Mainstay Funds Trust

08/28/2024 | Press release | Distributed by Public on 08/28/2024 07:24

Summary Prospectus by Investment Company - Form 497K

NYLI WMC Small Companies Fund

(formerly MainStay WMC Small Companies Fund)

Summary Prospectus

February 28, 2024
As revised August 28, 2024

Class/Ticker

A MOPAXInvestor MOINXB MOTBXC MOPCXI MOPIX

Before you invest, you may want to review the Fund's Prospectus, which contains more information about the Fund and its risks. You can find the Fund's Prospectus, reports to shareholders and other information about the Fund by going online to dfinview.com/NYLIM, by calling 800-624-6782 or by sending an e-mail to [email protected]. The Fund's Prospectus and Statement of Additional Information, both dated February 28, 2024, as may be amended from time to time, are incorporated by reference into this Summary Prospectus.
Investment Objective

The Fund seeks long-term growth of capital.

Fees and Expenses of the Fund

The table below describes the fees and expenses that you may pay if you buy, hold and sell shares of the Fund. You may pay other fees, such as brokerage commissions and other fees to financial intermediaries, which are not reflected in the table and example below. You may qualify for sales charge discounts if you and your family invest, or agree to invest in the future, at least $50,000 in the Fund. In addition, different financial intermediary firms and financial professionals may impose different sales loads and waivers. More information about these and other discounts or waivers is available from your financial professional, in the "Information on Sales Charges" section starting on page 139 of the Prospectus and Appendix A - Intermediary-Specific Sales Charge Waivers and Discounts, and in the "Alternative Sales Arrangements" section on page 147 of the Statement of Additional Information.

Class A

Investor Class

Class B1

Class C

Class I

Shareholder Fees (fees paid directly from your investment)

Maximum Sales Charge (Load) Imposed on Purchases (as a percentage of offering price)

5.50

%

5.00

%

None

None

None

Maximum Deferred Sales Charge (Load) (as a percentage of the lesser of the original offering price or redemption proceeds)

None

2

None

2

5.00

%

1.00

%

None

Annual Fund Operating Expenses (expenses that you pay each year as a percentage of the value of your investment)

Management Fees (as an annual percentage of the Fund's average daily net assets)3

0.80

%

0.80

%

0.80

%

0.80

%

0.80

%

Distribution and/or Service (12b-1) Fees

0.25

%

0.25

%

1.00

%

1.00

%

None

Other Expenses

0.17

%

0.65

%

0.66

%

0.66

%

0.17

%

Total Annual Fund Operating Expenses

1.22

%

1.70

%

2.46

%

2.46

%

0.97

%

Waivers / Reimbursements4

0.00

%

(0.21

)%

(0.22

)%

(0.22

)%

0.00

%

Total Annual Fund Operating Expenses After Waivers / Reimbursements4

1.22

%

1.49

%

2.24

%

2.24

%

0.97

%

1.Class B shares are closed to all new purchases as well as additional investments by existing Class B shareholders.

2. No initial sales charge applies on investments of $1 million or more (and certain other qualified purchases). However, a contingent deferred sales charge of 1.00% may be imposed on certain redemptions made within 18 months of the date of purchase on shares that were purchased without an initial sales charge.

3.The management fee is as follows: 0.80% on assets up to $1 billion; 0.775% on assets from $1 billion to $2 billion; and 0.75% on assets over $2 billion.

4. New York Life Investment Management LLC ("New York Life Investments") has contractually agreed to waive fees and/or reimburse expenses so that the transfer agency expenses charged to each of the Fund's share classes do not exceed 0.35% of that share class's average daily net assets on an annual basis after deducting any applicable Fund or class-level expense reimbursements or small account fees. This agreement will remain in effect until February 28, 2025, and thereafter shall renew automatically for one-year terms unless New York Life Investments provides written notice of termination prior to the start of the next term or upon approval of the Board of Trustees of the Fund.

