Morgan Stanley
Pathway Funds
Pathway Funds
Alternative Strategies Fund | Ticker:
TALTX
January 1, 2024
Summary Prospectus
Before you invest, you may want to review the Fund’s prospectus, which contains more information about the Fund and
its risks. The Fund’s prospectus, dated January 1, 2024, and Statement of Additional Information, dated January 1, 2024, are incorporated by reference into the summary prospectus, making them legally part of the summary prospectus. You can find the Fund’s prospectus and
other information about the Fund online at www.morganstanley.com/wealth-investmentsolutions/cgcm. You can also get this information at no cost by calling 1-800-869-3326 or by sending an
e-mail request to client.field.services@morganstanley.com.
Investment objective
Long term growth of capital.
Fund fees and expenses
This table
describes the fees and expenses you may pay if you buy and hold shares of the Fund.
Annual Advisory Program Fees
(fees paid directly from
your investment in the applicable Morgan Stanley-sponsored investment advisory
program)
| Maximum annual fees in the Consulting Group Advisor, Select UMA or Portfolio Management investment advisory programs (as a percentage of prior quarter-end net assets)* |
2.00% |
Annual Fund Operating Expenses
(expenses that you pay
each year as a percentage of the value of your investment in the Fund)
| Management Fees* |
1.20% |
| Distribution (12b-1) Fees |
None |
| Other Expenses |
0.30% |
| Acquired Fund Fees and Expenses** |
1.26% |
| Total Annual Fund Operating Expenses* |
2.76% |
| Waiver* |
(1.00)% |
| Net Annual Fund Operating Expenses* |
1.76% |
* CGAS (defined herein) has contractually agreed to waive fees and reimburse expenses in order to keep the Fund’s management fees from exceeding the total amount of sub-advisory fees paid by CGAS
plus 0.20% based on average net assets. Because the Fund does not currently have sub-advisers, CGAS will
contractually waive 1.00% of its management fees. In addition, CGAS and its affiliates have also separately
agreed to waive fees and reimburse expenses in order to keep the Fund’s total annual operating expenses, (exclusive of interest from borrowing, brokerage commissions, taxes, acquired fund fees and expenses, and other extraordinary expenses not incurred
in the ordinary course of the Fund’s business), from exceeding 0.70%. These contractual arrangements shall
remain in effect for at least one year from the date of this prospectus or until such time as the Board of Trustees acts to discontinue all or a portion of such waiver and/or reimbursement when they deem such action is appropriate.
**The Fund may invest a portion of its assets in other investment companies (the “Acquired Funds”). The
Fund’s shareholders indirectly bear a pro rata portion of the expenses of the Acquired Funds in which the Fund invests. “Acquired Fund Fees and Expenses” in the table is an estimate of those expenses. The estimate is based upon the average allocation of
the Fund’s investments in the Acquired Funds and upon the actual total operating expenses of the Acquired Funds (including any current waivers and expense limitations) for the fiscal year ended August 31, 2023. Actual Acquired Fund Fees
and Expenses incurred by the Fund may vary with changes in the allocation of Fund assets among the Acquired Funds
and with other events that directly affect the fees and expenses of the Acquired Funds. Since “Acquired Fund Fees and Expenses” are not directly borne by the Fund, they are not reflected in the Fund’s financial statements, with the result that the Information
presented in the table will differ from that presented in the Financial Highlights.
Examples
These examples are intended
to help you compare the cost of investing in the Fund with the cost of investing in other mutual funds. The
examples assume that you invest $10,000 in the Fund for the time periods indicated. The examples also assume that
your investment has a 5% return each year and that the Fund’s operating expenses remain the same. The
effect of the Fund’s contractual fee waivers
are only reflected in the first year of the example. The figures are calculated based upon total annual Fund
operating expenses and a maximum annual fee of 2.00% for the applicable Morgan Stanley-sponsored investment
advisory program through which you invest. Although your actual costs may be higher or lower, based on these
assumptions your costs would be:
| AFTER
1 YEAR |
AFTER
3 YEARS |
AFTER
5 YEARS |
AFTER
10 YEARS |
| $378 |
$1,344 |
$2,315 |
$4,763 |
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 total annual Fund
operating expenses or in the above examples, affect the Fund’s performance. During the most recent fiscal
year, the Fund’s portfolio turnover rate was 27% of the average value of its portfolio.
