Strategy. The Adviser has selected two sub-advisers (each, a Sub-Adviser) to manage the Fund. Tran Capital Management, L.P. (Tran) has been selected to manage the equity portion of the Fund. Aristotle Pacific Capital, LLC (Aristotle Pacific) has been selected to manage the debt portion of the Fund. Under normal market conditions, the Fund will invest between 50-70% of its assets in equity securities and 30-50% of its assets in debt securities. The equity securities in which the Fund normally invests are common stocks of approximately 25 to 35 mid- and large-cap U.S. companies with market capitalizations greater than $2 billion. The debt securities in which the Fund primarily invests are a broad range of investment grade debt securities, including corporate bonds, … Show more… The Adviser has selected two sub-advisers (each, a Sub-Adviser) to manage the Fund. Tran Capital Management, L.P. (Tran) has been selected to manage the equity portion of the Fund. Aristotle Pacific Capital, LLC (Aristotle Pacific) has been selected to manage the debt portion of the Fund. Under normal market conditions, the Fund will invest between 50-70% of its assets in equity securities and 30-50% of its assets in debt securities. The equity securities in which the Fund normally invests are common stocks of approximately 25 to 35 mid- and large-cap U.S. companies with market capitalizations greater than $2 billion. The debt securities in which the Fund primarily invests are a broad range of investment grade debt securities, including corporate bonds, mortgage-related securities, asset-backed securities, debt securities issued by the U.S. government or its related agencies and U.S. dollar-denominated debt securities issued by developed foreign governments and corporations. Investment grade debt instruments are those rated in one of the four highest rating categories (i.e., Baa by Moodys, BBB by S&P or Fitch or higher) or, if unrated, deemed comparable by Aristotle Pacific. The Funds investments in debt securities are expected to maintain a weighted average duration within two years (plus or minus) of the Bloomberg US Aggregate Bond Index, although the debt instruments held by the Fund may have short, intermediate, and long terms to maturity. The Adviser, together with Tran, reviews the Funds allocation on a monthly basis and rebalances the portfolio as necessary to ensure to maintain the ranges as indicated above. Under normal market conditions, the Fund will invest at least 80% of its assets in sustainable equity and debt securities as described above. For this purpose, each sub-adviser employs its own investment processes for determining which securities meet their respective sustainability criteria. Tran defines sustainable equity securities as those that score 3 or higher on its internal 5-point ESG scale based on the evaluation of factors described below. Aristotle Pacific defines sustainable debt securities as investments permitted under its ESG Exclusionary Screens as described below. In executing its investment strategy, the Fund seeks to: combine the efforts of two experienced, high-quality managers within their respective investment disciplines; and deliver a portfolio that is prudently diversified between equity securities of various sized companies and debt securities of various maturities and investment grade ratings meeting certain sustainability standards. Equity Securities. With respect to the equity securities in the Fund, Tran considers both the external impact of a companys product or service and the companys internal policies, controls, and interactions with shareholders, employees, and other stakeholders as part of its 5-point ESG scale. External and internal factors are weighted equally. Tran uses an intensive fundamental due diligence process to attempt to identify companies that meet its proprietary investment criteria based on the objective of preserving principal and capital appreciation. Tran identifies mid- and large-cap companies that it believes have a sustainable competitive advantage. Tran then evaluates the resulting universe of companies for those that generally exhibit the characteristics. In selecting equity securities for the Fund, Tran looks for companies it believes have a competitive advantage and generate consistently high returns on capital. Such companies will, in Trans opinion, possess high margins, strong cash flow, zero-to-moderate debt and trade at a price below intrinsic value. Securities in Trans allocation of the Funds portfolio that score poorly ( i.e., 2 or less on Trans 5-point scale) with respect to the ESG factors described above will not be counted towards the Funds 80% policy. Tran does not employ negative screening and will consider domestic companies with market capitalization of over $2 billion in all industries for the portfolio. Through its investment process, Tran seeks to build an understanding of the competitive advantages, financial drivers, and key risks and uncertainties related to an investment under consideration. Tran believes that its ESG framework can aid in identifying sustainable franchises and may, in its view, better position the Fund to perform over the long term and through market cycles. Trans internally-developed ESG framework considers environmental, social, and governance risks and value-creation opportunities. Tran obtains information related to the application of its ESG framework through its own research and analysis of publicly available information, including information related to a companys existing policies and actions related to social responsibility, as determined by its ESG framework. Tran also obtains data and