Illinois' new 529 college savings plan has added two mutual funds from Calvert Group Ltd., which specializes in socially responsible funds, as investment options.
The new funds are the Calvert Social Investment Fund Equity Portfolio and the Calvert Income Fund. Calvert, which announced the addition Thursday, invests only in companies that meet its standards on labor relations, corporate governance, product safety, community relations, human rights, and other issues.
The new Illinois plan, the Bright Directions College Savings Program, is administered by Union Bank and Trust of Lincoln, Neb. It was launched in November and is available only through brokers and fee-based advisers.
Calvert's funds are also options in other college savings plans. Several were added in 2002 to Pennsylvania's; the next year the Bethesda, Md., company became the program manager for the District of Columbia plan, in which several of its funds are options.