Principal investment strategies
Under normal market conditions, the Fund seeks to generate long term growth across market cycles with reduced correlation to the equity and fixed income markets. The Fund seeks to achieve its investment objective by allocating its assets among shares of mutual funds, exchange-traded funds or closed-end funds managed by third-party professional money managers (“Underlying Funds”).
The Underlying Funds may apply a
variety of alternative investment strategies, but will typically apply one or more of four main investment
strategies, including: (i) investments in real asset strategies, (ii) equity-based tactical, value or
event-driven strategies, (iii) absolute return strategies that seek to generate returns independent of market
conditions, and (iv) equity hedged (i.e., long/short) strategies.
The Underlying Funds’ investment strategies may rely in part on derivative investments, such as futures, forwards,
swaps, swaptions, and options, to implement their investment strategies, to generate positive returns, for
hedging or risk management purposes, to limit volatility and to provide exposure to an instrument without
directly purchasing it. The Underlying Funds’ investments may also include exposure to companies located
both in the U.S. and in foreign countries, including companies located in emerging market countries. The
Underlying Funds may invest in securities and other investments of all capitalization sizes, including securities
and other investment that have exposure to small- and mid-capitalization issues. The Underlying Funds may also
invest in investment grade fixed income securities of any maturity or duration.
The Fund may, in the future,
allocate all or a portion of its assets directly to professional money managers (each, a
“Sub-Adviser,” collectively, the “Sub-Advisers”), each of which
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would be responsible for investing its portion of
the Fund’s assets. Currently, the Fund does not use any Sub-Advisers.
The Fund’s investment objective is not fundamental and may be changed by the Board of Trustees without shareholder
approval.
Due to its investment strategy,
the Fund may buy and sell securities and other instruments frequently.
Principal risks of investing in the Fund
Loss of money is a risk of investing in the Fund.
The following principal risks are applicable to the Fund:
•
Allocation Risk, which refers to the risk that the Adviser’s judgment about, and allocations among, strategies through investments in Underlying Funds may adversely affect the Fund’s performance.
•
Closed-end fund risk, which means that since closed-end funds issue a fixed number of shares they typically trade on a stock exchange or over-the-counter at a premium or discount to their net asset value per share. The Fund will also bear its pro rata portion of any costs of a closed-end fund in which it invests.
•
Investment company and exchange-traded funds (ETFs) risk, which is when the Fund invests in an investment company, in addition to directly bearing the expenses associated with its own operations, it will bear a pro rata portion of the investment company’s expenses. In addition,
while the risks of owning shares of an investment company generally reflect the risks of owning the underlying
investments of the investment company, the Fund may be subject to additional or different risks than if the Fund
had invested directly in the underlying investments.
•
Manager
risk, which is the risk that poor selection of Underlying Funds by the Adviser will cause the Fund to underperform.
•
Portfolio turnover risk, due to its investment strategy, the Fund may buy and sell securities frequently. This may result in higher transaction costs and additional capital gains tax
liabilities.
The following principal risks are applicable to the Fund’s investment in Underlying
Funds:
•
Absolute Return Investing Risk, which refers to the risk that an Underlying Fund’s investment returns may converge with the investment returns of equity or fixed income markets during a period of declining stock prices, thereby eliminating
the diversification benefit that the Underlying Fund expects from the strategies. During these times, the
strategies’ correlations could increase, which in turn could increase the Underlying Fund’s overall
volatility.
•
Active Management Risk, due to the active management investment strategies used by the Underlying Funds, the Underlying Funds could underperform their benchmark indexes and/or other funds with similar investment objectives and/or strategies.
