or eliminate
investment gains or add to investment losses. A fund may be unable or may choose not to hedge its foreign currency exposure or any hedge may not be effective.
Cybersecurity – Cybersecurity incidents, both intentional
and unintentional, may allow an unauthorized party to gain access to fund assets, fund or
shareholder data (including private shareholder information), or proprietary information, cause the fund or its service providers (including, but not limited to, the fund’s investment manager, any
sub-adviser(s), transfer agent, distributor, custodian, fund accounting agent and financial intermediaries) to suffer data breaches, data corruption or loss of operational functionality, or prevent fund investors
from purchasing, redeeming or exchanging shares, receiving distributions or receiving timely
information regarding the fund or their investment in the fund. Cybersecurity incidents may
render records of fund assets and transactions, shareholder ownership of fund shares, and other data integral to the functioning of the fund inaccessible, inaccurate or incomplete. The use of artificial
intelligence and machine learning could exacerbate these risks. Cybersecurity incidents may result in financial losses to the fund and its shareholders, and substantial costs may be incurred in order to
prevent or mitigate any future cybersecurity incidents.
Distressed or Defaulted Securities – Investments in defaulted
securities and obligations of distressed issuers, including securities that are, or may be,
involved in reorganizations or other financial restructurings, either out of court or in bankruptcy, involve substantial risks in addition to the risks of investing in high-yield debt securities. These securities are
considered speculative with respect to the issuers’ continuing ability to make principal and interest payments. The fund may incur costs to protect its investment, and the fund could lose its entire
investment. Distressed securities and any securities received in an exchange for such securities may be subject to restrictions on resale.
Dividend Practice – There can be no assurance that the fund
will be able to pay quarterly dividends at a relatively consistent level. The fund’s
dividend practice can be expected to result in the fund returning capital to its shareholders from time to time. When the fund returns capital, the net asset value of your original investment in the fund goes down to
reflect that. The tax status of certain distributions by the fund may be recharacterized at year-end.
Extension – When interest rates rise, payments of
fixed-income securities, including asset- and mortgage-backed securities, may occur more
slowly than anticipated, causing their market prices to decline.
Fixed-Income Securities – Risks of fixed-income securities
include credit risk, interest rate risk, counterparty risk, prepayment risk, extension
risk, valuation risk, and liquidity risk. The value of fixed-income securities may go up or down, sometimes rapidly and unpredictably, due to general market conditions, such as real or perceived adverse economic or
political conditions, tariffs and trade disruptions, wars, social unrest, inflation, changes in interest rates, lack of liquidity in the bond markets or adverse investor sentiment. In addition, the value of a
fixed-income security may decline if the issuer or other obligor of the security fails to pay
principal and/or interest, otherwise defaults or has its credit rating downgraded or is
perceived to be less creditworthy, or the credit quality or value of any underlying assets declines. If the value of
fixed-income
securities owned by the fund falls, the value of your investment will go down. The fund may lose its entire investment in the fixed-income securities of an issuer.
Foreign Investments – Investing in securities of foreign
issuers or issuers with significant exposure to foreign markets involves additional risks.
Foreign markets can be less liquid, less regulated, less transparent and more volatile than U.S. markets. The value of the fund’s foreign investments may decline, sometimes rapidly or unpredictably, because of factors
affecting the particular issuer as well as foreign markets and issuers generally, such as unfavorable government actions, including nationalization, expropriation or confiscatory taxation, reduction of
government or central bank support, tariffs and trade disruptions, sanctions, political or financial instability, social unrest or other adverse economic or political developments. Foreign investments may
also be subject to different accounting practices and different regulatory, legal, auditing,
financial reporting and recordkeeping standards and practices, and may be more difficult to
value than investments in U.S. issuers. Certain foreign clearance and settlement procedures may result in an inability to execute transactions or delays in settlement.
High-Yield Debt Securities – High-yield debt securities,
commonly referred to as “junk” bonds, are securities that are rated below
“investment grade” or are of comparable quality. Changes in interest rates, the market’s perception of the issuers, the creditworthiness of the issuers and negative perceptions of the junk bond market generally may significantly affect the
value of these bonds. Junk bonds are considered speculative, tend to be volatile, typically
have a higher risk of default, tend to be less liquid and more difficult to value than
higher grade securities, and may result in losses for the fund.
Interest Rate –The value of fixed-income securities generally
goes down when interest rates rise. A rise in rates tends to have a greater impact on the
prices of longer term or duration securities. Changes in interest rates can be sudden and unpredictable and may expose the markets to significant volatility, which also may affect the liquidity of the fund’s
investments and detract from fund performance. A variety of factors can impact interest rates, including central bank monetary policies and inflation rates. A general rise in interest rates may cause investors
to sell fixed-income securities on a large scale, which could adversely affect the price and liquidity of fixed-income securities generally and could also result in increased redemptions from the fund.
Increased redemptions could cause the fund to sell securities at inopportune times or depressed prices and result in further losses. Inflation and interest rates have been volatile and may increase in
the future. Interest rate increases in the future may cause the value of fixed-income securities to decrease and, conversely, interest rate reductions may cause the value of fixed-income securities to
increase. The yields for equity securities of certain energy infrastructure companies are generally susceptible in the short-term to fluctuations in interest rates and the prices of such equity securities
may decline when interest rates rise. This is also true for investments in debt instruments of energy infrastructure companies. Rising interest rates can adversely impact the financial performance of energy
infrastructure companies by increasing the cost of capital. This may reduce such companies’ ability to execute acquisitions or expansion projects in a cost-effective manner.