Front-End Sales
Load
The applicable front-end sales load when you purchase
the Fund's shares is as follows:
|
Purchase
Amount
|
Sales
Load as a
%
of Offering Price
|
Sales
Load as a
%
of Net Amount Invested
|
|
|
|
|
|
Up to $249,999
|
2.50%
|
2.56%
|
|
$250,000 - $499,999
|
1.50%
|
1.52%
|
|
$500,000 - $999,999
|
1.00%
|
1.01%
|
|
$1
million or greater
|
None
|
None
|
The front-end sales load
collected at the time of purchase is paid to the Distributor as compensation
for its distribution activities and is deducted directly from your
investment. The sales load will be
re-allowed to certain broker-dealers and other financial intermediaries that enter
into dealer agreements with the Distributor in accordance with the following
table.
|
Purchases
|
Concession
as % of
Offering
Price
|
|
|
|
|
Up to $249,999
|
2.25%
|
|
$250,000 - $499,999
|
1.35%
|
|
$500,000 - $999,999
|
0.90%
|
|
$1 million or greater
|
None
|
Registered representatives of the Distributor, including the Fund's
portfolio managers, have an incentive to recommend the Fund for purchase by
their clients because under these circumstances, the registered representative
would receive as a commission the entire amount of the sales load (i.e., not
just the dealer reallowance).
The front-end sales load may be reduced at the time of
purchase by:
·
signing a letter of
intent to purchase a specific dollar amount of shares of the Fund within 13
months;
·
using the reinstatement
privilege within 90 days of redeeming shares of the Fund of an equal or lesser
amount; or
·
accumulating purchases
(in calculating the sales load on an additional purchase, you may count the
current value of your existing holdings in shares of the Fund and holdings of
any of your family members, i.e.,
your spouse and children under the age of 21 that live in your household).
If your investment
qualifies for a reduced sales load due to accumulation of purchases, you must
notify the Transfer Agent at the time of purchase of the existence of other
accounts and/or holdings eligible to be aggregated to reduce or eliminate the
sales load. You may be required to
provide records, such as account statements, regarding the Fund shares held by
you or related accounts at the Fund or at other financial intermediaries in
order to verify your eligibility for a breakpoint discount. You will receive the reduced sales load only
on the additional purchases and not retroactively on previous purchases.
No sales load is
imposed on the reinvestment of dividends or capital gains. Also, the following individuals and
institutions may purchase the Fund's shares without any front-end sales load:
·
participants in employer
sponsored retirement plans established pursuant to section 401(k) of the Code;
·
current or former:
-
directors of the Fund;
-
employees or sales
representatives of the Adviser or Distributor; and
-
officers, partners,
employees or registered representatives of broker-dealers that have entered
into sales agreements with the Distributor as dealers for the Fund;
and
members of the immediate family (spouse, all minor or adult children for which
the person has or had sole or shared legal custody and all parents and
grandparents of the person or his or her spouse) and any trust, custodian,
pension, profit-sharing or other benefit plan of any of the foregoing;
·
wrap accounts for the
benefit of clients of investment professionals or other financial
intermediaries adhering to standards established by the Distributor; and
·
omnibus accounts held by
financial intermediaries that provide trust, custodial and other shareholder
services to individual shareholders.
The Fund may,
from time to time, waive the sales load on shares of the Fund sold to clients
of the Distributor or the Adviser, or certain other dealers, in exchange
transactions meeting criteria established by the Distributor. This privilege will apply only to shares of
the Fund that are purchased using proceeds obtained by such clients by
redeeming another mutual fund's shares on which a sales load was paid and the
purchases of Fund shares are made within 60 days of redeeming the other fund's
shares.
Additional
information concerning sales load breakpoints is available in the Fund's SAI
under "Purchase of Fund Shares."
