FlexShares Morningstar US Market Factor Tilt Index Fund

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

Next, the research team invests significantly in the securities of the Underlying Index.

The Underlying Index is designed to reflect the performance of a selection of companies that, in aggregate, possess greater exposure to size and value factors relative to the Morningstar US Market Index (the Parent Index).

The Underlying Index seeks to achieve increased exposures to size and value factors, or a factor tilt, by adjusting the Parent Index’s constituent weights to achieve a slightly greater weight on companies with smaller market capitalizations or lower valuations.

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.

Also, the fund will concentrate its investments (i.e., hold 25% or more of its net assets) in a particular industry or group of industries to approximately the same extent that the Underlying Index is concentrated.

The fund may invest up to 20% of its net assets in cash and cash equivalents, including shares of money market funds.

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