Touchstone Strategic Trust

26/07/2024 | Press release | Distributed by Public on 26/07/2024 20:52

Summary Prospectus by Investment Company - Form 497K

497K
Summary Prospectus
Touchstone Non-US ESG Equity FundJuly 29, 2024
Class A Ticker: TEQAX Class C Ticker: TEQCX
Class Y Ticker: TIQIX Institutional Class Ticker: TROCX
Before you invest, you may want to review the Fund's prospectus, which contains information about the Fund and its risks. The Fund's prospectus and Statement of Additional Information, both dated July 29, 2024, as amended from time to time, are incorporated by reference into this summary prospectus. For free paper or electronic copies of the Fund's prospectus and other information about the Fund, go to TouchstoneInvestments.com/Resources, call 1.800.543.0407, or ask any financial adviser, bank, or broker-dealer who offers shares of the Fund.
Touchstone Non-US ESG Equity Fund Summary
The Fund's Investment Goal
The Touchstone Non-US ESG Equity Fund (the "Fund") seeks long-term growth of capital.
The Fund's Fees and Expenses
This table 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 tables and examples below.You may qualify for sales charge discounts for Class A shares of Touchstone equity funds and Touchstone fixed income funds if you and your family invest, or agree to invest in the future, at least $25,000 or $50,000, respectively, in Touchstone funds. More information about these and other discounts is available from your financial professional, in the section titled "Choosing a Class of Shares" in the Fund's prospectus and Statement of Additional Information ("SAI") on pages 65 and 69, respectively, and in Appendix A-Intermediary-Specific Sales Charge Waivers and Discounts to the Fund's prospectus.
Class A
Class C
Class Y
Institutional
Class
Shareholder Fees (fees paid directly from your investment)
Maximum Sales Charge (Load) Imposed on Purchases (as a percentage of offering
price)
5.00%
None
None
None
Maximum Deferred Sales Charge (Load) (as a percentage of original purchase price or
the amount redeemed, whichever is less)
None
1.00%
None
None
Wire Redemption Fee
$15
$15
$15
$15
Annual Fund Operating Expenses (expenses that you pay each year as a
percentage of the value of your investment)
Management Fees
0.65%
0.65%
0.65%
0.65%
Distribution and/or Shareholder Service (12b-1) Fees
0.24%
1.00%
None
None
Other Expenses
0.27%
0.86%
0.29%
0.27%
Total Annual Fund Operating Expenses
1.16%
2.51%
0.94%
0.92%
Fee Waiver and/or Expense Reimbursement(1)
0.00%
(0.59)%
(0.04)%
(0.05)%
Total Annual Fund Operating Expenses After Fee Waiver and/or Expense
Reimbursement(1)
1.16%
1.92%(2)
0.90%
0.87%(2)
(1)
Touchstone Advisors, Inc. (the "Adviser" or "Touchstone Advisors") and Touchstone Strategic Trust (the "Trust") have entered into a contractual expense limitation agreement whereby Touchstone Advisors will waive a portion of its fees or reimburse certain Fund expenses (excluding dividend and interest expenses relating to short sales; interest; taxes; brokerage commissions and other transaction costs; portfolio transaction and investment related expenses, including expenses associated with the Fund's liquidity providers; other expenditures which are capitalized in accordance with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles; the cost of "Acquired Fund Fees and Expenses", if any; and other
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Touchstone Non-US ESG Equity FundJuly 29, 2024
extraordinary expenses not incurred in the ordinary course of business) in order to limit annual Fund operating expenses to 1.17%, 1.92%, 0.90% and 0.87% of average daily net assets for Classes A, C, Y, and Institutional Class shares, respectively. This contractual expense limitation is effective through July 29, 2025, but can be terminated by a vote of the Board of Trustees of the Trust (the "Board") if it deems the termination to be beneficial to the Fund's shareholders. The terms of the contractual expense limitation agreement provide that Touchstone Advisors is entitled to recoup, subject to approval by the Board, such amounts waived or reimbursed for a period of up to three years from the date on which the Adviser reduced its compensation or assumed expenses for the Fund. The Fund will make repayments to the Adviser only if such repayment does not cause the annual Fund operating expenses (after the repayment is taken into account) to exceed both (1) the expense cap in place when such amounts were waived or reimbursed and (2) the Fund's current expense limitation.