•
Arbitrage Strategies Risk, which involves engaging in transactions that attempt to exploit price differences of identical, related or similar securities on different markets or in different forms. The Underlying Funds may realize losses
or reduced rate of return if underlying relationships among securities in which they take investment positions
change in an adverse manner or if a transaction is unexpectedly terminated or delayed. Trading to seek short-term
capital appreciation can be expected to cause an Underlying Fund’s portfolio turnover rate to be
substantially higher than that of the average equity-oriented investment company.
•
Alternative Strategies Risk, pursued by the Underlying Funds may be subject to risks including, but not limited to, derivatives risk, liquidity risk, credit risk, commodities risk and risks associated with the use of leverage.
•
Credit and Junk Bond Risk, which means the credit quality of an investment could cause an Underlying Fund to lose money. Non-investment grade securities (sometimes called “high yield securities” or “junk bonds”)
involve greater risks of default or downgrade, are more volatile and may be more susceptible than other issuers
to economic downturns. Such securities are subject to the risk that the issuer may not be able to pay interest or
dividends and ultimately to repay principal upon maturity, which could substantially adversely affect the market
value of the securities.
•
Currency
Risk, which refers to the risk that as a result of an Underlying Fund’s active positions in currencies and
investments in securities denominated in, and/or receiving revenues in, foreign currencies, those currencies will
decline in value relative to the U.S. dollar or, in the case of hedged positions, the U.S. dollar will decline in
value relative to the currency hedged.
•
Derivatives Risk, which means that an Underlying Fund’s use of futures, forwards, options, swaps and swaptions based on fixed income instruments to enhance returns or hedge against market declines subjects the Underlying Fund to potentially greater volatility and/or losses. Even a small
investment in futures, forwards, options, swaps and swaptions can have a large impact on an Underlying
Fund’s interest rate, securities market and currency exposure. Therefore, using futures, forwards, options,
swaps and swaptions can disproportionately increase losses and reduce opportunities for gains when interest
rates, stock prices or currency rates are changing. An Underlying Fund may not fully benefit from or may lose
money on its investment in futures, forwards, options, swaps and swaptions if changes in their value do not
correspond accurately to changes in the value of the Underlying Fund’s holdings. The other party to certain
futures, forwards, options, swaps and swaptions presents the same types of credit risks as issuers of fixed
income securities. Investing in futures, forwards, options, swaps and swaptions can also make the Underlying
Fund’s assets less liquid and harder to value, especially in declining markets.
•
LIBOR Transition Risk refers to the fact that the elimination of the London Inter-Bank Offered Rate (“LIBOR”) rate may adversely affect the interest rates on, and value of,
certain Fund investments that are tied to LIBOR. The U.K. Financial
3 MORGAN STANLEY | 2024
Conduct Authority ceased publishing
all LIBOR settings on a representative basis after June 30, 2023, although some USD LIBOR settings will continue
to be published under a synthetic methodology until September 30, 2024 for certain legacy contracts. Alternatives
to LIBOR are established or in development in most major currencies and markets are slowly responding to these
new rates. It is difficult to predict the full impact of the transition away from LIBOR on the Fund.
•
Event-Linked Exposure Risk, event-linked exposure results in gains or losses that typically are contingent, or formulaically related to defined trigger events such as hurricanes, earthquakes, weather-related phenomena, or statistics relating to such events. If a trigger event occurs, an Underlying Fund may lose a portion of or the entire
principal investment in the case of a bond or a portion of or the entire notional amount in the case of a swap.
Event-linked exposure instruments often provide for an extension of maturity to process and audit loss claims
where a trigger event has, or possibly has, occurred, such extension of maturity may increase volatility.
Event-linked exposure may also expose an Underlying Fund to liquidity risk and certain unanticipated risks
including credit risk, counterparty risk, adverse regulatory or jurisdictional interpretations, and adverse tax
consequences.
