The fund normally invests at least 50% of its total assets in stocks and the remaining assets are generally invested in corporate and government debt (including mortgage- and asset-backed securities) and bank loans (which represent an interest in amounts owed by a borrower to a syndicate of lenders) in keeping with the fund’s objective. The fund may also invest up to 25% of its total assets in foreign securities.

The fund’s investments in stocks generally fall into one of two categories: the larger category comprises long-term core holdings whose prices when purchased are considered low in terms of company assets, earnings, or other factors; the smaller category comprises opportunistic investments whose prices we expect to rise in the short term but not necessarily over the long term. There are no limits on the market capitalization of the issuers of the stocks in which the fund invests. Since we attempt to prevent losses as well as achieve gains, we typically use a value approach in selecting investments. Our in-house research team seeks to identify companies that seem undervalued by various measures, such as price/book value, and may be temporarily out of favor but have good prospects for capital appreciation. We may establish relatively large positions in companies we find particularly attractive.

We work as hard to reduce risk as to maximize gains and may seek to realize gains rather than lose them in market declines. In addition, we search for attractive risk/reward values among all types of securities. The portion of the fund’s investment in a particular type of security, such as common stocks, results largely from case-by-case investment decisions, and the size of the fund’s cash reserves may reflect the portfolio manager’s ability to find companies that meet valuation criteria rather than his market outlook.

The fund may purchase bonds, convertible securities, and bank loans for their income or other features or to gain additional exposure to a company. Maturity and quality are not necessarily major considerations and there are no limits on the maturities or credit ratings of the debt instruments in which the fund invests. The fund may invest up to 30% of its total assets in below investment-grade corporate bonds (also known as “junk bonds”) and other debt instruments that are rated below investment grade. If a security is split rated (i.e., rated

investment-grade by at least one rating agency and below investment-grade by another rating agency), the higher rating will be used for purposes of this requirement. The fund also writes (i.e., sells) call options, primarily in an effort to protect against downside risk or to generate additional income.