The investment objective of the Fund is to provide total return, consisting of both current income and capital appreciation.
These tables summarize the fees and expenses that you may pay if you buy, hold and sell shares of the Fund. You may pay other fees, such as brokerage commissions and other fees to financial intermediaries, which are not reflected in the tables and examples below.
| Adviser Class | Class I | Class Y-2 | Class Y-3 | |||||||||||||
| Redemption Fee on shares owned less than 30 days (as a % of total redemption proceeds) | 2.00 | % | 2.00 | % | 2.00 | % | 2.00 | % | ||||||||
| Adviser Class | Class I | Class Y-2 | Class Y-3 | |||||||||||||
| Management Fees(1),(2) | 0.27 | % | 0.27 | % | 0.27 | % | 0.27 | % | ||||||||
| Distribution (12b-1) Fees | 0.25 | % | None | None | None | |||||||||||
| Non-Distribution Shareholder Administrative Services Fees | 0.25 | % | 0.25 | % | 0.15 | % | None | |||||||||
| Other Expenses(3) | 0.07 | % | 0.07 | % | 0.07 | % | 0.07 | % | ||||||||
| Total Annual Fund Operating Expenses(2) | 0.84 | % | 0.59 | % | 0.49 | % | 0.34 | % | ||||||||
| Less Fee Waivers(1) | -0.19 | % | -0.19 | % | -0.19 | % | -0.19 | % | ||||||||
| Net Annual Fund Operating Expenses | 0.65 | % | 0.40 | % | 0.30 | % | 0.15 | % | ||||||||
| (1) | Mercer Investments LLC (the “Adviser”) has contractually agreed, until at least July 31, 2027, to waive any portion of its management fee that exceeds the aggregate amount of the subadvisory fees that the Adviser is required to pay to the Fund’s subadvisers. This contractual fee waiver agreement may only be changed or eliminated with the approval of the Fund’s Board of Trustees. The fees waived by the Adviser pursuant to this agreement are not subject to reimbursement by the Fund to the Adviser. The amount of the fee waiver has been estimated to reflect the subadvisory fees in effect as of the date of this prospectus. |
| (2) | The “Management Fees” and “Total Annual Fund Operating Expenses” have been adjusted to reflect the decrease in the management fee payable by the Portfolio from 0.31% to 0.27% effective as of July 1, 2026. |
| (3) | “Other Expenses” include administrative, custodial, legal, audit, transfer agent and Trustees’ fees and expenses. The “Other Expenses” shown for Adviser Class and Class Y-2 are based on estimated amounts for the Fund’s current fiscal year, as the Adviser Class and Class Y-2 shares of the Fund had not commenced operations prior to the most recent fiscal year end. |
The example below is intended to help you compare the costs of investing in the Fund with the cost of investing in other mutual funds. The example assumes that you invest $10,000 in the Fund for the time periods shown, that your investment has a 5% return each year, and that the Fund’s operating expenses remain the same as shown above (taking into account the contractual expense limitation being in effect for the one-year period ending July 31, 2027).
Although your actual costs may be higher or lower, based on these assumptions, your costs would be:
| 1 Year | 3 Years | 5 Years | 10 Years | |||||||||||||
| Adviser Class | $ | 66 | $ | 249 | $ | 447 | $ | 1,020 | ||||||||
| Class I | $ | 41 | $ | 170 | $ | 310 | $ | 720 | ||||||||
| Class Y-2 | $ | 31 | $ | 138 | $ | 255 | $ | 598 | ||||||||
| Class Y-3 | $ | 15 | $ | 90 | $ | 172 | $ | 412 | ||||||||
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 increase transaction costs and may result in higher taxes when Fund shares are held in a taxable account. 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 125% of the average value of its portfolio.
The Fund invests principally in investment grade fixed income securities, including government securities, corporate bonds and securitized bonds such as mortgage and asset-backed securities. Under normal circumstances, the Fund will invest at least 80% of its net assets (plus borrowings for investment purposes, if any) in fixed income securities. (If the Fund changes this investment policy, the Fund will notify shareholders at least 60 days in advance of the change.) The Fund defines “core” as a strategy of investing primarily in high-quality, investment-grade, U.S. dollar-denominated securities like government bonds, corporate debt, and securitized products. The Fund also may invest in non-investment grade bonds (sometimes called high yield or junk bonds), non-U.S. dollar denominated bonds, bonds issued by issuers located in emerging capital markets. The Fund may also invest in securities that are subject to resale restrictions such as those contained in Rule 144A promulgated under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended. The Fund may invest in derivative instruments, such as options, futures, and swap agreements. The Fund may engage in transactions in derivatives for a variety of purposes, including changing the investment characteristics of its portfolio, enhancing total returns, or as a substitute for taking a position in the underlying asset. Investments in derivatives may be applied toward meeting a requirement to invest in a particular kind of investment if the derivatives have economic characteristics similar to that investment. Generally, the Fund is managed to maintain a duration within 20% of the duration of the Bloomberg U.S. Aggregate Bond Index (as of June 30, 2026, the duration of the Index was 5.88 years). Duration is a measure of the sensitivity of the price of a debt security (or a portfolio of debt securities) to changes in interest rates. The prices of debt securities with shorter durations generally will be less affected by changes in interest rates than the prices of debt securities with longer durations.