(2)
Total Annual Fund Operating Expenses After Fee Waiver and/or Expense Reimbursement will differ from the ratio of net expenses to average net assets that is included in the Fund's annual report for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2024 due to contractual changes in the Fund's expense limitation agreement effective July 29, 2024.
Example.This 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 and then, except as indicated, redeem all of your shares at the end of those periods. The example also assumes that your investment has a 5% return each year, that the Fund's operating expenses remain the same and that all fee waivers or expense limits for the Fund will expire after one year. Although your actual costs may be higher or lower, based on these assumptions your costs would be:
Assuming Redemption at End of Period
Assuming
No Redemption
Class A
Class C
Class Y
Institutional
Class
Class C
1 Year
$612
$295
$92
$89
$195
3 Years
$850
$725
$296
$288
$725
5 Years
$1,106
$1,283
$516
$504
$1,283
10 Years
$1,839
$2,802
$1,151
$1,127
$2,802
Portfolio Turnover.The Fund pays transaction costs, such as brokerage 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 total 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 16% of the average value of the Fund's portfolio.
The Fund's Principal Investment Strategies
The Fund invests, under normal circumstances, at least 80% of its assets in equity securities of non-U.S. companies that meet certain financial and environmental, social, and governance ("ESG") criteria. The Fund's 80% policy is a non-fundamental investment policy that can be changed by the Fund upon 60 days' prior written notice to shareholders. Equity securities include common stocks, preferred stocks, convertible securities, depositary receipts such as American Depositary Receipts ("ADRs"), Global Depositary Receipts ("GDRs") and European Depositary Receipts ("EDRs"), and interests in other investment companies, including exchange-traded funds ("ETFs") that invest in equity securities.
The Fund's sub-adviser, Rockefeller & Co., LLC ("Rockefeller"), selects investments for the Fund based on an evaluation of a company's financial condition and its ESG practices, as well as a company's perceived improvement trajectory on material issues of an ESG nature. Rockefeller applies "bottom-up" security analysis that includes fundamental, sector-based research in seeking to identify businesses that have high or improving returns on
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Touchstone Non-US ESG Equity FundJuly 29, 2024
capital, barriers to competition, and compelling valuations. Rockefeller believes that integrating ESG analysis into the investment process provides additional insight into a company's long-term competitive edge and helps identify risks and opportunities that financial analysis might not fully consider. In selecting investments for the Fund's portfolio, Rockefeller assesses each company's environmental, social, and governance profile, with an emphasis on ESG issues deemed material by Rockefeller to the risk and return profile of the company. Rockefeller analyzes the potential ESG opportunities and risks of a company, considers how well the company manages these opportunities and risks, and ascertains the company's ability to improve. Rockefeller performs this ESG evaluation of each company using proprietary quantitative methods when data is available and qualitative analysis when material.
Rockefeller's proprietary ESG research process includes an assessment, as appropriate, of a company's: (1) ESG industry relevance, including whether ESG issues have a high, medium, or low impact on the risk and return profile of companies operating in select industries; (2) ESG issues that Rockefeller considers to be material to a particular industry (which, depending on the industry, could include areas such as air quality, climate physical risk, climate transition risk, customer privacy and data security, diversity and inclusion, labor rights, management, talent attraction and retention and board independence, among others), and (3) engage-ability, which is Rockefeller's view on a the company's willingness to improve its ESG practices. Rockefeller's direct ESG engagement efforts focus on particular companies where Rockefeller believes it can help effectuate improvement in material ESG issues relevant to the company. Engagement efforts are tracked by Rockefeller for an assessment of the company's progress toward improvement.
The Fund invests in securities of any size, but generally focuses on larger, more established companies with market capitalizations over $4 billion. The Fund invests primarily in securities of companies domiciled in developed markets, but may invest up to 30% of its net assets in securities of companies domiciled in emerging and frontier markets. Emerging markets are defined as those countries not included in the MSCI World Index, a developed market index. As of June 30, 2024, the countries in the MSCI World Index included: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The country composition of the MSCI World Index can change over time. Frontier markets are those emerging market countries that have the smallest, least mature economies and least developed capital markets.
