Hedged Equity Income Fund Equity

Fund Goal

The Fund seeks current income with the potential for long-term capital appreciation with less volatility than the broad equity market. The Fund invests primarily in dividend paying equity securities, with at least 80% of its net assets in income generating equity securities and equity-related instruments traded on U.S. exchanges. The Fund holds 25-40 equity securities before accounting for options. Under normal circumstances, the Fund seeks to generate current income from dividends and option premiums by writing (selling) covered call options on its portfolio securities. A portion of this income is used to purchase puts to provide downside protection to the Fund.

Process

Market Concerns

<p>The market value of a security may move up and down, sometimes rapidly and unpredictably. The value of a security may decline for a number of reasons which directly relate to the issuer, such as management performance, earnings and sales trends, investor perceptions financial leverage or reduced demand for the issuer's goods or services.</p>

<p>The risk of investing in derivative instruments, including liquidity, interest rate, market, credit and management risks, mispricing or improper valuation. Changes in the value of a derivative may not correlate perfectly with the underlying asset, rate or index, and the Fund could lose more than the principal amount invested. The risk of potential losses if equity markets or an individual security do not move as expected and the potential for greater losses than if these techniques had not been used. By writing covered call options, a fund will not benefit from any potential increases in the value of a fund asset above the exercise price, but will bear the risk of declines in the value of the asset. Writing call options may expose a fund to additional costs. Writing of covered call options are also subject to the risk that the counterparty to the transaction will not fulfill its obligations.</p>

<p>As a large percentage of a Fund's assets may be invested in a limited number of securities, each investment has a greater effect on a Fund's overall performance and any change in the value of those securities could signifianctly affect the value of your investment in the fund. Investments of a "non-diversified" mutual fund are not required to meet certain diversification requirements under Federal law. Compared with "diversified" portfolios, a non-diversified fund may invest a greater percentage of its assets in the securities of an issuer. A decline in the value of those investments would cause the Fund's overall value to decline to a greater degree than if the Fund held more diversified holdings. There is no guarantee that the investment techniques and risk analyses use by the Fund's portfolio managers will produce t he desired results. The Fund's investment in dividend-paying stocks could cause the fund to underperform similar funds that invest without consideration of a company's track record of paying dividends. Stock of companies with a history of paying dividends may not participate in a broad market advance to the same degree as most other stocks, and a sharp rise in interest rates or economic downturn could cause a company to unexpectedly reduce or eliminate its dividend.</p>

<p>The risk associated with higher transaction costs, delayed settlements, currency controls or adverse economic and political developments. Foreign securities may be affected by incomplete or inaccurate financial information on companies. There is a risk of loss attributable to social upheavals, unfavorable governmental or political actions, seizure or foreign deposits, changes in tax or trade statues, and governmental collapse and war. These risks are more significant in emerging markets. The risk that the stocks of mid-capitalization companies often have greater price volatility, lower trading volume, and less liquidity than the stocks of larger, more established companies. Small cap companies may be more of larger companies or the market averages in general. Small cap companies may be adversely affected during periods when investors prefer to hold securities of large capitalization companies.</p>

<p>If positions held by the Fund were treated as "straddles" for federal income tax purposes, or a Fund's risk of loss with respect to a position was otherwise diminished as set forth in Treasury Regulations, dividends on stocks that are a part of such positions would not constitute qualified dividend income subject to such favorable income tax treatment or qualify for the dividends received deduction for corporate shareholders. In addition, generally, straddles are subject to certain rules that may affect the amount, character and timing of the Fund's gains and losses with respect to straddle positions by requiring, among other things, that 1) any loss realized on disposition of one position of a straddle may not be recognized to the exited that the Fund has unrealized gains with respect to the other position in such straddle; 2) the Fund's holding period in straddle positions be suspended while the straddle exists (possibly resulting in a gain being treated as short-term capital gain rather than long-term capital gain); 3) the losses recognized with respect to certain straddle positions that are part of a mixed straddle and that are non-section 1256 contracts to be treated as 60% long-term and 40% short-term capital loss; 4) losses recognized with respect to certain straddle positions that would otherwise constitute short-term capital losses be treated as long-term capital losses; and 5) the deduction of interest and carrying charges attributable to certain straddle positions may be deferred.</p>

Morningstar Rankings

Category: Options Trading (as of 09/30/2024)

Ratings are for Institutional Class and are based on total return excluding sales charges, independently calculated and not combined to create an overall ranking. For periods not shown, Morningstar does not provide rankings based on synthetic performance.

Lipper Rankings

Category: Lipper Options Arbitrage/Opt Strat Fds (as of 09/30/2024)

Rankings are for Institutional Class and are based on average annual total returns, but do not consider sales charges. Rankings for other share classes will differ due to differences in expenses, fees, or sales charges.

Fund Information as of 4/30/25

Fund Statistics as of 3/31/25