•
Emerging Markets Risk, emerging markets countries may experience rising interest rates, or, more significantly, rapid inflation or hyperinflation. Emerging market securities may present market, credit, liquidity, legal, political and other
risks different from, or greater than, the risks of investing in developed foreign countries. An Underlying Fund
also could experience a loss from settlement and custody practices in some emerging markets.
•
Foreign Investment Risk, which means risks unique to foreign securities, including less information about foreign issuers, less liquid securities markets, political instability
and unfavorable changes in currency exchange rates.
•
Foreign Sovereign Debt Securities Risk, the risks that (i) the governmental entity that controls the repayment of sovereign debt may not be willing or able to repay the principal and/or interest when it becomes due, due to factors such as debt
service burden, political constraints, cash flow problems and other national economic factors;
(ii) governments may default on their debt securities, which may require holders of such securities to
participate in debt rescheduling or additional lending to defaulting governments; and (iii) there is no
bankruptcy proceeding by which defaulted sovereign debt may be collected in whole or in part.
•
Interest Rate Risk, which is the risk that interest rates rise and fall over time, thereby affecting the value of certain investments of the Fund.
•
Issuer Risk, which is the risk that the value of a security may decline for reasons directly related to the issuer, such as management performance, financial leverage and reduced demand for the issuer’s goods or services.
•
Investment Limitation Risk, which refers to the potential that the Fund may want to invest in an Underlying Fund that is not available in sufficient quantities for the Fund to
participate fully due to capacity constraints of the strategy. The Fund may therefore have reduced exposure to a capacity constrained Underlying Fund, which could adversely affect the Fund’s return.
•
Leverage
Risk, which means an Underlying Fund’s use of leverage may exaggerate the effect of any increase or decrease in the value of the Fund’s portfolio securities and cause the Underlying Fund to liquidate portfolio positions
when it may not be advantageous to do so to satisfy its obligations or to maintain asset coverage.
•
Liquidity Risk exists when securities are difficult or impossible for an Underlying Fund to sell at the time and the price that the Underlying Fund would like due to a limited market or to legal restrictions. These securities may also need to be fair valued.
•
Market Risk, which is the risk that an Underlying Fund will be affected by changes in the markets for the various securities in which the Underlying Fund invests. Environmental and public health risks, such as natural disasters, epidemics, pandemics or widespread fear that such events may occur, may impact markets adversely and cause market volatility in both the short- and long-term.
•
MLP Risk, which is the risk that, to the extent that an MLP’s interests are all in a particular industry, the MLP will be negatively impacted by economic events adversely impacting that industry. Additional risks of investing in an MLP also include those involved in investing in a partnership as opposed to a corporation, and the fact that MLPs may be subject to state taxation in certain jurisdictions which will have the effect of reducing the amount of income paid by the MLP to its investors.
•
Short Sale Risk, selling short may produce higher than normal portfolio turnover, result in increased transaction costs and magnify the potential for both gain and loss to an
Underlying Fund.
•
Small and Medium Capitalization Company Risk, which is the risk that small and medium capitalization companies in which the Underlying Funds invest may be more vulnerable to adverse business or economic events than larger, more established companies.
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. For more
information on the risks of investing in the Fund please see the Fund
details section of this Prospectus.
Performance
The bar chart below
shows how the Fund’s investment results have varied from year to year, and the following table shows how
the Fund’s annual total returns for various periods compare to those of the Fund’s benchmark index and Lipper peer group. This information provides some indication of the risks of investing in the Fund. The Fund is available only to
investors participating in Morgan Stanley-sponsored investment advisory programs. These programs charge an
annual fee (see Annual Advisory Program Fees above). The performance information in the bar chart and table below
4 MORGAN STANLEY | 2024
does not reflect this fee, which
would reduce your return. The Fund’s past performance, before and after taxes, does not
necessarily indicate how the Fund will perform in the future.
For current performance information please see
www.morganstanley.com/wealth-investmentsolutions/cgcm.