The Fund's Principal Risks
The Fund's share price will fluctuate. You could lose money on your investment in the Fund and the Fund could also return less than other investments.Investments in the Fund are not bank guaranteed, are not deposits, and are not insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation or any other federal government agency. As with any mutual fund, there is no guarantee that the Fund will achieve its investment goal. You can find more information about the Fund's investments and risks under the "Principal Investment Strategies and Risks" section of the Fund's prospectus. The Fund is subject to the principal risks summarized below.
Equity Securities Risk: The Fund is subject to the risk that stock prices will fall over short or extended periods of time. Individual companies may report poor results or be negatively affected by industry and/or economic trends and developments, or as a result of irregular and/or unexpected trading activity among retail investors. The prices of securities issued by these companies may decline in response to such developments, which could result in a decline in the value of the Fund's shares.
Large-Cap Risk: Large-cap companies may be unable to respond quickly to new competitive challenges, such as changes in technology and consumer tastes, and also may not be able to attain the high growth rate of successful smaller companies, especially during extended periods of economic expansion.
Mid-Cap Risk: Stocks of mid-sized companies may be subject to more abrupt or erratic market movements than stocks of larger, more established companies. Mid-sized companies may have limited product lines or financial resources, and may be dependent upon a particular niche of the market.
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Touchstone Non-US ESG Equity FundJuly 29, 2024
Preferred Stock Risk: In the event an issuer is liquidated or declares bankruptcy, the claims of owners of bonds take precedence over the claims of those who own preferred and common stock. If interest rates rise, the fixed dividend on preferred stocks may be less attractive, causing the price of preferred stocks to decline.
Small-Cap Risk: Stocks of smaller companies may be subject to more abrupt or erratic market movements than stocks of larger, more established companies. Small companies may have limited product lines or financial resources and may be dependent upon a small or inexperienced management group.
Foreign Securities Risk: Investing in foreign securities poses additional risks since political and economic events unique in a country or region will affect those markets and their issuers, while such events may not necessarily affect the U.S. economy or issuers located in the United States. In addition, investments in foreign securities are generally denominated in foreign currency. As a result, changes in the value of those currencies compared to the U.S. dollar may affect (positively or negatively) the value of the Fund's investments. There are also risks associated with foreign accounting standards, government regulation, market information, and clearance and settlement procedures. To the extent that the securities held by the Fund trade on foreign exchanges or in foreign markets that may be closed when the U.S. market is open, there are likely to be deviations between the current price of the securities held by the Fund and their last quoted price or the securities' quote from the closed foreign market. Foreign markets may be less liquid and more volatile than U.S. markets and offer less protection to investors. To the extent a Fund focuses its investments in a single country or only a few countries in a particular geographic region, economic, political, regulatory or other conditions affecting such country or region may have a greater impact on Fund performance relative to a more geographically diversified fund.
Depositary Receipts Risk: Foreign receipts, which include American Depositary Receipts, Global Depositary Receipts, and European Depositary Receipts, are securities that evidence ownership interests in a security or a pool of securities issued by a foreign issuer. The risks of depositary receipts include many risks associated with investing directly in foreign securities.
Emerging Markets Risk: Emerging markets may be more likely to experience political turmoil or rapid changes in market or economic conditions than more developed countries. In addition, the financial stability of issuers (including governments) in emerging market countries may be more precarious than that of issuers in other countries.
Frontier Markets Risk: Frontier markets have similar risks to emerging markets, except that these risks are often magnified in a frontier market due to its smaller and less developed economy. As a result, frontier markets may experience greater changes in market or economic conditions, financial stability, price volatility, currency fluctuations, and other risks inherent in foreign securities.
ESG Investing Risk: The Fund's sub-adviser may consider ESG factors that it deems relevant or additive, along with other material factors and analysis, when selecting investments for the Fund. The Fund's ESG criteria may cause the Fund to forgo opportunities to buy certain securities, or forgo opportunities to gain exposure to certain industries, sectors, regions and countries. In addition, the Fund may be required to sell a security when it might otherwise be disadvantageous for it to do so.
