FlexShares International Quality Dividend Defensive Index Fund

The fund seeks to replicate the total return performance of the benchmark index, before fees and expenses, by investing in companies outside the United States.

The investment process starts with a list of companies in the benchmark index and the research team utilizes quantitative techniques and fundamental analysis to identify investment opportunities.

As part of its strategy, the fund employs a passive or indexing approach.

Next, the research team invests significantly in the securities of the Underlying Index and in American Depositary Receipts and Global Depositary Receiptss based on the securities in the Underlying Index.

The Underlying Index is designed to reflect the performance of a selection of companies that, in aggregate, possess greater financial strength and stability characteristics.

Additionally, the research team employs a representative sampling strategy to invest in a representative sample of securities that collectively has an investment profile similar to the Underlying Index.

Then the manager constructs a portfolio of stocks from a list of companies favored by the research team and allocates capital based on its conviction level.

The fund may or may not hold all of the securities that are included in the Underlying Index.

The fund will concentrate its investments in a particular industry or group of industries to approximately the same extent that the Underlying Index is concentrated.

In addition, the fund may also invest up to 20% of its assets in cash and cash equivalents, including shares of money market funds.

The fund may lend securities representing up to one-third of the value of its net assets.