Consumer Goods and Services
Companies Risk. Consumer goods and services companies face risks related to changes in consumer preferences and
disposable income, commodity prices, government regulation, supply chain disruptions, damage to brand or reputation, economic slowdown and labor shortages, among other
things.
Financial Companies Risk. Financial services companies are subject to extensive governmental regulation and intervention, which may adversely affect
their profitability, the scope of their activities, the prices they can charge, the amount of capital and liquid assets they must maintain and their size, among other things.
Financial services companies also may be significantly affected by, among other things, interest rates, economic conditions, volatility in financial markets, credit rating downgrades, adverse public perception, exposure concentration and counterparty risk.
Illiquid Investments Risk. An illiquid investment is any investment that
the Fund reasonably expects cannot be sold or disposed of in current market conditions in seven calendar days or less without significantly changing the market value of the investment. To the extent the Fund holds illiquid investments, the illiquid investments may reduce its returns because the
Fund may be unable to transact at advantageous times or prices. In addition, if the Fund is limited in its ability to sell illiquid investments during periods when shareholders are redeeming their shares, it will need to sell liquid securities to meet
redemption requests and illiquid securities will become a larger portion of the Fund’s holdings. During periods of market volatility, liquidity in the market for Fund shares may be impacted by the liquidity in the market for the underlying securities or other assets held by the Fund, which could lead to Fund shares trading at a premium or discount to the Fund’s NAV.
Income
Risk. The Fund’s income may decline due to falling interest rates or other factors. This can occur because the Fund may be required to invest in lower-yielding bonds when a bond in the Fund’s portfolio matures, is near maturity, is called or is prepaid, when bonds in the Underlying Index are substituted, or when the Fund otherwise needs to purchase additional bonds.
The Index Provider’s substitution of bonds in the Underlying Index may occur, for example, when the time to maturity for the bond no longer matches the Underlying
Index’s stated maturity guidelines.
Issuer
Risk. The performance of the Fund depends on the performance of individual securities or other assets to which the
Fund has exposure. The value of securities or other assets may decline, or perform differently from the market as a whole, due to changes in the financial condition or credit rating of the issuer or counterparty.
Management Risk. The Fund generally does not attempt to take defensive
positions under any market conditions, including declining markets. As the Fund will not fully replicate the Underlying Index and may hold securities or other assets not included in the Underlying Index, it is subject to the risk that the investment strategy of BFA may not produce the intended
results. There is no guarantee that the Fund’s investment results will have a high degree of correlation to those of the Underlying Index or that the Fund will achieve its investment objective.
Market Trading Risk. The Fund faces numerous market trading risks, including the potential lack of an active
market for Fund shares (including through a trading halt), losses from trading in secondary markets, periods of high volatility, and disruptions in the process of creating and redeeming Fund shares. Any of these factors, among others, may lead to the Fund’s shares trading in the secondary market at a premium or discount to NAV or to the intraday value of the Fund’s portfolio
holdings. If you buy Fund shares at a time when the market price is at a premium to NAV or sell Fund shares at a time when the market price is at a discount to NAV, you may pay significantly more or receive significantly less than the underlying value
of the Fund shares.
Operational and Technology Risks. The Fund is directly and indirectly susceptible to operational and
technology risks, including those related to human errors, processing errors, communication errors, systems failures, cybersecurity incidents, and the use of artificial intelligence and machine learning (“AI”), which may result in losses for the Fund and
its shareholders or may impair the Fund’s operations. While the Fund’s service providers are required to have appropriate operational, information security and cybersecurity risk management policies and procedures, their methods of risk management may differ
from those of the Fund. Operational and technology risks for the issuers in which the Fund invests could also result in material adverse consequences for such issuers and may cause
the Fund’s investments in such issuers to lose value.
Risk of Investing in the U.S. Investing in U.S. issuers subjects the Fund
to legal, regulatory, political, currency, security, and economic risks that are specific to the U.S. Certain changes in the U.S., such as a weakening of the U.S. economy or a
decline in its financial markets, may have an adverse effect on U.S. issuers.
Securities Lending Risk. The Fund may engage in securities lending.
Securities lending involves the risk that the Fund may lose money because the borrower of the loaned securities fails to return the securities in a timely manner or at all. The Fund
could also lose money in the event of a decline in the value of collateral provided for loaned securities or a decline in the value of any investments made with cash collateral. These events could also trigger adverse tax consequences for the Fund.
Tracking Error Risk. The Fund may be subject to “tracking error,” which is the divergence of the Fund’s performance from that of the Underlying Index. Tracking error may occur due to a number of factors, including differences between the securities and
other assets held in the Fund’s portfolio and those included in the Underlying Index; differences in the timing and methodologies used to value securities and other assets;
transaction costs and other expenses incurred by the Fund that the Underlying Index does not incur; the Fund’s holding of uninvested cash; differences in the timing of the
accrual or the