Example

The Example is intended to help you compare the cost of investing in the Fund with the cost of investing in other mutual funds. The Example assumes that you invest $10,000 in the Fund for the time periods indicated whether or not you redeem all of your shares at the end of those periods (except as indicated with respect to Class B and Class C shares). The Example reflects Class B and Class C shares converting into Investor Class shares in years 9-10; expenses could be lower if you are eligible to convert to Class A shares instead. The Example also assumes that your investment has a 5% return each year and that the Fund's operating expenses remain the same. The Example reflects the contractual fee waiver and/or expense reimbursement arrangement, if applicable, for the current duration of the arrangement only. Although your actual costs may be higher or lower, based on these assumptions your costs would be:

Expenses After

Class A

Investor

Class B

Class C

Class I

Class

Assuming no redemption

Assuming redemption at end of period

Assuming no redemption

Assuming redemption at end of period

1 Year

$ 667

$ 644

$ 227

$ 727

$ 227

$ 327

$ 99

3 Years

$ 916

$ 989

$ 746

$ 1,046

$ 746

$ 746

$ 309

5 Years

$ 1,183

$ 1,358

$ 1,291

$ 1,491

$ 1,291

$ 1,291

$ 536

10 Years

$ 1,946

$ 2,392

$ 2,592

$ 2,592

$ 2,592

$ 2,592

$ 1,190

(NYLIM) NL526 MSWSC01

-08/24

Portfolio Turnover

The Fund pays transaction costs, such as commissions, when it buys and sells securities (or "turns over" its portfolio). A higher portfolio turnover rate may indicate higher transaction costs and may result in higher taxes when Fund shares are held in a taxable account. These costs, which are not reflected in annual fund operating expenses or in the Example, affect the Fund's performance. During the most recent fiscal year, the Fund's portfolio turnover rate was 86% of the average value of its portfolio.

Principal Investment Strategies

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.

Principal Risks

You can lose money by investing in the Fund. An investment in the Fund is not a bank deposit and is not insured or guaranteed by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation or any other governmental agency. The investments selected by the Subadvisor may underperform the market in which the Fund invests or other investments. The Fund may receive large purchase or redemption orders which may have adverse effects on performance if the Fund were required to sell securities, invest cash or hold a relatively large amount of cash at times when it would not otherwise do so.

The principal risks of investing in the Fund are summarized below.

Market Risk: Changes in markets may cause the value of investments to fluctuate, which could cause the Fund to underperform other funds with similar investment objectives and strategies. Such changes may be rapid and unpredictable. From time to time, markets may experience periods of stress as a result of various market, economic and geopolitical factors for potentially prolonged periods that may result in: (i) increased market volatility; (ii) reduced market liquidity; and (iii) increased redemptions of shares. Such conditions may add significantly to the risk of volatility in the net asset value of the Fund's shares and adversely affect the Fund and its investments.

Portfolio Management Risk: The investment strategies, practices and risk analyses used by the Subadvisor may not produce the desired results or expected returns. The quantitative screening performed by the Subadvisor, and the securities selected based on the screening, may not perform as expected. The quantitative screening may adversely affect the Fund's performance. There may also be technical issues with the construction and implementation of quantitative models (for example, software or other technology malfunctions, or programming inaccuracies). In addition, the Fund's performance will reflect, in part, the Subadvisor's ability to make active qualitative decisions. The Subadvisor may give consideration to certain ESG criteria when evaluating an investment opportunity. The application of ESG criteria may result in the Fund (i) having exposure to certain securities or industry sectors that are significantly different than the composition of the Fund's benchmark; and (ii) performing differently than other funds and strategies in its peer group that do not take into account ESG criteria or the Fund's benchmark.

Micro-Cap, Small-Cap and Mid-Cap Stock Risk: The general risks associated with equity securities and liquidity risk are particularly pronounced for stocks of companies with market capitalizations that are small compared to other publicly traded companies. These companies may have limited product lines, markets or financial resources or they may depend on a few key employees. Stocks of small-capitalization and mid-capitalization companies may trade less frequently and in lesser volume than more widely held securities, and their values may fluctuate more sharply than those of other securities. They may also trade in the over-the-counter market or on a regional exchange, or may otherwise have limited liquidity. Generally, the smaller the company, the greater these risks become. As a result, stocks of micro-capitalization companies share the same risks as stocks of small-capitalization and mid-capitalization companies, however these risks are more pronounced, including that the changes in stock price of micro-capitalization companies can be more sudden or erratic than stock prices of other larger capitalization stocks, especially over the short term.

