 In the same year, the overall Bright Start program's benchmark grew by 5.4%.Within the Illinois Bright Start program, 2.5% of investors had invested their entire portfolios in Core Plus and suffered a 38% loss; others experienced smaller losses.As the Associated Press reported, "It turns out the Oppenheimer team handling Core Plus — a team the company has now fired — was putting money into risky, complicated investments that tanked in 2008 amid the general financial meltdown."