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Nuveen High Income Bond Fund
Nuveen High Income Bond Fund
Investment Objective
The investment objective of the Fund is to provide investors with a high level of current income.
Fees and Expenses of the Fund
This table describes the fees and expenses that you may pay if you buy and hold shares of the Fund. You may qualify for sales charge discounts if you and your family invest, or agree to invest in the future, at least $50,000 in the Fund or in other Nuveen Mutual Funds. More information about these and other discounts, as well as eligibility requirements for each share class, is available from your financial advisor and in “What Share Classes We Offer” on page 63 of the Fund’s prospectus, “How to Reduce Your Sales Charge” on page 68 of the prospectus, in the appendix to this prospectus titled “Variations in Sales Charge Reductions and Waivers Available Through Certain Intermediaries,” and “Purchase and Redemption of Fund Shares” on page S-99 of the Fund’s statement of additional information.
Shareholder Fees
(fees paid directly from your investment)
Shareholder Fees - Nuveen High Income Bond Fund - USD ($)
Class A
Class C
Class R3
Class I
Class T
Maximum Sales Charge (Load) Imposed on Purchases (as a percentage of offering price) 4.75% none none none 2.50%
Maximum Deferred Sales Charge (Load) (as a percentage of the lesser of purchase price or redemption proceeds) [1] none 1.00% none none none
Maximum Sales Charge (Load) Imposed on Reinvested Dividends none none none none none
Exchange Fee none none none none none
Annual Low Balance Account Fee (for accounts under $1,000) [2] $ 15 $ 15 none $ 15 $ 15
[1] The contingent deferred sales charge on Class C shares applies only to redemptions within 12 months of purchase.
[2] Fee applies to the following types of accounts under $1,000 held directly with the Fund: individual retirement accounts (IRAs), Coverdell Education Savings Accounts and accounts established pursuant to the Uniform Transfers to Minors Act (UTMA) or Uniform Gifts to Minors Act (UGMA).
Annual Fund Operating Expenses
(expenses that you pay each year as a percentage of the value of your investment)
Annual Fund Operating Expenses - Nuveen High Income Bond Fund
Class A
Class C
Class R3
Class I
Class T
Management Fees 0.58% 0.58% 0.58% 0.58% 0.58%
Distribution and/or Service (12b-1) Fees 0.25% 1.00% 0.50% none 0.25%
Other Expenses 0.20% 0.21% 0.21% 0.20% 0.20%
Acquired Fund Fees and Expenses 0.05% 0.05% 0.05% 0.05% 0.05%
Total Annual Fund Operating Expenses 1.08% 1.84% 1.34% 0.83% 1.08%
Fee Waivers and/or Expense Reimbursements [1] (0.03%) (0.04%) (0.04%) (0.03%) (0.03%)
Total Annual Fund Operating Expenses After Fee Waivers and/or Expense Reimbursements 1.05% 1.80% 1.30% 0.80% 1.05%
[1] The Fund’s investment adviser has agreed to waive fees and/or reimburse other Fund expenses through October 31, 2018 so that Total Annual Fund Operating Expenses excluding 12b-1 distribution and/or service fees, interest expenses, taxes, Acquired Fund Fees and Expenses, fees incurred in acquiring and disposing of portfolio securities and extraordinary expenses) do not exceed 0.75% of the average daily net assets of any class of Fund shares. Fee waivers and/or expense reimbursements will not be terminated prior to that time without the approval of the Board of Directors of the Fund.
Example
The following 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 $10,000 in the Fund for the time periods indicated and then either redeem or do not redeem your shares at the end of a period. The example also assumes that your investment has a 5% return each year, that the Fund’s operating expenses remain the same and that the contractual fee waivers currently in place are not renewed beyond October 31, 2018. Although your actual costs may be higher or lower, based on these assumptions your costs would be:
Redemption
Expense Example - Nuveen High Income Bond Fund - USD ($)
A
C
R3
I
T
1 Year $ 577 $ 183 $ 132 $ 82 $ 354
3 Years 798 572 418 260 580
5 Years 1,038 990 728 456 826
10 Years $ 1,725 $ 2,153 $ 1,607 $ 1,021 $ 1,530
No Redemption
Expense Example, No Redemption - Nuveen High Income Bond Fund - USD ($)
A
C
R3
I
T
1 Year $ 577 $ 183 $ 132 $ 82 $ 354
3 Years 798 572 418 260 580
5 Years 1,038 990 728 456 826
10 Years $ 1,725 $ 2,153 $ 1,607 $ 1,021 $ 1,530
Portfolio Turnover
The Fund pays transaction costs, such as commissions, when it buys and sells securities (or “turns over” its portfolio). A higher portfolio turnover rate may indicate higher transaction costs and may result in higher taxes when Fund shares are held in a taxable account. These costs, which are not reflected in annual fund operating expenses or in the example, affect the Fund’s performance. During the most recent fiscal year, the Fund’s portfolio turnover rate was 91% of the average value of its portfolio.
Principal Investment Strategies
Under normal market conditions, the Fund invests at least 80% of the sum of its net assets and the amount of any borrowings for investment purposes in bonds rated lower than investment grade at the time of purchase or in unrated bonds of comparable quality (securities commonly referred to as “high yield” securities or “junk” bonds). These bonds generally provide high income in an effort to compensate investors for their higher risk of default, which is the failure to make required interest or principal payments. High yield bond issuers include small or relatively new companies lacking the history or capital to merit investment-grade status, former blue chip companies downgraded because of financial problems, companies electing to borrow heavily to finance or avoid a takeover or buyout, and firms with heavy debt loads. The Fund may invest up to 20% of its net assets in fixed and floating rate loans, including senior loans and secured and unsecured junior loans. The Fund may invest in exchange-traded funds, closed-end funds, and other investment companies (“investment companies”).