Equity Securities Risk: Investments in common stocks and other equity securities are particularly subject to the risk of changing economic, stock market, industry and company conditions and the risks inherent in the ability to anticipate such changes that can adversely affect the value of portfolio holdings.

Growth Stock Risk: If growth companies do not increase their earnings at a rate expected by investors, the market price of the stock may decline significantly, even if earnings show an absolute increase. Growth company stocks also typically lack the dividend yield that can cushion stock prices in market downturns. These risks may be more pronounced in companies that are in the earlier stages of their growth cycle.

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Value Stock Risk: Value stocks may never reach what the Subadvisor believes is their full value or they may go down in value. In addition, different types of stocks tend to shift in and out of favor depending on market and economic conditions, and therefore the Fund's performance may be lower or higher than that of funds that invest in other types of equity securities.

Foreign Securities Risk: 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 (or another similar third party). The issuer's "country of risk" is determined based on a number of criteria, which may change from time to time and currently include, but are not limited to, its country of domicile, the primary stock exchange on which it trades, the location from which the majority of its revenue comes, and its reporting currency. Although a Fund will generally rely on an issuer's "country of risk" (or similar designation) as determined by Bloomberg (or another similar third party) when categorizing securities as either U.S. or foreign-based, it is not required to do so.

Investments in foreign (non-U.S.) securities may be riskier than investments in U.S. securities. Foreign regulatory regimes and securities markets can have less stringent investor protections and disclosure standards and less liquid trading markets than U.S. regulatory regimes and securities markets, and can experience political, social and economic developments that may affect the value of investments in foreign securities. Foreign securities may also subject the Fund's investments to changes in currency rates. Changes in the value of foreign currencies may make the return on an investment increase or decrease, unrelated to the quality or performance of the investment itself. Economic sanctions may be, and have been, imposed against certain countries, organizations, companies, entities and/or individuals. Economic sanctions and other similar governmental actions or developments could, among other things, effectively restrict or eliminate the Fund's ability to purchase or sell certain foreign securities or groups of foreign securities, and thus may make the Fund's investments in such securities less liquid or more difficult to value. Such sanctions may also cause a decline in the value of securities issued by the sanctioned country or companies located in or economically tied to the sanctioned country. In addition, as a result of economic sanctions and other similar governmental actions or developments, the Fund may be forced to sell or otherwise dispose of foreign investments at inopportune times or prices. The Fund may seek to hedge against its exposure to changes in the value of foreign currency, but there is no guarantee that such hedging techniques will be successful in reducing any related foreign currency valuation risk.

Past Performance

The following bar chart and table provide some indication of the risks of investing in the Fund by showing changes in the Fund's performance from year to year and by showing how the Fund's average annual returns compare with those of a broad measure of market performance, as well as an additional index over time. Sales loads, if any, are not reflected in the bar chart. If they were, returns would be less than those shown. In accordance with new regulatory requirements, the Fund has selected the Russell 3000® Index, which represents a broad measure of market performance, as a replacement for the Russell 2000® Index. The table also includes the average annual returns of the Russell 2000® Index, which is generally representative of the market sectors or types of investments in which the Fund invests.

Index returns reflect no deductions for fees, expenses or taxes, except for foreign withholding taxes where applicable.

Performance data for the classes varies based on differences in their fee and expense structures. Performance data is not shown for classes with less than one calendar year of performance. Past performance (before and after taxes) is not necessarily an indication of how the Fund will perform in the future. Please visit newyorklifeinvestments.com/funds for more recent performance information.

The Fund replaced its subadvisor effective April 1, 2019, and changed its investment objective and principal investment strategies.

Effective March 5, 2021, the Fund replaced its subadvisor and modified its principal investment strategies. The past performance in the bar chart and table prior to that date reflects the Fund's prior subadvisors, investment objective and principal investment strategies.

