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ARS FOCUSED OPPORTUNITIES STRATEGY ETF Ticker Symbol: AFOS Listed on The Nasdaq Stock Market, LLC | SUMMARY PROSPECTUS June 2, 2025
https://arsinvestetfs.com |
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Before you invest, you may want to review the Fund’s Prospectus and Statement of Additional Information (“SAI”), which contain more information about the Fund and its risks. The current Prospectus and SAI, each dated June 1, 2025, are incorporated by reference into this Summary Prospectus. You can find the Fund’s Prospectus, reports to shareholders, and other information about the Fund online at https://arsinvestetfs.com/afos. You can also get this information at no cost by calling 215-330-4476. |
INVESTMENT OBJECTIVE
The ARS Focused Opportunities Strategy ETF (the “Fund”) seeks to achieve long term growth of capital.
FEES AND EXPENSES
This table describes the fees and expenses that you may pay if you buy, hold, and sell shares of the Fund (“Shares”). You may also pay brokerage commissions on the purchase and sale of Shares, which are not reflected in the table or example.
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Annual Fund Operating Expenses (expenses that you pay each year as a percentage of the value of your investment) |
Management Fee | 0.45 | % |
Distribution and/or Service (12b-1) Fees | None |
Other Expenses1 | 0.00 | % |
Total Annual Fund Operating Expenses | 0.45 | % |
1 Other Expenses are estimated for the current fiscal year.
EXAMPLE
The following example is intended to help you compare the cost of investing in the Fund with the cost of investing in other funds. The example assumes that you invest $10,000 for the time periods indicated and then sell all of your Shares at the end of those periods. The example also assumes that the Fund provides a return of 5% each year and that operating expenses remain the same. You may also pay brokerage commissions on the purchase and sale of Shares, which are not reflected in the example. Although your actual costs may be higher or lower, based on these assumptions your costs would be:
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| One Year: | Three Years: | |
| $46 | $144 | |
PORTFOLIO TURNOVER
The Fund may pay transaction costs, including commissions when it buys and sells securities (or “turns over” its portfolio). A higher portfolio turnover rate may indicate higher transaction costs and may result in higher taxes when Shares are held in a taxable account. These costs, which are not reflected in annual fund operating expenses or in the example, affect the Fund’s performance. As of the date of this Prospectus, the Fund has not yet commenced operations and portfolio turnover data therefore is not available.
PRINCIPAL INVESTMENT STRATEGIES
The Fund is an actively managed exchange-traded fund (“ETF”), sub-advised by ARS Investment Partners, LLC (the “Sub-Adviser”). The Fund seeks to identify well-positioned and undervalued companies across small, mid, and large market capitalization ranges. The Fund may invest directly in the equity securities of these companies or indirectly through one or more underlying ETFs, that have exposure to the same companies. The Fund’s holdings may include investments characterized as growth and/or value in their orientation.
The Fund’s investable universe includes over 3,000 small, mid, and large cap U.S.-listed equity securities with market capitalizations generally greater than $250 million or ETFs that provide exposure to those equity securities. Equity securities include common stock or securities with similar characteristics, including American Depositary Receipts (“ADRs”). The Sub-Adviser’s overarching forward-looking macro-outlook of economic, social, and political environments provides a basis to identify areas of the economy it believes will thrive and to which capital will flow. The economic, social, and political forces shaping the Sub-Adviser’s views include supply/demand imbalances, world economic growth, U.S. Federal Reserve policy, demographic shifts, and changes in country leadership, among others. The Sub-Adviser considers those companies and sectors that it believes align with its macro-outlook, while de-emphasizing or avoiding those that the Sub-Adviser believes are facing the greatest headwinds. The Sub-Adviser then selects securities for investment by the Fund that the Sub-Adviser believes are poised to benefit
from these trends with the greatest margin of safety in their valuations. The Sub-Adviser’s fundamental research process assesses both the enterprise value (current and future) and expected growth value of a company. The Sub-Adviser also employs a screening process, applying value screens (evaluating factors such as price/earnings, price/cash flow, and return on invested capital), growth screens (evaluating factors such as earnings growth rate, dividend growth rate, and product cycles) and soft screens (evaluating factors such as insider ownership, relative historic valuation, the ability of the company’s management to execute, and dividend yield) to identify a selected list of companies for investment.
