged to once again enhance our fund selection for the

benefit of our valued participants,” said John Jones, chief operating officer

of GuideStone Financial Resources and president of GuideStone Funds. “We’re

excited to add this fund as an option to potentially help our participants further

diversify their portfolios.”

Investors who want to learn more about the Defensive Market Strategies Fund can

review its fact sheet at GuideStoneFunds.org/Funds.

(EDITOR’S NOTE – Brock Anderson is senior editor of marketing

development/retirement for GuideStone Financial Resources of the Southern

Baptist Convention.)