that may apply for the periods indicated above
under “Fees and Expenses.” Although your actual costs may be higher or lower, based on these assumptions your costs would be:
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. 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 12.44% of the average value of its
portfolio.
Principal Investment Strategies
The Fund is a “fund-of-funds” that aims to provide diversification across traditional equity asset classes—large-cap, mid-cap and small-cap stocks issued by both U.S. and foreign issuers—by investing in a portfolio of unaffiliated exchange-traded funds (“ETFs”) sponsored by BlackRock Fund Advisors (or its affiliates) (“BFA”) and which utilize a passive index-based strategy to track the performance of equity indexes (each, an “Underlying Fund” or collectively, “Underlying Funds”). Some indexes are designed to provide broader market exposure, while other indexes are designed to provide exposure to specific investment
factors. Each Underlying Fund invests directly in equity securities, as appropriate to its investment objective and strategies. The Fund invests, under normal circumstances, at least 80% of its net assets in equity securities through its investments in ETFs. The Fund may enter into repurchase agreements to generate additional income. Securities in which the Underlying Funds invest are
tied economically to a number of countries throughout the world, including the United States. An investment will be deemed to be tied economically to a particular country, including the United States, if its issuer is organized in the particular country, has its principal place of business in such country, generates more than 50% of its revenues from business in that country, or lists its stock on an exchange located in that country. Many foreign stocks are denominated in currencies other than the U.S. dollar.
BFA uses a “passive” or indexing approach to try to achieve each Underlying
Fund’s investment objective. This means that the Underlying Fund does not try to “beat” the index it tracks (the “Underlying Index”) and does not seek
temporary defensive positions when markets decline or appear overvalued. BFA uses a representative sampling indexing strategy to manage each Underlying Fund, meaning that it invests in a representative sample of securities that collectively have an investment profile
similar to that of the applicable Underlying Index. An Underlying Fund also may invest in securities not included in the Underlying Index which BFA believes may help such Underlying Fund to track its Underlying Index. BFA believes that indexing may eliminate
the chance that an Underlying Fund will substantially underperform its Underlying Index, but also may reduce some of the risks of active management, such as poor security selection. BFA’s indexing approach seeks to achieve lower costs by keeping portfolio turnover low in comparison to actively managed mutual funds.
In order to provide the Fund with diversified investment exposure to various types of equity
securities, the Fund’s subadviser, which is an affiliate of BFA, selects Underlying Funds that themselves invest in different types of equity securities, such as common stocks of U.S. and international companies (including mid-cap and small-cap companies). The subadviser generally sells
shares of Underlying Funds in order to meet or change Underlying Fund allocations or in response to shareholder redemptions. The Fund is designed for investors who are comfortable with assuming the risks associated with investing in stocks, including
international stocks.
The Underlying Funds may lend their portfolio securities to generate additional income. The Underlying Funds also may, when
consistent with their investment objectives, use certain futures, options and swap contracts (collectively, commonly known as “derivatives”), either for hedging purposes or to increase returns. Although the Fund seeks to provide diversification across traditional equity asset classes, the Fund invests a significant portion of its assets in a small number of issuers (i.e., one or more Underlying Funds). However, many of the Underlying Funds in which the Fund invests are diversified. The Underlying Funds will
concentrate their investments in a particular industry or group of industries to approximately the same extent that the applicable Underlying Index is concentrated.
The Fund cannot guarantee that it will achieve its investment objective.