The Fund invests in those companies that meet the quality and valuation criteria of MacKay Shields LLC, the Fund’s Subadvisor.

The Fund normally invests at least 80% of its assets (net assets plus any borrowings for investment purposes) in equity securities of foreign issuers. An issuer of a security is considered to be a U.S. or foreign issuer based on the issuer’s “country of risk” (or similar designation) as determined by a third-party such as Bloomberg. The Fund invests in securities of companies which conduct business in a variety of countries, with a minimum of five countries other than the United States. This includes countries with established economies as well as emerging market countries that the Subadvisor believes present favorable opportunities. The Subadvisor defines emerging market countries as those countries that are included in the MSCI Emerging Markets Index. The Fund may also invest in exchange-traded funds ("ETFs") to obtain this exposure or for other investment purposes.

Investment Process: The Subadvisor seeks to identify investment opportunities through “bottom-up” analysis and fundamental research. The Subadvisor performs research to identify reasonably priced companies with competitive market advantages that it believes are able to benefit from long-term market trends and that the Subadvisor believes are able to sustain earnings growth over long periods of time, regardless of economic climate. The Subadvisor employs a two-stage process which begins by identifying companies using the following investment selection criteria:

·Secular Growth Dynamics

·Competitive Positioning

·Management Quality

·Economic Sensitivity

·Concentration Risk

·Financial Leverage

·Corporate Governance

Only companies that meet the Subadvisor’s requirements for each of the investment selection criteria are considered for inclusion in the Fund. The second step in the process combines the Subadvisor’s qualitative analysis with detailed financial analysis in order to rank the return potential of each investment opportunity. These rankings determine holdings and position sizing of equity securities in the Fund.

The Subadvisor also believes that environmental, social and governance (“ESG”) factors contribute to long-term market trends and actively considers these factors in its investment process. The Subadvisor’s ESG analysis includes its own proprietary assessments of ESG factors. In addition to proprietary research, the Subadvisor may use screening tools and, to the extent available, third party data to identify ESG risk factors that may not have been captured through its own research. The Subadvisor’s consideration of ESG risk is weighed against other criteria and therefore does not mean that any sectors or industries are explicitly excluded from the Fund.

Allocations to countries and industries are also a result of the "bottom-up" stock selection process and, as a result, may deviate from the country and industry weightings in the Fund’s benchmark. The Fund may not perform as well as its peers or benchmark during periods when the stock market favors the securities of businesses with lower operating margins, more highly leveraged balance sheets, or more economic sensitivity.

Generally, the Fund seeks to limit its investments in securities of: (i) any one company; (ii) companies in the same industry; (iii) companies located in any one country; and (iv) companies located in emerging markets (currently limited to 25% of the Fund’s assets measured at the time of investment).

The Subadvisor may sell a security if it believes the security will no longer contribute to meeting the investment objective of the Fund. In considering whether to sell a security, the Subadvisor may evaluate, among other things, whether the security has approached full valuation, if the investment thesis is invalidated, if superior opportunities to redeploy exist or emerge, or if industry group or country weights or individual positions need to be adjusted.