Under normal circumstances, the Fund's portfolio manager invests at least 80% of the value of its net assets in equity securities of U.S. companies. In addition, under normal circumstances, the Fund seeks to generate returns in excess of the S&P 500 Index over full market cycles. The Fund considers a company to be a U.S. company if it meets any of the criteria below:

The Fund’s 80% investment policy is a non-fundamental investment policy that may be changed by the Fund’s Board of Directors (the “Board”) without shareholder approval upon at least 60 days’ notice to shareholders.

When evaluating potential investments, the Fund’s portfolio manager attempts to identify high-quality businesses that typically also have the following characteristics: high barriers to market entry, low intensity of rivalry with competitors, limited threat of substitution, and limited bargaining power of suppliers and customers. The portfolio manager believes that companies with these characteristics are generally financially strong and are attractive investments. In addition, the portfolio manager prefers to invest in companies run by managers with demonstrated track records of reinvesting earnings and operational success. The portfolio manager does, however, consider for investment quality companies that lack some or all of such characteristics.

Although company quality is the principal investment criteria, the valuation of investments is also an important part of the stock selection process. The portfolio manager’s primary measure of value is the price/earnings ratio. The portfolio manager seeks out companies that are undervalued relative to their long-term earnings power or to other companies of similar quality. The portfolio manager also seeks to identify better-than-average companies whose future intrinsic value the portfolio manager believes to be greater than or equal to the market price at the time of purchase. The portfolio manager defines the “intrinsic value” of a business to mean the discounted value of its future cash flows and/or net assets.

Seeking to minimize risk, especially in treacherous economic or stock market environments, is an important element of the portfolio manager’s investment process. To do this, the portfolio manager seeks out companies with relatively low levels of net debt (total debt minus cash and cash equivalents) on their balance sheets compared to earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (under-leveraged), operating in more predictable sectors of the economy, with competitively advantaged business models that the portfolio manager can understand.

The portfolio manager believes that the most important contributor to the long-term investment performance of the companies held by the Fund is earnings growth, not changes in valuation (measured by the price/earnings ratio). The portfolio manager is willing to hold portfolio securities at valuations higher than it would require for an initial purchase. If a position becomes significantly overvalued, the portfolio manager would typically look to trim or eliminate the position from the portfolio. The portfolio manager’s aim is to make investment decisions based on the long-term business fundamentals of each portfolio company. The Fund may sell a portfolio holding when the holding’s market price appreciates and approaches the portfolio manager’s estimate of its intrinsic value; the portfolio manager finds an opportunity to reallocate the Fund’s assets to other investments with greater reward potential; or the original investment thesis no longer holds.

The Fund invests primarily in the common stocks of U.S. companies in a variety of industries and market segments. The portfolio manager’s investment process is fundamental and bottom-up, evaluating each company on its own merits. The process is not driven by macroeconomic analysis, though it recognizes that changes in the economic environment can be important to most companies’ prospects. The Fund will seek to have holdings in various industries. While the Fund may invest in securities of any market capitalization, companies considered for the Fund’s portfolio will generally have a minimum market capitalization of $2 billion or greater at the time of purchase. However, if the market capitalization of an issuer of securities held by the Fund declines below $2 billion, the Fund may purchase additional shares of that issuer. Cash typically will not exceed 10% of net assets.

The Fund may invest up to 20% of its net assets in non-U.S. securities. The portfolio manager believes that international investments can yield valuable benefits to Fund shareholders by providing exposure to more investment opportunities outside the U.S. that meet the portfolio manager’s investment criteria. Much of this exposure to non-U.S. business activity is expected to come from purchases of U.S.-domiciled companies with strong worldwide franchises, and from similarly strong companies whose principal offices are located in the U.S. but are domiciled outside the U.S. These non-U.S.-domiciled companies will generally be in the developed countries represented by the MSCI World Index. The MSCI World Index captures large and mid-cap representation across 23 developed markets countries and covers approximately 85% of the free float-adjusted market capitalization in each country. The Fund may purchase shares and/or depository receipts of non-U.S.-domiciled companies that meet the portfolio manager’s usual investment criteria and where differences in accounting, disclosure, culture, management accessibility and trading will not, in the portfolio manager’s view, put the Fund at a competitive disadvantage. Depositary receipts are receipts that represent interests in non-U.S. securities that may be sponsored by the issuer or unsponsored.