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GMO Core Plus Bond Fund
GMO CORE PLUS BOND FUND
Investment objective
Total return in excess of that of its benchmark, the Barclays U.S. Aggregate Index.
Fees and expenses
The table below describes the fees and expenses that you may bear for each class of shares if you buy and hold shares of the Fund.
Annual Fund operating expenses
(expenses that you bear each year as a percentage of the value of your investment)
Annual Fund Operating Expenses - GMO Core Plus Bond Fund
Class III
Class IV
Management fee [1] 0.25% 0.25%
Shareholder service fee [1] 0.15% 0.10%
Other expenses [2] 0.17% 0.17%
Acquired fund fees and expenses (underlying fund expenses) [3] 0.07% 0.07%
Total annual fund operating expenses 0.64% 0.59%
Expense reimbursement/waiver [1] (0.21%) (0.21%)
Total annual fund operating expenses [4] 0.43% 0.38%
[1] Grantham, Mayo, Van Otterloo & Co. LLC ("GMO") has contractually agreed to reimburse the Fund for the following expenses: audit expenses, fund accounting expenses, pricing service expenses, expenses of non-investment related tax services, transfer agency expenses, expenses of non-investment related legal services provided to the Fund by or at the direction of GMO, federal securities law filing expenses, printing expenses, state and federal registration fees and custody expenses. GMO also has contractually agreed to waive or reduce the Fund's management fees and shareholder service fees to the extent necessary to offset the management fees and shareholder service fees paid to GMO that are directly or indirectly borne by the Fund or a class of shares of the Fund as a result of the Fund's direct or indirect investments in other series of GMO Trust ("GMO Funds"). Management fees and shareholder service fees will not be waived below zero. This reimbursement and waiver will continue through at least June 30, 2017, and may not be terminated prior to this date without the action or consent of the Fund's Board of Trustees.
[2] The amount includes interest expense incurred by the Fund as a result of entering into reverse repurchase agreements and/or margin on cleared swap contracts, if any. "Other expenses" (before addition of interest expense) and interest expense were approximately 0.16% and 0.01%, respectively.
[3] These indirect expenses include interest expense that may be incurred by certain underlying funds and also include, to the extent applicable, purchase premiums and redemption fees ("transaction fees") charged by certain underlying funds. Net fees and expenses of underlying funds (before addition of interest expense and transaction fees), indirect interest expense, and indirect transaction fees were approximately 0.06%, less than 0.01% and 0.01%, respectively.
[4] after expense reimbursement/waiver (Fund and underlying fund expenses)
Example
This example is intended to help you compare the cost of investing in the Fund with the cost of investing in other mutual funds. The example assumes that you invest $10,000 in the Fund for the time periods indicated, regardless of whether or not you redeem your shares at the end of such periods. The example also assumes that your investment has a 5% return each year and that the Fund’s operating expenses remain the same as those shown in the table. The one year amounts shown reflect the expense reimbursement and waiver noted in the expense table. Although your actual costs may be higher or lower, based on these assumptions your costs would be:
Expense Example - GMO Core Plus Bond Fund - USD ($)
1 Year
3 Years
5 Years
10 Years
Class III 44 197 363 845
Class IV 39 181 335 785
Expense Example, No Redemption - GMO Core Plus Bond Fund - USD ($)
1 Year
3 Years
5 Years
10 Years
Class III 44 197 363 845
Class IV 39 181 335 785
Portfolio turnover
The Fund pays transaction costs, such as commissions, when it buys and sells securities. A higher portfolio turnover rate may result in higher transaction costs and, when Fund shares are held in a taxable account, higher taxes. These transaction costs, which are not reflected in Annual Fund operating expenses or in the Example, affect the Fund’s performance. During its fiscal year ended February 29, 2016, the Fund’s portfolio turnover rate (excluding short-term investments) was 21% of the average value of its portfolio. That portfolio turnover rate includes investments in U.S. Treasury Fund, which the Fund uses as a short-term investment vehicle for cash management. The Fund’s portfolio turnover rate during its fiscal year ended February 29, 2016, excluding transactions in U.S. Treasury Fund, was 15% of the average value of its portfolio.
Principal investment strategies
The Fund's investment program has two principal components. One component seeks to replicate the Fund's benchmark. The second component seeks to add value relative to the Fund's benchmark by making investments that often will not track its benchmark. These investments principally include global interest rate and currency derivatives and indirect (through other GMO Funds) and direct credit investments in asset-backed, government and emerging country debt securities, and can cause the Fund's performance to differ significantly from that of its benchmark.

