volatile environments.
If the fund is forced to sell an illiquid investment to meet redemption requests or other cash needs, the fund may be forced to sell at a substantial loss or may not be able to sell at
all. Liquidity of particular investments, or even entire asset classes, including U.S. Treasury securities, can deteriorate rapidly, particularly during times of market turmoil, and those investments may be
difficult or impossible for the fund to sell. This may prevent the fund from limiting losses.
Counterparty – The fund could lose money if the counterparties
to derivatives, repurchase agreements and/or other financial contracts entered into for the
fund do not fulfill their contractual obligations. In addition, the fund may incur costs and may be hindered or delayed in enforcing its rights against a counterparty. These risks may be greater to the
extent the fund has more contractual exposure to a counterparty.
Inflation – The value of assets or income from investment
may be worth less in the future as inflation decreases the value of money. As inflation
increases, the real value of the fund’s assets can decline as can the value of the fund’s distributions.
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.
Prepayment or Call – Many issuers have a right to prepay their fixed-income securities. If this happens, the fund
will not benefit from the rise in the market price of the securities that normally
accompanies a decline in interest rates and may be forced to reinvest the prepayment proceeds in securities with lower yields.
Non-Diversification – As a “non-diversified” fund, the fund may invest a larger percentage of its assets in a
smaller number of issuers than a diversified fund. Investing in a smaller number of issuers
will make the fund more susceptible to the risks associated with investing in those issuers.
Valuation – Certain investments may be more difficult to
value than other types of investments. The sales price the fund could receive for any
particular portfolio investment may differ from the fund's valuation of the investment, particularly for securities that trade in thin or volatile markets, that are priced based upon valuations provided by third party
pricing services, or that are valued using a fair value methodology. These differences may
increase significantly and affect fund investments more broadly during periods of market
volatility. Investors who purchase or redeem fund shares on days when the fund is holding fair-valued securities may receive fewer or more shares or lower or higher redemption proceeds than they would have
received if the fund had not fair-valued securities or had used a different valuation
methodology. The fund’s ability to value its investments may also be impacted by
technological issues and/or errors by pricing services or other third party service providers. Fair value pricing involves subjective judgment, which may prove to be incorrect.
Focused Investing – To the extent the fund invests a
significant portion of its assets in a limited number of countries, regions, sectors,
industries or market segments, in a limited number of issuers, or in issuers in related businesses or that are subject to related operating risks, the fund will be more susceptible to negative events affecting those countries,
regions, sectors, industries, segments or issuers, and the value of its shares may be more volatile than if it invested more widely.
Management
– The value of your investment may go down if the investment manager’s or sub-adviser's judgments and decisions are incorrect or otherwise do not produce the desired results, or if the investment strategy does not
work as intended. You may also suffer losses if there are imperfections, errors or limitations in the quantitative, analytic or other tools, resources, information and data used, investment techniques
applied, or the analyses employed or relied on, by the investment
manager or sub-adviser, if such tools, resources, information or data are used incorrectly or otherwise do not work as intended, or if
the investment manager’s or sub-adviser's investment style is out of favor or otherwise fails to produce the desired results. Any of these things could cause the fund to lose value or its results to
lag relevant benchmarks or other funds with similar objectives.
Active Trading – The fund may engage in active trading of
its portfolio. Active trading will increase transaction costs and could detract from
performance. Active trading may be more pronounced during periods of market volatility and may generate greater amounts of short-term capital gains.
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.
Derivatives
– The use of derivatives involves a variety of risks, which may be different from, or greater than, the risks associated with investing in traditional securities, such as stocks and bonds. Risks of derivatives include
leverage risk, liquidity risk, interest rate risk, valuation risk, market risk, counterparty risk and credit risk. Use of derivatives can increase fund losses, increase costs, reduce opportunities for gains,
increase fund volatility, and not produce the result intended. Certain derivatives have the potential for unlimited loss, regardless of the size of the initial investment. Even a small investment in
derivatives can have a disproportionate impact on the fund. Derivatives may be difficult or impossible to sell, unwind or value, and the counterparty (including, if applicable, the fund’s clearing broker,
the derivatives exchange or the clearinghouse) may default on its obligations to the fund. In certain cases, the fund may incur costs and may be hindered or delayed in enforcing its rights against or
closing out derivatives instruments with a counterparty, which may result in additional losses. Derivatives are also generally subject to the risks applicable to the assets, rates, indices or other indicators
underlying the derivative, including market risk, credit risk, liquidity risk, management risk and valuation