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 74.54% of the average value of its
portfolio.
Principal Investment Strategies
Under normal circumstances, the Fund invests at least 80% of its net assets in equity securities issued by companies of any size, including smaller companies, that are located in, that derive at least 50% of their earnings or revenues from, or that maintain at least 50% of their assets in, countries around the world other than the United States. Some of these countries may be considered to be emerging market countries. Emerging market countries typically are developing and low- or middle-income countries, and
may be found in regions such as Asia, Latin America, Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Africa. Many securities in which the Fund invests are denominated in currencies other than the U.S. dollar.
The Fund invests in companies that exhibit characteristics consistent with either a growth
style or a value style of investing. In other words, the Fund targets companies whose earnings are expected to grow consistently faster than those of other companies, but also targets companies that the subadviser believes to be undervalued in the marketplace compared to their
intrinsic value. Stocks are selected for the portfolio from an investment universe of approximately 3,500 developed- and emerging-market stocks using an active, quantitatively based investment process that evaluates each company on a daily basis
relative to global peers. Each company in the investible universe is measured daily in terms of its growth potential, valuation, market sentiment, and financial quality.
The Fund’s subadviser may consider selling a security for several reasons, including when (1) its price changes such that the subadviser believes it has become too expensive, (2) the original investment thesis for the company is no longer valid, or (3) a more compelling investment opportunity is identified.
The Fund cannot guarantee that it will achieve its investment objective.
As with any fund, the value of the Fund’s investments—and therefore, the value of Fund shares—may fluctuate. These changes may occur because of:
Country or sector risk– if the Fund emphasizes one or more countries or economic
sectors, it will be more susceptible to the financial, market or economic events affecting the particular issuers in which it invests than funds that do not emphasize particular countries or sectors.
Equity securities risk– stock markets are volatile. The price of an equity security
fluctuates based on changes in a company’s financial condition and overall market and economic conditions.
Market risk – the risk that one or more markets in which the Fund invests will go down in value, including the possibility that the
markets will go down sharply and unpredictably. This occurs due to numerous factors, including interest rates, the outlook for corporate profits, the health of the national and world economies, and the fluctuation of other securities markets around the
world. These risks may be magnified if certain social, political, economic and other conditions and events (such as natural disasters, epidemics and pandemics, terrorism, conflicts and social unrest) adversely interrupt the global economy.
Selection risk – the risk that the securities selected by the Fund’s subadviser will underperform the markets, the relevant indexes or the securities selected by other funds with similar investment objectives and investment strategies.