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Summary Prospectus
January 1, 2024 | |
Avantis® Short-Term Fixed Income Fund
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Institutional Class: AVSFX | | G Class: AVGNX | |
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| Before you invest, you may want to review the fund’s prospectus, which contains more information about the fund and its risks. You can find the fund’s prospectus, reports to shareholders, and other information about the fund online at avantisinvestors.com/docs. You can also get this information at no cost by calling 833-9AVANTIS or sending an email request to prospectus@avantisinvestors.com. The fund’s prospectus and other information are also available from financial intermediaries through which shares of the fund may be purchased or sold. | |
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| This summary prospectus incorporates by reference the fund’s prospectus and statement of additional information (SAI) each dated January 1, 2024 (as supplemented at the time you receive this summary prospectus), as well as the Report of Independent Registered Public Accounting Firm and the financial statements included in the fund’s annual report to shareholders, dated August 31, 2023. The fund’s SAI and annual report may be obtained, free of charge, in the same manner as the prospectus. | |
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Investment Objective
The fund seeks to maximize total return.
Fees and Expenses
The following table describes the fees and expenses 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, which are not reflected in the tables and examples below.
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Annual Fund Operating Expenses (expenses that you pay each year as a percentage of the value of your investment) | Institutional Class | G Class |
Management Fee | 0.15% | 0.15% |
Other Expenses | 0.00% | 0.00% |
Total Annual Fund Operating Expenses | 0.15% | 0.15% |
Fee Waiver | None | 0.15%¹ |
Total Annual Fund Operating Expenses After Waiver | 0.15% | 0.00% |
1 The advisor has agreed to waive the G Class’s management fee in its entirety. The advisor expects this waiver to remain in effect permanently and cannot terminate it without the approval of the Board of Trustees.
Example
The example below is intended to help you compare the costs of investing in the fund with the costs of investing in other mutual funds. The example assumes that you invest $10,000 in the fund for the time periods indicated and then redeem all of your shares at the end of those periods, that you earn a 5% return each year, and that the fund’s operating expenses remain the same, except that it reflects the rate and duration of any fee waivers noted in the table above. Although your actual costs may be higher or lower, based on these assumptions your costs would be:
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| 1 year | 3 years | 5 years | 10 years |
Institutional Class | $15 | $48 | $85 | $192 |
G Class | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 |
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. During the most recent fiscal year, the fund’s portfolio turnover rate was 52% of the average value of its portfolio.
Principal Investment Strategies
The fund invests primarily in investment grade quality debt obligations from a diverse group of U.S. and non-U.S. issuers.
The fund’s investment process uses an analytical framework, which includes an assessment of securities’ expected income and capital appreciation, to seek securities with high expected returns. The portfolio managers categorize securities within the fund’s investment universe into component groups based on factors such as industry sector, credit rating, duration, country, and currency. The portfolio managers then calculate the expected return implied by the yield curve of each component group, while considering valuation metrics such as yield, duration, and option adjusted spreads. Finally, the portfolio managers adjust the portfolio to arrive at position weightings for each component group with the goal of building a portfolio with enhanced expected return.
Under normal market conditions, the fund will invest at least 80% of its net assets, plus any borrowings for investment purposes, in fixed income securities. Fixed income securities in which the fund may invest include corporate bonds and notes issued by U.S. and foreign corporations, securities issued by governments and their agencies, instrumentalities, or sponsored corporations—including supranational organizations. The fund may also invest in derivative instruments such as futures contracts or swap agreements, including credit default swaps, credit default swap indexes, and total return swaps.
The fund expects to maintain a weighted average maturity of three years or less. The fund will invest primarily in investment grade securities as rated by an independent rating agency or determined by the advisor to be of comparable credit quality if a rating is unavailable.
The fund may engage in foreign currency transactions on a spot basis and may also use currency forward contracts to hedge exposure to foreign currencies. The fund may purchase or sell when-issued, forward-settling, delayed delivery or forward commitment obligations. The fund may invest more than 25% of its total assets in U.S. Treasury, federal agencies and instrumentalities obligations.
The fund may also engage in securities lending. Collateral received by the fund in connection with loaning its securities may consist of cash and U.S. government securities. Cash collateral may be invested in eligible securities, such as a government money market fund.
The portfolio managers continually analyze market and financial data to make buy, sell, and hold decisions. When buying or selling a security, the portfolio managers may consider the trade-off between expected returns of the security and implementation or tax costs of the trade in an attempt to gain trading efficiencies, avoid unnecessary risk, and enhance fund performance.
