News Releases

TORONTO, ONTARIO--(Marketwired - Nov. 28, 2013) - BMO Financial Group claimed multiple honours last night at the 19^th annual Morningstar Canadian Investment Awards. BMO InvestorLine was named Best Online Brokerage 2013 and BMO Asset Management Inc. (BMO AM) was awarded Best ETF Initiative.

The awards recognize exceptional investment products, client service, marketing and investor and advisor education.

BMO InvestorLine was selected as the Best Online Brokerage based on its strengths in website functionality, breadth of investments available, customer service, online tools and resources, and costs.

"Being recognized by Morningstar in this category is a great honour for us," said Viki Lazaris, CEO, BMO InvestorLine. "This award validates our efforts this year to enhance the overall functionality and experience of our self-directed and adviceDirect online services to fit the unique and evolving needs of our clients."

Ms. Lazaris noted that 2013 has been an exceptional year for BMO InvestorLine. The firm celebrated 25 years of providing award-winning self-directed investment service to Canadians. It also marked the first anniversary of adviceDirect, a first-of-its-kind service in Canada that provides personalized online investing advice to clients.

Moreover, 2013 saw BMO InvestorLine named the top bank-owned online brokerage for the third consecutive year in the 15^th annual Globe and Mail ranking of online brokers and designated Best Online Discount Brokerage Firm in Canada by Surviscor.

BMO Claims Best ETF Initiative

In being awarded Best ETF Initiative, Morningstar acknowledged BMO AM for promoting education and awareness in the Exchange Traded Fund (ETF) industry, along with building relationships with the investing and advisor communities.

The firm's educational initiatives have been tailored to support advisors in several ways including:

• To provide an understanding on where and how to mix active and passive management to create added value to investors.
• To provide insights on how ETFs can be used as tools to facilitate the financial planning process.

"Our ETF business has had a very strong year and we're thrilled that we've been honoured at the Canadian Investment Awards," said Rajiv Silgardo, Co-CEO, BMO Global Asset Management. "This award represents a confirmation of our team's ongoing commitment to evolving the ETF landscape - not only through offering a broad range of innovative products, but also through our focused efforts to educate investors and advisors about ETFs and how they can be used to add value to any portfolio."

About BMO InvestorLine

BMO InvestorLine is an online investing service that provides clients with two ways to invest online. Clients can choose from BMO InvestorLine's top ranked Self-Directed service that provides tools to help investors make independent decisions on how to invest. BMO InvestorLine's other service, adviceDirect™ provides investors with online advice and investment recommendations for their portfolios. Clients have access to trading, quotes and account information 24 hours a day through a website or Automated Telephone Trading. BMO InvestorLine also provides users with third party research, along with leading edge tools that are informative and easy to use. As an all-in-one investment source, it is a constantly evolving, cost-efficient platform that is fully compatible with tablets.

About BMO Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs)

Established in May 2009, BMO Financial Group's ETF business is a leading ETF provider in Canada. BMO ETFs provide Canadian investors with a number of benefits including lower costs and tax efficiencies, while covering a number of diverse asset classes, sectors and regions.

About BMO Financial Group

Established in 1817 as Bank of Montreal, BMO Financial Group is a highly-diversified North American financial services organization. With total assets of $549 billion as at July 31, 2013, and more than 46,000 employees, BMO Financial Group provides a broad range of retail banking, wealth management and investment banking products and solutions.

Further information can be found at:

www.bmoinvestorline.com

www.bmo.com/investments

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BMO InvestorLine Inc. and BMO Ligne D'action Inc. provide this commentary to clients for informational purposes only. The information contained herein is based on sources that we believe to be reliable, but is not guaranteed by us, may be incomplete or may change without notice. The comments included in this document are general in nature, and professional advice regarding an individual's particular position should be obtained.

An adviceDirect account is a non-discretionary fee based account which offers investment recommendations. adviceDirect does not provide portfolio management by a portfolio manager. The client makes their own investment decisions and manages their own investment portfolio. adviceDirect does not offer discretionary, managed accounts.

BMO InvestorLine Inc. is a member of BMO Financial Group.

® Registered trade-mark of Bank of Montreal, used under licence. BMO InvestorLine Inc. is a wholly owned subsidiary of Bank of Montreal Holdings Inc. Member - Canadian Investor Protection Fund and IIROC.

BMO ETFs are administered and managed by BMO Asset Management Inc., an investment fund manager and portfolio manager and a separate legal entity from Bank of Montreal.