Important Risk Information
Risk associated with equity investing includes stock values which may fluctuate in response to the activities of individual companies and general market and economic conditions.
Non-diversified funds that focus on a relatively small number of securities tend to be more volatile than diversified funds and the market as a whole.
Investments in small-sized companies may involve greater risks than in those of larger, better known companies. Returns on investments in stocks of small companies could trail the returns on investments in stocks of larger companies.
Foreign investments involve greater risks than US investments, including political and economic risks and the risk of currency fluctuations, all of which may be magnified in emerging markets.
Bond funds contain interest rate risk (as interest rates rise bond prices usually fall); the risk of issuer default; issuer credit risk; liquidity risk; and inflation risk.
Returns on investments in stocks of large US companies could trail the returns on investments in stocks of smaller and mid-sized companies.
The values of debt securities may decrease as a result of many factors, including, by way of example, general market fluctuations; increases in interest rates; actual or perceived inability or unwillingness of issuers, guarantors or liquidity providers to make scheduled principal or interest payments; illiquidity in debt securities markets; and prepayments of principal, which often must be reinvested in obligations paying interest at lower rates.
