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Reducing or Eliminating Sales Charges

Class A Sales Charge Reduction Programs

The AllianceBernstein Mutual Funds offer several ways for investors to reduce or eliminate sales charges. A brief summary of some of the ways is outlined below. For more details, read your Fund’s Statement of Additional Information or speak with your financial advisor.

Quantity Discounts
Shareholders investing more than $100,000 in Class A shares of a Fund may receive a reduced sales charge as outlined in the chart below. Front-end sales charges are eliminated completely for purchases over $1 million for equity and taxable fixed income funds and over $500,000 for municipal fixed income funds, although a 1% 1-year contingent deferred sales charge may apply.

Class A Quantity Discounts for Equity and Taxable Fixed Income Funds
Amount of Purchase Sales Charge as a % of Offering Price
Less than $100,000 4.25%
$100,000 but less than $250,000 3.25%
$250,000 but less than $500,000 2.25%
$500,000 but less than $1 million 1.75%
$1 million and above 0.00*

Class A Quantity Discounts for Municipal Fixed Income Funds
Amount of Purchase Sales Charge as a % of Offering Price
Less than $100,000 3.00%
$100,000 but less than $250,000 2.00%
$250,000 but less than $500,000 1.00%
$500,000 and above 0.00*

*Class A shares redeemed within one year are be subject to a contingent deferred sales charge (“CDSC”) equal to 1% of the lesser of the initial cost of the shares being redeemed or their net asset value at the time of redemption. No CDSC is assessed on increases in net asset value above the initial purchase price. The CDSC may be waived on certain redemptions as described under “Waiver of Class C CDSC”, below.

Combined Purchase Privilege
In determining whether a Quantity Discount applies, the AllianceBernstein Mutual Funds take into account the amount of a shareholder’s existing investments in the Fund, as well as investments by the investor’s spouse or children who are under the age of 21. In addition, amounts invested by a trustee or other fiduciary for the benefit of these individuals, even if more than one beneficiary is involved, as well as employee benefit plans for such individuals, are also included in determining whether a Quantity Discount applies.

Investments by companies that have not been in existence for at least six months, or which has no purpose other than the purchase of shares of the Fund or shares of other investment companies at a discount, are not included in determining whether Quantity Discounts apply. Also not included are investments by any group of individuals whose sole organizational nexus is that the participants are credit card holders of a company, policyholders of an insurance company, customers of a bank or broker-dealer or clients of an investment adviser.

These privileges apply even if your related accounts are opened using different brokers or brokerage firms, so it’s important to let your financial intermediary know about all your accounts that may be combined for these privileges. Your financial intermediary must notify the Fund at the time of the purchase whether a Quantity Discount may apply to your current purchases.

Rights of Accumulation
Shareholders can combine the value of a new investment in a Fund with the value of existing investments in the Fund to determine if the new investment is eligible for a Quantity Discount. The applicable sales charge will be based on a total of: a) the investor’s current purchase; b) the net asset value at the close of business on the previous day of: i) all shares of a Fund held by the investor and ii) all shares of any other AllianceBernstein Mutual Fund held by the investor, and; c) the net asset value of all shares described in (b) above owned by another shareholder eligible to combine his or her purchase with that of the investor into a single purchase under the Combined Purchase Privilege.

Like the Combined Purchase Privilege, to qualify for Rights of Accumulation on a purchase through a financial intermediary, the investor or financial intermediary must notify AllianceBernstein that the investor is entitled to a discount under the Rights of Accumulation Program and provide AllianceBernstein with sufficient information to verify that each purchase qualifies for the privilege or discount.

Statement of Intention
Class A investors may also obtain a reduced sales charge by means of a written statement of intention (“SOI”) (also known as a Letter of Intent), which conveys the customer’s intention to invest at least $100,000 within a period of 13 months in shares of any AllianceBernstein Mutual Fund. Each purchase of shares under a SOI will receive the sales charge discount that would be available to a transaction of the dollar amount indicated in the SOI. If the investor fails to invest the total amount indicated in the SOI, the Fund will retroactively collect the additional sales charges that should have applied, as described below.

At the investor’s option, a SOI may take into account purchases of shares made within 90 days prior to the date the investor signs the SOI, in which case the 13 month period begins on the date of that earliest purchase. However, sales charges will not be reduced for purchases made prior to the date the SOI is signed.

The minimal initial investment under a SOI is 5% of the total amount. Shares purchased with this first 5% will be held in escrow. If the shareholder does not satisfy the full amount of the SOI, these shares will be redeemed at their then current net asset value to the extent necessary to pay any additional sales charges that should have applied based on the actual amount invested. Once the SOI is satisfied, the escrowed shares are released.

Waivers Available to Certain Types of Shareholders
Class A sales charges are waived in their entirety for investments by the following individuals:

  1. investment management clients of the Adviser or its affiliates;
  2. officers and present or former Directors or Trustees of the Fund or other investment companies managed by the Adviser; officers, directors and present or retired full time employees and former employees (for subsequent investment in accounts established during the course of their employment) of the Adviser, the Principal Underwriter, AllianceBernstein Investor Services, Inc. and their affiliates; officers, directors and present and full-time employees of selected dealers or agents; or the spouse of any such person; or any trust, individual retirement account or retirement plan account for the benefit of any such person;
  3. the Adviser, Principal Underwriter, AllianceBernstein Investor Services, Inc. and their affiliates; and certain employee benefit plans for employees of the Adviser, the Principal Underwriter, AllianceBernstein Investor Services, Inc. and their affiliates;
  4. persons participating in a fee based program, sponsored and maintained by a registered broker-dealer or other financial intermediary and approved by the Principal Underwriter, pursuant to which persons pay an asset-based fee to such broker-dealer financial intermediary or its affiliate or agent, for services in the nature of investment advisory or administrative services; and
  5. certain retirement plan accounts described in the prospectus.

Other Miscellaneous Circumstances
No sales charge is applied to purchases of Class A shares in the following circumstances:

  1. shares invested pursuant to a Fund’s dividend reinvestment or dividend direction plan,
  2. shares purchased pursuant to the Fund’s Exchange Privilege,
  3. Upon conversion of Class B or Advisor class shares into Class A shares,
  4. Reinstatement privilege. A shareholder who has redeemed any or all of his Class A shares may reinvest the proceeds from that redemption in Class A shares of the same Fund at NAV without any sales charge, provided that such reinvestment is made within 120 calendar days after the redemption date

  Next: Class B and C Contingent Deferred Sales Charge Reductions and Waivers

 

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Investors should consider the investment objectives, risks, charges and expenses of the Fund/Portfolio carefully before investing. For copies of our prospectus or summary prospectus, which contain this and other information, click here or contact your AllianceBernstein Investments representative. Please read the prospectus and/or summary prospectus carefully before investing.

AllianceBernstein mutual funds may be offered only to persons in the United States and by way of a prospectus. This website should not be considered a solicitation or offering of any investment products or services to investors residing outside of the United States.

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