The Fund seeks long-term total return comprised of capital growth and current income by investing principally in debt securities of any kind. The Fund may invest without limit in mortgage-backed securities of any maturity or type, including those guaranteed by, or secured by collateral that is guaranteed by, the United States Government, its agencies, instrumentalities or sponsored corporations, as well as those of private issuers not subject to any guarantee. Mortgage-backed securities include, among others, government mortgage pass-through securities, collateralized mortgage obligations, multiclass pass-through securities, private mortgage pass-through securities, stripped mortgage securities (e.g., interest-only and principal-only securities) and inverse floaters. The Fund may also invest in corporate debt obligations; asset-backed securities; foreign securities (corporate and government, including foreign hybrid securities); emerging market securities (corporate and government); inflation-indexed bonds; bank loans and assignments; income-producing securitized products, including collateralized loan obligations (“CLOs”); preferred securities; and other instruments bearing fixed or variable interest rates of any maturity.

Under normal circumstances, the Adviser expects to construct an investment portfolio for the Fund with a dollar-weighted average effective duration of at least ten years. Duration is a measure of the expected life of a fixed income instrument that is used to determine the sensitivity of a security’s price to changes in interest rates. Effective duration is a measure of the Fund’s portfolio duration adjusted for the anticipated effect of interest rate changes on bond and mortgage prepayment rates as determined by the Adviser. The effective duration of the Fund’s investment portfolio may vary significantly from time to time based on, among other things, fluctuations in interest rates, changes in the rate of prepayments on mortgages underlying the Fund’s mortgage-related investments, and the Adviser’s expectations with respect to future interest rates. There can be no assurance that the effective duration of the Fund’s investment portfolio will equal or exceed ten years at all times. The Fund may invest in individual securities of any maturity or duration. Because the Fund will usually have a relatively long duration, the value of its shares will be especially sensitive to changes in interest rates.

In managing the Fund’s portfolio, the portfolio managers typically use a controlled risk approach. The techniques of this approach attempt to control the principal risk components of the fixed income markets and may include, among other factors, consideration of the Adviser’s view of the following: the potential relative performance of various market sectors, security selection available within a given sector, the risk/reward equation for different asset classes, liquidity conditions in various market sectors, the shape of the yield curve and projections for changes in the yield curve, potential fluctuations in the overall level of interest rates, and current fiscal policy.

Under normal circumstances, the Fund intends to invest primarily in fixed income and other income-producing instruments rated investment grade and unrated securities considered by the Adviser to be of comparable credit quality. The Fund may, however, invest up to 20% of its total assets in fixed income and other income-producing instruments rated below investment grade and those that are unrated but determined by the Adviser to be of comparable credit quality. Those instruments include high yield, high risk bonds, commonly known as “junk bonds.” Such “junk bonds” also may be considered to possess some speculative characteristics.

The Fund will normally limit its foreign currency exposure (from non-U.S. dollar denominated securities or currencies) to 30% of its total assets, and may invest without limit in U.S. dollar-denominated securities of foreign issuers. The Fund may invest up to 25% of its total assets in obligations of governmental or private obligors in emerging market countries. An “emerging market country” is a country that, at the time the Fund invests in the related instruments, is classified as an emerging or developing economy by any supranational organization such as the World Bank or the United Nations, or related entities, or is considered an emerging market country for purposes of constructing a major emerging market securities index, such as the J.P. Morgan or Bank of America suite of emerging market indices (e.g., the JP Morgan GBI-EM Global Diversified Index or the ICE Bank of America Broad Local Emerging Markets non-Sovereign Index).

The Adviser monitors the duration of the Fund’s portfolio securities to seek to assess and, in its discretion and subject to the duration parameters described above, adjust the Fund’s exposure to interest rate risk. The Adviser may seek to manage the dollar-weighted average effective duration of the Fund’s portfolio through the use of derivatives and other instruments (including, among others, inverse floaters, futures contracts, U.S. Treasury swaps, interest rate swaps, total return swaps and options, including options on swap agreements). The Fund may incur costs in implementing duration management strategies, and there can be no assurance that the Fund will engage in duration management strategies or that any duration management strategy employed by the Fund will be successful.

Under normal circumstances, the Fund invests at least 80% of its net assets (plus the amount of borrowings for investment purposes) in bonds. “Bonds” include but are not limited to bonds, debt securities and other fixed income and income-producing instruments of any kind issued or guaranteed by governmental or private-sector entities.

The Fund may enter into derivatives transactions and other instruments of any kind for hedging purposes or otherwise to gain, or reduce, long or short exposure to one or more asset classes or issuers. For example, the Fund may use futures contracts and options on futures contracts, in order to gain efficient long or short investment exposures as an alternative to cash investments or to hedge against portfolio exposures; interest rate swaps, to gain indirect long or short exposures to interest rates, issuers, or currencies, or to hedge against portfolio exposures; and total return swaps and credit derivatives (such as credit default swaps), put and call options, and exchange-traded and structured notes, to take indirect long or short positions on indexes, securities, currencies, or other indicators of value, or to hedge against portfolio exposures. The Fund may also engage in short sales or take short positions, either to adjust its duration or for other investment purposes. The Fund may use derivatives transactions with the purpose or effect of creating investment leverage. The Fund’s investments in derivative instruments and other investments that provide exposure to investments suggested by the Fund’s name, or that provide investment exposure to one or more market risk factors associated with the investment focus that the Fund’s name suggests, are included in the Fund’s 80% basket. In determining the value of the Fund’s assets for purposes of its 80% investment policy, the Fund will value each derivative instrument using the instrument’s notional amount.

The Fund may pursue its investment objective and obtain exposures to some or all of the asset classes described above by investing in other investment companies, including, for example, other open-end or closed-end investment companies and exchange-traded funds (“ETFs”), including investment companies sponsored, advised or sub-advised by the Adviser or its related parties (“other DoubleLine funds”). The amount of the Fund’s investment in certain investment companies may be limited by law or by tax considerations.

Portfolio securities may be sold at any time. By way of example, sales may occur when the Fund’s portfolio managers determine to take advantage of what the portfolio managers consider to be a better investment opportunity, when the portfolio managers believe the portfolio securities no longer represent relatively attractive investment opportunities, when the portfolio managers perceive deterioration in the credit fundamentals of the issuer, or when the individual security has reached the portfolio managers’ sell target.