Annual total returns (%) calendar years
Alternative Strategies Fund
Fund’s best and worst
calendar quarters
Best: 6.64% in 2nd quarter 2020
Worst: (9.43)% in 1st quarter 2020
Year-to-date: 2.71% (through 3rd quarter 2023)
Worst: (9.43)% in 1st quarter 2020
Year-to-date: 2.71% (through 3rd quarter 2023)
Average Annual Total Returns
(for the periods ended December 31,
2022)
| INCEPTION DATE:
2/15/2018 |
1 YEAR |
5 YEARS |
10 YEARS |
SINCE
INCEPTION |
| Fund (without advisory program fee) |
|
|
|
|
| Return Before Taxes |
(2.29)% |
|
|
2.38% |
| Return After Taxes on Distributions |
(4.23)% |
|
|
0.38% |
| Return After Taxes on Distributions and Sale of Fund Shares |
0.79% |
|
|
1.48% |
| HFRX Global Hedge Index (reflects no deduction for fees, expenses or taxes) |
(4.41)% |
1.41% |
1.76% |
1.19% |
| Lipper Alternative Multi-Strategy |
(2.37)% |
1.18% |
2.17% |
1.42% |
The after-tax returns are calculated using the highest historical individual federal marginal income tax rates and do not
reflect the impact of state and local taxes. Actual after-tax returns depend on an individual investor’s
tax situation and may differ from those shown, and after-tax returns shown are not relevant to investors who hold
their Fund shares through tax-deferred arrangements, such as 401(k) plans or individual retirement accounts. In
some cases, the return after taxes may exceed the return before taxes due to an assumed tax benefit from any
losses on a sale of Fund shares at the end of the
measurement period.
The Fund’s
benchmark is the HFRX Global Hedge Index. The benchmark is designed to be representative of the overall
composition of the hedge fund universe. It is comprised of all eligible hedge fund strategies falling within four
principal strategies: equity hedge, event driven, macro/CTA and relative value arbitrage. Unlike the Fund, the
benchmark is unmanaged and does not include any fees or expenses. An investor cannot invest directly in an
index.
Investment adviser and portfolio managers
Consulting Group Advisory Services LLC (“CGAS” or the “Manager”), a business of Morgan Stanley Wealth Management (“MSWM”), serves as the investment adviser
for the Fund.
| PORTFOLIO MANAGERS |
ADVISER |
FUND’S PORTFOLIO
MANAGER SINCE |
| Andrew Nania, Vice President and Portfolio Manager |
CGAS |
2023 |
| Sukru Saman, Executive Director |
CGAS |
Since Inception |
Purchase and sale of Fund shares
Purchases of shares of the Fund must be made through an
investment advisory program with Morgan Stanley. You may purchase or sell shares of the Fund at net asset value
on any day the New York Stock Exchange (“NYSE”) is open by contacting your Morgan Stanley Financial
Advisor.
•
The minimum initial aggregate investment in the Morgan Stanley-sponsored investment advisory programs is $1,000.
•
There is no minimum on additional investments in the Fund or the applicable investment advisory program through which you invest.
5 MORGAN STANLEY | 2024
•
Each of the Fund and
the Morgan Stanley-sponsored investment advisory programs through which investments in the Fund are offered may
vary or waive these investment minimums at any time.
For more information about the Morgan Stanley-sponsored
investment advisory programs, see the About the Funds section of this Prospectus.
Tax information
The Fund’s distributions are generally taxable to you as ordinary income, capital gains, or a combination of the
two.
Payments to financial intermediaries
If you purchase shares of the Fund through a broker-dealer or other financial intermediary (such as a bank), the Fund and its related companies may pay the intermediary for the sale of
Fund shares and related services. These payments may create a conflict of interest by influencing the
broker-dealer or other intermediary and your sales person to recommend the Fund over another investment. Ask your
salesperson or visit your financial intermediary’s website for more information.
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