The Fund seeks to passively replicate the TRSAWL Index. The TRSAWL Index consists of equity securities issued and traded in the US as well as international countries. The TRSAWL Index is expected to consist of approximately 150 to 250 stocks of companies located in the U.S. and in at least three countries outside of the U.S., and may invest in up to 20 countries. The TRSAWL Index will be significantly invested in the securities of international companies in addition to securities of U.S. companies. The Fund normally invests at least 80% of its net assets (plus any borrowings for investment purposes) in equity securities included in the Fund’s TRSAWL Index. The Fund may also invest in American Depositary Receipts (“ADRs”) and Global Depositary Receipts (“GDRs”) (collectively “Depositary Receipts”) based on the securities in the TRSAWL Index.

Constituents of the TRSAWL Index are characterized by strong global footprint (measured by market capitalization), rank high on measures of earnings quality, demonstrate improving fundamentals (positive earnings revisions on earnings estimates, revenue estimates, price targets, and analyst recommendations), show stock price momentum, and trade at relatively attractive valuations (based on a ranking from various trading multiples, which are, generally speaking, a ratio of the security’s market price to financial or accounting metrics such as earnings, book value, etc., as well as a dividend discount model, which attempts to determine the current or future value of a security based in part on its dividend payments).

The process of constructing the TRSAWL Index begins with sorting the companies in the Thomson Reuters Global Developed Index (excluding those in Greece and South Korea) (the “Benchmark Index”) by market capitalization. The next step involves selecting those companies that comprise the top 85% of cumulative market capitalization, and categorizing them into two regions: US and International. The final step involves scoring these securities on the above criteria within each region, and then narrowing this universe of companies to approximately 150 to 250 equity securities using a proprietary ranking system of the Fund’s sub-adviser, Affinity. The proprietary ranking system is known as the “Affinity Score” and is calculated by weighting the above criteria based on the Sub-Adviser’s assessment of the correlation between the score components and subsequent long-term stock performance. Stocks that rank in the top decile are candidates for purchase, while those that rank outside the top quartile are typically sold. A risk management overlay is then used to guide portfolio construction. The overlay calls for neutral business sector weights versus the Benchmark Index, approximately equal active weighting of each security within a business sector (active weight is the absolute percentage deviation of a security’s weight in the portfolio from its weight in the Benchmark Index), and limiting the deviation of the TRSAWL Index’s geographical distribution from that of the Benchmark Index. The TRSAWL Index is reconstituted and rebalanced on a semi-annual basis.

As of December 31, 2023, the Index was comprised of 139 issuers with market capitalizations ranging from $9.2 billion to $909.6 billion. As of December 31, 2023, the countries in the Benchmark Index were: Canada, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom, and the United States.

The TRSAWL Index is co-sponsored by the Sub-Adviser and by Thomson Reuters (Markets) LLC (the “Index Provider”), an organization that is independent of the Fund, the Adviser and the Sub-Adviser. The Sub-Adviser determines the composition and relative weightings of the securities in the TRSAWL Index and the Index Provider publishes information regarding the market value of the Index.

The Fund uses a “passive” or indexing approach to attempt to approximate the investment performance of the TRSAWL Index by investing in a portfolio of securities that generally replicates the TRSAWL Index. Unlike many investment companies, the Fund does not try to “beat” the index it tracks and does not seek temporary defensive positions when markets decline or appear overvalued. The Fund may concentrate its investments in a particular country, region, industry or group of industries to the extent that the TRSAWL Index concentrates in a country, region, industry or group of industries.