financial controls. The themes and trends
are identified with an emphasis on in-house research, although external research is also
used.
The Fund will generally invest in mid- to large-capitalization
companies, although the Fund may also invest in small-capitalization companies. The Fund
generally invests in companies with market capitalizations greater than $5 billion. The
Fund currently expects to hold between 25 and 40 positions. The Fund is non-diversified.
Additionally, under normal circumstances, the Fund invests at least 35% (or if conditions are not favorable, in the view of Veritas, at least 25%) of its net assets
in investments economically tied to countries other than the U.S., and the Fund will hold
investments economically tied to a minimum of three countries other than the U.S. The Fund
considers an investment to be economically tied to a country other than the U.S. if it provides investment exposure to a non-U.S. issuer. The Fund considers a company to be a non-U.S. issuer if (i) it
is organized outside the U.S. or maintains a principal place of business outside the U.S.,
(ii) its securities are traded principally outside the U.S., or (iii) during its most
recent fiscal year, it derived at least 50% of its revenues or profits from goods produced or sold, investments made, or services performed outside the U.S. or it has at least 50% of its assets outside the U.S. The
Fund may invest in securities of issuers located in any country outside the U.S., including
developed and emerging market countries.
The Fund may hold
assets in cash and cash equivalents, and at times these holdings may be significant. The Fund’s cash level at any point typically relates to the Subadviser’s individual security selection process, and
therefore may vary, depending on the Subadviser’s desired security weightings.
There is the risk that you may lose money on your investment. All investments carry a certain amount of risk, and the Fund cannot guarantee that it will achieve its
investment objective. An investment in the Fund is not a deposit or obligation of any bank,
is not endorsed or guaranteed by any bank, and is not insured by the Federal Deposit
Insurance Corporation (“FDIC”) or any other government
agency.
Below are some of the risks of investing in the Fund. The risks are presented in an order intended to
facilitate readability and their order does not imply that the realization of one risk is more likely to occur than another risk or likely to have a greater adverse impact than another risk. The
significance of any specific risk to an investment in the Fund will vary over time,
depending on the composition of the Fund’s portfolio, market conditions, and other
factors. You should read all of the risk information presented below carefully, because any one or more of these risks may result in losses to the Fund.
Market Risk—market prices of investments held by the Fund may fall rapidly or unpredictably due to a variety of factors, including economic or market conditions,
or other factors including terrorism, war, natural disasters and the spread of infectious
illness or other public health issues, including epidemics or pandemics, or in response to events that affect
particular industries or companies. In
addition, unexpected political, regulatory, trade and diplomatic events within the United
States and abroad may affect investor and consumer confidence and may adversely impact financial markets and the broader economy, perhaps suddenly and to a significant degree.
Management Risk—because the Fund is an actively managed investment portfolio, security selection or focus on securities in a particular style, market sector or
group of companies may cause the Fund to incur losses or underperform relative to its benchmarks or other funds with a similar investment objective. There can be no guarantee that the
Subadviser’s investment techniques and risk analysis will produce the desired result.
Foreign Investment Risk—investments in foreign issuers involve additional risks (such as risks arising from less frequent
trading, changes in political or social conditions, and less publicly available information
about non-U.S. issuers) that differ from those associated with investments in U.S. issuers and may result in greater price volatility.
Focused Investment Risk—to the extent the Fund invests a substantial portion of its assets in a relatively small number of securities or a particular market,
industry, group of industries, country, region, group of countries, asset class or sector, it
generally will be subject to greater risk than a fund that invests in a more diverse
investment portfolio. In addition, the value of the Fund would be more susceptible to any single economic, market, political or regulatory occurrence affecting, for example, that particular market, industry,
region or sector.
Value Stock Risk—value stocks may perform differently from the market as a whole and may be undervalued by the
market for a long period of time.
Currency Risk—fluctuations in exchange rates may affect the total loss or gain on a non-U.S. dollar investment when converted back to U.S. dollars and exposure to
non-U.S. currencies may subject the Fund to the risk that those currencies will decline in
value relative to the U.S. dollar.
Emerging Markets Risk—investments in emerging markets are subject to the general risks of foreign investments, as well
as additional risks which can result in greater price volatility. Such additional risks
include the risk that markets in emerging market countries are typically less developed and less liquid than markets in developed countries and such markets are subjected to increased economic, political, or
regulatory uncertainties.
High Cash Balance
Risk— when the Fund has a significant cash balance for a sustained period, the
benefit to the Fund of any market upswing may likely be reduced, and the Fund’s
performance may be adversely affected.
Large-Capitalization Stock Risk—the stocks of large-capitalization companies are generally more mature and may not be able to reach the same levels of growth as the
stocks of small- or mid-capitalization companies.
Liquidity Risk—the Fund may not be able to dispose of particular investments, such as illiquid securities, readily at favorable times or prices or the Fund
may have to sell them at a loss.