MassMutual Funds Honored by Lipper For Best Overall Small Fund Group

ENFIELD, Conn., April 1, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- The MassMutual Funds last night won the 2015 Lipper Fund Award for Best Overall Small Fund Group, the second consecutive year the Funds have been honored for overall investment excellence.

The win also marks the fourth Lipper Asset Class Group Award the MassMutual Funds have earned in three years. The Lipper Group Awards recognize the strong performance of multiple funds within key categories. The Lipper Fund Awards honor mutual funds and fund management firms for delivering superior performance relative to peers. The MassMutual Funds include the MassMutual RetireSMART^SM, Select, and Premier Funds, and are primarily available to clients of MassMutual Retirement Services.

"We are honored to once again be celebrated by Lipper for our investment management excellence," said Brian Haendiges, Senior Vice President, Investment Services for MassMutual Retirement Services. "The award validates and highlights our multi-manager, subadvised strategy to provide retirement plan savers access to the best experts in their investment category."

"The great thing about our approach and philosophy is that by using a subadvised fund structure, we can access a full spectrum of retail, institutional, and boutique asset managers to find the best manager to fill a specific mandate," said Michael Eldredge, Vice President, Investments. "It's a proven approach delivering consistent and repeatable results across different asset classes and in different market environments."

The award was announced last night at the 2015 Lipper Fund Awards dinner at the Mandarin Oriental in New York City. The Lipper Fund Awards recognize mutual funds and fund management firms for their consistently strong risk-adjusted three-, five- and 10-year performance relative to their peers, based on Lipper's proprietary performance-based methodology.

To qualify for the Overall Small Fund Group award, fund groups must have at least three mixed-asset funds, five equity funds and five fixed-income funds. MassMutual Funds ranked No. 1 out of 26 eligible companies. Small Fund Groups are defined as having less than $52.6 billion in assets under management as of Nov. 30, 2014. The lowest average decile rank of the three years' Consistent Return measure of the eligible funds per asset class and group determine the asset class group award winner over the three-year period.

Lipper, a wholly owned subsidiary of Thomson Reuters, is a leading global provider of mutual fund information and analysis to fund companies, financial intermediaries and media organizations.

The Lipper Fund Awards are part of the Thomson Reuters Awards for Excellence, a global family of awards that celebrate exceptional performance throughout the professional investment community. The Thomson Reuters Awards for Excellence recognize the world's top funds, fund management firms, sell-side firms, research analysts, and investor relations teams. The Thomson Reuters Awards for Excellence also include the Extel Survey Awards and the StarMine Analyst Awards. For more information, please contact [email protected] or visit excellence.thomsonreuters.com

To learn more about MassMutual Retirement Services (www.massmutual.com/retire) or the MassMutual Funds (www.massmutualfunds.com), or to request a prospectus, please contact your retirement plan professional or call MassMutual at 1-866-444-2601.

About MassMutual
Founded in 1851, MassMutual is a leading mutual life insurance company that is run for the benefit of its members and participating policyowners. The company has a long history of financial strength and strong performance, and although dividends are not guaranteed, MassMutual has paid dividends to eligible participating policyowners consistently since the 1860s. With whole life insurance as its foundation, MassMutual provides products to help meet the financial needs of clients, such as life insurance, disability income insurance, long term care insurance, retirement/401(k) plan services, and annuities. In addition, the company's strong and growing network of financial professionals helps clients make good financial decisions for the long term.

MassMutual Financial Group is a marketing name for Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company (MassMutual) and its affiliated companies and sales representatives. MassMutual is headquartered in Springfield, Massachusetts and its major affiliates include: Babson Capital Management LLC; Baring Asset Management Limited; Cornerstone Real Estate Advisers LLC; The First Mercantile Trust Company; MassMutual International LLC; MML Investors Services, LLC, Member FINRA and SIPC; OppenheimerFunds, Inc.; and The MassMutual Trust Company, FSB.

MassMutual'sRetirement Services Division has been serving retirement plans for more than 65 years. It offers a full range of products and services for corporate, union, nonprofit and governmental employers' defined benefit, defined contribution and nonqualified deferred compensation plans. It serves approximately 2.8 million participants.

For more information, visit www.massmutual.com or find MassMutual on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube and Google+. For information regarding MassMutual'sRetirement Services Division, you may also visit massmutual.com/retire or find us on Facebook.com/RetireSmart and YouTube.com/RetireSmart.

Past performance is no guarantee of future results. Principal value and investment return will fluctuate, so an investor's shares/units when redeemed may be worth more or less than the original investment. Investment portfolio statistics change over time. The investment is not FDIC-insured, may lose value and is not guaranteed by a bank or other financial institution. Investors should consider a Fund's investment objective, risks and charges and expenses carefully before investing. This and other information about a Fund is available in its prospectus (or summary prospectus). Read it carefully before investing.

Copyright ©2015 Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company (MassMutual) and affiliates, Springfield, MA 01111-0001. All rights reserved.

Contact: David Potter860-562-1525
[email protected]

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SOURCE MassMutual Retirement Services