Portfolio Turnover
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 23.98% of the average value of its
portfolio.
Principal Investment Strategies
The Fund employs a “passive” management, or indexing, approach, which seeks to match approximately the performance of the MSCI EAFE® Index
before the deduction of Fund expenses. The MSCI EAFE® Index includes equity
securities of large- and mid-cap companies located in Europe, Australia and Asia (including the Far East). Under normal circumstances, the Fund invests at least 80% of its net assets in a statistically selected sampling of securities of companies included in the MSCI EAFE® Index. The Fund will, under normal circumstances, invest in all of the countries represented in the MSCI
EAFE® Index. The Fund may not, however, invest in all the companies within a country represented in the MSCI EAFE® Index, or in the same weightings as in the MSCI EAFE® Index.
The Fund intends to be diversified in approximately the same proportion as the MSCI
EAFE® Index is diversified. The Fund may become “nondiversified,” as defined in the Investment Company Act of 1940 Act, as amended (the “1940 Act”), solely as a result of a change in relative market capitalization or index weighting of one or more constituents of the MSCI EAFE® Index. A
“nondiversified” fund generally invests a greater proportion of its assets in the securities of one or more issuers and invests overall in a smaller number of issuers than a diversified fund. Shareholder approval will not be sought if the Fund becomes
nondiversified due solely to a change in the relative market capitalization or index weighting of one or more constituents of the MSCI EAFE®
Index.
The Fund cannot guarantee that it will achieve its investment objective.
As with any fund, the value of the Fund’s investments—and therefore, the value of
Fund shares—may fluctuate. These changes may occur because of:
Equity securities risk – stock markets are
volatile. The price of an equity security fluctuates based on changes in a company’s financial condition and overall market and economic conditions.
Market risk – the risk that one or more markets in which the Fund invests will go down in value, including the possibility that the
markets will go down sharply and unpredictably. This occurs due to numerous factors, including interest rates, the outlook for corporate profits, the health of the national and world economies, and the fluctuation of other securities markets around the
world. These risks may be magnified if certain social, political, economic and other conditions and events (such as natural disasters, epidemics and pandemics, terrorism, conflicts, trade disputes and social unrest or rapid technological developments
such as artificial intelligence) adversely interrupt the global economy.
Selection risk – the risk that the securities
selected by the Fund’s subadviser will underperform the markets, the relevant indexes or the securities selected by other funds with similar investment objectives and
investment strategies.
Foreign
securities risk – foreign securities often are more volatile, harder to price and less liquid than U.S. securities. The prices of foreign securities may be further affected by other factors, such as changes in the exchange rates between the U.S. dollar and the currencies in which the securities are traded.
Country or sector risk– if the Fund emphasizes one or more countries or economic
sectors, it will be more susceptible to the financial, market or economic events affecting the particular issuers in which it invests than funds that do not emphasize particular countries or sectors.
Mid-cap risk – medium-sized companies are usually less stable in price and less
liquid than larger, more established companies. Therefore, they generally involve greater risk.
Index fund risk – the Fund does not use
defensive strategies or attempt to reduce its exposure to poor performing securities. Further, correlation between the Fund’s performance and that of the index is likely to
be negatively affected by the Fund’s expenses, changes in the composition of the index, and the timing of purchase and redemption of Fund shares.