Investment Objective

The investment objective of the Fund is to seek total return, consistent with preservation of capital.

Fees and Expenses of the Fund

The table below describes the fees and expenses that you may pay if you buy, hold and sell shares of the Fund. You may pay other fees, such as brokerage commissions and other fees to financial intermediaries, when buying or selling shares of the Fund, which are not reflected in this table or the example that follows:

Annual Fund Operating Expenses

(expenses that you pay each year as a percentage of the value of your investment)

*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 in the Fund for the time periods indicated and then sell all your shares at the end of a period. The example also assumes that your investment has a 5% return each year and that the Fund’s operating expenses remain the same. The example does not reflect brokerage commissions that you may pay when you purchase and sell Fund shares. Although your actual costs may be higher or lower, based on these assumptions your costs would be:

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 and may result in higher taxes when Fund 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. The Fund has not completed its first fiscal year, and therefore it does not have a portfolio turnover rate to report.

Principal Investment Strategies

The Fund is an actively managed exchange-traded fund (“ETF”) that seeks to pursue its investment objective by investing, under normal market conditions, at least 80% of the sum of its net assets and the amount of any borrowings for investment purposes in income producing fixed income securities. The Fund will invest primarily in investment grade fixed income securities, which are instruments rated in the top four credit categories by a nationally recognized statistical rating organization (“NRSRO”) or deemed to be of the same quality by the Fund’s sub-adviser using its own credit analysis. As part of its principal investment strategy, the Fund may invest in U.S. Treasury securities and agencies, corporate securities, asset-backed securities, mortgage-backed and mortgage-related securities, and high quality money market instruments such as commercial paper and certificates of deposit. The Fund may also invest in securities issued or guaranteed by the U.S. government or its agencies and instrumentalities, securities issued or guaranteed by foreign governments, repurchase agreements, when-issued securities, delayed delivery securities, forward commitments, zero coupon securities and privately placed securities. All securities will be U.S. dollar-denominated although they may be issued by a foreign corporation or a U.S. affiliate of a foreign corporation, or a foreign government or its agencies and instrumentalities.

The Fund seeks to maintain a duration of one year or less, although under certain market conditions such as in periods of significant volatility in interest rates and spreads, the Fund’s duration may be as long as two years. Duration is a measure of price sensitivity of a debt security or a portfolio of debt securities to relative changes in interest rates. For instance, a duration of one year means that a security’s or portfolio’s price would be expected to decrease by approximately 1% with a 1% increase in interest rates (assuming a parallel shift in yield curve). The longer a portfolio’s duration, the more sensitive it is to changes in interest rates. The Fund uses option-adjusted duration to estimate how much the value of a

bond portfolio would be affected by a change in prevailing interest rates. Option-adjusted duration takes into account options embedded in the individual securities that might result in early repayment of principal, thereby shortening their duration.

The Fund also may invest in securities rated below investment grade (commonly referred to as “high yield” or “junk” bonds) or the unrated equivalent. These securities generally are rated in the fifth or lower rating categories by a NRSRO (rated BB/Ba or lower). These securities generally offer a higher yield than investment grade securities, but involve a high degree of risk. A security’s quality is determined at the time of purchase and securities that are rated investment grade or the unrated equivalent may be downgraded or decline in credit quality such that subsequently they would be deemed to be below investment grade.

The Fund may invest a significant portion of its assets in mortgage-related and mortgage-backed, as well as restricted securities, at the sub-adviser’s discretion.

In addition, the Fund may invest up to 20% of its net assets in derivative instruments and cash. The Fund may use Treasury futures contracts, in connection with its principal investment strategies, in certain market conditions, to hedge against interest rate risk.

The Fund is not a money market fund and does not seek to maintain a stable net asset value of $1.00 per share.

Principal Risks

You could lose money by investing in the Fund. An investment in the Fund is not a deposit of a bank and is not insured or guaranteed by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation or any other government agency. The principal risks of investing in the Fund listed below are presented alphabetically to facilitate your ability to find particular risks and compare them with the risks of other funds. Each risk summarized below is considered a “principal risk” of investing in the Fund, regardless of the order in which it appears.

Active Management Risk—The Fund’s sub-adviser actively manages the Fund’s investments. Consequently, the Fund is subject to the risk that the investment techniques and risk analyses employed by the Fund’s sub-adviser may not produce the desired results. This could cause the Fund to lose value or its investment results to lag relevant benchmarks or other funds with similar objectives.

