The Fund pursues its objective by investing, under normal circumstances, at least 80% of its net assets (including borrowings for investment purposes) in a diversified portfolio consisting primarily of equity securities, such as common stocks of issuers with small market capitalizations and identified by the Adviser as having value characteristics. A small market capitalization issuer generally is considered to be one whose market capitalization is, at the time the Fund makes the investment, similar to the market capitalization of companies in the Russell 2000® Value Index. The Russell 2000® Value Index is an unmanaged index that contains stocks from the Russell 2000® Index with less than average growth orientation. As of March 31, 2024, the median market capitalization of the Russell 2000® Value Index was $804 million and the largest stock was $10.3 billion. Please note that this range is as of a particular point in time and is subject to change.

The Fund generally invests in the equity securities of small companies. The Adviser will seek to invest in companies it considers to be well managed and to have attractive fundamental financial characteristics. The Adviser believes greater potential for price appreciation exists among small companies since they tend to be less widely followed by other securities analysts and thus may be more likely to be undervalued by the market. The Fund may invest from time to time a portion of its assets, not to exceed 20% (under normal conditions) at the time of purchase, in companies with larger market capitalizations.

The Adviser will sell a stock when it no longer meets one or more investment criteria, either through obtaining target value or due to an adverse change in fundamentals or business momentum. Each holding has a target valuation established at purchase, which the Adviser constantly monitors and adjusts as appropriate.

The Adviser examines various factors in determining the value characteristics of such issuers including price to book value ratios and price to earnings ratios. These value characteristics are examined in the context of the issuer’s operating and financial fundamentals such as return on equity, earnings growth and cash flow. The Adviser selects securities for the Fund based on a continuous study of trends in industries and companies, earnings power and growth and other investment criteria.

The Fund may also invest up to 25% of its total assets in non U.S. dollar-denominated securities.

The Fund may invest up to 15% of its net assets in illiquid investments, including investments that are illiquid by virtue of the absence of a readily available market or legal or contractual restrictions on resale.

The Fund may participate as a purchaser in initial public offerings of securities (“IPO”). An IPO is a company’s first offering of stock to the public.

In general, the Fund’s investments are broadly diversified over a number of industries and, as a matter of policy, the Fund is limited to investing a maximum of 25% of its total assets in any one industry.

While the Adviser intends to fully invest the Fund’s assets at all times in accordance with the above-mentioned policies, the Fund reserves the right to hold up to 100% of its assets, as a temporary defensive measure, in cash and eligible U.S. dollar-denominated money market instruments and make investments inconsistent with its investment objective. The Adviser will determine when market conditions warrant temporary defensive measures.