In deciding what investments to make in global interest rate and currency markets and the size of those investments, GMO considers fundamental factors (e.g., inflation and current account positions) as well as price-based factors (e.g., interest and exchange rates). GMO evaluates the relative attractiveness of particular markets and instruments using various fixed income risk premium measures, which typically include exposure to term structure, foreign exchange, volatility, credit, liquidity and other risks. GMO also may consider the relative attractiveness of yield curve and duration positions in these markets.

In making decisions regarding credit investments, GMO uses fundamental investment techniques to assess the expected performance of each investment relative to the Fund's benchmark.

The factors GMO considers and investment methods GMO uses can change over time.

In pursuing its investment program, the Fund may make investments in:
  • derivatives and short sales, including without limitation, futures contracts, currency options, interest rate options, currency forwards, reverse repurchase agreements, and swap contracts, such as credit default swaps, swaps on securities and securities indices, total return swaps, interest rate swaps, currency swaps, cross currency basis swaps, variance swaps, commodity swaps, inflation swaps, municipal swaps, correlation swaps, and other types of swaps (to generate a return comparable to the Fund's benchmark and to generate return in global interest rate, currency, and credit markets);

  • bonds denominated in various currencies, including non-U.S. and U.S. government bonds, asset-backed securities issued by non-U.S. governments and U.S. government agencies (whether or not guaranteed or insured by those governments), corporate bonds, and mortgage-backed and other asset-backed securities issued by private issuers;

  • shares of Debt Opportunities Fund (to provide exposure to credit (particularly, asset-backed) markets);

  • shares of Emerging Country Debt Fund ("ECDF") (to provide exposure to emerging country debt securities); and

  • shares of U.S. Treasury Fund, money market funds unaffiliated with GMO, or directly in the types of investments typically held by money market funds.

As a result primarily of its investment in shares of Debt Opportunities Fund and ECDF, the Fund has and expects to continue to have material exposure to U.S. asset-backed and emerging country debt securities that are below investment grade (below investment grade debt investments are sometimes referred to as "junk bonds," although this term is not generally used to refer to emerging country debt securities).

GMO normally seeks to maintain the Fund's estimated interest rate duration within 2 years of the benchmark's duration (approximately 5.5 years as of 5/31/16). For an additional discussion of duration, see "Additional Information About the Funds' Investment Strategies, Risks, and Expenses — Bond Funds — Duration."

Under normal circumstances, the Fund invests directly and indirectly (e.g., through other GMO Funds or derivatives) at least 80% of its assets in bonds (see "Name Policies"). The term "bond" includes (i) obligations of an issuer to make payments on future dates of principal, interest (whether fixed or variable) or both and (ii) synthetic debt instruments created by GMO by using derivatives (e.g., a futures contract, swap contract, currency forward, or option).

From time to time, the Fund may have some direct or indirect exposure to equities. The Fund may invest in securities of companies of any market capitalization.

The Fund is not limited in its use of derivatives or in the total notional value of its derivative positions. As a result of its derivative positions, the Fund typically has gross investment exposures in excess of its net assets (i.e., the Fund typically is leveraged) and therefore is subject to heightened risk of loss. The Fund's performance can depend substantially, if not primarily, on the performance of assets or indices underlying its derivatives even though it does not own those assets or indices.
Principal risks of investing in the Fund
The value of the Fund's shares changes with the value of the Fund's investments. Many factors can affect this value, and you may lose money by investing in the Fund. The Fund is a non-diversified investment company under the Investment Company Act of 1940, as amended, and therefore a decline in the market price of a particular security held by the Fund may affect the Fund's performance more than if the Fund were a diversified investment company. The principal risks of investing in the Fund are summarized below. For a more complete discussion of these risks, see "Description of Principal Risks."
  • Market Risk – Fixed Income Investments – The market price of a fixed income investment can decline due to market-related factors, including rising interest rates and widening credit spreads, or decreased liquidity stemming from the market's uncertainty about the value of a fixed income investment (or class of fixed income investments).

