by the occurrence of global events such as
war, terrorism, environmental disasters, natural disasters or events, country instability, and
infectious disease epidemics or pandemics.
Smaller
Company Risk. Investments in smaller companies may be riskier, less liquid, more volatile and
more vulnerable to economic, market and industry changes than investments in larger, more
established companies. The securities of smaller companies may trade less frequently and in smaller volumes than securities of larger companies. As a result, the share price changes may be more sudden or erratic than
the prices of other securities, especially over the short term.
Value Investing Risk. A value stock may decrease in price
or may not increase in price as anticipated by the adviser if other investors fail to recognize
the company’s value or the factors that the adviser believes will cause the stock price to increase do not occur.
Derivatives Risk. Derivatives, including futures contracts, may be riskier than other types of investments and may increase the volatility of the Fund. Derivatives may be
sensitive to changes in economic and market conditions and may create leverage, which could
result in losses that significantly exceed the Fund’s original investment. The Fund may be more volatile than if the Fund had not been leveraged because the leverage tends to exaggerate any effect on the value of the
Fund’s portfolio securities. Certain derivatives expose the Fund to counterparty risk,
which is the risk that the derivative counterparty will not fulfill its contractual obligations (and includes credit risk associated with the counterparty). Certain derivatives are synthetic instruments that attempt to replicate the
performance of certain reference assets. With regard to such derivatives, the Fund does not have
a claim on the reference assets and is subject to enhanced counterparty risk. Derivatives may not
perform as expected, so the Fund may not realize the intended benefits. When used for hedging,
the change in value of a derivative may not correlate as expected with the security or other risk
being hedged. In addition, given their complexity, derivatives expose the Fund to risks of mispricing or improper valuation. Derivatives also can expose the Fund to derivative liquidity risk, which includes risks involving
the liquidity demands that derivatives can create to make payments of margin, collateral, or
settlement payments to counterparties, legal risk, which includes the risk of loss resulting from insufficient or unenforceable contractual documentation, insufficient capacity or authority of the Fund’s
counterparty and operational risk, which includes documentation or settlement issues, system
failures, inadequate controls and human error.
Real Estate Securities Risk. The Fund’s investments in real estate securities, including REITs, are subject to the same risks as direct investments in real estate and mortgages,
and their value will depend on the value of the underlying real estate interests. These risks
include default, prepayments, changes in value resulting from changes in interest rates and demand for real and rental property, and the management skill and credit-worthiness of REIT issuers. The Fund, will indirectly
bear its proportionate share of expenses, including management fees, paid by each REIT in which
it invests in addition to the expenses of the Fund.
Industry and Sector Focus Risk. At times, the Fund may increase the relative emphasis of its investments in a particular industry or sector. The prices of securities of
issuers in a particular industry or sector may be more susceptible to fluctuations due
to changes in economic or business
conditions, government regulations, availability of basic resources or supplies, contagion risk
within a particular industry or sector or to other industries or sectors, or other events that affect that industry or sector more than securities of issuers in other industries and sectors. To the extent that the Fund increases the
relative emphasis of its investments in a particular industry or sector, the value of the
Fund’s shares may fluctuate in response to events affecting that industry or sector.
Financials Sector Risk. Financial services companies are subject to extensive governmental regulation which may limit both the amounts and types of loans and other financial
commitments they can make, the interest rates and fees they can charge, the scope of their
activities, the prices they can charge and the amount of capital they must maintain. Profitability is largely dependent on the availability and cost of capital funds and can fluctuate significantly when interest rates
change or due to increased competition. In addition, deterioration of the credit markets
generally may cause an adverse impact in a broad range of markets, including U.S. and international credit and interbank money markets generally, thereby affecting a wide range of financial institutions and markets.
Certain events in the financials sector may cause an unusually high degree of volatility in the
financial markets, both domestic and foreign, and cause certain financial services companies to incur large losses. Securities of financial services companies may experience a dramatic decline in value when such companies
experience substantial declines in the valuations of their assets, take action to raise capital
(such as the issuance of debt or equity securities), or cease operations. Credit losses resulting from financial difficulties of borrowers and financial losses associated with investment activities can negatively impact the
sector. Insurance companies may be subject to severe price competition. Adverse economic,
business or political developments could adversely affect financial institutions engaged in mortgage finance or other lending or investing activities directly or indirectly connected to the value of real
estate.
Transactions Risk. The Fund could experience a loss and its liquidity may be negatively impacted when selling securities to
meet redemption requests. The risk of loss increases if the redemption requests are unusually
large or frequent or occur in times of overall market turmoil or declining prices. Similarly,
large purchases of Fund shares may adversely affect the Fund’s performance to the extent
that the Fund is delayed in investing new cash and is required to maintain a larger cash position than it ordinarily would.
Investments in the Fund are not deposits or obligations of, or guaranteed or endorsed by, any bank and are not insured or guaranteed by the
FDIC, the Federal Reserve Board or any other government agency.
You could lose money investing in the
Fund.
The Fund’s Past
Performance
This section provides some indication of the risks of
investing in the Fund. The bar chart shows how the performance of the Fund’s Class I Shares has varied from year to year for the past ten calendar years. The table shows the
average annual total returns over the past one year, five years and ten years. The table compares the Fund’s performance to the performance of