The Fund invests, under normal circumstances, at least 80% of its assets (net assets plus any borrowings for investment purposes) in the securities of U.S. companies with market capitalizations at the time of investment that are similar to the market capitalizations of companies within the collective range of the Russell 2000® Index and Russell Microcap Index. As of December 31, 2023, companies in the Russell 2000® Index had market capitalizations ranging from $10 million to $15 billion and the Russell Microcap Index had market capitalizations ranging from $1 million to $8 billion.

The Fund may also invest up to 10% of its net assets in securities of foreign issuers. An issuer of a security is considered to be a U.S. or foreign issuer based on the issuer's "country of risk" (or similar designation) as determined by a third-party such as Bloomberg.

Investment Process:Wellington Management Company LLP, the Fund’s Subadvisor (the “Subadvisor”), seeks to construct a broadly diversified portfolio across sectors and industries. The Subadvisor predominantly employs a bottom-up fundamental research approach across sectors to identify companies with potential positive changes in their business that the Subadvisor believes may lead to outperformance, while seeking to limit exposure to risk. However, with respect to the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industries, the Subadvisor relies upon a quantitative process to manage the Fund’s exposure. The Subadvisor also seeks to minimize the Fund’s exposure to risk by diversifying the Fund’s investments over securities issued across various industries and sectors. The Subadvisor may consider selling a security if valuation and sentiment indicators suggest the inflection point is being embraced and/or fully valued by the market or if the investment thesis is impaired or no longer valid. To better assess strategic business issues that impact the performance of a company, the Subadvisor may also give consideration to financially material environmental, social and/or governance (“ESG”) factors. The Subadvisor has discretion to determine the materiality of, as well as the level at which, financially relevant ESG factors are imbedded into its overall fundamental analysis when making an investment decision.