More Realistic Evaluation of Sales Charges,

Easier To Use and Understand

PALM BEACH GARDENS, Fla. November 16, 1998 — Consumer-friendly Weiss Ratings, Inc. renowned for the accuracy and independence of its safety ratings of banks and insurance companies, has expanded its product line to include objective evaluations of mutual funds. Introduced today, Weiss Ratings’ Guide to Mutual Funds simplifies the mutual fund selection process by distilling the myriad data available on over 5,000 mutual funds into simple letter grade evaluations.

Balance Between Risk and Reward

Applying its well-known conservative approach to its new mutual fund ratings, Weiss breaks the mold of existing mutual fund ratings by more closely balancing a fund’s performance against risk to identity those funds that have achieved the optimum mix of both factors.

Some funds receiving our highest ratings have achieved excellent performance with only average risk. Other high-rated funds have achieved average returns with minimal risk. Unlike other mutual fund rating agencies, however, you won’t find a high-risk fund receiving one of our top ratings because we feel investor safety is paramount, said Martin Weiss, Ph.D. chairman of Weiss Ratings, Inc.

For those investors looking to tailor their mutual fund selections based upon age, income, and tolerance for risk, Weiss also assigns two component ratings to each fund: a performance rating and a risk rating. With these, investors can identify those funds that are best-suited to meet their individual needs and goals. Both the Weiss Performance Ratings and Weiss Risk Ratings use the same grading scale as the overall Weiss Mutual Fund Ratings to make them easier for investors to understand.

More Realistic Evaluation of Sales Charges

One of the more unique aspects of the Weiss Mutual Fund Ratings is the way Weiss adjusts a fund’s performance to account for any sales charges (loads) the fund imposes. Weiss spreads the impact of front-end and back-end loads over a much shorter period in its evaluation of a fund, with potentially significant implications for a mutual fund’s returns. Thus, the performance rating, as well as the overall Weiss Mutual Fund Rating, more fully reflects the actual return the typical investor experiences.

Dr. Weiss commented: Unlike our competition, who adjusts a fund’s return for loads based on a 10-year holding period, we’ve designed a useful, more realistic investment tool based on the actual behavior pattern of today’s investors, which is closer to a five-year average holding period. Our goal is to help investors select the best funds available today and in the near future with no bias toward load funds.

Easier To Use and Understand

Weiss Mutual Fund Ratings are also intuitive and easy-to-use. The rating scale (A to E) mirrors the scale used by Weiss for its safety ratings and is easy to understand. With approximately 5,000 funds covered in each edition, all of which are updated every three months, Weiss Ratings’ Guide to Mutual Funds tracks more mutual funds than any other publication. Weiss subscribers receive a complete, updated publication every three months, eliminating the cumbersome and confusing inserts common to other mutual fund rating guides.

Weiss issues financial safety ratings on over 16,000 financial institutions. The Weiss Mutual Fund Ratings differ from Weiss’ traditional safety ratings in that they are not predictions of a company’s solvency, but are instead an evaluation of the performance and risk. Weiss Ratings is the only major rating agency of insurers that receives no compensation from the companies it rates. Revenues are derived strictly from sales of its products to consumers, businesses, and libraries. The accuracy of the Weiss ratings has been favorably reviewed by the U.S. General Accounting Office (GAO) as well as national consumer organizations.

Weiss Rating’s Guide to Mutual Funds is available for purchase at 1-800-289-9222.