The Fund invests primarily in a portfolio of equity securities of small-capitalization U.S. companies. The Fund invests, under normal circumstances, at least 80% of its net assets (plus any borrowings for investment purposes) in equity securities of small-capitalization companies meeting the Adviser’s value criteria. For purposes of this policy, companies meeting the Adviser’s value criteria are those companies with securities in any one of the following indexes: the Russell 3000^® Value Index, the MSCI ACWI IMI Value, the MSCI ACWI IMI Value Weighted, and the Morningstar Global All‑Cap Value TME. Also, for purposes of this policy, small-capitalization companies are those companies falling within the market capitalization range of companies in the Russell 2000^® Value Index . As of June 30, 2026, the market capitalization of companies in the Russell 2000^® Value Index ranged from approximately $8.5 million to $13 billion.

The Fund invests in companies that are determined by the Adviser to be undervalued, using the Adviser’s fundamental value approach. In selecting securities for the Fund, the Adviser uses its fundamental and quantitative research to identify companies whose long-term earnings power is not reflected in the current market price of the securities.

The Adviser seeks companies with attractive valuation and compelling quality factors (for example, momentum and return on equity). The Adviser then uses this information to calculate an expected return. Returns and rankings are updated on a daily basis. The rankings are used to determine prospective candidates for further fundamental research and, subsequently, possible addition to the Fund. Typically, the Adviser’s fundamental research analysts focus their research on the most attractive 20% of the companies in the small-capitalization universe as defined above.

The Adviser typically projects a company’s financial performance over a full economic cycle, including a trough and a peak, within the context of forecasts for real economic growth, inflation and interest rate changes. The Adviser focuses on the valuation implied by the current price, relative to the earnings the company is projected to generate five years from now, or “normalized” earnings, assuming average mid‑economic cycle growth for the fifth year.

The Adviser generally sells a security when it no longer meets appropriate valuation criteria, although sales may be delayed when return trends are favorable. Typically, growth in the size of a company’s market capitalization relative to other domestically traded companies will not cause the Adviser to dispose of the security.

The Adviser seeks to manage the overall portfolio volatility relative to the Russell 2000^® Value Index by favoring promising securities that offer the best balance between return and targeted risk.