Principal Risks
•Interest Rate Risk — Investments in debt securities are also sensitive to interest rate changes. Generally, the value of debt securities and the funds that hold them decline as interest rates rise. The fund is more susceptible to interest rate changes than funds that have shorter-weighted average maturities, such as money market and short-term bond funds. A period of rising interest rates may negatively affect the fund’s performance.
•Credit Risk — The inability or perceived inability of a security’s issuer to make interest and principal payments may cause the value of the security to decrease. As a result, the fund’s share price could also decrease. Changes in the credit rating of a debt security held by the fund could have a similar effect.
•Liquidity Risk — During periods of market turbulence or unusually low trading activity, it may be necessary for the fund to sell securities at prices that could have an adverse effect on the fund. The market for lower-quality debt securities is generally less liquid than the market for higher-quality securities. Changing regulatory and market conditions, including increases in interest rates and credit spreads may adversely affect the liquidity of the fund’s investments.
•Prepayment and Extension Risk — The fund may invest in debt securities backed by mortgages or assets such as auto loan, home equity loan or student loan receivables. These underlying obligations may be prepaid, as when a homeowner refinances a mortgage to take advantage of declining interest rates. If so, the fund must reinvest prepayments at current rates, which may be less than the rate of the prepaid mortgage. Because of this prepayment risk, the fund may benefit less from declining interest rates than funds of similar duration that invest less heavily in mortgage- and asset-backed securities. Conversely, an issuer may exercise its right to pay principal on an obligation held by the fund later than expected (extend the obligation), especially in periods of rising interest rates. These events may lengthen the duration (i.e., interest rate sensitivity) and potentially reduce the value of these securities.
•Foreign Risk — Foreign securities are generally riskier than U.S. securities. Political events (such as civil unrest, national elections and imposition of exchange controls), social and economic events (such as labor strikes and rising inflation), natural disasters and public health emergencies occurring in a country where the fund invests could cause the fund’s investments in that country to experience gains or losses. Securities of foreign issuers may be less liquid, more volatile and harder to value than U.S. securities.
•Derivatives Risk — The use of derivative instruments involves risks different from, or possibly greater than, the risks associated with investing directly in securities and other traditional instruments. Derivatives are subject to a number of risks, including liquidity, interest rate, market, credit and correlation risk. Derivatives used for hedging or risk management may not operate as intended, may expose the fund to other risks, and may be insufficient to protect the fund from the risks they were intended to hedge. In addition, derivatives can create economic leverage in the fund’s portfolio, which may result in significant volatility and cause the fund to participate in losses (as well as gains) in an amount that exceeds the fund’s initial investment. Certain derivatives have the potential for unlimited loss, regardless of the size of the initial investment. Futures contracts may experience potentially dramatic price changes (losses) and imperfect correlations between the price of the contract and the underlying security, index or currency. Swap agreements subject a fund to counterparty risk. Interest rate swaps could result in losses if the fund does not correctly anticipate interest rate changes. Credit default swaps could result in losses if the fund does not correctly evaluate the creditworthiness of the issuer on which the credit default swap is based.
•Currency Risk — The fund could experience gains or losses solely on changes in the exchange rate between foreign currencies and the U.S. dollar.
•Investment Process Risk — Securities selected by the portfolio managers may perform differently than expected due to the portfolio managers’ judgments regarding the factors used, the weight placed on each factor, changes from the factors’ historical trends, and technical issues with the construction and implementation of the investment process (including, for example, data problems and/or software or other implementation issues). There is no guarantee that the investment process will result in effective investment decisions for the fund.
•Market Risk — The value of the fund’s shares will go up and down based on the performance of the companies whose securities it owns and other factors generally affecting the securities market. Market risks, including political, regulatory, economic and social developments, can affect the value of the fund’s investments. Natural disasters, public health emergencies, war, terrorism and other unforeseeable events may lead to increased market volatility and may have adverse long-term effects on world economies and markets generally.
•Securities Lending Risk — Securities lending involves the risk of loss of rights in, or delay in recovery of, the loaned securities if the borrower fails to return the security loaned or becomes insolvent.
•Redemption Risk — The fund may need to sell securities at times it would not otherwise do so to meet shareholder redemption requests. Selling securities to meet such redemptions may cause the fund to experience a loss, increase the fund’s transaction costs or have tax consequences. To the extent that a large shareholder (including a fund of funds or 529 college savings plan) invests in the fund, the fund may experience relatively large redemptions as such shareholder reallocates its assets.
