The Mid-Cap Growth Fund pursues its investment objective by using a quality growth investing style. The Fund invests in a focused portfolio of the common stocks of high-quality companies organized in the United States that are engaged in a broad range of industries.

Under normal market conditions, the Mid-Cap Growth Fund invests at least 80% of its net assets (plus the amount of any borrowings for investment purposes) in securities issued by United States companies having mid-market capitalizations. For this purpose, the Adviser currently defines mid-market capitalization companies as having similar market capitalizations to the companies in the Russell Midcap® Growth Total Return Index. That index is used for the purpose of determining range and not for targeting portfolio management. Under normal circumstances, the Mid-Cap Growth Fund seeks to stay fully invested and does not attempt to time the market.

In identifying investments for the Mid-Cap Growth Fund, the Adviser looks for securities of companies that have high-quality businesses with strong market positions, manageable leverage, robust streams of free cash flow, and trade at attractive prices. In managing the Mid-Cap Growth Fund’s investment portfolio, the Adviser regularly reviews and adjusts the Mid-Cap Growth Fund’s allocations to maintain a diversified mix of investments that the Adviser believes offer the best overall potential for long-term growth of capital. The Mid-Cap Growth Fund will sell securities in which it has invested based upon the Adviser’s analysis of fundamental investment criteria, including its assessment of the current value of a security relative to the security’s current market price, business fundamentals relating to the issuer, and developments affecting the issuer’s business prospects and risks.

The Mid-Cap Growth Fund prefers to invest in high-quality businesses when possible. To identify these high-quality businesses, the Adviser engages in research to evaluate each company under consideration using four criteria: management, culture, and incentives; the economics of the business; competitive advantage; and trajectory. The Adviser’s approach employs a long-term mindset and a balance of qualitative and quantitative factors.

Management, Culture, and Incentives.

The Adviser believes that management is a key element to long-term success at most businesses. Among the factors the Adviser considers are: manager and board of director fit, the clarity of vision and strategies, main-line culture and turnover, ownership in the business, the sensibility of incentives, capital allocation choices and results, external transparency and candor, and overall treatment of stakeholders.

Economics of the Business.

The Adviser believes that the economic performance of a business is a signal for quality. The Adviser’s process looks at the company’s long-term return on capital, the scalability of its business model, relative and absolute margins, business and product cyclicality, and other key performance indicators to gain insight into its potential for future performance.

Competitive Advantage.

The Adviser seeks companies that offer certain characteristics that allow them to generate and sustain outsized returns on capital on an absolute basis as well as in comparison to their peers. Competitive advantages may include pricing power, geographic barriers to entry, network effects, regulatory barriers to entry and superior brands, among others. The Adviser also assesses the strength of the supporting capabilities each company possesses that reinforce these advantages to result in unique positioning.

Trajectory.

Companies often display superior economics over the short term due to favorable product cycles, customer preference, temporary or tactical advantages or other reasons. As the Adviser’s desire is to own companies in the Fund that can be kept in the portfolio for many years, a core part of the Adviser’s process is to consider what the company might look like over a period of ten or more years. The Adviser considers whether the company seems likely to grow, to increase profitability through additional products or other offerings, and if it has optionality and the financial capacity that may make it a larger, stronger business in the future than it might be today.

The Mid-Cap Growth Fund’s investment portfolio is focused, generally composed of at least 30 investment positions, with the 10 largest positions representing not more than 60% of the Mid-Cap Growth Fund’s net assets. To limit the risks associated with highly concentrated holdings, the Mid-Cap Growth Fund generally does not invest more than 5% of its net assets in securities of any one issuer at the time of purchase. If a portfolio holding grows to be greater than 5% of the Mid-Cap Growth Fund’s net assets the Adviser may not add additional capital to the position. However, the Adviser may maintain an allocation above 5% indefinitely, provided it continues to meet the Adviser’s investment criteria.

While investing in a particular sector is not a principal investment strategy of the Mid-Cap Growth Fund, its portfolio may be significantly invested in a sector as a result of the portfolio management decisions made pursuant to its principal investment strategy. Currently, the Mid-Cap Growth Fund is significantly invested in the industrials sector, consumer discretionary sector, health care sector, and information technology sector, which means it will be more affected by the performance of such sectors than a fund that is not so significantly invested. The Fund may also seek to increase its income by lending portfolio securities.