benefit of the tax-exempt status of such
securities. Any such change could also affect the market price of such securities, and thus the
value of an investment in the Fund.
High Yield
Securities Risk. The Fund may invest in securities and instruments of municipal issuers that are
highly leveraged, less creditworthy or financially distressed. These investments (also known as
junk bonds) are considered to be speculative and are subject to greater risk of loss, greater sensitivity to economic changes, valuation difficulties, and potential illiquidity.
In recent years, there has been a broad trend of weaker or less restrictive covenant protections in the high
yield market. Among other things, under such weaker or less restrictive covenants, borrowers
might be able to exercise more flexibility with respect to certain activities than borrowers who are subject to stronger or more protective covenants. For example, borrowers might be able to incur more debt, including secured debt,
return more capital to shareholders, remove or reduce assets that are designated as collateral
securing high yield securities, increase the claims against assets that are permitted against collateral securing high yield securities or otherwise manage their business in ways that could impact creditors
negatively. In addition, certain privately held borrowers might be permitted to file less
frequent, less detailed or less timely financial reporting or other information, which could
negatively impact the value of the high yield securities issued by such
borrowers.
Each of these factors might negatively impact the high yield instruments held by the Fund. No active trading
market may exist for some instruments and certain investments may be subject to restrictions on
resale. The inability to dispose of the Fund’s securities and other investments in a timely fashion could result in losses to the Fund. Because some instruments may have a more limited secondary market,
liquidity and valuation risk may be more pronounced for the Fund. When instruments are prepaid,
the Fund may have to reinvest in instruments with a lower yield or fail to recover additional amounts (i.e., premiums) paid for these instruments, resulting in an unexpected capital loss and/or a decrease in the
amount of dividends and yield.
Zero-Coupon Bond Risk. The market value of a zero-coupon bond is generally more volatile than the market value of other fixed income securities with similar maturities that
pay interest periodically. In addition, federal income tax law requires that the holder of a
zero-coupon bond accrue a portion of the discount at which the bond was purchased as taxable income
each year. The Fund may consequently have to dispose of portfolio securities under
disadvantageous circumstances to generate cash to satisfy its requirement as a regulated
investment company to distribute all of its net income (including non-cash income attributable to
zero-coupon securities). These actions may reduce the assets to which the Fund’s expenses
could otherwise be allocated and may reduce the Fund’s rate of return.
Transactions Risk. The Fund could experience a loss and its liquidity may be negatively impacted when selling securities or
liquidating other investments to meet redemption requests. The risk of loss increases if the
redemption requests are unusually large or frequent or occur in times of overall market turmoil or
declining prices. Similarly, large purchases of Fund shares may adversely affect the Fund’s
performance to the extent that the Fund is delayed in investing new cash and is required to
maintain a larger cash position than it ordinarily would.
General Market Risk.
Economies and financial markets throughout the world are becoming increasingly interconnected,
which increases the likelihood that events or conditions in one country or region will adversely
impact markets or issuers in other countries or regions. Securities in the Fund’s portfolio may underperform in comparison to securities in general financial markets, a particular financial market or other
asset classes due to a number of factors, including inflation (or expectations for inflation),
deflation (or expectations for deflation), interest rates, global demand for particular products or resources, market instability, financial system instability, debt crises and downgrades, embargoes, tariffs, trade wars,
retaliatory trade measures, sanctions and other trade barriers, supply chain disruptions,
regulatory events, other governmental trade or market control programs and related geopolitical events. In addition, the value of the Fund’s investments may be negatively affected by the occurrence of global
events such as war, terrorism, environmental disasters, natural disasters or events, country
instability, and infectious disease epidemics or pandemics or the threat or potential of one or more such factors and occurrences.
Industry and Sector Focus Risk. At times the Fund may increase the relative emphasis of its investments in a particular industry or sector. The prices of securities of
issuers in a particular industry or sector may be more susceptible to fluctuations due to changes
in economic or business conditions, government regulations, availability of basic resources or supplies, contagion risk within a particular industry or sector or to other industries or sectors, or other events that affect
that industry or sector more than securities of issuers in other industries and sectors. To the
extent that the Fund increases the relative emphasis of its investments in a particular industry or sector, the value of the Fund’s shares may fluctuate in response to events affecting that industry or sector.
Investments in the Fund are not deposits or obligations of, or guaranteed or endorsed by, any bank and are not insured or guaranteed by the
FDIC, the Federal Reserve Board or any other government agency.
You could lose money investing in the
Fund.
The Fund’s Past
Performance
This section provides some indication of the risks of
investing in the Fund. The bar chart shows how the performance of the Fund’s Class R6 Shares has varied from year to year for the past ten calendar years. The table shows the
average annual total returns over the past one year, five years and ten years. The table compares the Fund’s performance to the performance of the Bloomberg US Municipal Index. The
performance of the Class R6 Shares prior to their inception are based on Class I Shares (which
are not offered in this prospectus). The actual returns of the Class R6 Shares would be substantially similar to the performance of Class I Shares because the Fund is invested in the same group of securities and the annual
returns would differ only to the extent that the Classes do not have the same expenses. 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 by visiting www.jpmorganfunds.com or by calling 1-800-480-4111.