Call Risk—If, during periods of falling interest rates, an issuer exercises its right to prepay principal on its higher-yielding debt securities held by the Fund, the Fund may have to reinvest in securities with lower yields or higher risk of default, which may adversely impact the Fund’s performance.

Cash Redemption Risk—The Fund’s investment strategy may require it to effect redemptions, in whole or in part, in cash. In order to obtain the cash needed for a redemption, the Fund may be required to sell portfolio securities, which may cause the Fund to incur certain costs such as brokerage costs and recognize capital gains or losses that it might not have recognized if it had satisfied the redemption in-kind. Therefore, to the extent the Fund effects redemptions in cash, it may pay out higher annual capital gain distributions than if it satisfied redemptions entirely in-kind. These costs may decrease the Fund’s NAV to the extent not offset by a transaction fee payable by an authorized participant.

Concentration Risk—To the extent that the Fund’s portfolio is concentrated in the securities of issuers in a particular market, industry, group of industries or sector, the Fund may be adversely affected by the performance of those securities, may be subject to increased price volatility and may be more susceptible to adverse economic, market, political or regulatory occurrences affecting that market, industry, group of industries or sector.

Credit Risk—Credit risk is the risk that an issuer or other obligated party of a debt security may be, or perceived (whether by market participants, rating agencies, pricing services or otherwise) to be, unable or unwilling to make interest and principal payments when due and the related risk that the value of a debt security may decline because of concerns about the issuer’s ability or willingness to make such payments.

Credit Spread Risk—Credit spread risk is the risk that credit spreads (i.e., the difference in yield between securities that is due to differences in their credit quality) may increase when the market believes that bonds generally have a greater risk of default. Increasing credit spreads may reduce the market values of the Fund’s debt securities. Credit spreads often increase more for lower rated and unrated securities than for investment grade securities. In addition, when credit spreads increase, reductions in market value will generally be greater for longer-maturity securities.

Cybersecurity Risk—Cybersecurity risk is the risk of an unauthorized breach and access to Fund assets, customer data (including private shareholder information), or proprietary information, or the risk of an incident occurring that causes the Fund, its investment adviser or sub-adviser, custodian, transfer agent, distributor or other service provider, a financial

intermediary or the issuers of securities held by the Fund to suffer a data breach, data corruption or lose operational functionality. Successful cyber-attacks or other cyber-failures or events affecting the Fund, its service providers or the issuers of securities held by the Fund may adversely impact the Fund or its shareholders. Additionally, a cybersecurity breach could affect the issuers in which the Fund invests, which may cause the Fund’s investments to lose value.

Derivatives Risk—The use of derivatives involves additional risks and transaction costs which could leave the Fund in a worse position than if it had not used these instruments. Derivative instruments can be used to acquire or to transfer the risk and returns of a security or other asset without buying or selling the security or asset. These instruments may entail investment exposures that are greater than their cost would suggest. As a result, a small investment in derivatives can result in losses that greatly exceed the original investment. Derivatives can be highly volatile, illiquid and difficult to value. An over-the-counter derivative transaction between the Fund and a counterparty that is not cleared through a central counterparty also involves the risk that a loss may be sustained as a result of the failure of the counterparty to the contract to make required payments. The payment obligation for a cleared derivative transaction is guaranteed by a central counterparty, which exposes the Fund to the creditworthiness of the central counterparty.

Foreign Investment Risk—Non-U.S. issuers or U.S. issuers with significant non-U.S. operations may be subject to risks in addition to those of issuers located in or that principally operate in the United States as a result of, among other things, political, social and economic developments abroad, as well as armed conflicts, and different legal, regulatory and tax environments. Foreign investments may also have lower liquidity and be more difficult to value than investments in U.S. issuers. To the extent the Fund invests a significant portion of its assets in the securities of companies in a single country or region, it may be more susceptible to adverse conditions affecting that country or region. Foreign investments may also be subject to risk of loss because of more or less foreign government regulation, less public information, less stringent investor protections and less stringent accounting, corporate governance, financial reporting and disclosure standards.

Futures Contract Risk—The use of futures contracts involves additional risks and transaction costs, which could leave the Fund in a worse position than if it had not used these instruments. Futures contracts may entail investment exposures that are greater than their cost would suggest. As a result, a small investment in futures contracts could have a large impact on performance.

High Yield Securities Risk—High yield securities, which are rated below investment grade and commonly referred to as “junk” bonds, and unrated securities of comparable quality are high risk investments that may cause income and principal losses for the Fund. They generally are considered to be speculative with respect to the ability to pay interest and repay principal, have greater credit risk, are less liquid, are more likely to experience a default and have more volatile prices than investment grade securities.

