“Principal Investment Strategies

The Fund uses a “passive management” (or indexing) approach to track the performance, before fees and expenses, of the Index.

The Index is composed of the constituents of the S&P 500 Shariah Index other than those from the following sub-industries: Aerospace & Defense, Financial Exchanges & Data, and Data Processing & Outsourced Services. The S&P 500 Shariah Index includes all Sharia-compliant constituents of the S&P 500 Index, which consists of approximately 500 leading U.S.- listed companies representing approximately 80% of the U.S. equity market capitalization. Islamic religious law, commonly known as “Sharia,” has certain restrictions regarding finance and commercial activities permitted for Muslims, including interest restrictions and prohibited industries. Constituents of the S&P 500 Shariah Index have been screened for non- compliant business activities (companies that offer products and services that are not compliant with Sharia law such as gambling, alcohol or tobacco) and compliance with certain accounting-based financial ratios (companies must satisfy financial ratios governing leverage, cash, and the share of revenues derived from non-compliant activities).

The Index was co-developed in 2019 by S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC (the “Index Provider”), a division of S&P Global, and ShariaPortfolio, Inc. (“ShariaPortfolio” or, the “Sub-Adviser”), the Fund’s sub-adviser, and is owned and administered by the Index Provider.

The Index is rebalanced and reconstituted monthly and weighted based on the float-adjusted market capitalization of each constituent. As of February 29, 2024, the Index was composed of 260 constituents. 

The Fund’s Investment Strategy

The Fund attempts to invest all, or substantially all, of its assets in component securities of the Index. Under normal circumstances, at least 80% of the Fund’s total assets will be invested in the component securities of the Index. The Fund’s investment adviser expects that, over time, the correlation between the Fund’s performance and that of the Index, before fees and expenses, will be 95% or better.

The Fund will generally use a “representative sampling” strategy to achieve its investment objective. Under a “representative sampling” strategy, the Fund may invest in a sample of the securities in the Index whose risk, return and other characteristics closely resemble the risk, return and other characteristics of the Index as a whole, when the Fund’s investment adviser believes it is in the best interests of the Fund (e.g., when the Sub-Adviser has determined to exclude certain component securities in the Index due to insufficient Sharia-compliance, when replicating the Index involves practical difficulties or substantial costs, when an Index constituent becomes temporarily illiquid, unavailable, or less liquid, or as a result of legal restrictions or limitations that apply to the Fund but not to the Index). The Fund may also use a “replication strategy,” meaning the Fund will invest in all of the component securities of the Index.

The Fund generally may invest up to 20% of its total assets in Sharia-compliant securities or other Sharia-compliant investments not included in the Index, but which the Fund’s investment adviser believes will help the Fund track the Index. For example, the Fund may invest in Sharia-compliant securities that are not components of the Index to reflect various corporate actions and other changes to the Index (such as reconstitutions, additions, and deletions). Each investment made by the Fund is pre-screened and approved as Sharia-compliant before investment by the Fund.

To the extent the Index concentrates (i.e., holds more than 25% of its total assets) in the securities of a particular industry or group of related industries, the Fund will concentrate its investments to approximately the same extent as the Index. The Fund is deemed to be “non-diversified,” which means that it may invest a greater percentage of its assets in the securities of a single issuer or a small number of issuers than if it was a diversified fund.”