Equity
Securities Risk: The Fund is subject to the risk that stock prices will fall over short or extended periods of time. Individual companies may report poor results or be negatively affected by industry and/or economic trends and developments, or as a result of irregular and/or unexpected trading activity among retail investors. The prices of securities issued by these companies may decline in response to such developments, which could result in a decline in the value of the Fund’s shares.
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Large-Cap Risk: Large-cap companies may be unable to respond quickly to new competitive challenges, such as changes in
technology and consumer tastes, and also may not be able to attain the high growth rate of successful smaller companies, especially during extended periods of economic
expansion.
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Mid-Cap Risk: Stocks of mid-sized companies may be subject to more abrupt or erratic
market movements than stocks of larger, more established companies. Mid-sized companies may have limited product lines or financial resources, and may be dependent upon a particular niche of the market.
Growth-Investing Risk: Growth-oriented funds may underperform when value investing is in favor, and growth stocks
may be more volatile than other stocks because they are more sensitive to investor perceptions of the issuing company’s growth of earnings potential.
Management Risk: In managing the Fund’s portfolio, the Adviser engages one or more sub-advisers to make
investment decisions for a portion of or the entire portfolio. There is a risk that the Adviser may be unable to identify and retain sub-advisers who achieve superior investment returns relative to other similar sub-advisers.
Economic and Market Events Risk: Events in the U.S. and global financial markets, including actions taken by the U.S.
Federal Reserve or foreign central banks to stimulate or stabilize economic growth, may at times, and for varying periods of time, result in unusually high
market volatility, which could negatively impact the Fund’s performance and cause the Fund to experience illiquidity, shareholder redemptions, or
other potentially adverse effects. Reduced liquidity in credit and fixed-income markets could negatively affect issuers worldwide. Financial institutions could suffer losses as interest rates rise or economic conditions deteriorate. In addition, the Fund’s service providers are susceptible to operational and information or cyber security risks that could result in losses to a Fund and its shareholders.
ESG Investing Risk: The Fund's sub-adviser may consider ESG factors that it deems relevant or additive, along
with other material factors and analysis, when selecting investments for the Fund. The Fund’s ESG criteria may cause the Fund to forgo opportunities to buy certain securities, or forgo opportunities to gain exposure to certain industries, sectors, regions and countries. In addition, the Fund may be required to sell a security when it might otherwise be disadvantageous for it to do so.
Foreign Securities Risk: Investing in foreign securities poses additional
risks since political and economic events unique in a country or region will affect those markets and their issuers, while such events may not necessarily
affect the U.S. economy or issuers located in the United States. In addition, investments in foreign securities are generally denominated in foreign currency. As a result, changes in the value of those currencies compared to the U.S. dollar may affect (positively or negatively) the value of the Fund’s investments. There are also risks associated with foreign accounting standards, government regulation, market information, and clearance and settlement procedures. To the extent that the securities held by the Fund trade on foreign exchanges or in foreign markets that may be closed when the U.S. market is open, there are likely to be deviations between the current price of the securities held by the Fund and their last quoted price or the securities’ quote from the closed foreign market. Foreign markets may be less liquid and more volatile than U.S. markets and offer less protection to investors. To the extent a Fund focuses its investments in a single country or only a few countries in a particular geographic region, economic, political, regulatory or other conditions affecting such country or region may have a greater impact on Fund performance relative to a more geographically diversified fund.