What do the boxes mean?

The style box represents the fund's investment objective and is not reflective of the historical or current holdings of the portfolio.

Investment Grade Tax-Exempt Bond

Investment Grade Tax-Exempt Bond Strategy

The Fund seeks to provide as high a level of total return through federally tax-exempt current income and capital appreciation as is consistent with the preservation of capital, primarily through investment in investment-grade tax-exempt fixed-income securities.

What are the principles that have enabled the strategy to be successful?

Exploit inefficiencies – supply/demand inefficiencies in the municipal markets often create opportunities. Having the expertise to identify and take advantage of these inefficiencies has allowed the strategy to provide investors with highly competitive after-tax total return over both short and long time periods.

Sector and yield curve positioning – evaluate risk premiums of all sectors and risk/reward trade-off of each to determine optimal sector allocations. Fund managers review yield curve shape to determine yield curve positioning strategy (e.g., bullet vs. barbell), making no predictions on interest rates.

Emphasis on quality – invest in very high quality, investment grade bonds, seeking to provide a high level of protection against loss of principal or interest. Since 2006, the Fund has generally had more than 85% of its assets invested in AAA and AA (investment grade) securities.

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