Columbia Threadneedle Investments Extends Contract as Manager for South Carolina’s Future Scholar 529 Plan

Columbia Threadneedle Investments today announced that it has reached an agreement with the South Carolina Office of the State Treasurer to extend its current contract to provide program administration, investment management and distribution services for the state’s Future Scholar 529 College Savings Plan. The new contract, which may extend for up to 10 years, takes effect on October 1, 2019.

For the past 18 years, Columbia Threadneedle and its legacy firms have served as program manager for the Future Scholar 529 College Savings Plan, which now serves more than 170,000 investors and their beneficiaries nationwide, including accounts in every U.S. state.

The direct-sold plan has a top rating of five caps (out of five) from savingforcollege.com¹ and the advisor-sold plan is ranked in the top 10 for 1-, 3-, 5- and 10-year performance². The advisor-sold plan offers a multi-managed investment line-up from over 10 leading asset managers, joint ownership, rollovers from other 529 plans at net asset value, and flexible and low-cost share classes.

“We are pleased to continue our long-standing relationship with South Carolina’s Office of the State Treasurer in offering investors and savers a leading 529 plan,” said Ted Truscott, CEO of Columbia Threadneedle Investments. “This contract extension underscores our ongoing commitment to providing a comprehensive solution that will help investors in South Carolina and across the nation efficiently save for future educational expenses.”

"The Future Scholar 529 Plan continues to be recognized as one of the top education savings programs in the country, with consistent performance, low fees and investor-friendly attributes,” said Curtis Loftis, State Treasurer of South Carolina. “We’re proud that more families, both in South Carolina and nationwide, are relying on Future Scholar to reach their financial goals and are pleased to extend our relationship with Columbia Threadneedle Investments.”

The Future Scholar 529 College Savings Plan has $4 billion in assets and 173,000 accounts as of as of June 30, 2019. For more information, please visit futurescholar.com or columbiathreadneedleus.com/investment-products/529-plans/.

About Columbia Threadneedle Investments: 
Columbia Threadneedle Investments is a leading global asset manager that provides a broad range of investment strategies and solutions for individual, institutional and corporate clients around the world. With more than 2,000 people, including over 450 investment professionals based in North America, Europe and Asia, we manage $459 billion³ of assets across developed and emerging market equities, fixed income, asset allocation solutions and alternatives. Columbia Threadneedle Investments is the global asset management group of Ameriprise Financial, Inc. (AMP). For more information, please visit columbiathreadneedle.com/us. Follow us on Twitter.

¹ Savingforcollege.com 5-Cap Ratings; based on data as of December 31, 2018. The ratings represent the opinion of savingforcollege.com of the overall usefulness of a state's 529 plan based on many considerations. 
² Savingforcollege.com; based on data as of March 31, 2019. Past performance is not a guarantee of future results. 
³ As of March 31, 2019. Includes all assets managed by entities in the Columbia and Threadneedle group of companies.

See the full press release with disclosures: Columbia Threadneedle Investments Extends Contract as Manager for South Carolina’s Future Scholar 529 Plan (PDF).