Economic and Market Events Risk: Events in the U.S. and global financial markets, including actions taken by the U.S. Federal Reserve or foreign central banks to stimulate or stabilize economic growth, may at times, and for varying periods of time, result in unusually high market volatility, which could negatively impact the Fund's performance and cause the Fund to experience illiquidity, shareholder redemptions, or other potentially adverse effects. Reduced liquidity in credit and fixed-income markets could negatively affect issuers worldwide. Financial institutions could suffer losses as interest rates rise or economic conditions deteriorate. In addition, the Fund's service providers are susceptible to operational and information or cyber security risks that could result in losses to a Fund and its shareholders.
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Touchstone Non-US ESG Equity FundJuly 29, 2024
Management Risk: In managing the Fund's portfolio, the Adviser engages one or more sub-advisers to make investment decisions for a portion of or the entire portfolio. There is a risk that the Adviser may be unable to identify and retain sub-advisers who achieve superior investment returns relative to other similar sub-advisers.
Convertible Securities Risk: Convertible securities are subject to the risks of both debt securities and equity securities. The values of convertible securities tend to decline as interest rates rise and, due to the conversion feature, tend to vary with fluctuations in the market value of the underlying security.
Other Investment Companies Risk: The Fund's investments in other investment companies, including ETFs, will be subject to substantially the same risks as those associated with the direct ownership of the securities comprising the portfolios of such investment companies, and the value of the Fund's investment will fluctuate in response to the performance of such portfolios. In addition, if the Fund acquires shares of other investment companies or ETFs, shareholders of the Fund will bear both their proportionate share of the fees and expenses of the Fund (including management and advisory fees) and, indirectly, the fees expenses of the other investment companies or ETFs.
Cybersecurity Risk: Cyber security breaches are either intentional or unintentional events that allow an unauthorized party to gain access to Fund assets, customer data, or proprietary information, or cause a Fund or Fund service provider to suffer data corruption or lose operational functionality. A cyber security breach could result in the loss or theft of customer data or funds, loss or theft of proprietary information or corporate data, physical damage to a computer or network system, or costs associated with system repairs, any of which could have a substantial impact on the Fund. Such incidents could affect issuers in which a Fund invests, thereby causing the Fund's investments to lose value. The Fund has established risk management systems reasonably designed to seek to reduce the risks associated with cyber-events. However, there is no guarantee that the Fund will be able to prevent or mitigate the impact of any or all cyber-events.
The Fund's Performance
The bar chart and performance table below illustrate some indication of the risks and volatility of an investment in the Fund by showing changes in the Fund's performance from calendar year to calendar year and by showing how the Fund's average annual total returns for one year, five years, and ten years compare with the MSCI All Country World Ex USA Index. The bar chart does not reflect any sales charges, which would reduce your return.The performance table reflects any applicable sales charges.Past performance (before and after taxes) does not necessarily indicate how the Fund will perform in the future. More recent performance information is available at no cost by visiting TouchstoneInvestments.com or by calling 1.800.543.0407.
Before the Fund changed its name, principal investment strategies and sub-adviser on May 4, 2015, the Fund was managed as the Touchstone Large Cap Growth Fund. Performance presented prior to such date should not be attributed to the Fund's current sub-adviser, Rockefeller. The Fund's performance shown below might have differed materially if Rockefeller had managed the Fund pursuant to its current strategies prior to May 4, 2015. On July 29, 2022, the Fund changed its name from the Touchstone Global ESG Equity Fund to the Touchstone Non-US ESG Equity Fund and changed its 80% investment policy. The Fund's performance shown below might have differed if Rockefeller had managed the Fund pursuant to its current 80% investment policy prior to July 29, 2022.
