The Hartford MidCap Fund Reports Strong Client Interest After Reopening To New Investors

The Hartford Mutual Funds today announced that the highly rated Hartford MidCap Fund, which re-opened to new investors on December 15, 2008, is the second best-selling fund in Lipper’s Mid-Cap Growth universe, based on 2009 sales as of June 30, 2009. The Hartford MidCap Fund is the fourth best-selling fund in The Hartford lineup, behind The Hartford Capital Appreciation Fund, The Hartford Floating Rate Fund and The Hartford Inflation Plus Fund.

"We are pleased that the MidCap Fund has gotten off to such a strong start after having been closed to new investors since 2004,” said Keith Sloane, senior vice president of The Hartford Mutual Funds. "The current market environment creates opportunity for investors. The reaction we’ve seen from investors shows they are looking for more ways to diversify their portfolios, and taking advantage of a highly-sought-after mid-cap fund is a way to do that.”

Phil Perelmuter, one of three managing partners at Wellington Management Company, LLP, has managed the fund since its inception in 1997. Perelmuter is supported by the full resources of the firm. He believes the current market environment has created attractive new investment opportunities in mid-cap companies. "Opening the Fund to new investors has brought in more assets, which has allowed us to take advantage of the opportunities in today’s marketplace,” he said.

Perelmuter, one of just 15 portfolio managers with a 10-year track record managing mid-cap portfolios, has garnered many industry accolades, including:

• Winner of the U.S. Lipper Fund Award¹ in the MidCap Core Category for funds with a
  10-year track record (2008)
• Named in Barron’s Top 100 Manager List² five times (2001, 2002, 2003, 2006, 2008)
• An overall 5-Star Morningstar^® Rating (out of 766 funds; the Fund is rated 4 Stars over three years and five years, and 5 Stars over 10 years—all ratings are as of 6/30/09 and based on risk-adjusted returns)

The Fund, sub-advised by Wellington Management Company, LLP, boasts a strong historical performance record, having outpaced its benchmark (the S&P MidCap 400 Index³) in eight of the last 11 calendar years. The Fund has also outperformed its Lipper peer group (Lipper MidCap Core) in eight of the last 11 calendar years (Data Sources: Morningstar and Lipper, 7/09).

According to Morningstar percentile rankings (based on total return), the Fund is one of the top-performing funds in the Mid-Cap Growth category over many trailing time periods (ended 6/30/09):

• Top 45% of its category for 1-year performance (#384 out of 860 funds)
• Top 25% for 3-year performance (#190 out of 766 funds)
• Top 7% for 5-year performance (#48 out of 646 funds)
• Top 5% for 10-year performance (#16 out of 323 funds)
• Top 2% for performance since inception on 12/31/97 (#4 out of 246 funds)

In addition to the 5-Star overall rating from Morningstar⁴ in the Mid-Cap Growth Category, the Fund is also rated:

4 Stars over three years (#190 out of 766 funds in the Mid-Cap Growth category)

4 Stars over five years (#48 out of 646 funds in the Mid-Cap Growth category)

5 Stars over 10 years (#16 out of 323 funds in the Mid-Cap Growth category)

All ratings are as of 6/30/09, and are based on risk-adjusted return.

Data from Morningstar show that mid-cap stocks have historically performed well following periods of recession. Over the last 30 years, mid-cap stocks have rebounded more strongly than large-cap stocks in the 12 months following the end of the last three official recessions, as determined by the National Bureau of Economic Research (official recession dates were: 7/81-11/82, 7/90-3/91, and 3/01-11/01).

"Investing in mid-cap companies is considered by many financial advisors as a core foundation of strategic asset allocation,” said Sloane. "The reopening of the Fund further strengthens our solid lineup of style-focused and broad mandate equity funds.”

The Hartford MidCap Fund (symbols – Class A:HFMCX, Class C:HMDCX) seeks long-term growth of capital by investing primarily in stocks selected on the basis for the potential of capital appreciation.

Historical Performance as of 6/30/09

Including Maximum Sales Charge of 5.5%

PERFORMANCE DATA QUOTED REPRESENTS PAST PERFORMANCE AND DOES NOT GUARANTEE FUTURE RESULTS. The investment return and principal value of an investment will fluctuate so that an investor's shares, when redeemed, may be worth more or less than their original cost. Current performance may be lower or higher than the performance data quoted. For more current performance information to the most recent month ended, please see www.hartfordinvestor.com.

Expenses

Phil Perelmuter is a senior vice president and managing partner of Wellington Management Company, LLP, with 25 years of professional experience. He earned his BS from Princeton University and his MBA from Harvard Business School. He is supported by Wellington Management Company, LLP’s broad, deep, and experienced research team.