The Fund’s sub-adviser employs a bottom up approach to investing. The sub-adviser devotes more resources to evaluating individual securities rather than assessing macro-economic trends. Securities are selected using fundamental credit research to identify relative value in the market. Positions are sold in anticipation of credit deterioration or when a security is priced expensively relative to other comparable investments.

There is no minimum rating requirement and no limitation on the average maturity or average effective duration of securities held by the Fund.

The Fund may invest without limitation in debt obligations of foreign corporations and governments, provided that no more than 20% of the Fund’s total assets may be invested in debt obligations issued by governmental and corporate issuers that are located in emerging market countries. A country is considered to have an “emerging market” if it has a relatively low gross national product per capita compared to the world’s major economies, and the potential for rapid economic growth, provided that no issuer included in the Fund’s current benchmark index will be considered to be located in an emerging market country.

The Fund may utilize the following derivatives: options; futures contracts; options on futures contracts; foreign currency contracts; options on foreign currencies; swap agreements, including interest rate swaps, currency swaps, total return swaps and credit default swaps; and options on swap agreements. The Fund may use these derivatives in an attempt to manage market risk, currency risk, credit risk and yield curve risk, to manage the effective maturity or duration of securities in the Fund’s portfolio or for speculative purposes in an effort to increase the Fund’s yield or to enhance returns. The use of a derivative is speculative if the Fund is primarily seeking to enhance returns, rather than offset the risk of other positions.
Principal Risks
The value of your investment in this Fund will change daily. You could lose money by investing in the Fund. An investment in the Fund is not a deposit of a bank and is not insured or guaranteed by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation or any other government agency. The principal risks of investing in the Fund, listed alphabetically, include:

Bond Market Liquidity Risk—Dealer inventories of bonds, which provide an indication of the ability of financial intermediaries to “make markets” in those bonds, are at or near historic lows in relation to market size. This reduction in market making capacity has the potential to decrease liquidity and increase price volatility in the fixed income markets in which the Fund invests, particularly during periods of economic or market stress. In addition, recent federal banking regulations may cause certain dealers to reduce their inventories of bonds, which may further decrease the Fund’s ability to buy or sell bonds. As a result of this decreased liquidity, the Fund may have to accept a lower price to sell a security, sell other securities to raise cash, or give up an investment opportunity, any of which could have a negative effect on performance. If the Fund needed to sell large blocks of bonds to meet shareholder redemption requests or to raise cash, those sales could further reduce the bonds’ prices.