Sector weightings in the Fund are driven by the Sub-Adviser’s outlook which will include overweight positions in some sectors and omission of other sectors. The specific sectors overweighted by the Fund will likely be different over time as the economic and market environment change. The Fund is not managed relative to a particular securities index or securities benchmark. Rather, the Sub-Adviser makes investment decisions based on the results of its research processes.
The Fund will consider selling a portfolio holding based on the following considerations: to reduce outsized positions for risk management purposes, if a relatively better investment opportunity is identified, if the Sub-Adviser’s investment thesis is no longer supported, if the company’s earnings power becomes or appears to be impaired for an indeterminate period of time, or if the security’s price exceeds the target set by the Sub-Adviser.
The Fund is considered to be non-diversified, which means that it may invest more of its assets in the securities of a single issuer or a smaller number of issuers than if it were a diversified fund.
PRINCIPAL INVESTMENT RISKS
An investment in the Fund involves risk, including those described below. There is no assurance that the Fund will achieve its investment objective. An investor may lose money by investing in the Fund. An investment in the Fund is not a bank deposit and is not insured or guaranteed by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation or any government agency. More complete risk descriptions are set forth below under the heading “Additional Information About the Fund’s Principal Investment Risks.”
Investment Risk. When you sell your Shares, they could be worth less than what you paid for them. The Fund could lose money due to short-term market movements and over longer periods during market downturns. Securities may decline in value due to factors affecting securities markets generally or particular asset classes or industries represented in the markets. The value of a security may decline due to general market conditions, economic trends or events that are not specifically related to the issuer of the security. Geopolitical and other risks, including war, terrorism, trade disputes, political or economic dysfunction within some nations, public health crises, and environmental disasters such as earthquakes, fire, and floods, may add to instability in world economies and volatility in markets generally. Changes in trade policies and international trade agreements could affect the economies of many countries in unpredictable ways. The value of a security may also decline due to factors that affect a particular industry or group of industries. During a general downturn in the securities markets, multiple asset classes may be negatively affected. Therefore, you may lose money by investing in the Fund.
Equity Investing Risk. An investment in the Fund involves risks similar to those of investing in any fund holding equity securities, such as market fluctuations, changes in interest rates and perceived trends in stock prices. The values of equity securities could decline generally or could underperform other investments. In addition, securities may decline in value due to factors affecting a specific issuer, market or securities markets generally.
Large-Capitalization Companies Risk. Large-capitalization companies may trail the returns of the overall stock market. Large-capitalization stocks tend to go through cycles of doing better - or worse - than the stock market in general. These periods have, in the past, lasted for as long as several years. Larger, more established companies may be slow to respond to challenges and may grow more slowly than smaller companies.
Mid-Capitalization Companies Risk. Investing in securities of mid-capitalization companies involves greater risk than customarily is associated with investing in larger, more established companies. These companies’ securities may be more volatile and less liquid than those of more established companies. Often mid-capitalization companies and the industries in which they focus are still evolving and, as a result, they may be more sensitive to changing market conditions.
Small-Capitalization Companies Risk. Investing in securities of small-capitalization companies involves greater risk than customarily is associated with investing in larger, more established companies. Small-capitalization companies often have less predictable earnings, more limited product lines, markets, distribution channels and financial resources, and the management of such companies may be dependent upon one or few people. Price movements of small-capitalization companies may be more volatile than mid-capitalization and large-capitalization companies.
Growth Investing Risk. The Fund invests in growth securities, which may be more volatile than other types of investments, may perform differently than the market as a whole and may underperform when compared to securities with different investment parameters. Under certain market conditions, growth securities have performed better during the later stages of economic recovery (although there is no guarantee that they will continue to do so). Therefore, growth securities may go in and out of favor over time.
