The Fund seeks to provide long-term growth of
capital while investing in companies that meet certain environmental and social standards. The Fund engages a third party vendor with a global research universe of around 3,500 companies to identify companies that do not meet certain environmental
and social standards, which include but are not limited to companies involved in fossil fuels, nuclear power, firearms and armaments, alcohol, cluster munitions, pornography, tobacco and genetic engineering of crops or animals. The portfolio
managers then remove those companies that do not meet the environmental and social standards because of the type and level of involvement in the indicated products and activities from the Fund’s investable universe. With the remaining
investable universe of securities, the security selection process is applied to attempt to systematically evaluate fundamental and behavioral factors to forecast individual security returns and rank these securities based on their attractiveness
relative to industry peers. This process includes evaluating each security based on its earnings expectations, market sentiment, management and quality, and value. Using proprietary portfolio construction and risk management tools, the portfolio
managers incorporate these individual security return forecasts to construct an optimal portfolio. When constructing the portfolio, securities or investments of any company that falls into specified industries that do not meet the environmental
standards may be excluded. The Fund’s investments in derivative instruments are not subject to, though they may incorporate, the Fund’s social and environmental standards.
The Fund may, at its discretion, choose to change
its social or environmental standards, add additional standards, or modify the application of the standards at any time, without shareholder approval. This will impact investments held by the Fund and may cause certain companies, sectors or
industries to be dropped from or added to the Fund’s portfolio.
The portfolio managers will consider selling or
reducing a security position (i) if the forecasted return of a security becomes less attractive relative to industry peers or (ii) if a particular security’s risk profile changes.
In attempting to meet its investment objective, the
Fund engages in active and frequent trading of portfolio securities.
Principal Risks of Investing in the Fund
As with any mutual fund investment, loss of money is a risk of
investing. An investment in the Fund is not a deposit in a bank and is not insured or guaranteed by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation or any other governmental agency. The risks associated with an investment in the Fund can increase during
times of significant market volatility. The principal risks of investing in the Fund are:
Active Trading
Risk. Active trading of portfolio securities may result in added expenses, a lower return and increased tax liability.
Depositary Receipts Risk. Investing in depositary receipts involves the same risks as direct investments in foreign securities. In addition, the underlying issuers of certain depositary receipts are under no obligation to distribute shareholder
communications or pass through any voting rights with respect to the deposited securities to the holders of such receipts. The Fund may therefore receive less timely information or have less control than if it invested directly in the foreign
issuer.
Derivatives Risk. The value of a derivative instrument depends largely on (and is derived from) the value of an underlying security, currency, commodity, interest rate, index or other asset (each referred to as an underlying asset). In
addition to risks relating to the underlying assets, the use of derivatives may include other, possibly greater, risks, including counterparty, leverage and liquidity risks. Counterparty risk is the risk that the counterparty to the derivative
contract will default on its obligation to pay the Fund the amount owed or otherwise perform under the derivative contract. Derivatives create leverage risk because they do not require payment up front equal to the economic exposure created by
owning the derivative. As a result, an adverse change in the value of the underlying asset could result in the Fund sustaining a loss that is substantially greater than the amount invested in the derivative, which may make the
Fund’s
returns more volatile and increase the risk of loss. Derivative
instruments may also be less liquid than more traditional investments and the Fund may be unable to sell or close out its derivative positions at a desirable time or price. This risk may be more acute under adverse market conditions, during which
the Fund may be most in need of liquidating its derivative positions. Derivatives may also be harder to value, less tax efficient and subject to changing government regulation that could impact the Fund’s ability to use certain derivatives or
their cost. Also, derivatives used for hedging or to gain or limit exposure to a particular market segment may not provide the expected benefits, particularly during adverse market conditions.
Environmental and Social Investing Risk. Because the Fund uses environmental and social factors to exclude certain investments for non-financial reasons, the Fund may forego some market opportunities available to other funds that do not use these criteria.
Further, there is a risk that information used by the Fund to evaluate the environmental and social factors may not be readily available, complete or accurate, which could negatively impact the Fund’s ability to apply its environmental and
social standards, which may negatively impact the Fund’s performance.
Foreign Securities Risk. The Fund's foreign investments may be adversely affected by political and social instability, changes in economic or taxation policies, difficulty in enforcing obligations, decreased liquidity or increased volatility.
Foreign investments also involve the risk of the possible seizure, nationalization or expropriation of the issuer or foreign deposits (in which the Fund could lose its entire investments in a certain market) and the possible adoption of foreign
governmental restrictions such as exchange controls. Unless the Fund has hedged its foreign securities risk, foreign securities risk also involves the risk of negative foreign currency rate fluctuations, which may cause the value of securities
denominated in such foreign currency (or other instruments through which the Fund has exposure to foreign currencies) to decline in value. Currency exchange rates may fluctuate significantly over short periods of time. Currency hedging strategies,
if used, are not always successful.
Geographic Focus Risk. The Fund may from time to time invest a substantial amount of its assets in securities of issuers located in a single country or a limited number of countries. Adverse economic, political or social conditions in those
countries may therefore have a significant negative impact on the Fund’s investment performance.
Investing in the European Union Risk. Investments in certain countries in the European Union are susceptible to high economic risks associated with high levels of debt, such as investments in sovereign debt of Greece, Italy and Spain. Efforts of the member
states to further unify their economic and monetary policies may increase the potential for the downward movement of one member state’s market to cause a similar effect on other member states’ markets. Separately, the European Union
faces issues involving its membership, structure, procedures and policies. The exit of one or more member states from the European Union, such as the United Kingdom (UK) which has announced its intention to exit, would place its currency and banking
system in jeopardy. The exit by the UK or other member states will likely result in increased volatility, illiquidity and potentially lower economic growth in the affected markets, which will adversely affect the Fund’s
investments.
Management Risk. The Fund is actively managed and depends heavily on the Adviser’s judgment about markets, interest rates or the attractiveness, relative values, liquidity, or potential appreciation of particular investments made
for the Fund’s portfolio. The Fund could experience losses if these judgments prove to be incorrect. Additionally, legislative, regulatory, or tax developments may adversely affect management of the Fund and, therefore, the ability of the Fund
to achieve its investment objective.
Market Risk. The
market values of the Fund’s investments, and therefore the value of the Fund’s shares, will go up and down, sometimes rapidly or unpredictably. Market risk may affect a single issuer, industry or section of the economy, or it may affect
the market as a whole. Individual stock prices tend to go up and down more dramatically than those of certain