DELISTED - Principal investments In order to achieve the Fund's objective, the Fund employs an asset allocation strategy that seeks to provide risk-managed income on a monthly basis by employing an asset allocation strategy that is designed to accommodate the Fund's targeted annual payout percentage. The Fund's investment strategy is designed to return to investors a targeted annual payout of 3%-6% based on the current and historic low yield interest rate environment over the past 5 years. The Advisor does not represent or guarantee that the Fund will meet the income goal. Under normal circumstances, the Fund seeks to provide risk-managed income on a monthly basis by employing an asset allocation strategy that is designed to accommodate the Fund's targeted annual payout percentage. The Fund will allocate its assets by investing in a combination of equities, nominal and inflation-linked fixed income securities, third-party exchange-traded funds ("ETFs"), real estate investment trusts ("REITs"), exchange-listed options, and other exchange-traded and over-the-counter ("OTC") derivative securities. Under normal or neutral market conditions, the Advisor will allocate approximately 65% of the Fund's total assets to fixed income investments, 20% of the Fund's assets to equity investments of companies in developed (including the United States) or emerging markets countries and 15% of the Fund's assets to US and non-US real estate securities (including REITs). The Fund's asset allocation targets are not fixed which gives the Advisor the flexibility to meet the Fund's investment goal based on market conditions. If warranted by market conditions, the Advisor may invest 100% of the Fund's assets in fixed income investments. In addition, the Fund's allocations to US and non-US equity and real estate securities may be greater or lesser than the allocations described above based on the Advisor's assessment of the markets. The Fund may obtain exposure to fixed income investments by investing in securities directly or by purchasing third-party ETFs that invest in fixed income securities. The Fund's fixed income investments may include debt securities of governments throughout the world (including the United States), their agencies and instrumentalities, debt securities of corporations (including inflation-linked notes and catastrophe bonds), floating rate notes, mortgage-backed securities and asset-backed securities. Catastrophe bonds are types of insurance-linked or event-linked securities that pay off on the occurrence of specific events, usually natural disasters. The third-party ETFs in which the Fund invests could have exposure to senior bank loans. These securities may be either investment grade or high yield (lower-rated or "junk bonds") securities. The Fund may invest without limitation in investment grade debt securities, including corporate debt securities and inflation-linked securities, and may invest up to 50% of its total assets in lower-rated bonds of corporations and up to 20% of its total assets in a combination of other lower-rated bonds, including lower-rated municipal bonds and lower-rated non-US government bonds (including those of emerging markets countries). The Fund may invest in fixed income investments of any maturity. The Fund may obtain exposure to equity investments by investing in securities directly or by purchasing third-party ETFs that invest in equity securities. The Fund may invest up to 50% of its total assets either directly or through investment in ETFs in the common stock and preferred stock of companies in developed countries (including the United States). In addition, the Fund may invest up to 25% of its total assets in real estate securities of US and non-US issuers. Real estate securities may include interests in REITs that own properties or make construction or mortgage loans, securities of companies with substantial real estate holdings and other companies whose products and services are related to the real estate industry, such as building supply manufacturers, mortgage lenders, or mortgage service companies. The Fund's equity investments may include companies and REITs of any market capitalization, including small capitalization (below $3 billion). Within these limitations, the Fund may invest up to 15% of its assets in infrastructure securities and up to 20% of its assets in equity securities of emerging markets issuers. The Fund may obtain exposure to equity, real estate or fixed income investments indirectly by investing in ETFs. An ETF is a type of exchange-traded investment company. Ordinarily, the 1940 Act and the regulations promulgated thereunder prohibit an investment company from buying more than 3% of the shares of any other single investment company, investing more than 5% of its assets in any other single investment company, or investing more than 10% of its assets in other investment companies generally. However, certain ETFs have obtained exemptive orders from the SEC permitting other investment companies, such as the Fund to acquire their securities in excess of the percentage limits of the 1940 Act. The Fund intends to rely on such exemptive orders from time to time. The Fund may, but is not required to, use exchange-traded or OTC derivative instruments for risk management purposes or as part of the Fund's investment strategies. Generally, derivatives are financial contracts whose value depends upon, or is derived from, the value of an underlying asset, reference rate, or index, and may relate to stocks, bonds, interest rates, currencies or currency exchange rates, and related indexes. The Fund may invest in structured notes in order to generate income for the Fund. The Fund also may write covered call options on ETFs to generate cash flow for the purpose of meeting the Fund's target payment goal, as well as for hedging purposes. Other derivatives in which the Fund may invest include index options, futures, forward agreements and swap agreements (specifically, interest rate, currency and total return swaps). All of these derivatives may be used for risk management purposes, such as hedging against a specific security or currency, or to manage or adjust the risk profile of the Fund. In addition, all of the derivative instruments listed above may be used for investment (non-hedging) purposes to earn income; to enhance returns; to replace more traditional direct investments; to obtain exposure to certain markets; or to establish net short positions for individual markets, currencies or securities. Futures on indices, forward agreements and interest rate swaps may also be used to