About The Hartford Mutual Funds

The Hartford Mutual Funds, established in 1996, is one of the fastest growing mutual fund families. The mutual funds offer a wide array of both broad-mandate and style-focused equity and fixed-income investment options. The Hartford Mutual Funds draw on the investment strength, experience and expertise of Wellington Management Company, LLP, and Hartford Investment Management Co. These two organizations bring their decades of market experience, in-house investment capabilities, rigorous research and time-tested investment process to bear in managing the funds to help The Hartford Mutual Fund investors meet their long-term financial goals. Total retail mutual fund assets under management were $37.7 billion as of June 30, 2009. For more information on The Hartford Mutual Funds, including current holdings, you can visit www.hartfordmutualfunds.com.

About The Hartford

Celebrating nearly 200 years, The Hartford (NYSE: HIG) is an insurance-based financial services company that serves households, businesses and employees by helping to protect their assets and income from risks, and by managing wealth and retirement needs. A Fortune 500 company, The Hartford is recognized widely for its service expertise and as one of the world’s most ethical companies. More information on the company and its financial performance is available at www.thehartford.com.

HIG-L

Some of the statements in this release may be considered forward-looking statements as defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. We caution investors that these forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance, and actual results may differ materially. Investors should consider the important risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ. These important risks and uncertainties include those discussed in our Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, our 2008 Annual Report on Form 10-K and the other filings we make with the Securities and Exchange Commission. We assume no obligation to update this release, which speaks as of the date issued.

Past performance is no indication of future results.

© 2008 Morningstar, Inc. All Rights Reserved. The information contained herein: (1) is proprietary to Morningstar and/or its content providers; (2) may not be copied or distributed; and (3) is not warrantied to be accurate, complete, or timely. Neither Morningstar nor its content providers are responsible for any damages or losses arising from any use of this information. Past performance is no guarantee of future results.

¹ Lipper presents the award annually to the Fund that delivered consistently solid performance compared to its peers. A Fund’s consistent return score evaluates risk-adjusted performance, adjusted for volatility, relative to its peers, for the performance period ending December 31, 2007. The Fund's class Y shares (institutional share class) received the award; all of the Fund's share classes are managed by the same portfolio manager.

² Barron’s Ranking Methodology: Value Line screened 1,008 equity funds, first eliminating offerings with more than two lead managers and managers with less than three years' tenure. The ranking is based on the performance of the manager with the longer tenure, and comanagers must share day-to-day management of the fund. The survey is then organized by nine investment objectives. This year's survey includes funds with assets of $200 million or more. Only 564 managers qualified for ranking (on the basis of the oldest share class of each fund). Managers were scored based on how much risk-adjusted value they added relative to others with the same Value Line investment objective. The system uses volatility as a proxy for risk, rewarding a higher score to the managers who generate more stable returns. For example, if a fund's return is judged to be 25% more volatile than its peers—on a monthly basis over the manager's tenure—it is expected to generate 25% greater returns. Superior managers get positive scores commensurate with the value they've added to a fund's performance on an annualized basis. A manager with a 10% rating, for example, has added 10% to performance, above and beyond the average return for a particular investment objective.

³ The S&P 400 MidCap Index is an unmanaged index of common stocks of companies chosen by S&P designed to represent price movements in the midcap U.S. equity market.

⁴ Source: Morningstar.© For each fund with at least a 3-year history, Morningstar calculates a risk-adjusted return measure that accounts for variation in a fund's monthly performance (including the effects of all sales charges), placing more emphasis on downward variations and rewarding consistent performance. The top 10% of funds in each category receives a Morningstar Rating of 5 stars, the next 22.5% receives 4 stars, the next 35% receives 3 stars, the next 22.5% receives 2 stars, and the bottom 10% receives 1 star. (Each share class is counted as a fraction of one fund and rated separately.) A fund's overall rating is derived from a weighted average of the 3-, 5-, and 10-year (if applicable) rating metrics.

⁵ Net operating expenses are the expenses you’re currently paying to own the Fund. If the net operating expenses shown are lower than the gross operating expenses, then the net operating expenses reflect voluntary fee waivers and/or expense reimbursements from the investment advisor that may be discontinued at any time. For more information on fee waivers and/or expense reimbursements, please see the expense table in the prospectus.

⁶ Gross operating expenses shown are before management fee waivers or expense caps. Performance information may reflect historical or current expense waivers or reimbursements, without which, performance would have been lower. For more information on fee waivers and/or expense reimbursements, please see the expense table in the prospectus.

The Hartford MidCap HLS Fund remains closed to new investors.

Mid-cap investing generally has higher risk and return characteristics than large-company stocks. A portion of the fund may be invested in foreign securities, and subject to the associated risks. Please see a prospectus for the current percentage.

The Hartford Mutual Funds are underwritten and distributed by Hartford Investment Financial Services, LLC and Hartford Securities Distribution Company, Inc.

"The Hartford" is The Hartford Financial Services Group, Inc. and its subsidiaries.

Wellington Management Company, LLP is an independent and unaffiliated sub-adviser to The Hartford.

You should carefully consider investment objectives, risks, and charges and expenses of The Hartford Mutual Funds before investing. This and other information can be found in the Fund’s prospectus, which can be obtained from your investment representative or by calling 888-843-7824. Please read it carefully before you invest or send money.