Income Risk—The Fund’s income could decline during periods of falling interest rates or when the Fund experiences defaults on debt securities it holds.

Interest Rate Risk—Interest rate risk is the risk that the value of the Fund’s fixed-rate securities will decline because of rising interest rates. Changing interest rates, may have unpredictable effects on markets, result in heightened market volatility and detract from the Fund’s performance to the extent that it is exposed to such interest rates. Fixed-rate securities may be subject to a greater risk of rising interest rates than would normally be the case due to the effect of potential government fiscal policy initiatives and resulting market reaction to those initiatives. Higher periods of inflation could lead to government fiscal policies which raise interest rates. When interest rates change, the values of longer-duration fixed-rate securities usually change more than the values of shorter-duration fixed-rate securities. Conversely, fixed-rate securities with shorter durations or maturities will be less volatile but may provide lower returns than fixed-rate securities with longer durations or maturities. Rising interest rates also may lengthen the duration of securities with call features, since exercise of the call becomes less likely as interest rates rise, which in turn will make the securities more sensitive to changes in interest rates and result in even steeper price declines in the event of further interest rate increases. The Fund is also subject to the risk that the income generated by its investments may not keep pace with inflation.

Market Risk—The market value of the Fund’s investments may go up or down, sometimes rapidly or unpredictably and for short or extended periods of time, due to the particular circumstances of individual issuers or due to general conditions impacting issuers more broadly. Global economies and financial markets have become highly interconnected, and thus economic, market or political conditions or events in one country or region might adversely impact the value of the Fund’s investments whether or not the Fund invests in such country or region. Events such as war, terrorism, natural and environmental disasters and the spread of infectious illnesses or other public health emergencies may have a severe negative impact on the global economy, could cause financial markets to experience extreme volatility and losses, and

could result in the disruption of trading and the reduction of liquidity in many instruments. Additionally, to the extent the rate of inflation increases, the value of the Fund’s assets may decline.

Market Liquidity Risk—Reductions in trading activity or dealer inventories of securities such as bonds, which provide an indication of the ability of financial intermediaries to “make markets” in those securities, have the potential to decrease liquidity and increase price volatility in the markets in which the Fund invests, particularly during periods of economic or market stress. In addition, federal banking regulations may cause certain dealers to reduce their inventories of securities, which may further decrease the Fund’s ability to buy or sell securities. As a result of this decreased liquidity, the Fund may have to accept a lower price to sell a security, sell other securities to raise cash, or give up an investment opportunity, any of which could have a negative effect on performance. Although only certain institutional investors are entitled to redeem shares of the Fund (as described in more detail under “Purchase and Sale of Fund Shares” below), if the Fund is forced to sell underlying investments at reduced prices or under unfavorable conditions to meet redemption requests or for other cash needs, the Fund may suffer a loss and hurt performance.

Market Trading Risks—The Fund is an ETF, and as with all ETFs, Fund shares may be bought and sold in the secondary market at market prices. Although it is expected that the market price of a Fund share typically will approximate its net asset value (“NAV”), there may be times when the market price and the NAV diverge more significantly, particularly in times of market volatility or steep market declines. Thus, you may pay more or less than NAV when you buy Fund shares on the secondary market, and you may receive more or less than NAV when you sell those shares. Although the Fund’s shares are listed for trading on a national securities exchange, it is possible that an active trading market may not develop or be maintained, in which case transactions may occur at wider bid/ask spreads (which may be especially pronounced for smaller funds). Trading of the Fund’s shares may be halted by the activation of individual or market-wide trading halts (which halt trading for a specific period of time when the price of a particular security or overall market prices decline by a specified percentage). In times of market stress, the Fund’s underlying portfolio holdings may become less liquid, which in turn may affect the liquidity of the Fund’s shares and/or lead to more significant differences between the Fund’s market price and its NAV. Market makers are under no obligation to make a market in the Fund’s shares, and authorized participants are not obligated to submit purchase or redemption orders for the Fund’s shares. In the event market makers cease making a market in the Fund’s shares or authorized participants stop submitting creation or redemption orders, Fund shares may trade at a larger premium or discount to NAV. Because securities held by the Fund may trade on, or have exposure to, foreign exchanges that are closed when the Fund’s primary listing exchange is open, there are likely to be deviations between the last quote from the security’s closed foreign market and the value of such security during the Fund’s domestic trading day, which in turn may result in differences between the market price of the Fund’s shares and the underlying value of those shares.

