We are pleased to announce that Wells Fargo & Company's acquisition of Wachovia Corporation was completed on December 31, 2008. Key factors for you are the strengths of the new Wells Fargo with respect to asset management. The acquisition brings Evergreen Investments into Wells Fargo's Asset Management Group, adding investment product breadth and giving us an opportunity to take advantage of both economies of skill and economies of scale. Going forward, the Asset Management Group will continue to provide for the needs of both institutional and individual investors with a focused business structure as follows:

Coming into the acquisition, Evergreen and Wells Fargo's Asset Management Group shared a common philosophy and structure with respect to autonomous investment teams. This "multiboutique" approach supports agile and focused investment teams—each with its own distinct philosophy and process—and allows them to continue to make incisive decisions and seek to produce sustainable alpha. Current investment teams will remain intact and are as committed as always to managing your assets.

Both Wells Fargo and Evergreen have proven track records of successfully acquiring and integrating several investment management firms over the past couple of decades. As we move forward with the integration, we intend to pursue the same thoughtful and deliberate process, which is expected to take time. Evergreen will continue to operate independently for a period of time; meanwhile, it is business as usual for Evergreen, Wells Capital Management, and Wells Fargo Advantage Funds.

We take pride in the successful relationships that have been formed with clients over the years. Your existing relationship managers will endeavor to keep you fully apprised of developments and news related to the integration of our investment management businesses. If you have additional questions, please do not hesitate to contact your existing relationship manager.

Sincerely,



Mike Niedermeyer
Executive Vice President
Group Head of Asset Management

Creating North America's Most Extensive Financial Services Company, Coast-to-Coast in Community Banking

San Francisco — January 1, 2009 — Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE: WFC) said today it has completed its merger with Wachovia Corporation, effective December 31, 2008, creating North America's most extensive distribution system for financial services with 11,000 stores, 12,260 ATMs, wellsfargo.com and Wells Fargo PhoneBank^SM. Beginning today, Wells Fargo and Wachovia customers have free use of all of the company's combined ATMs.

Wells Fargo now has community banks in 39 states and the District of Columbia and is #1 in deposit market share in 18 of those states plus the District of Columbia.¹ It also is #1 in the U.S. in community banking presence (6,650 stores), small business lending, middle market commercial banking, agriculture lending, commercial real estate lending, commercial real estate brokerage, and bank-owned insurance brokerage. It is #2 in banking deposits in the U.S., home mortgage originations and servicing, retail brokerage (number of financial advisors), and debit card. Wells Fargo serves 48 million banking households and is one of America's largest private employers with 276,000 team members.

"This merger creates what we believe will be a very compelling value proposition for our team members, customers, communities and shareholders with significant potential for even more market share growth," said Wells Fargo President and CEO John Stumpf. "Our team members can benefit from even more professional development opportunities across a much broader geography. Our customers can benefit from greater convenience and a better value for entrusting us with more of their business. Our communities can benefit because we want to be a leading contributor of financial, human and social capital in every community in which we do business. Our shareholders can benefit because of the exciting growth opportunities created by this merger. We're being very thoughtful and deliberate in our three-year merger integration. Just as we did with the very successful Norwest-Wells Fargo merger integration a decade ago, we'll take the time to do it right for our customers, always putting their interests first by seeking to satisfy all their financial needs and helping them succeed financially."

Pat Callahan, an executive vice president and head of the Company's merger transition, said Wachovia customers will continue to see the Wachovia brand in their banking stores and communities for the near future. "The key to a successful integration will be our ability to provide outstanding customer service throughout the integration," said Callahan. "So we're going to take our time and do this right. Wells Fargo and Wachovia customers should continue banking as they do today — using the same bank accounts, payment coupons, online sign-on, credit cards, ATM cards and check cards, checks and banking stores. We're committed to keeping customers informed of all significant changes before they happen."

At closing, Wells Fargo acquired all outstanding shares of common stock of Wachovia in a stock-for-stock transaction. Wachovia shareholders received 0.1991 shares of Wells Fargo common stock in exchange for each share of Wachovia common stock they owned. Shares of each outstanding series of Wachovia preferred stock were converted into shares (or fractional shares) of a corresponding series Wells Fargo preferred stock having substantially the same rights and preferences. As a result of the transaction, Wells Fargo acquired all of Wachovia Corporation and its businesses and obligations, including all of its banking deposits.

With Wachovia, Wells Fargo for the first time has a Community Banking presence in Alabama, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Kansas, Maryland, Mississippi, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia and Washington D.C.

Wachovia's stock symbol "WB" was retired effective December 31, 2008. Wells Fargo stock trades under the symbol WFC. For more information about the merger, visit www.wellsfargo.com.

Wells Fargo & Company is a diversified financial services company with $1.4 trillion in assets, providing banking, insurance, investments, mortgage and consumer finance through almost 11,000 stores and the internet (wellsfargo.com) across North America and internationally. Wells Fargo Bank, N.A. has the highest possible credit rating, "Aaa," from Moody's Investors Service and the highest credit rating given to a U.S. bank, "AA+," from Standard & Poor's Ratings Services.

¹ Deposit data as of June 30, 2008 (pro forma for acquisitions; excludes deposits greater than $500mm in a single banking store.)