adjust the Fund's portfolio duration. In addition to other income-producing investments, the Fund may write covered call options on ETFs for the purpose of generating additional cash flow that could contribute to the overall payout of the Fund. When the Fund writes a call option on an ETF that it holds, the call option generates cash flow in the form of a premium paid by the option buyer while potentially limiting the upside of the Fund's investment in the ETF in the future. The Fund also actively manages its currency exposure and attempts to generate positive returns and manage risk through sophisticated currency management techniques, including hedging strategies. The Advisor could employ a positive carry currency strategy whereby higher yielding currencies are bought in exchange for lower yielding currencies as a way to potentially enhance returns. These decisions are integrated with analysis of global market and economic conditions. Management process The Advisor will manage the Fund's portfolio using the following investment process as described below: The Fund seeks to provide diversification across a variety of income producing asset classes in a multi-asset framework. The Fund's asset allocation strategy is designed to accommodate the Fund's targeted annual payout while taking into account the Fund's desired level of capital appreciation. Risk diversification and dynamic distribution between the various asset classes have the objective of creating a more stable capital and income base through various market cycles and interest rate environments. Asset allocation decisions are primarily driven by the Advisor's assessment of valuation and prevailing market conditions in the United States and around the world. Using a systematic approach, the portfolio management team analyzes the asset classes and investments across equities, fixed income, and alternative asset classes (including currency), considering both fundamental valuation, economic and other market indicators. Regarding valuation, the Advisor evaluates whether asset classes and investments are attractively priced relative to fundamentals. The starting point is to assess the intrinsic value of an asset class, as determined by the fundamentals that drive an asset class' future cash flow. The intrinsic value represents a long term anchor point to which the Advisor believes the asset class will eventually revert. Fair value estimates of asset classes and markets are an output of the Advisor's proprietary valuation models. Discounting the asset's future cash flow using a discount rate that appropriately reflects the inherent investment risk associated with holding the asset gives the asset's fair value. The competitive advantage of the Advisor's models lies in the quality and consistency of the inputs used and, therefore, the reliability of valuation conclusions. The discrepancy between actual market level and fair value (the price/value discrepancy) is the primary valuation signal used in identifying investment opportunities. Next, the Advisor assesses additional market indicators and considers the effect that other determinants of economic growth and overall market volatility will have on each asset class. While in theory price/value discrepancies may resolve themselves quickly and linearly, in practice price/value discrepancy can grow larger before it resolves. While valuation models have proven effective at identifying longer-term price/value discrepancies, in the shorter term other factors can swamp valuation considerations. Thus, the Advisor incorporates an additional discipline in their idea generation process. The Advisor refers to this additional step in its idea generation process as market behavior analysis. Adding this step helps the Advisor to understand what other market indicators might drive the market towards or away from fundamental value. The Advisor performs systematic analysis of non-valuation drivers using models measuring sentiment, momentum and flows, market stress, the stage of the economic cycle, as well as an assessment of the general macroeconomic landscape. Conversely, valuation considerations tend to dominate when an asset class is substantially above or below fair value, but the Advisor recognizes that the use of market behavior analysis during these periods is very important to helping improve the timing in and out of these asset classes with very stretched valuations. The asset allocation process is structured around the Asset Allocation & Currency (AAC) Investment Committee (the "AAC Committee") meetings, which provides a forum for debate and the exploration of all ramifications of any investment decision, rather than aiming for a consensus to be reached. Instead, any voting member of the AAC Committee can sponsor a trade idea, preparing a detailed investment thesis to support the view. An investment thesis has to define the investment rationale based on valuation and market behavioral influences, the time scale for it being realized, the transaction costs and the potential milestones the Advisor would expect to evaluate whether or not the view is correct. The sponsor is then responsible for convincing another member of the AAC Committee to support the idea as co-sponsor. Bottom up selection across active equity and fixed income markets can be utilized as part of the asset allocation process at the asset class level. With respect to specific equity securities for inclusion in the Fund's equity asset classes, the Advisor may utilize fundamental valuation, quantitative and growth-oriented strategies. The Advisor's bottom up fixed income security selection strategy combines judgments about the absolute value of the fixed income universe and the relative value of issuer sectors, maturity intervals, security durations, credit qualities and coupon segments, as well as specific circumstances facing the issuers of fixed income securities. The Advisor uses both fundamental valuation and market behavior analysis to make the two-pronged determination of risk budget and risk allocation. The Advisor works closely with the Risk Management team, members of which attend the AAC Committee meetings, to determine the appropriate amount of risk capital to allocate to the underlying trade ideas given the strategy's risk budget and objectives, prevailing investment opportunities, and other strategy exposures. To assist in this process the Risk Management team performs scenario and correlation analysis to better understand the risk and diversification of the overall strategy, and ensures that unintended factor exposures are identified, managed and monitored.