  • Credit Risk – The Fund runs the risk that the issuer or guarantor of a fixed income investment or the obligor of an obligation underlying an asset-backed security will be unable or unwilling to satisfy its obligation to pay principal and interest or otherwise to honor its obligations in a timely manner. The market price of a fixed income investment will normally decline as a result of the issuer's, guarantor's, or obligor's failure to meet its payment obligations, or in anticipation of such failure. Below investment grade securities have speculative characteristics, and changes in economic conditions or other circumstances are more likely to impair the ability of issuers of those securities to make principal and interest payments than is the case with issuers of investment grade securities.

  • Illiquidity Risk – Low trading volume, lack of a market maker, large position size, or legal restrictions may limit or prevent the Fund from selling particular securities or closing derivative positions at desirable prices.

  • Derivatives and Short Sales Risk – The use of derivatives involves the risk that their value may not change as expected relative to changes in the value of the underlying assets, rates, or indices. Derivatives also present other risks, including market risk, illiquidity risk, currency risk, credit risk, and counterparty risk. The market price of an option is affected by many factors, including changes in the market prices or dividend rates of underlying securities (or in the case of indices, the securities in such indices); the time remaining before expiration; changes in interest rates or exchange rates; and changes in the actual or perceived volatility of the relevant stock market and underlying securities. The Fund may create short investment exposure by taking a derivative position in which the value of the derivative moves in the opposite direction from the price of an underlying investment, pool of investments, index or currency. The risks of loss associated with derivatives that provide short investment exposure and short sales of securities are theoretically unlimited.

  • Leveraging Risk – The use of reverse repurchase agreements and other derivatives and securities lending creates leverage. Leverage increases the Fund's losses when the value of its investments (including derivatives) declines.

  • Counterparty Risk – The Fund runs the risk that the counterparty to a derivatives contract, a clearing member used by the Fund to hold a cleared derivatives contract, or a borrower of the Fund's securities will be unable or unwilling to make timely settlement payments, return the Fund's margin or otherwise honor its obligations.

  • Market Risk – Asset-Backed Securities – The market price of fixed income investments with complex structures, such as asset-backed securities, can decline due to a variety of factors, including market uncertainty about their credit quality and the reliability of their payment streams. Payment streams associated with asset-backed securities held by the Fund depend on many factors (e.g., the cash flow generated by the assets backing the securities, the deal structure, the creditworthiness of any credit-support provider, and the reliability of various other service providers with access to the payment stream), and a problem in any one of these factors can lead to a reduction in the payment stream GMO expected the Fund to receive at the time the Fund purchased the asset-backed security.

  • Focused Investment Risk – Investments focused in countries, regions, sectors, industries, or issuers that are subject to the same or similar risk factors and investments whose prices are closely correlated, such as the Fund's investments in non-U.S. government bonds and asset-backed securities secured by different types of consumer debt (e.g., credit-card receivables, automobile loans, and home equity loans), are subject to greater overall risk than investments that are more diversified or whose prices are not as closely correlated.

  • Currency Risk – Fluctuations in exchange rates can adversely affect the market value of the Fund's foreign currency holdings and investments denominated in foreign currencies.

  • Management and Operational Risk – The Fund runs the risk that GMO's investment techniques will fail to produce desired results. GMO often uses quantitative models as part of its investment process. GMO's models are not necessarily predictive of future market events and use simplifying assumptions that can limit their effectiveness. In addition, the data on which the models are based is subject to limitations (e.g., inaccuracies, staleness) that could adversely affect the Fund's performance. The Fund also runs the risk that GMO's assessment of an investment (including a company's fundamental fair (or intrinsic) value) may be wrong or that deficiencies in GMO's or another service provider's internal systems or controls will cause losses for the Fund or impair Fund operations.

  • Fund of Funds Risk – The Fund is indirectly exposed to all of the risks of an investment in the underlying funds in which it invests, including the risk that those underlying funds will not perform as expected.

