We are pleased to announce that Stairway Partners has again been recognized for its investment performance by PSN with Top Guns status. Through the 4th quarter of 2016, four of our composite strategies earned a total of six awards within PSN’s separate account databases, all within the Global/International Balanced Portfolio Universe. The PSN separate account database is managed by Informa Investment Solutions and is the longest-running investment manager database in North America. For their Top Guns awards, PSN ranks thousands of separately managed portfolio strategies across dozens of universes. PSN’s Global/International Balanced Portfolio Universe has a style benchmark which is comprised of 60% global equities and 40% global bonds. The universe includes 329 distinct investment strategies provided by 131 different investment firms. The following list details our award winning composite strategies.

Manager of the Decade

• Stairway Partners Conservative Global Asset Allocation
• Stairway Partners Tax-Managed Conservative Global Asset Allocation

To qualify for Manager of the Decade status, a strategy must have had returns that are greater than the style benchmark for the latest ten year period, while also maintaining a standard deviation of returns (risk) which is less than the style benchmark. PSN then ranks those strategies by their ten-year return and designates the ten best as Top Guns Manager of the Decade.

Six Stars

• Stairway Partners Moderate Global Asset Allocation
• Stairway Partners Tax-Managed Moderate Global Asset Allocation

To qualify for Six Star status, a strategy’s returns must exceed PSN’s style benchmark’s returns for the latest three rolling three-year periods and have lower risk than the median strategy for the last five-year period. PSN then ranks those strategies by their information ratios (a risk-adjusted return metric) and designates the ten best as Top Guns.

Five Stars

• Stairway Partners Moderate Global Asset Allocation
• Stairway Partners Tax-Managed Moderate Global Asset Allocation

To qualify for Five Star status, a strategy’s returns must exceed PSN’s style benchmark’s returns for the latest three rolling three-year periods and have lower risk than the median strategy for the last five-year period. PSN then ranks those strategies by their latest three-year return and designates the ten best as Top Guns.

We are honored to have received these distinctions, which recognize the long-term performance of our portfolios. We firmly believe that these awards are the direct result of our commitment to a consistent investment process, which focuses on prudent policy development, long-term fundamental capital market analysis and efficient execution of strategy. For more information, please contact us.

---