Money Market Fund Risk—An investment in a money market fund is not a bank deposit and is not insured or guaranteed by any bank, the FDIC or any other government agency. It is possible for the Fund to lose money by investing in money market funds. If the liquidity of a money market fund’s portfolio deteriorates below certain levels, the money market fund may suspend redemptions or impose a fee of up to 2% on amounts the Fund redeems from the money market fund. These measures may result in an investment loss or prohibit the Fund from redeeming shares. Additionally, the Fund indirectly bears the fees and expenses of any money market funds in which it invests.

Mortgage- and Asset-Backed Securities Risk—Mortgage- and asset-backed securities generally can be prepaid at any time, and prepayments that occur either more quickly or more slowly than expected can adversely impact the value of such securities. They are also subject to extension risk, which is the risk that rising interest rates could cause mortgages or other obligations underlying the securities to be prepaid more slowly than expected, thereby lengthening the duration of such securities, increasing their sensitivity to interest rate changes and causing their prices to decline. Mortgage-backed securities are particularly sensitive to prepayment risk, given that the term to maturity for mortgage loans is generally substantially longer than the expected lives of those securities. A mortgage-backed security may be negatively affected by the quality of the mortgages underlying such security, the credit quality of its issuer or guarantor, and the nature and structure of its credit support. Mortgage- and asset-backed securities that are not backed by the full faith and credit of the U.S. government are subject to the risk of default on the underlying mortgage, loan or asset, particularly during periods of economic downturn.

Prepayment Risk—Prepayment risk is the risk that the issuer of a debt security will repay principal prior to the scheduled maturity date. Debt securities allowing prepayment may offer less potential for gains during a period of declining interest rates, as the Fund may be required to reinvest the proceeds of any prepayment at lower interest rates.

Repurchase Agreement Risk—Repurchase agreements may be subject to market and credit risk with respect to the collateral securing the repurchase agreements. If the market value of the underlying obligations of a repurchase

agreement declines prior to the expiration of the repurchase agreement term, the counterparty must provide additional collateral so that, at all times, the value of the collateral remains greater than the repurchase price of the underlying obligations. Further, if the counterparty to a repurchase agreement defaults on its obligations and the Fund is delayed or prevented from recovering the collateral, or if the value of the collateral is insufficient, the Fund may realize a loss.

Restricted Securities Risk—The market for restricted securities, including Rule 144A securities, typically is less active than the market for publicly traded securities. Rule 144A securities and other securities exempt from registration under the Securities Act carry the risk that their liquidity may become impaired and the Fund may be unable to dispose of the securities promptly or at current market value.

Service Provider Operational Risk—The Fund’s service providers, such as the Fund’s administrator, custodian or transfer agent, may experience disruptions or operating errors that could negatively impact the Fund. Although service providers are required to have appropriate operational risk management policies and procedures, and to take appropriate precautions to avoid and mitigate risks that could lead to disruptions and operating errors, it may not be possible to identify all of the operational risks that may affect the Fund or to develop processes and controls to completely eliminate or mitigate their occurrence or effects.

Sovereign Debt Risk—Sovereign debt instruments are subject to the risk that a governmental entity may delay or refuse to pay interest or repay principal on its sovereign debt. This may be due to, for example, cash flow problems, insufficient foreign currency reserves, political considerations, the relative size of the governmental entity’s debt position in relation to the economy or the failure to put in place economic reforms required by the International Monetary Fund or other multilateral agencies.

Ultra Short Fund Risk—The Fund is not a money market fund. Therefore, the Fund does not attempt to maintain a stable net asset value and is not subject to the rules that govern the diversity, quality, maturity, liquidity and other features of securities that money market funds may purchase. Under normal conditions, the Fund may be more susceptible than a money market fund to interest rate risk, valuation risk, credit risk and other risks relevant to the Fund’s investments. Unlike certain money market funds, the Fund’s net asset value per share will fluctuate.

Unrated Security Risk—Unrated securities determined by the Fund’s sub-adviser to be of comparable quality to rated securities which the Fund may purchase may pay a higher interest rate than such rated securities and be subject to a greater risk of illiquidity or price changes. Less public information is typically available about unrated securities or issuers than rated securities or issuers.

U.S. Government Securities Risk—U.S. government securities are guaranteed only as to the timely payment of interest and the payment of principal when held to maturity. Accordingly, the current market values for these securities will fluctuate with changes in interest rates. Securities issued or guaranteed by U.S. government agencies and instrumentalities are supported by varying degrees of credit but generally are not backed by the full faith and credit of the U.S. government. No assurance can be given that the U.S. government will provide financial support to its agencies and instrumentalities if it is not obligated by law to do so.

