Award Marks Fifth Straight Year The Fund Has Earned The Top Spot In Lipper's Gold-Oriented Funds Category for the 10-Year Period SAN ANTONIO, April 9 /PRNewswire/ -- USAA, a Fortune 200 financial services company, today announced that the USAA Precious Metals and Minerals Fund (USAGX) has earned the Lipper Fund Award* for its performance in the gold-oriented funds category for the 10-year period. The 2009 award marks the fifth consecutive year that the fund has achieved the top spot in this category for the 10-year period. Co-managed by Mark Johnson, vice president, and Dan Denbow, assistant vice president of equity investments at USAA, the fund ranked No. 1 out of 28 funds in the gold-oriented category for the 10-year period ending Dec. 31, 2008. Lipper Fund Awards are calculated using risk adjusted consistent returns relative to peers for three different time periods (3-year, 5-year and 10 year). "This award demonstrates the strength and stability of USAA's equity management team, and the commitment they have to manage our members' investments through volatile times," said Chris Claus, president, USAA Financial Services Group. "USAA strives to deliver the best combination of service and performance, and our portfolio managers' expertise helps make that happen." The USAA Precious Metals and Minerals Fund and the USAA California Money Market Fund (UCAXX), managed by Regina Shafer, assistant vice president, fixed income at USAA, also earned multiple Performance Achievement Certificates** from Lipper for their performance in 2008. Certificates are awarded to funds with returns that topped their Lipper category over one, five, 10 or 15-year periods. In the gold-oriented funds category, the USAA Precious Metals and Minerals Fund won three certificates for the five, 10 and 15-year time frames. The USAA California Money Market Fund received a certificate for ending the year with the highest returns for the one-year period in the California tax-exempt money market funds category. These funds are available to individual investors through usaa.com or by calling 1-800-531-0853. Past performance is no guarantee of future results. Consider the investment objectives, risks, charges and expenses of the USAA mutual funds carefully before investing. Contact us at 800-531-8910 for a prospectus containing this and other information about the funds from USAA Investment Management Company, Distributor. Read it carefully before investing. About USAA USAA, a diversified financial services group of companies, is among the leading providers of financial planning, insurance, investments, and banking products to members of the U.S. military and their families. For the past three years, BusinessWeek magazine ranked USAA among the top two "Customer Service Champs," highlighting our legendary commitment of providing highly competitive financial products for 7 million members. For more information about USAA, or to learn more about membership, visit usaa.com. Lipper ranked the USAA Precious Metals and Minerals Fund three out of 52, and one out of 48 Gold-Oriented funds for the 3- and 5-year periods, respectively and ranked the USAA California Money Market Fund six out of 62, nine out of 57, and five out of 39 California Tax-Exempt Money Market Funds for the 3-, 5- and 10-year periods, respectively, ended Dec. 31, 2008. *Gold-oriented Lipper Fund Awards are for the 10-year risk adjusted performance among 28 eligible funds for the period ended Dec. 31, 2008. Fund classification averages are calculated with all eligible share classes for each eligible classification. The calculation periods extend over 36, 60 and 120 months. The highest Lipper Leader for Consistent Return (Effective Return) value within each eligible classification determines the fund classification winner over three, five or 10 years. **Lipper Performance Achievement Certificates are awards to fund portfolios that ranked first in their investment objective/Lipper classification over various time periods. Certificates are awarded for all investment objectives/Lipper classifications as well as for the overall fund universe. Certificates are awarded for the open-end equity funds, open-end fixed income funds, closed-end funds, and variable underlying funds universes. Certificates are awarded once a year as of December 31st. Certificates are awarded for performance over a one-, five-, ten-, and fifteen-year time period for open-end equity funds. All other universes receive awards over the one-, five-, and ten-year time periods. Awards are based upon cumulative total return. A winner is awarded if there are five or more portfolios in the investment objective/Lipper classification for the length of the relevant time period. The category fund count is inclusive of all classes of shares. For the purpose of comparison, a fund is categorized at the end of the time period and will be compared to those peers in the relevant time period. A winner is awarded if there are no "significant events" that eliminate the fund from the category. A significant event occurs when a fund has been re-classified during the performance award time period. (For example, a fund that had a fundamental change in investment policy which caused it to switch Lipper classifications during the relevant time period.) Contact: Sheila Rose 212-453-2492, DATASOURCE: USAA CONTACT: Sheila Rose, +1-212-453-2492, , for USAA Web Site: http://www.usaa.com/

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