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Annual Returns, Class I Shares

(by calendar year 2014-2023)

Best Quarter

2020, Q4

27.52

%

Worst Quarter

2020, Q1

-33.94

%

Average Annual Total Returns (for the periods ended December 31, 2023)

Inception

1 Year

5 Years

10 Years

Return Before Taxes

Class I

1/12/1987

9.44

%

6.05

%

4.40

%

Return After Taxes on Distributions

Class I

9.34

%

4.08

%

2.81

%

Return After Taxes on Distributions and Sale of Fund Shares

Class I

5.64

%

4.19

%

3.11

%

Return Before Taxes

Class A

1/2/2004

3.20

%

4.59

%

3.56

%

Investor Class

2/28/2008

3.43

%

4.31

%

3.27

%

Class B

1/2/2004

3.08

%

4.41

%

3.09

%

Class C

12/30/2002

7.09

%

4.72

%

3.09

%

Russell 3000® Index1

25.96

%

15.16

%

11.48

%

Russell 2000® Index2

16.93

%

9.97

%

7.16

%

1.The Russell 3000®Index measures the performance of the largest 3,000 U.S. companies representing approximately 98% of the investable U.S. equity market.

2. The Russell 2000® Index measures the performance of the small-cap segment of the U.S. equity universe. It is a subset of the Russell 3000® Index and includes approximately 2,000 of the smallest securities based on a combination of their market cap and current index membership.

After-tax returns are calculated using the highest individual federal marginal income tax rates in effect at the time of each distribution or capital gain or upon the sale of Fund shares, and do not reflect the impact of state and local taxes. In some cases, the return after taxes may exceed the return before taxes due to an assumed tax benefit from any losses on a sale of shares at the end of the measurement period. Actual after-tax returns depend on your tax situation and may differ from those shown. After-tax returns are not relevant if you hold your shares through tax-deferred arrangements, such as 401(k) plans or individual retirement accounts. After-tax returns shown are for Class I shares. After-tax returns for the other share classes may vary.

Management

New York Life Investment Management LLC serves as the Manager. Wellington Management Company LLP serves as the Subadvisor. The individuals listed below are jointly and primarily responsible for day-to-day portfolio management.

Subadvisor

Portfolio Manager

Service Date

Wellington Management Company LLP

Peter W. Carpi, Managing Director and Equity Portfolio Manager

Since 2021

David B. DuBard, Senior Managing Director and Equity Portfolio Manager

Since 2023

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How to Purchase and Sell Shares

You may purchase or sell shares of the Fund on any day the Fund is open for business by contacting your financial adviser or financial intermediary firm, or by contacting the Fund by telephone at 800-624-6782, by mail at New York Life Investments Funds, P.O. Box 219003, Kansas City, MO 64121-9000, by overnight mail to 430 West 7th Street, Suite 219003, Kansas City, MO 64105-1407, or by accessing our website at newyorklifeinvestments.com/accounts.

Generally, an initial investment minimum of $1,000 applies if you invest in Investor Class or Class C shares, $15,000 for Class A shares and $1,000,000 for individual investors in Class I shares investing directly (i) with the Fund or (ii) through certain private banks and trust companies that have an agreement with NYLIFE Distributors LLC, the Fund's principal underwriter and distributor, or its affiliates. A subsequent investment minimum of $50 applies to investments in Investor Class and Class C shares. However, for Investor Class and Class C shares purchased through AutoInvest, New York Life Investments' systematic investment plan, a $500 initial investment minimum and a $50 minimum for subsequent purchases applies. Class A shares have no subsequent investment minimum. Institutional shareholders in Class I shares have no initial or subsequent investment minimums. Class B shares are closed to all new purchases and additional investments by existing Class B shareholders.

Certain financial intermediaries through whom you may invest may impose their own investment minimums, fees, policies and procedures for purchasing and selling Fund shares, which are not described in this Prospectus or the Statement of Additional Information, and which will depend on the policies, procedures and trading platforms of the financial intermediary. Consult a representative of your financial intermediary about the availability of shares of the Fund and the intermediary's policies, procedures and other information.

Tax Information

The Fund's distributions are generally taxable to you as ordinary income, capital gains, or a combination of the two, unless you are investing through a tax-deferred arrangement, such as a 401(k) plan or an individual retirement account.

Compensation to Financial Intermediary Firms

If you purchase Fund shares through a financial intermediary firm (such as a broker/dealer or bank), the Fund and its related companies may pay the intermediary for the sale of Fund shares and related services. These payments may create a conflict of interest by influencing the financial intermediary firm or your financial adviser to recommend the Fund over another investment. Ask your financial adviser or visit your financial intermediary firm's website for more information.

"New York Life Investments" is both a service mark, and the common trade name, of certain investment advisors affiliated with New York Life Insurance Company.

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