Huntington Funds Added to Nationwide Variable Annuity Platform

COLUMBUS, Ohio, Nov. 1, 2010 /PRNewswire/ -- Huntington Funds will make the Huntington VA International Equity Fund and the Huntington VA Situs Fund available through Nationwide Financial Services' variable annuity platform. The funds will be added to Nationwide's variable annuity product suite beginning Nov. 1, 2010.

The Huntington VA International Equity Fund, which has a four-star overall Morningstar rating, invests in stocks of companies chosen from more than 25 countries beyond the United States. The Huntington VA Situs Fund invests primarily in small- and mid-cap companies, factoring in geographic, political or economic advantages based on the company's location.

"We're very pleased to be offering two of our funds to independent financial advisors nationally for the first time and even more pleased to be working with another Columbus-based company to do so," said Dan Benhase, senior executive vice president, Huntington.  "Our International Equity Fund is one of our top-performing funds and the Huntington Situs Fund provides advisors a unique niche that can help them diversify their clients' investments."

Nationwide is one of the largest diversified insurance and financial services organizations in the United States, and the eighth largest provider of variable annuities.

"Nationwide is focused on providing investment options that can help financial professionals best meet their clients' diverse needs," said Eric Henderson, senior vice president of Individual Investments for Nationwide Financial. "For more than 20 years we've teamed up with some of the most respected money managers in the business to develop comprehensive investment solutions, and these new funds continue that tradition by providing additional diversification opportunities for our clients."

Huntington Funds

Huntington Funds are part of Huntington Bancshares, a financial institution with more than a 90-year heritage of managing money. Huntington Asset Advisors, Inc. and its affiliates have been managing money since 1917. As of December 31, 2009, Huntington Asset Advisors and its affiliates manage more than $13 billion for individuals, institutions, endowments, foundations, retirement plans, and municipalities across a six state region.  Huntington Asset Advisors is a wholly owned subsidiary of The Huntington National Bank, which is the principal subsidiary of Huntington Bancshares Incorporated, a regional bank holding company headquartered in Columbus, Ohio with $52 billion in assets.

For more information regarding Huntington Funds, please visit the funds' website at huntingtonfunds.com.

About Huntington

Huntington Bancshares Incorporated (Nasdaq: HBAN) is a $53 billion regional bank holding company headquartered in Columbus, Ohio. Through its affiliated companies, Huntington has been providing a full range of financial services for 144 years. Huntington offers checking, loans, savings, insurance and investment services. It has more than 600 branches and also offers retail and commercial financial services online at huntington.com; through its telephone bank; and through its network of over 1,350 ATMs. Huntington's Auto Finance and Dealer Services group offers automobile loans to consumers and commercial loans to automobile dealers within our six-state banking franchise area, as well as selected New England states.  

About Nationwide

Nationwide, based in Columbus, Ohio, is one of the largest and strongest diversified insurance and financial services organizations in the U.S. and is rated A+ by A.M. Best. The company provides a full range of personalized insurance and financial services, including auto insurance, motorcycle, boat, homeowners, life insurance, farm, commercial insurance, administrative services, annuities, mortgages, mutual funds, pensions, long-term savings plans and health and productivity services. For more information, visit www.nationwide.com.

For more complete information, visit huntingtonfunds.com or contact your investment professional for a prospectus or summary prospectus. You should consider the fund's investment objectives, risks, charges, and expenses carefully before you invest. Information about these and other important subjects is in the fund's prospectus or summary prospectus, which you should read carefully before investing.

The funds are distributed by Unified Financial Securities, Inc. (Member FINRA) a wholly owned subsidiary of Huntington Bancshares, Inc. and an affiliate of Huntington Asset Advisors, Inc. the advisor to the Huntington Funds.

For each fund with at least a three-year history, Morningstar calculates a Morningstar Rating(TM) based on a Morningstar Risk-Adjusted Return measure that accounts for variation in a fund's monthly performance (including the effects of sales charges, loads, and redemption fees), placing more emphasis on downward variations and rewarding consistent performance. The top 10% of funds in each category receive  5 stars, the next 22.5% receive 4 stars, the next 35% receive 3 stars, the next 22.5% receive 2 stars and the bottom 10% receive 1 star. (Each share class is counted as a fraction of one fund within this scale and rated separately, which may cause slight variations in the distribution percentages.) The Overall Morningstar Rating for a fund is derived from a weighted-average of the performance figures associated with its 3-, 5- and 10-year (if applicable) Morningstar Rating metrics. For the overall, 3-year and 5-year time period ended 9/30/10 the Huntington VA International Equity Fund received 4, 4 and 4 stars out of 665, 665 and 476 funds, respectively. Past performance is no guarantee of future results.

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International investing involves special risks including currency risk, increased volatility of foreign securities, political risks, and differences in auditing and other financial standards. Prices of emerging markets securities can be significantly more volatile than the prices of securities in developed countries and currency risk and political risks are accentuated in emerging markets.

Small company stocks may be less liquid and subject to greater price volatility than large capitalization stocks.

The logo mark and Huntington® are federally registered service marks of Huntington Bancshares Incorporated.

SOURCE Huntington Bancshares Incorporated