Under normal market conditions, the Fund invests at least 80% of its net assets (plus any borrowings for investment purposes) in a diversified portfolio of equity securities (the “80% Policy”). The Fund invests primarily in companies domiciled in and tied economically to one or more countries represented in the MSCI Europe, Australasia, Far East Index (“MSCI EAFE Index”) and may include securities trading in the form of depositary receipts. The MSCI EAFE Index is an unmanaged index of approximately 900 companies. The Fund may invest in securities of companies with a broad range of market capitalizations, including those of smaller, less seasoned companies. The Fund may invest in publically-traded real estate investment trusts (“REITs”). The Fund intends to invest in not less than five different countries and more than 25% of the Fund’s total assets may be denominated in any single currency. The Fund may invest in exchange-traded funds (“ETFs”), a type of pooled investment vehicle, in order to manage cash positions or seek exposure to certain markets or market sectors. The Fund may also lend its securities.

The Fund seeks to employ a top-down, disciplined and systematic investment process that emphasizes broad exposure and diversification among developed markets outside of the United States, economic sectors and issuers.  This rules-based strategy utilizes targeted allocation and systematic rebalancing to take advantage of certain quantitative and behavioral characteristics of developed markets identified by the portfolio managers.  The investment process is periodically re-evaluated and may be adjusted to ensure that the process is consistent with the Fund’s investment objective and strategies. The portfolio managers select and allocate across countries based on factors such as market capitalization, volatility, correlation to other markets, liquidity, and perceived risk and potential for growth. The Fund maintains a bias to broad inclusion; that is the Fund intends to allocate its portfolio holdings to more developed markets outside of the United States rather than fewer developed markets. Relative to capitalization-weighted country indexes, the Fund’s individual country allocation targets seek to emphasize the less represented developed markets and attempt to reduce concentration risks relative to a capitalization-weighted index. The Fund’s country allocations are typically rebalanced to their target weights if they exceed a certain pre-determined overweight or fall below a certain pre-determined underweight.  The frequency of rebalancing depends on the volatility and trading costs of the individual country.  This is intended to reduce exposure to countries with strong relative performance and increasing exposure to countries which have underperformed.  The Fund seeks to maintain exposure across key economic sectors. Relative to capitalization-weighted country indexes, the portfolio managers target weights to these sectors to emphasize the less represented sectors. The portfolio managers use a quantitative model to select individual securities as representatives of their countries and economic sectors. The model includes factors such as beta, or a stock’s historical sensitivity to movements in the global equity market, with the objective of reducing portfolio risk and maintaining broad diversification.