Value Style Investing Risk. A value stock may not increase in price if other investors fail to recognize the company’s value and bid up the price, or the markets favor faster-growing companies. Cyclical stocks in which the Fund may invest tend to lose value more quickly in periods of anticipated economic downturns than non-cyclical stocks. Companies that may be considered out of favor, particularly companies emerging from bankruptcy, may tend to lose value more quickly in periods of anticipated economic downturns, may have difficulty retaining customers and suppliers and, during economic downturns, may have difficulty paying their debt obligations or finding additional financing.
Sector Risk. To the extent the Fund invests more heavily in particular sectors of the economy, its performance will be especially sensitive to developments that significantly affect those sectors and the performance of the Fund could be negatively impacted by events affecting such sectors. Individual sectors or sub-sectors may be more volatile, and may perform differently, than the broader market.
Management Risk. The Fund is actively managed and may not meet its investment objective based on the Adviser’s or Sub-Adviser’s success or failure to implement investment strategies for the Fund.
Depositary Receipts Risk. Depositary receipts are generally subject to the same risks as the foreign securities that they evidence or into which they may be converted. In addition, depositary receipts may not track the price of or may be less liquid than their underlying foreign securities, and the value of depositary receipts may change materially at times when the U.S. markets are not open for trading.
Foreign Investment Risk. Returns on investments in foreign securities could be more volatile than, or trail the returns on, investments in U.S. securities. Investments in or exposures to foreign securities are subject to special risks, including risks associated with foreign securities generally, including differences in information available about issuers of securities and investor protection standards applicable in other jurisdictions; capital controls risks, including the risk of a foreign jurisdiction imposing restrictions on the ability to repatriate or transfer currency or other assets; currency risks; political, diplomatic and economic risks; regulatory risks; and foreign market and trading risks, including the costs of trading and risks of settlement in foreign jurisdictions.
Small Number of Holdings Risk. The Fund’s portfolio may, at times, contain fewer securities than the portfolios of other funds, which increases the risk that the value of the Fund could go down because of the poor performance of one or a few investments. Therefore, the Fund’s performance may be more vulnerable to changes in the market value of a single issuer and more susceptible to risks associated with a single economic, political, or regulatory occurrence than a fund that has a higher number of holdings. An individual security may be more volatile, and may perform differently, than the market as a whole.
In-Kind Contribution Risk. At its launch, the Fund expects to acquire a material amount of assets through one or more in-kind contributions that are intended to qualify as tax-deferred transactions governed by Section 351 of the Internal Revenue Code. If one or more of the in-kind contributions were to fail to qualify for tax-deferred treatment, then the Fund would not take a carryover tax basis in the applicable contributed assets and would not benefit from a tacked holding period in those assets. This could cause the Fund to incorrectly calculate and report to shareholders the amount of gain or loss recognized and/or the character of gain or loss (e.g., as long-term or short-term) on the subsequent disposition of such assets.
Risk of Investing in Other ETFs. Because the Fund may invest in other ETFs, the Fund’s investment performance is impacted by the investment performance of the selected underlying ETFs. An investment in the Fund is subject to the risks associated with the ETFs that then-currently comprise the Fund’s portfolio. At times, certain of the segments of the market represented by the Fund’s underlying ETFs may be out of favor and underperform other segments. The Fund will indirectly pay a proportional share of the expenses of the underlying ETFs in which it invests (including operating expenses and management fees).
ETF Risks.
•Authorized Participants, Market Makers and Liquidity Providers Concentration Risk. The Fund has a limited number of financial institutions that may act as Authorized Participants (“APs”). In addition, there may be a limited number of market makers and/or liquidity providers in the marketplace. To the extent either of the following events occur, bid-ask spreads may widen and Shares may trade at a material discount to NAV and possibly face delisting: (i) APs exit the business or otherwise become unable to process creation and/or redemption orders and no other APs step forward to perform these services, or (ii) market makers and/or liquidity providers exit the business or significantly reduce their business activities and no other entities step forward to perform their functions.
•Premium-Discount Risk. The Shares may trade above or below their net asset value (“NAV”). The market prices of Shares will generally fluctuate in accordance with changes in NAV as well as the relative supply of, and demand for, Shares on The Nasdaq Stock Market, LLC (the “Exchange”) or other securities exchanges. The trading price of Shares may deviate significantly from NAV during periods of market volatility or limited trading activity in Shares. In addition, you may incur the cost of the “spread,” that is, any difference between the bid price and the ask price of the Shares. This risk is heightened in times of market volatility or periods of steep market declines.