Valuation Risk—The debt securities in which the Fund invests typically are valued by a pricing service utilizing a range of market-based inputs and assumptions, including price quotations obtained from broker-dealers making markets in such instruments, cash flows and transactions for comparable instruments. There is no assurance that the Fund will be able to buy or sell a portfolio security at the price established by the pricing service, which could result in a gain or loss to the Fund. Pricing services generally price debt securities assuming orderly transactions of an institutional “round lot” size, but some trades may occur in smaller, “odd lot” sizes, often at lower prices than institutional round lot trades. Over certain time periods, such differences could materially impact the performance of the Fund, which may not be sustainable. Alternative pricing services may incorporate different assumptions and inputs into their valuation methodologies, potentially resulting in different values for the same securities. As a result, if the Fund were to change pricing services, or if the Fund’s pricing service were to change its valuation methodology, there could be a material impact, either positive or negative, on the Fund’s net asset value.

When-Issued, TBA, Delayed Delivery and Forward Commitment Transaction Risk—The Fund may purchase securities on a when-issued, to-be-announced (“TBA”), delayed delivery or forward commitment basis. The purchase price of the securities is typically fixed at the time of the commitment, but delivery and payment can take place a month or more after the date of the commitment. At the time of delivery of the securities, the value may be more or less than the purchase or sale price. Purchase of securities on a when-issued, TBA, delayed delivery or forward commitment basis may give rise to leverage, and may result in increased volatility of the Fund’s NAV. Default by, or bankruptcy of, a counterparty to a when-issued, TBA, delayed delivery transaction or forward commitment would expose the Fund to possible losses

because of an adverse market action, expenses or delays in connection with the purchase or sale of the pools specified in such transaction.

Zero Coupon Bonds Risk—Because interest on zero coupon bonds is not paid on a current basis, the values of zero coupon bonds will be more volatile in response to interest rate changes than the values of bonds that distribute income regularly. Although zero coupon bonds generate income for accounting purposes, they do not produce cash flow, and thus the Fund could be forced to liquidate securities at an inopportune time in order to generate cash to distribute to shareholders as required by tax laws.

Fund Performance

The Fund is new and therefore does not have performance history for a full calendar year. When this prospectus is updated after a full calendar year of operations, a bar chart and table will be included that will provide some indication of the risks of investing in the Fund by showing the variability of the Fund’s returns based on net assets and comparing the Fund’s performance to a broad measure of market performance. Updated performance information is available at www.nuveen.com/etf or by calling (800) 257-8787.

Management

Investment Adviser

Nuveen Fund Advisors, LLC

Sub-Adviser

Nuveen Asset Management, LLC

Portfolio Managers

Purchase and Sale of Fund Shares

The Fund is an actively managed ETF. Shares of the Fund are listed on a national securities exchange and can only be bought and sold in the secondary market through a broker-dealer at market prices. Because Fund shares trade at market prices rather than NAV, shares may trade at a price greater than NAV (at a “premium”) or less than NAV (at a “discount”). An investor may also incur costs attributable to the difference between the highest price a buyer is willing to pay to purchase Fund shares (bid) and the lowest price a seller is willing to accept for Fund shares (ask) when buying and selling shares in the secondary market (the “bid/ask spread”). Recent information regarding the Fund, including its NAV, market price, premiums and discounts, and bid/ask spreads, is available on the Fund’s website at www.nuveen.com/etf.

Tax Information

The Fund’s distributions are taxable and will generally be taxed as ordinary income or capital gains, unless you are investing through a tax-deferred account, such as an individual retirement account (“IRA”) or 401(k) plan (in which case you may be taxed upon withdrawal of your investment from such account).

Payments to Broker-Dealers and Other Financial Intermediaries

If you purchase shares of the Fund through a broker-dealer or other financial intermediary (such as a bank or financial advisor), the Fund’s investment adviser or its affiliates may pay the intermediary for marketing activities and presentations, educational training programs, conferences, the development of technology platforms and reporting systems or other services related to the sale or promotion of Fund shares. These payments may create a conflict of interest by influencing the broker-dealer or other financial intermediary and your salesperson to recommend the Fund over another investment. Ask your salesperson or visit your financial intermediary’s website for more information.

[THIS PAGE INTENTIONALLY LEFT BLANK]