The Fund seeks to invest in companies whose future prospects are misunderstood or not fully recognized by the market. The Fund employs a fundamental value investing approach which seeks to exploit market inefficiencies created by irrational investor behavior. To identify these investment opportunities, the Fund employs a disciplined, bottom-up investment process highlighted by rigorous, internally-generated fundamental research. As part of the Advisor's investment process, the investment team evaluates the general and industry-specific Environmental, Social, and Governance ("ESG") factors that the Advisor believes to be the most financially material to a company's short-, medium-, and long-term enterprise value. The Advisor believes this evaluation contributes to its overall analysis of a company's value creation for shareholders and future financial performance. With the exception of diversification guidelines, the Fund does not employ predetermined rules for sales; rather, the Fund evaluates each sell candidate based on the candidate's specific risk and return characteristics which include: 1) relative valuation; 2) fundamental operating trends; 3) deterioration of fundamentals; and 4) portfolio diversification.
Principal Investment Risks. As with any mutual fund, the value of the Fund's investments, and therefore the value of its shares, may go down and you could lose all or a portion of your investment in the Fund. Many factors can affect those values. The factors that are most likely to have a material effect on the Fund's portfolio as a whole are called "principal risks." The principal risks of investing in the Fund are described in this section.
Market Risk. Market risk is the risk that the market price of securities owned by the Fund may go down, sometimes rapidly or unpredictably, due to factors affecting securities markets generally or particular industries represented in the securities markets. These factors include general economic, political or financial market conditions, such as the general outlook for corporate earnings, rates of economic growth and employment, and monetary policy, interest rates, inflation, and currency rates. Adverse market events or investor sentiment may also lead to increased shareholder redemptions, which could cause the Fund to experience a loss or difficulty in selling investments to meet such redemptions. Local, regional or global events such as war, acts of terrorism, the spread of infectious illness or other public health issues, financial crises, recessions, or other events may also lead to increased shareholder redemptions, which could cause the Fund to experience a loss or difficulty in selling investments to meet such redemptions.
Style Risk. The Advisor follows an investing style that favors value investments. Value investing style may over time go in and out of favor in certain market cycles. At times when the value investing style is out of favor the Fund's performance may be negatively impacted. Investors should be prepared to tolerate volatility in Fund returns.
Equity Securities Risk. Equity securities, both common and preferred stocks, have greater price volatility than fixed income securities. The market price of equity securities owned by the Fund may go down, sometimes rapidly or unpredictably. Equity securities may decline in value due to factors affecting equity securities markets generally or particular industries represented by those markets.
Capitalization Risk. Large cap companies as a group could fall out of favor with the market, causing the Fund to underperform investments that focus on small or mid-cap companies.
The Fund may also invest in the securities of mid-cap companies. Investment in mid-cap companies may involve more risk than investing in larger, more established companies. Mid-cap companies may have limited product lines or markets. They may be less financially secure than larger, more established companies. They may depend on a small number of key personnel. Should a product fail, or if management changes, or if there are other adverse developments, the Fund's investment in a mid-cap company may lose substantial value. In addition, mid-cap companies may be particularly affected by interest rate increases, as they may find it more difficult to borrow money to continue or expand operations, or may have difficulty in repaying any loans.
Active Management Risk. The Fund is subject to management risk because it is an actively managed investment portfolio. The Advisor invests in securities that may not necessarily be included in the Fund's benchmark. To the extent that the Advisor invests the Fund's assets in securities that are not in the Fund's applicable benchmark index, there is a greater risk that the Fund's performance will deviate from that of the benchmark. The Advisor does not seek to replicate the performance of any index.
Financial Sector Risk. The Fund currently invests a significant portion of its assets in companies in the financial sector, and therefore the performance of the Fund could be negatively impacted by events affecting this sector. This sector can be significantly affected by changes in interest rates, the rate of corporate and consumer debt defaults, the availability and cost of borrowing and raising capital, reduced credit market liquidity, regulatory changes, price competition, bank failures and other financial crises, and general economic and market conditions. Changing interest rates could reduce the profitability of certain types of companies in the financial sector. Financial companies may have concentrated portfolios, such as a high level of loans to one or more industries or sectors, which makes them vulnerable to economic conditions that affect such industries or sectors. Significant events may have a significant negative impact on economies and financial markets worldwide, resulting in higher debt defaults, loan write-offs, and government intervention, and potentially the failure of some financial institutions, each of which would reduce investment performance of financial sector companies held by the Fund.
Security Selection Risk. The Advisor may misjudge the risk and/or return potential of a security. This misjudgment can result in a loss or a significant performance deviation relative to its benchmarks.
Issuer Risk. The value of a security may decline for a number of reasons which directly relate to the issuer, such as management performance, financial leverage and reduced demand for the issuer's goods or services.
Foreign (Non-U.S.) Investment Risk. The Fund may invest in foreign (non-U.S.) securities and may experience more rapid and extreme changes in value than a fund that invests exclusively in securities of U.S. companies. The securities markets of many foreign countries are relatively small, with a limited number of companies representing a small number of industries. Additionally, issuers of foreign securities are usually not subject to the same degree of regulation as U.S. issuers and investments in securities of foreign issuers may be subject to foreign withholding and other taxes. To the extent that the Fund invests a significant portion of its assets in a specific geographic region or country, the Fund will have more exposure to the investment risks associated with that region or country, although the Advisor does not intend to focus on a