•Principal Loss Risk — At any given time your shares may be worth less than the price you paid for them. In other words, it is possible to lose money by investing in the fund.
An investment in the fund is not a bank deposit, and it is not insured or guaranteed by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) or any other government agency.
Fund Performance
The following bar chart and table provide some indication of the risks of investing in the fund. The bar chart shows changes in the fund’s performance from year to year for Institutional Class shares. The table shows how the fund’s average annual returns for the periods shown compared with those of a broad measure of market performance. The fund’s past performance (before and after taxes) is not necessarily an indication of how the fund will perform in the future. For current performance information, please visit avantisinvestors.com.
Sales charges and account fees, if applicable, are not reflected in the bar chart. If those charges were included, returns would be less than those shown.
Calendar Year Total Returns
Highest Performance Quarter (4Q 2022): 1.26% Lowest Performance Quarter (1Q 2022): -3.57%
As of September 30, 2023, the most recent calendar quarter end, the fund’s year-to-date return was 1.79%.
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Average Annual Total Returns For the calendar year ended December 31, 2022 | 1 year | Since Inception | Inception Date |
Institutional Class Return Before Taxes | -5.48% | -3.42% | 02/24/2021 |
Return After Taxes on Distributions | -5.89% | -3.73% | 02/24/2021 |
Return After Taxes on Distributions and Sale of Fund Shares | -3.25% | -2.72% | 02/24/2021 |
G Class Return Before Taxes | -5.34% | -3.27% | 02/24/2021 |
Bloomberg U.S. Aggregate Government & Credit 1-5 Year Index (reflects no deduction for fees, expenses or taxes) | -5.50% | -3.43% | — |
After-tax returns are calculated using the historical highest individual federal marginal income tax rates and do not reflect the impact of state and local taxes. Actual after-tax returns depend on an investor’s tax situation and may differ from those shown. After-tax returns are not relevant to investors who hold their fund shares through tax-deferred arrangements, such as 401(k) plans or IRAs.
Portfolio Management
Investment Advisor
American Century Investment Management, Inc.
Portfolio Managers
Eduardo Repetto, Chief Investment Officer of Avantis Investors, has been a member of the team that manages the fund since 2020.
Hozef Arif, Senior Portfolio Manager, has been a member of the team that manages the fund since 2020.
Mitchell Handa, Senior Portfolio Manager, has been a member of the team that manages the fund since 2020.
Daniel Ong, Senior Portfolio Manager, has been a member of the team that manages the fund since 2020.
Purchase and Sale of Fund Shares
You may purchase or redeem shares of the fund on any business day through a financial intermediary. Shares may be purchased and redemption proceeds received by electronic bank transfer, by check or by wire.
The minimum initial investment amount for the Institutional Class is generally $5 million ($3 million for endowments and foundations), but the minimum may be waived if you have an aggregate investment in the American Century family of funds of $10 million or more ($5 million for endowments and foundations). This includes accounts held directly with American Century and those held through a financial intermediary.
Generally, there is no minimum initial investment amount for certain employer-sponsored retirement plans, however, financial intermediaries or plan recordkeepers may require plans to meet different minimums. For purposes of fund minimums, employer-sponsored retirement plans do not include SEP IRAs, SIMPLE IRAs or SARSEPs.
G Class shares are available for purchase by other funds offered by American Century Investments for which it charges a management fee. In its sole discretion, American Century Investments may also make G Class shares available for purchase by other institutional clients for which American Century Investments provides investment management services for a fee pursuant to an investment advisory agreement. Currently, eligible clients are limited to commingled investment trusts or other pooled investment vehicles that utilize a target date or other asset allocation investment strategy for which American Century Investments provides asset allocation or glide path investment management services for a fee. G Class shares do not have a minimum purchase amount.
Tax Information
Fund distributions are generally taxable as ordinary income or capital gains, unless you are investing through a tax-deferred account such as a 401(k) or individual retirement account (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 the fund through a broker-dealer or other financial intermediary (such as a bank, insurance company, plan sponsor or financial professional), the fund and its related companies may pay the intermediary for the sale of fund shares and related services in the Institutional Class. These payments may create a conflict of interest by influencing the broker-dealer or other intermediary and your salesperson to recommend the fund over another investment. Ask your salesperson or visit your financial intermediary’s website for more information.
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©2024 American Century Proprietary Holdings, Inc. All rights reserved.
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