Call Risk—If an issuer calls higher-yielding debt instruments held by the Fund, performance could be adversely impacted.

Credit Risk—Credit risk is the risk that an issuer of a debt security may be unable or unwilling to make interest and principal payments when due and the related risk that the value of a debt security may decline because of concerns about the issuer’s ability or willingness to make such payments.

Credit Spread Risk—Credit spread risk is the risk that credit spreads (i.e., the difference in yield between securities that is due to differences in their credit quality) may increase when the market believes that bonds generally have a greater risk of default. Increasing credit spreads may reduce the market values of the Fund’s debt securities. Credit spreads often increase more for lower rated and unrated securities than for investment grade securities. In addition, when credit spreads increase, reductions in market value will generally be greater for longer-maturity securities.

Currency Risk—Changes in currency exchange rates will affect the value of non-U.S. dollar denominated securities, interest earned from such securities, gains and losses realized on the sale of such securities, and derivative transactions tied to such securities. A strong U.S. dollar relative to these other currencies will adversely affect the value of the Fund’s portfolio.

Cybersecurity Risk—Cybersecurity breaches may allow an unauthorized party to gain access to Fund assets, customer data, or proprietary information, or cause the Fund and/or its service providers to suffer data corruption or lose operational functionality.

Derivatives Risk—The use of derivatives involves additional risks and transaction costs which could leave the Fund in a worse position than if it had not used these instruments. Derivative instruments can be used to acquire or to transfer the risk and returns of a security or other asset without buying or selling the security or asset. These instruments may entail investment exposures that are greater than their cost would suggest. As a result, a small investment in derivatives can result in losses that greatly exceed the original investment. Derivatives can be highly volatile, illiquid and difficult to value. An over-the-counter derivative transaction between the Fund and a counterparty that is not cleared through a central counterparty also involves the risk that a loss may be sustained as a result of the failure of the counterparty to the contract to make required payments. The payment obligation for a cleared derivative transaction is guaranteed by a central counterparty, which exposes the Fund to the creditworthiness of the central counterparty.

High Yield Securities Risk—High yield securities, which are rated below investment grade and commonly referred to as “junk” bonds, are high risk investments that may cause income and principal losses for the Fund. They generally have greater credit risk, are less liquid and have more volatile prices than investment grade securities.

Income Risk—The Fund’s income could decline during periods of falling interest rates or when the Fund experiences defaults on debt securities it holds.

Interest Rate Risk—Interest rate risk is the risk that the value of the Fund’s portfolio will decline because of rising interest rates. The Fund may be subject to a greater risk of rising interest rates than would normally be the case due to the current period of historically low rates and the effect of potential government fiscal policy initiatives and resulting market reaction to those initiatives. When interest rates change, the values of longer-duration debt securities usually change more than the values of shorter-duration debt securities.

Loan Risk—The lack of an active trading market for certain loans may impair the ability of the Fund to realize full value in the event of the need to sell a loan and may make it difficult to value such loans. Portfolio transactions in loans may settle in as short as seven days but typically can take up to two or three weeks, and in some cases much longer. As a result of these extended settlement periods, the Fund may incur losses if it is required to sell other investments or temporarily borrow to meet its cash needs, including satisfying redemption requests. The risks associated with unsecured loans, which are not backed by a security interest in any specific collateral, are higher than those for comparable loans that are secured by specific collateral. Interests in loans made to finance highly leveraged companies or transactions such as corporate acquisitions may be especially vulnerable to adverse changes in economic or market conditions. Additionally, loans may not be considered “securities” and, as a result, the Fund may not be entitled to rely on the anti-fraud protections of the securities laws.

