Wells Fargo Funds Management Announces the Approval of Investment Guideline Changes to Three Wells Fargo Advantage Closed-End Funds

Wells Fargo Funds Management, LLC, announced today that the Board of Trustees of the Wells Fargo Advantage Funds approved proposals to revise or remove certain investment guidelines for the Wells Fargo Advantage Income Opportunities Fund (NYSE Amex: EAD), the WellsFargo Advantage Multi-Sector Income Fund (NYSE Amex: ERC), and the Wells Fargo Advantage Utilities and High Income Fund (NYSE Amex: ERH) (“the Funds”).

Effective today, the investment guidelines of the Wells Fargo Advantage Income Opportunities Fund and the high-yield sleeves of the Wells Fargo Advantage Multi-Sector Income Fund and the Wells Fargo Advantage Utilities and High Income Fund will be changed to provide additional flexibility relating to the Funds’ investments in high-yield securities. The Funds’ guidelines will be changed to reflect that the Fund (or sleeves) will be able to invest in securities of any credit quality at the time of purchase. In addition, under normal circumstances, no more than 20% of the Fund’s portfolio (or sleeve) will be comprised of securities that are rated CCC or lower.

Also effective today, the following additional changes will be made to the investment guidelines of the Wells Fargo Advantage Income Opportunities Fund:

• The Fund will be able to invest up to 10% of its total assets in U.S. dollar-denominated securities of foreign issuers, excluding emerging markets securities.
• The Fund’s investment guidelines will no longer require the advisor to generally limit the purchase position of each security to up to 2% of the Fund’s total assets, to sell existing holdings when they exceed 2% of the Fund’s portfolio holdings, or to maintain the limit that no fewer than 20 portfolio holdings account for greater than 25% of the Fund’s portfolio.

The advisor believes that these changes to the Funds’ investment guidelines better reflect the high-yield strategy expected to be employed by the Sutter High Yield Fixed Income team at Wells Capital Management, the Funds’ subadvisor. These changes will also better align the Funds’ high-yield strategies with industry peers.

Effective July 9, 2010, as part of the integration of the Evergreen and Wells Fargo Advantage mutual fund families, Phil Susser and Niklas Nordenfelt of the Sutter High Yield Fixed Income team at Wells Capital Management, assumed portfolio management responsibilities for the Wells Fargo Advantage Income Opportunities Fund, the high-yield portion of the Wells Fargo Advantage Multi-Sector Income Fund, and the Wells Fargo Advantage Utilities and High Income Fund. The Sutter High Yield Fixed Income team applies a bottom-up, fundamental-based investment strategy focused on identifying the best risk-adjusted opportunities in the high-yield market.

The Wells Fargo Advantage Income Opportunities Fund is a closed-end high-yield bond fund. The Fund’s investment objective is to seek a high level of current income. The Fund may, as a secondary objective, seek capital appreciation to the extent it is consistent with its investment objective. Under normal market conditions, the Fund invests at least 80% of its total assets in below-investment-grade (high yield) debt securities, loans, and preferred stocks.

The Wells Fargo Advantage Multi-Sector Income Fund is a closed-end bond fund. The Fund’s primary investment objective is to seek a high level of current income consistent with limiting its overall exposure to domestic interest-rate risk. Under normal market conditions, the Fund allocates approximately 50% of its total assets to an investment strategy that focuses primarily on below-investment-grade (high yield) U.S. debt securities, loans, and preferred stocks.

The Wells Fargo Advantage Utilities and High Income Fund is a closed-end equity and high-yield bond fund. The Fund’s primary investment objective is to seek a high level of current income and moderate capital growth, with emphasis on providing tax-advantaged dividend income. Under normal market conditions, the Fund allocates approximately 30% of its total assets to an investment strategy that focuses on U.S. dollar-denominated noninvestment-grade bonds, debentures, and other income obligations.

These closed-end funds are no longer offered as an initial public offering and are only offered through broker/dealers on the secondary market. Unlike an open-end mutual fund, a closed-end fund offers a fixed number of shares for sale. After the initial public offering, shares are bought and sold in the secondary marketplace, and the market price of the shares is determined by supply and demand, not by net asset value (NAV), often at a lower price than the NAV. A closed-end fund is not required to buy its shares back from investors upon request.

Investment return and principal value of an investment will fluctuate so that investors' shares, when sold, may be worth more or less than their original costs. The fund may borrow, which creates leverage. The use of leverage results in certain risks, including, among others, the likelihood of greater volatility of NAV and the market price of common shares. Foreign investments may contain more risk due to the inherent risks associated with changing political climates, foreign market instability, and foreign currency fluctuations. Derivatives involve additional risks, including interest rate risk, credit risk, the risk of improper valuation, and the risk of noncorrelation to the relevant instruments they are designed to hedge or closely track. High-yield, lower-rated bonds may contain more risk due to the increased possibility of default. The return of principal is not guaranteed due to fluctuation in the fund's NAV caused by changes in the price of individual bonds held by the fund and the buying and selling of bonds by the fund. Bond funds have the same inflation, interest rate, and credit risks as individual bonds. Generally, the value of bond funds rise when prevailing interest rates fall and fall when interest rates rise. U.S. government guarantees apply only to certain securities held in the fund's portfolio and not to the fund's shares.

About Wells Fargo Funds Management

Wells Fargo Funds Management, LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Wells Fargo & Company (NYSE: WFC), provides investment advisory and administrative services for Wells Fargo Advantage Funds. Other affiliates of Wells Fargo & Company provide subadvisory and other services for the Funds. The Wells Fargo Advantage Funds are a registered trademark of Wells Fargo Funds Management, LLC. For more information on Wells Fargo Advantage Funds, please visit www.wellsfargo.com/advantagefunds.

Wells Fargo Funds Management, LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Wells Fargo & Company, provides investment advisory and administrative services for Wells Fargo Advantage Funds. Other affiliates of Wells Fargo & Company provide subadvisory and other services for the Funds. The open-end Funds are distributed by Wells Fargo Funds Distributor, LLC, Member FINRA/SIPC, an affiliate of Wells Fargo & Company. 125463 08-10

NOT FDIC INSURED • NO BANK GUARANTEE • MAY LOSE VALUE