The following bar chart and table give some indication of the risks of investing in the Fund by showing changes in the performance of the Fund’s Class Y-3 shares from year to year and comparing the Fund’s average annual returns over time with a broad-based securities market index, Bloomberg U.S. Aggregate Bond Index.
The Fund offers four different classes of shares in this prospectus: Adviser Class shares, Class I shares, Class Y-2 shares and Class Y-3 shares. No information is shown for Adviser Class or Class Y-2 shares because there were no shares outstanding for these classes as of the last calendar year end. Performance information for Adviser Class shares and Class Y-2 shares will appear in a future version of the prospectus once there is a full calendar year of performance information to report. The returns of these share classes would have been substantially similar to the returns of Class Y-3 shares; however, because the Adviser Class and Class Y-2 shares are subject to a 12b-1 fee and/or a non-distribution shareholder administrative services fee, the returns of these share classes would have been lower than those shown for Class Y-3 shares.
The Fund’s past performance, before and after taxes, is not necessarily an indication of how the Fund will perform in the future. This may be particularly true given that other subadvisers were responsible for managing portions of the Fund’s portfolio during previous periods. Income Research + Management assumed responsibility for managing a portion of the Fund’s portfolio on April 3, 2014. PGIM, Inc. assumed responsibility for managing a portion of the Fund’s portfolio on April 3, 2014. Manulife Investment Management (US) LLC assumed responsibility for managing a portion of the Fund’s portfolio on June 1, 2016.
The Fund’s calendar year-to-date return as of June 30, 2026 was 0.72%.
The Fund’s highest return for a quarter during the periods shown above was 7.04%, for the quarter ended December 31, 2023.
The Fund’s lowest return for a quarter during the periods shown above was -6.04%, for the quarter ended March 31, 2022.
| 1 Year | 5 Years | 10 Years | ||||||||||
| Mercer Core Fixed Income Fund – Class Y-3 Shares | ||||||||||||
| Return Before Taxes | 7.79 | % | -0.03 | % | 2.57 | % | ||||||
| Return After Taxes on Distributions | 5.68 | % | -1.50 | % | 1.14 | % | ||||||
| Return After Taxes on Distributions and Sale of Fund Shares | 4.62 | % | -0.64 | % | 1.37 | % | ||||||
| 1 Year | Life of Class (Inception December 27, 2021) | |||||||||||
| Mercer Core Fixed Income Fund – Class I Shares | ||||||||||||
| Return Before Taxes | 7.39 | % | -0.02 | % | ||||||||
| 1 Year | 5 Years | 10 Years | ||||||||||
| Bloomberg U.S. Aggregate Bond Index(1) (reflects no deduction for fees, expenses, or taxes) | 7.30 | % | -0.36 | % | 2.01 | % | ||||||
| (1) | The Bloomberg U.S. Aggregate Bond Index is an index that measures the performance of securities from the Bloomberg U.S. Government/Corporate Bond Index, Mortgage-Backed Securities Index, Asset-Backed Securities Index, and Commercial Mortgage-Backed Securities Index. The Bloomberg U.S. Aggregate Bond Index is a broad representation of the investment-grade fixed-income market in the United States and includes U.S. government and corporate debt securities, mortgage- and asset-backed securities, and international U.S. dollar-denominated bonds. All securities contained in the Bloomberg U.S. Aggregate Bond Index have a minimum term to maturity of one year. The index is unmanaged and cannot be invested in directly. |
After-tax returns are calculated using the historical highest individual federal marginal income tax rates in effect and do not reflect the impact of state and local taxes. Actual after-tax returns depend on an investor’s situation and may differ from those shown. In addition, the after-tax returns shown are not relevant to investors who hold Fund shares through tax-deferred arrangements, such as 401(k) plans
or individual retirement accounts. In some cases, the after-tax returns may exceed the return before taxes due to an assumed benefit from any losses on a sale of shares at the end of the measurement period. After-tax returns are shown for Class Y-3 shares. After-tax returns for Class I shares may vary.