Non-U.S./Emerging Markets Risk—Non-U.S. issuers or U.S. issuers with significant non-U.S. operations may be subject to risks in addition to those of issuers located in or that principally operate in the United States as a result of, among other things, political, social and economic developments abroad and different legal, regulatory and tax environments. These additional risks may be heightened for securities of issuers located in, or with significant operations in, emerging market countries.

Other Investment Companies Risk—When the Fund invests in other investment companies, you bear both your proportionate share of Fund expenses and, indirectly, the expenses of the other investment companies. Furthermore, the Fund is exposed to the risks to which the other investment companies may be subject.

Valuation Risk—The debt securities in which the Fund invests typically are valued by a pricing service utilizing a range of market-based inputs and assumptions, including readily available market quotations obtained from broker-dealers making markets in such instruments, cash flows and transactions for comparable instruments. There is no assurance that the Fund will be able to sell a portfolio security at the price established by the pricing service, which could result in a loss to the Fund. Pricing services generally price debt securities assuming orderly transactions of an institutional “round lot” size, but some trades may occur in smaller, “odd lot” sizes, often at lower prices than institutional round lot trades. Different pricing services may incorporate different assumptions and inputs into their valuation methodologies, potentially resulting in different values for the same securities. As a result, if the Fund were to change pricing services, or if the Fund’s pricing service were to change its valuation methodology, there could be a material impact, either positive or negative, on the Fund’s net asset value.
Fund Performance
The following bar chart and table provide some indication of the potential risks of investing in the Fund. The Fund’s past performance (before and after taxes) is not necessarily an indication of how the Fund will perform in the future. Updated performance information is available at www.nuveen.com/performance or by calling (800) 257-8787.
The bar chart below shows the variability of the Fund’s performance from year to year for Class A shares. The bar chart and highest/lowest quarterly returns that follow do not reflect sales charges, and if these charges were reflected, the returns would be less than those shown.
Class A Annual Total Return
Bar Chart
[1] The performance of the other share classes will differ due to their different expense structures.
During the ten-year period ended December 31, 2016, the Fund’s highest and lowest quarterly returns were 21.96% and -19.17%, respectively, for the quarters ended June 30, 2009 and December 31, 2008.
The table below shows the variability of the Fund’s average annual returns and how they compare over the time periods indicated with those of a broad measure of market performance and an index of funds with similar investment objectives. All 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. After-tax returns are shown for Class A shares only; after-tax returns for other share classes will vary. Your own actual after-tax returns will depend on your specific tax situation and may differ from what is shown here. After-tax returns are not relevant to investors who hold Fund shares in tax-deferred accounts such as IRAs or employer-sponsored retirement plans.

Both the bar chart and the table assume that all distributions have been reinvested. Performance reflects fee waivers, if any, in effect during the periods presented. If any such waivers had not been in place, returns would have been reduced.

Performance is not shown for Class T shares, which have not been offered for a full calendar year.
Average Annual Total Returns
for the Periods Ended
December 31, 2016
Average Annual Total Returns - Nuveen High Income Bond Fund
1 Year
5 Years
10 Years
Class A 15.74% 5.37% 5.52%
Class A | (return after taxes on distributions) 12.13% 2.16% 2.45%
Class A | (return after taxes on distributions and sale of Fund shares) 8.73% 2.74% 2.95%
Class C 20.58% 5.65% 5.28%
Class R3 21.33% 6.15% 5.78%
Class I 21.85% 6.73% 6.33%
Bloomberg Barclays High Yield 2% Issuer Capped Index (reflects no deduction for fees, expenses or taxes) [1] 17.13% 7.36% 7.55%
Lipper High Yield Funds Category Average (reflects no deduction for taxes or sales loads) [2] 13.27% 6.18% 5.93%
[1] An issuer-constrained version of the U.S. Corporate High-Yield Index that covers the U.S. dollar denominated, non-investment grade, fixed-rate, taxable corporate bond market.
[2] Represents the average annualized returns for all reporting funds in the Lipper High Yield Funds Category.