that may apply for the periods indicated above
under “Fees and Expenses.” Although your actual costs may be higher or lower, based on these assumptions your costs would be:
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 indicate higher transaction costs. 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 34.94% of the average value of its
portfolio.
Principal Investment Strategies
The Fund employs a flexible investment approach, allocating across different types of fixed-income, or debt, securities.
Consistent with this approach, the Fund may invest in U.S. government securities and foreign government bonds, for example, as well as U.S. and foreign corporate bonds, asset-backed securities and mortgage-backed securities. The Fund also may invest in
corporate loans. Securities in which the Fund invests pay interest on either a fixed-rate or variable-rate basis. The Fund may invest in securities issued by foreign issuers, including those that are located in emerging market countries, although, under
normal circumstances, the Fund does not invest more than 25% of its net assets, at the time of purchase, in emerging market securities. Emerging market countries typically are developing and low- or middle-income countries, and include certain
countries located in Latin America, Asia, Africa, the Middle East and Eastern Europe. The Fund may invest without limit in foreign securities that are denominated in U.S. dollars, although the Fund may invest up to 15% of its net assets, at the time of purchase, in securities that are denominated in currencies other than the U.S. dollar.
The Fund invests in mortgage-backed securities. Mortgage-backed securities include either pass-through securities issued by
U.S. government agencies, such as Ginnie Mae, Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac, or collateralized mortgage obligations issued either by U.S. government agencies or by private issuers. The Fund may purchase many U.S. agency pass-through securities on a when-issued (also known as “to-be-announced”) basis, and it may also purchase or sell such securities for delayed delivery. When entering into such a transaction, the Fund buys or sells securities with payment and delivery scheduled to take place in the future. The Fund may invest in mortgage-backed securities—either U.S. agency or privately-issued—of any credit quality. Nevertheless, the Fund normally invests at least 20% of its net assets, at the time of purchase, in mortgage-backed securities that are rated, at the time of investment, Aa3 or higher by Moody’s Investor Service, Inc., AA- or higher by Standard & Poor’s Rating Service; the equivalent by any other nationally recognized statistical rating organization (“NRSRO”); or, if unrated by an NRSRO, determined by the subadviser to be of comparable quality.
The Fund may invest up to 25% of its net assets, at the time of purchase, in corporate high-yield bonds (i.e., “junk bonds”). Some of these debt securities may be in default or at high risk of defaulting, and may have extremely poor prospects for being able to make principal and interest payments. The Fund’s subadviser strives to allocate below investment grade securities broadly by industry and issuer in an attempt to reduce the impact of negative events on an industry or issuer. Under normal conditions, the combined total of corporate, sovereign, mortgage-backed and all other debt rated below investment grade will not exceed 40%
of the Fund’s assets.
The Fund’s subadviser actively manages the Fund’s asset class exposure using a
top-down approach based on analysis of sector fundamentals and rotates the Fund’s assets among sectors in various markets to attempt to maximize total return. The subadviser may use futures, which are derivatives, to manage the Fund’s duration and yield curve exposure.
The subadviser selects individual securities within asset classes using a bottom-up approach,
which involves the selection of securities based on their individual attributes regardless of broader national or economic factors. Under normal circumstances, the subadviser uses a controlled risk approach in managing the Fund’s investments. The techniques of this approach attempt to control the principal risk components of the fixed-income markets. The subadviser may sell a security for various reasons, such as to adjust the Fund’s average maturity or quality, to shift assets into better-yielding securities, or to alter sector exposure. The Fund may engage in active and frequent trading of portfolio securities.
The Fund is classified as a “nondiversified fund” under the Investment Company Act of 1940, which means that a relatively high percentage of the Fund’s assets may be invested in a limited number of issuers.