As with all investments, there are certain risks of investing in the Fund. The Shares will change in value and you could lose money by investing in the Fund. An investment in the Fund does not represent a complete investment program. An investment in the Fund is not insured or guaranteed by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation or any other government agency. You should carefully consider the following risks before investing in the Fund.

Funds that invest in bonds are subject to interest rate risk and can lose principal value when interest rates rise.  Bonds are also subject to credit risk which is the possibility that the bond issuer may fail to pay interest and principal in a timely manner.

Asset-backed securities are securities that represent interests in, and whose values and payments are based on, a “pool" of underlying assets, which may include, among others, lower-rated debt securities and corporate loans, consumer loans or mortgages and leases of property. Asset-backed securities are subject to credit risk, extension risk, interest rate risk, liquidity risk and valuation risk.  

Investments in mortgage-related securities make an investor more susceptible to adverse economic, interest rate, political or regulatory events that affect the value of real estate.  Mortgage-related securities are also significantly affected by the rate of prepayments.  Impairment of the underlying obligations or collateral, such as by non-payment, will reduce a mortgage-related security’s value.

Investments in the securities of non-U.S. issuers involve risks beyond those associated with investments in U.S. securities. These additional risks include greater market volatility, the availability of less reliable financial information, higher transactional and custody costs, taxation by foreign governments, decreased market liquidity and political instability. Less developed securities markets are more likely to experience problems with the clearing and settling of trades, as well as the holding of securities by local banks, agents and depositories.

High yield securities, or “junk” bonds, generally offer a higher current yield than the yield available from higher grade issues, but are subject to greater market fluctuations, are less liquid and provide a greater risk of loss than investment grade securities, and therefore are considered to be highly speculative.

The Fund seeks exposure to the securities of companies meeting environmental, social and corporate governance investing criteria. The Fund excludes or limits exposure to securities of certain issuers for non-financial reasons, and the Fund may forgo some market opportunities available to funds that do not use these criteria. The application of ESG investing criteria may affect the Fund’s exposure to certain sectors or types of investments and may impact the Fund’s relative investment performance depending on whether such sectors or investments are in or out of favor in the market.

Issuers, including governmental issuers, may be unable to pay their obligations as they come due. The values of Municipal Bonds that depend on a specific revenue source to fund their payment obligations may fluctuate as a result of actual or anticipated changes in the cash flows generated by the revenue source or changes in the priority of the municipal obligation to receive the cash flows generated by the revenue source.

Derivatives often involve a high degree of financial risk in that a relatively small movement in the price of the underlying security or benchmark may result in a disproportionately large movement, unfavorable as well as favorable, in the price of the derivative instrument.  Investments in derivatives may increase the volatility of a fund’s net asset value and may result in a loss to the fund.