Sustainable Investing Solutions
from American Century Investments®
We are focused on delivering sustainable investing solutions that meet our clients’ evolving needs. Sustainability: It’s in our Genes®…. and our portfolios.
Current Sustainable Investing Offerings
Sustainable Equity Fund (AFDIX)
Invests in a blend of large value and large growth stocks while seeking to outperform the S&P 500® with a comparable dividend yield without taking on significant additional risk.
Sustainable Equity ETF (ESGA)¹
Seeks to provide a total return that exceeds the benchmark over a market cycle by using a core U.S. equity strategy that integrates ESG factors into the investment process.
Sustainable Growth ETF (ESGY)¹
Seeks to provide a total return that exceeds the benchmark over a market cycle by using a growth U.S. equity strategy that integrates ESG factors into the investment process.
Mid Cap Growth Impact ETF (MID)¹
Seeks to invest in mid-cap companies that generate, or could generate social and environmental impact alongside of financial return.
ESGA, ESGY, MID: These ETFs are different from traditional ETFs. Traditional ETFs tell the public what assets they hold each day. This ETF will not. This may create additional risks for your investment.
Specifically
This fund is different from traditional ETFs.
Traditional ETFs tell the public what assets they hold each day. This fund will not. This may create additional risks for your investment. For example:
You may have to pay more money to trade the fund's shares. This fund will provide less information to traders, who tend to charge more for trades when they have less information.
The price you pay to buy fund shares on an exchange may not match the value of the fund's portfolio. The same is true when you sell shares. These price differences may be greater for this fund compared to other ETFs because it provides less information to traders.
These additional risks may be even greater in bad or uncertain market conditions.
The ETF will publish on its website each day a "Proxy Portfolio" designed to help trading in shares of the ETF. While the Proxy Portfolio includes some of the ETF's holdings, it is not the ETF's actual portfolio.
The differences between this fund and other ETFs may also have advantages. By keeping certain information about the fund secret, this fund may face less risk that other traders can predict or copy its investment strategy. This may improve the fund's performance. If other traders are able to copy or predict the fund's investment strategy, however, this may hurt the fund's performance.
For additional information regarding the unique attributes and risks of this ETF, see the additional risk discussion at the end of this material.
This material has been prepared for educational purposes only. It is not intended to provide, and should not be relied upon for, investment, accounting, legal or tax advice.
Diversification does not assure a profit nor does it protect against loss of principal.
Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) are bought and sold through exchange trading at market price (not NAV), and are not individually redeemed from the fund. Shares may trade at a premium or discount to their NAV in the secondary market. Brokerage commissions will reduce returns.
ESGA, ESGY, MID:
Investment return and principal value of security investments will fluctuate. The value at the time of redemption may be more or less than the original cost. Past performance is no guarantee of future results.
The fund is an actively managed ETF that does not seek to replicate the performance of a specified index.
Proxy Portfolio Risk: The goal of the Proxy Portfolio is to track closely the daily performance of the Actual Portfolio. The Proxy Portfolio is designed to reflect the economic exposures and the risk characteristics of the Actual Portfolio on any given trading day.
ETFs trading on the basis of a published Proxy Portfolio may exhibit wider premiums and discounts, bid/ask spreads, and tracking error than other ETFs using the same investment strategies that publish their portfolios on a daily basis, especially during periods of market disruption or volatility. Therefore, shares of the fund may cost investors more to trade than shares of a traditional ETF.
Each day the fund calculates the overlap between the holdings of the prior Business Day's Proxy Portfolio compared to the Actual Portfolio (Proxy Overlap) and the difference, in percentage terms, between the Proxy Portfolio per share NAV and that of the Actual Portfolio (Tracking Error).
Although the fund seeks to benefit from keeping its portfolio information secret, market participants may attempt to use the Proxy Portfolio to identify a fund's trading strategy, which if successful, could result in such market participants engaging in certain predatory trading practices that may have the potential to harm the fund and its shareholders.
Premium/Discount Risk: Although the Proxy Portfolio is intended to provide investors with enough information to allow for an effective arbitrage mechanism that will keep the market price of the fund at or close to the underlying net asset value (NAV) per share of the fund, there is a risk (which may increase during periods of market disruption or volatility) that market prices will vary significantly from the underlying NAV of the fund.
Trading Issues Risk: Trading halts may have a greater impact on this fund compared to other ETFs due to the fund's nontransparent structure.
Authorized Participant Concentration Risk: Only an authorized participant may engage in creation or redemption transactions directly with the fund. The fund may have a limited number of institutions that act as authorized participants. The fact that the fund is offering a novel and unique structure may affect the number of entities willing to act as Authorized Participants. During times of market stress, Authorized Participants may be more likely to step away from this type of ETF than a traditional ETF.
Many of American Century’s investment strategies incorporate sustainability factors, using environmental, social, and/or governance (ESG) data, into their investment processes in addition to traditional financial analysis. However, when doing so, the portfolio managers may not consider sustainability-related factors with respect to every investment decision and, even when such factors are considered, they may conclude that other attributes of an investment outweigh sustainability factors when making decisions for the portfolio. The incorporation of sustainability factors may limit the investment opportunities available to a portfolio, and the portfolio may or may not outperform those investment strategies that do not incorporate sustainability factors. ESG data used by the portfolio managers often lacks standardization, consistency, and transparency, and for certain companies such data may not be available, complete, or accurate.
Sustainable Investing Definitions:
Integrated: An investment strategy that integrates sustainability-related factors aims to make investment decisions through the analysis of sustainability factors alongside other financial variables in an effort to make more informed investment decisions. A portfolio that incorporates sustainability factors may or may not outperform those investment strategies that do not incorporate sustainability factors. Portfolio managers have ultimate discretion in how sustainability factors may impact a portfolio’s holdings, and depending on their analysis, investment decisions may not be affected by sustainability factors.
Sustainability Focused: A sustainability-focused investment strategy seeks to invest, under normal market conditions, in securities that meet certain sustainability-related criteria or standards in an effort to promote sustainable characteristics, in addition to seeking superior, long-term, risk-adjusted returns. Alternatively, or in addition to traditional financial analysis, the investment strategy may filter its investment universe by excluding certain securities, industry, or sectors based on sustainability factors and/or business activities that do not meet specific values or norms. A sustainability focus may limit the investment opportunities available to a portfolio. Therefore, the portfolio may underperform or perform differently than other portfolios that do not have a sustainability investment focus. Sustainability-focused investment strategies include but are not limited to exclusionary, positive screening, best-in-class, improvers, thematic, and impact approaches.
ESGY, MID:
The fund is classified as non-diversified. Because it is non-diversified, it may hold large positions in a small number of securities. To the extent it maintains such positions; a price change in any one of those securities may have a greater impact on the fund's share price than if it were diversified.
Investment return and principal value of security investments will fluctuate. The value at the time of redemption may be more or less than the original cost. Past performance is no guarantee of future results.
©2024 Standard & Poor's Financial Services LLC. The S&P 500® Index is composed of 500 selected common stocks most of which are listed on the New York Stock Exchange. It is not an investment product available for purchase.
Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs): Foreside Fund Services, LLC - Distributor, not affiliated with American Century Investment Services, Inc.