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Touchstone Non-US ESG Equity FundJuly 29, 2024
Touchstone Non-US ESG Equity Fund - Class A Shares Total Return as of December 31
Best Quarter:
2nd Quarter 2020
19.42
%
Worst Quarter:
1st Quarter 2020
(22.61
)%
Year-To-Date:
6/30/2024
7.98
%
After-tax returns are calculated using the highest individual marginal federal income tax rates in effect on a given distribution reinvestment date and do not reflect the impact of state and local taxes. Your actual after-tax returns may differ from those shown and depend on your tax situation. The after-tax returns do not apply to shares held in an individual retirement account ("IRA"), 401(k), or other tax-advantaged account.The after-tax returns shown in the table are for Class A shares only. The after-tax returns for other classes of shares offered by the Fund will differ from the Class A shares' after-tax returns. The Return After Taxes on Distributions and Sale of Fund Shares may be greater than other returns for the same period due to a tax benefit of realizing a capital loss on the sale of Fund shares.
The inception date of Institutional Class shares was May 4, 2015. Institutional Class shares' performance was calculated using the historical performance of Class A shares for periods prior to May 4, 2015. Performance for these periods has been restated to reflect the impact of the lower fees and expenses applicable to Institutional Class shares.
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Touchstone Non-US ESG Equity FundJuly 29, 2024
Average Annual Total Returns
For the periods ended December 31, 2023
1 Year
5 Years
10 Years
Touchstone Non-US ESG Equity Fund - Class A
Return Before Taxes
17.26
%
8.60
%
6.98
%
Return After Taxes on Distributions
17.04
%
7.49
%
4.39
%
Return After Taxes on Distributions and Sale of Fund Shares
10.69
%
6.72
%
4.81
%
Touchstone Non-US ESG Equity Fund - Class C
Return Before Taxes
21.45
%
8.82
%
6.93
%
Touchstone Non-US ESG Equity Fund - Class Y
Return Before Taxes
23.79
%
9.99
%
7.89
%
Touchstone Non-US ESG Equity Fund - Institutional Class
Return Before Taxes
23.78
%
9.98
%
7.91
%
MSCI All Country World Ex USA Index (reflects no deduction for fees,
expenses or taxes, except foreign withholding taxes on dividends)
15.62
%
7.08
%
3.83
%
The Fund's Management
Investment Adviser
Touchstone Advisors, Inc. serves as the Fund's investment adviser.
Sub-Adviser
Portfolio Manager
Investment Experience
with the Fund
Primary Title with
Sub-Adviser
Rockefeller & Co., LLC
Michael Seo, CFA
Since December 2020
Managing Director,
Portfolio Manager
Buying and Selling Fund Shares
Minimum Investment Requirements
Classes A, C, and Y
Initial
Investment
Additional
Investment
Regular Account
$2,500
$50
Retirement Account or Custodial Account under the Uniform Gifts/Transfers
to Minors Act
$1,000
$50
Investments through the Automatic Investment Plan
$100
$50
Institutional Class
Initial
Investment
Additional
Investment
Regular Account
$500,000
$50
Fund shares may be purchased and sold on days that the New York Stock Exchange is open for trading. Existing Class A, Class C and Institutional Class shareholders may purchase shares directly through Touchstone Funds via the transfer agent, BNY Mellon, or through their financial intermediary. Class Y shares are available only through
7
Touchstone Non-US ESG Equity FundJuly 29, 2024
financial institutions and financial intermediaries who have appropriate selling agreements in place with Touchstone Securities. Shares may be purchased or sold by writing to Touchstone Securities at P.O. Box 534467, Pittsburgh, PA 15253-4467, calling 1.800.543.0407, or visiting the Touchstone Funds' website: TouchstoneInvestments.com. You may only sell shares over the telephone or via the Internet if the value of the shares sold is less than or equal to $100,000. If your shares are held by a processing organization or financial intermediary you will need to follow its purchase and redemption procedures. For more information about buying and selling shares, see the "Investing with Touchstone" section of the Fund's prospectus or call 1.800.543.0407.
Tax Information
The Fund intends to make distributions that may be taxed as ordinary income or capital gains except when shares are held through a tax-advantaged account, such as a 401(k) plan or an IRA. Withdrawals from a tax-advantaged account, however, may be taxable.
Financial Intermediary Compensation
If you purchase shares in the Fund through a broker-dealer or other financial intermediary (such as a 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 broker-dealer or other financial intermediary and your salesperson to recommend the Fund over another investment. Ask your salesperson or visit your financial intermediary's website for more information.
TSF-54-TST-TROCX-2405
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