•Cost of Trading Risk. Investors buying or selling Shares in the secondary market will pay brokerage commissions or other charges imposed by brokers as determined by that broker. Brokerage commissions are often a fixed amount and may be a significant proportional cost for investors seeking to buy or sell relatively small amounts of Shares.
•Trading Risk. Although the Shares are listed on the Exchange, there can be no assurance that an active or liquid trading market for them will develop or be maintained. In addition, trading in Shares on the Exchange may be halted. In stressed market conditions, the liquidity of Shares may begin to mirror the liquidity of its underlying portfolio holdings, which can be less liquid than Shares, potentially causing the market price of Shares to deviate from its NAV. The spread varies over time for Shares of the Fund based on the Fund’s trading volume and market liquidity and is generally lower if the Fund has high trading volume and market liquidity, and higher if the Fund has little trading volume and market liquidity (which is often the case for funds that are newly launched or small in size).
Non-Diversification Risk. Because the Fund is non-diversified, it may be more sensitive to economic, business, political or other changes affecting individual issuers or investments than a diversified fund, which may result in greater fluctuation in the value of the Shares and greater risk of loss.
New Fund Risk. The Fund is a recently organized investment company with no operating history. As a result, prospective investors have no track record or history on which to base their investment decision. There can be no assurance that the Fund will grow to or maintain an economically viable size.
PERFORMANCE
Performance information is not provided below because the Fund has not yet been in operation for one full calendar year. When provided, the information will provide some indication of the risks of investing in the Fund by showing how the Fund’s average annual returns compare with a broad measure of market performance. Past performance does not necessarily indicate how the Fund will perform in the future. Updated performance information will be available at https://arsinvestetfs.com.
INVESTMENT ADVISER & INVESTMENT SUB-ADVISER
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Investment Adviser: | Empowered Funds, LLC dba EA Advisers (the “Adviser”) |
Investment Sub-Adviser: | ARS Investment Partners, LLC (the “Sub-Adviser”) |
PORTFOLIO MANAGERS
Arnold R. Schmeidler, Senior Partner and founder of the Sub-Adviser, Sean Lawless, Partner of the Sub-Adviser, P. Ross Taylor III, Partner of the Sub-Adviser, and Nitin Sacheti, Manager of the Sub-Adviser, are the Fund’s portfolio managers and have been primarily responsible for the day-to-day management of the Fund since the Fund’s inception.
PURCHASE AND SALE OF SHARES
The Fund issues and redeems Shares on a continuous basis only in large blocks of Shares known as “Creation Units,” and only APs (typically, broker-dealers) may purchase or redeem Creation Units. Creation Units generally are issued and redeemed ‘in-kind’ for securities and partially in cash. Individual Shares may only be purchased and sold in secondary market transactions through brokers. Once created, individual Shares generally trade in the secondary market at market prices that change throughout the day. Market prices of Shares may be greater or less than their NAV. Except when aggregated in Creation Units, the Fund’s shares are not redeemable securities. Recent information, including information about the Fund’s NAV, market price, premiums and discounts, and bid-ask spreads, will be available at https://arsinvestetfs.com.
TAX INFORMATION
The Fund’s distributions generally are taxable to you as ordinary income, capital gain, or some combination of both, unless your investment is made through an Individual Retirement Account (“IRA”) or other tax-advantaged account. However, subsequent withdrawals from such a tax-advantaged account may be subject to U.S. federal income tax. You should consult your own tax advisor about your specific tax situation.
PURCHASES THROUGH BROKER-DEALERS AND OTHER FINANCIAL INTERMEDIARIES
If you purchase Shares through a broker-dealer or other financial intermediary, the Fund and its related companies may pay the intermediary for the sale of Shares and related services. These payments may create a conflict of interest by influencing the broker-dealer or other intermediary and your salesperson to recommend Shares over another investment. Ask your salesperson or visit your financial intermediary’s website for more information.