The Fund employs a “passive management” – or indexing – investment approach designed to track the performance of the Index. The Fund generally uses a representative sampling strategy to achieve its investment objective, meaning it generally will invest in a sample of the securities in the Index whose risk, return and other characteristics resemble the risk, return and other characteristics of the Index as a whole. Under normal circumstances, at least 95% of the Fund’s total assets (exclusive of collateral held from securities lending) will be invested in component securities of the Index and investments that have economic characteristics that are substantially identical to the economic characteristics of such component securities.

The Index is a fundamentally weighted index that is comprised of companies with high dividend yields selected from the WisdomTree International Equity Index, which defines the dividend-paying universe of companies in the industrialized world, excluding Canada and the United States. To be eligible for inclusion in the Index, a company must meet the following criteria as of the annual Index screening date: (i) incorporation in one of 15 developed European countries (Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, or the United Kingdom), Israel, Japan, Australia, Hong Kong or Singapore; (ii) payment of at least $5 million in cash dividends on shares of common stock during the preceding annual cycle; 

(iii) market capitalization of at least $200 million; (iv) average daily dollar trading volume of at least $200,000 for the preceding three months; and (v) trading of at least 250,000 shares per month for each of the preceding six months. Securities eligible for inclusion in the Index are ranked by dividend yield as adjusted by a composite risk score based on fundamental valuation, quality and momentum characteristics. Securities ranking in the highest 30% by dividend yield and top 80% by composite risk score are selected for inclusion in the Index. If a company currently in the Index is no longer ranked in the top 30% by dividend yield at the time of the annual Index screening date but remains ranked in the top 35% by dividend yield, the company will remain in the Index. 

Securities are weighted in the Index based on dividends paid over the prior annual cycle. Companies that pay a greater total dollar amount of dividends are more heavily weighted. To derive a company’s initial Index weight, (i) multiply the U.S. dollar value of the company’s annual gross dividend per share by the number of common shares outstanding for that company (the “Cash Dividend Factor”); (ii) calculate the Cash Dividend Factor for each company; (iii) add together all of the companies’ Cash Dividend Factors; and (iv) divide the company’s Cash Dividend Factor by the sum of all Cash Dividend Factors. At the time of the Index’s annual screening date, the maximum weight of any security in the Index is capped at 5%. The maximum weight of any one sector and any one country in the Index, at the time of the Index’s annual screening date, is capped at 25% (with the exception of the real estate sector, which is capped at 15%); however, security, sector and/or country weights may fluctuate above the specified cap in response to market conditions and/or the application of volume factor adjustments. The Index methodology applies a volume factor adjustment to reduce a component security’s weight in the Index and reallocate the reduction in weight pro rata among the other securities if, as of the annual Index screening date, a component security no longer meets certain trading volume thresholds. 

WisdomTree Investments, Inc. (“WisdomTree Investments”), as Index provider, currently uses Standard & Poor’s Global Industry Classification Standards (“S&P GICS”) to define companies within a sector. The following sectors are included in the Index: consumer discretionary, consumer staples, energy, financials, health care, industrials, information technology, materials, real estate, communication services, and utilities. A sector is comprised of multiple industries. For example, the energy sector is comprised of companies in, among others, the natural gas, oil and petroleum industries. As of June 30, 2022, companies in the financials and materials sectors comprised a significant portion of the Index. 

To the extent the Index concentrates (i.e., holds 25% or more of its total assets) in the securities of a particular industry or group of industries, the Fund will concentrate its investments to approximately the same extent as the Index.