  • Non-U.S. Investment Risk – The market prices of many non-U.S. securities fluctuate more than those of U.S. securities. Many non-U.S. securities markets are less stable, smaller, less liquid, and less regulated than U.S. securities markets, and the cost of trading in those markets often is higher than in U.S. securities markets. Transactions in non-U.S. securities generally involve higher commission rates, transfer taxes, and custodial costs than similar transactions in U.S. securities. In addition, the Fund may be subject to non-U.S. taxes, including potentially on a retroactive basis, on (i) capital gains it realizes or dividends, interest, or other amounts it realizes or accrues in respect of non-U.S. investments; (ii) transactions in those investments; and (iii) repatriation of proceeds generated from the sale or other disposition of those investments. Also, the Fund needs a license to invest directly in many non-U.S. securities markets, and the Fund is subject to the risk that it could not invest if its license were terminated or suspended. In some non-U.S. securities markets, prevailing custody and trade settlement practices (e.g., the requirement to pay for securities prior to receipt) expose the Fund to credit and other risks. Further, adverse changes in investment regulations, capital requirements or exchange controls could adversely affect the value of the Fund's investments. These and other risks (e.g., nationalization, expropriation or other confiscation of assets of non-U.S. issuers) tend to be greater for investments in companies tied economically to emerging countries, the economies of which may be predominantly based on only a few industries or dependent on revenues from particular commodities and which often are more volatile than the economies of developed countries.

  • Large Shareholder Risk – To the extent that a large number of shares of the Fund is held by a single shareholder (e.g., an institutional investor or another GMO Fund) or a group of shareholders with a common investment strategy (e.g., GMO asset allocation accounts), the Fund is subject to the risk that a redemption by those shareholders of all or a large portion of their Fund shares will require the Fund to sell securities at disadvantageous prices or otherwise disrupt the Fund's operations.

  • Market Disruption and Geopolitical Risk – Geopolitical and other events may disrupt securities markets and adversely affect global economies and markets. Those events, as well as other changes in non-U.S. and U.S. economic and political conditions, could adversely affect the value of the Fund's investments.

  • Market Risk – Equities – The market price of an equity may decline due to factors affecting the issuer, its industry or the economy and equity markets generally. If the Fund purchases an equity for less than its fundamental fair (or intrinsic) value as determined by GMO, the Fund runs the risk that the market price of the equity will not appreciate or will decline due to GMO's incorrect assessment of the equity's fundamental fair (or intrinsic) value. The Fund also may purchase equities that typically trade at higher multiples of current earnings than other securities, and the market prices of these equities often are more sensitive to changes in future earnings expectations than the market prices of equities trading at lower multiples. Declines in stock market prices generally are likely to reduce the net asset value of the Fund's shares.

  • Small Company Risk – Smaller companies may have limited product lines, markets, or financial resources, may lack the competitive strength of larger companies, may have inexperienced managers or may depend on a few key employees. The securities of companies with smaller market capitalizations often are less widely held and trade less frequently and in lesser quantities, and their market prices often fluctuate more, than the securities of companies with larger market capitalizations.

Performance
The bar chart and table below provide some indication of the risks of investing in the Fund by showing changes in the Fund’s annual total returns from year to year for the periods indicated and by comparing the Fund’s average annual total returns for different calendar periods with those of a broad-based index. After-tax returns are calculated using the historical highest individual federal marginal income tax rates and do not reflect the impact of state and local taxes. Actual after-tax returns depend on your tax situation and may differ from those shown. After-tax returns shown are not relevant if you are tax-exempt or if you hold your Fund shares through tax-advantaged arrangements (such as a 401(k) plan or individual retirement account). After-tax returns are shown for Class III shares only; after-tax returns for other classes will vary. Updated performance information for the Fund is available at www.gmo.com. Past performance (before and after taxes) is not an indication of future performance.
Annual Total Returns/Class III Shares
Years Ending December 31
Bar Chart
Highest Quarter: 9.12% (3Q2009)
Lowest Quarter: – 15.24% (4Q2008)
Year-to-Date (as of 3/31/16): 1.12%
Average Annual Total Returns
Periods Ending December 31, 2015
Average Annual Total Returns - GMO Core Plus Bond Fund
1 Year
5 Years
10 Years
Incept.
Inception Date
Class III (1.55%) 5.33% 4.11% 5.54% Apr. 30, 1997
Class III | Return After Taxes on Distributions (3.67%) 3.24% 1.30% 2.88% Apr. 30, 1997
Class III | Return After Taxes on Distributions and Sale of Fund Shares (0.87%) 3.27% 1.97% 3.21% Apr. 30, 1997
Class III | Barclays U.S. Aggregate Index (reflects no deduction for fees, expenses, or taxes) 0.55% 3.25% 4.52% 5.47% Apr. 30, 1997
Class IV (1.40%) 5.38% 4.15% 4.18% Jul. 26, 2005
Class IV | Barclays U.S. Aggregate Index (reflects no deduction for fees, expenses, or taxes) 0.55% 3.25% 4.52% 4.40% Jul. 26, 2005