Strategy. Under normal market conditions, the Fund invests at least 80% of its net assets ( plus any borrowings for investment purposes) in equity securities issued by large capitalization companies. The Fund considers large capitalization companies to be those companies with market capitalizations within the market capitalization range of the companies comprising the Russell 1000 Growth Index. The Funds portfolio is principally composed of common stocks issued by companies domiciled in the United States, common stocks issued by non-U.S. companies that are principally traded in the United States and American Depositary Receipts. The Fund utilizes a multi-manager approach to provide exposure to the large capitalization growth segment of the equity market through the blending of multiple portfolio management teams. This multi-manager … Show more… Under normal market conditions, the Fund invests at least 80% of its net assets ( plus any borrowings for investment purposes) in equity securities issued by large capitalization companies. The Fund considers large capitalization companies to be those companies with market capitalizations within the market capitalization range of the companies comprising the Russell 1000 Growth Index. The Funds portfolio is principally composed of common stocks issued by companies domiciled in the United States, common stocks issued by non-U.S. companies that are principally traded in the United States and American Depositary Receipts. The Fund utilizes a multi-manager approach to provide exposure to the large capitalization growth segment of the equity market through the blending of multiple portfolio management teams. This multi-manager approach seeks to provide investors with diversified expertise from leading asset management firms that each utilizes its own experience, philosophy and strategy for investing in the large capitalization growth segment of the equity market. The Funds investment advisor, First Trust Advisors L.P. ( First Trust or the Advisor ), is responsible for selecting and overseeing these investment sub-advisors (each, a Sub-Advisor ). In selecting the Sub-Advisors, First Trust undertakes rigorous due diligence with the aim of identifying high quality managers with investment strategies that emphasize a long-term outlook and have a consistent track record of success over multiple time periods. Each Sub-Advisor selected by First Trust is responsible for providing recommendations to First Trust regarding the selection and allocation of the securities in its allocated portion of the Funds assets. First Trust has selected Wellington Management Company LLP ( Wellington ) and Sands Capital Management, LLC ( Sands Capital ) to each serve as a Sub-Advisor to the Fund and has equally allocated the Funds assets between them. The Sub-Advisor allocations will drift over time due to market conditions and security selection, and First Trust will seek to rebalance the Sub-Advisors back to equal-weight should one Sub-Advisor generally account for more than 60% of the total net assets for a period of time. Given the complementary investment styles of each Sub-Advisor, the rebalance is designed to maintain meaningful investment exposure to each Sub-Advisor over time to achieve the stated investment objective. First Trust may also recommend to the Board of Trustees of the Trust (the Board ) additional Sub-Advisors, replacement Sub-Advisors or changes in the allocation of the Funds assets among the Sub-Advisors. The starting universe of securities for each Sub-Advisor generally will consist of the constituent securities of the Russell 1000 Growth Index. Wellington recommends securities to First Trust with respect to its allocated portion of the Funds assets pursuant to Wellingtons investment philosophy that improvement in the quality of company fundamentals is often a powerful and persistent signal for long-term returns. Wellington generally focuses on a lower beta profile compared to typical growth portfolios, which Wellington believes has the potential to offer downside protection in periods of volatility. Utilizing a fundamental research framework, Wellington seeks to identify companies with improving quality and attractive fundamentals that are undervalued as a result of investors tendency to underappreciate the long-term potential of improving quality trends. As part of its fundamental research framework, Wellington generally evaluates companies using three primary factors: (1) quality, including but not limited to evaluation of capital structure, return on assets, return on equity and capital allocation; (2) valuation, including but not limited to earnings ratios and cash flow ratios; and (3) momentum, including but not limited to trajectory of revenue and earnings revisions. Through detailed bottom-up analysis, Wellington makes recommendations to First Trust for Wellingtons portion of the Funds portfolio based on company meetings, management quality and track record and identifying key drivers of business performance. Sands Capital recommends securities to First Trust with respect to its allocated portion of the Funds assets pursuant to its investment focus on a growth-oriented investment philosophy that is rooted in the belief that, over time, common stock prices will reflect the earnings power and growth of the underlying business. Sands Capital employs a research focused strategy that seeks to identify high-quality, wealth-creating growth businesses using a fundamental, business-focused research approach. As part of the fundamental research, Sands Capital will utilize quantitative and qualitative research to analyze six key factors to narrow the investable universe: (1) sustainable above-average earnings growth; (2) leadership position in a promising business space; (3) significant competitive advantages in a particular segment of the market; (4) clear mission and value-added focus; (5) financial strength; and (6) rational valuation relative to the market and business prospects. Through the fundamental financial research, Sands Capital will review each companys valuation on an absolute basis, as well as relative to the overall market, its competitors, and its own business and growth prospects. Sands Capital will utilize both publicly available market data and internal projections from its proprietary earnings models, which incorporate quantitative metrics including but not limited to price-to earnings ratio, price-to-cash flow ratio and, where appropriate, price-to-sales ratio, price-to-book ratio and/or enterprise-value-to-EBITDA ratio. Sands Capital manages its allocated assets through a conviction-based weighting, generally allowing higher-conviction holdings to rise in weight through appreciation, or by allocating more weight through purchases to increase them, while maintaining smaller weights for those holdings with lower relative conviction. Conviction in a companys strength is based on the fundamental review of the six key factors described above, duration and sustainability of growth, and the relative attractiveness of valuation. Strategically, Sands Capitals allocated portion of the Funds portfolio is a conviction-weighted rank of businesses that are generally classified into in three categories: small weights (0-2.5 percent); medium weights (2.5-5.0 percent); and large weights (5.0 percent or greater). As of November 28, 2025, the Fund had significant investments in information technology companies, although this may change from time to time. To the extent the Fund invests a significant portion of its assets in a given jurisdiction or investment sector, the Fund may be exposed to the risks associated with that jurisdiction or investment sector. Show less