information which is incorporated into its ESG framework through direct engagement with management teams of the Funds portfolio companies or potential portfolio companies. External factors considered include, but are not limited to: a companys contribution to climate change and goals for reaching net zero impact on natural resources promotion of clean, renewable, and green activities product safety and responsibility interaction with the communities served by the company promotion of access to information, healthcare, financing, etc. strength of ESG reporting and quality of disclosures and transparency Internal factors considered include, but are not limited to: policies and actions that promote sustainability footprint of corporate facilities treatment of employees diversity & inclusion measures along with goals or policies for improvement having and enabling a culture of feedback diverse representation on the board of directors and executive team management alignment with shareholders strong checks and balances Debt Securities. In selecting debt securities for the Fund, Aristotle Pacific implements a fundamental research process that combines a bottom-up issuer analysis and top-down market assessment. For its bottom-up issuer analysis, Aristotle Pacific relies on its fundamental research analysis of individual issuers. Aristotle Pacifics top-down market assessment provides a framework for portfolio risk positioning and sector allocations. Once this is determined, Aristotle Pacific looks for companies that it believes have financially sound competitive positions, strong management teams and the ability to repay or refinance its debt obligations. Aristotle Pacific performs a credit analysis (a process designed to measure an issuers ability to repay or refinance its debt obligations) on each potential issuer and a relative value analysis (by analyzing the investments attractiveness relative to other investments with similar profiles for risk and liquidity) for each potential investment. Aristotle Pacific has created two ESG Exclusionary Screens, one of which is applicable to corporate debt issues (Corporate Debt Screen) and the other of which is applicable to government debt issues (the Government Debt Screen). This information is determined by the internal methodologies and ESG analytics of those providers. The Corporate Debt Screen identifies a universe of corporate bonds, asset-backed securities, and mortgage-related securities, the issuers of which are not directly in: the extraction of thermal coal, coal power generation, and providing tailor-made products and services that support thermal coal extraction that contribute materially to company revenue; the production of tobacco; the production or sale of controversial military weapons; serious or systematic human rights violations; severe environmental damage; or gross corruption or other serious financial crime. Aristotle Pacific uses a combination of issuer lists and ESG-specific issuer information provided by independent third party ESG data providers, including Morningstar Sustainalytics, MSCI and Norges Bank, to determine which issuers are permitted investments under the Corporate Debt Screen. This information is determined by the internal methodologies and ESG analytics of those providers. Aristotle Pacific uses the Government Debt Screen to identify a universe of sovereign debt issued by government and sovereign issuers that have not received ESG ratings of high risk or severe risk from the third-party ESG data provider used by Aristotle Pacific. To evaluate an issuers material ESG factors that help inform portfolio management decisions, Aristotle Pacific generally relies upon the assessments of third-party ESG data providers that score the material ESG factors of issuers to determine the issuers overall ESG rating(s) (the Overall ESG Rating(s)). Overall ESG Rating(s) apply to all debt issues in the third-party ESG data provider(s) coverage universe. The Overall ESG Rating(s) consider, as applicable or relevant, the following factors: environmental assessments (involving issues such as greenhouse gas emissions, resource efficiency, use of natural resources and/or waste management), social assessments (involving issues such as human capital management, labor standards, occupational health and safety records, data security and/or product quality and safety) and/or governance assessments (involving issues such as board structure and quality, executive compensation, anti-competitive practices, ownership, shareholder rights, and/or geopolitical risk). When determining an issuers Overall ESG Rating(s), the providers rate the material ESG factors of each issuer within the providers universe and then apply weights to each factors score to create an aggregate score. These ratings seek to measure the degree to which an issuers economic value is at risk due to ESG factors ( e.g., an insurance company that has to cover flood and tornado claims), how well they manage the ESG risks relative to peers, and potential opportunities arising from ESG factors. In the event that third-party ESG metrics are not available for an issuer considered for investment, Aristotle Pacific may rely on its own qualitative research as a substitute (but is not required to perform an analysis of ESG factors on issuers using the same materiality assessment or methodologies of ESG providers). In such instances, Aristotle Pacific may conclude that investments qualify and should be included in the portfolio because of other materiality factors or the results of its own internal qualitative research. Although Overall ESG Ratings(s) help inform portfolio management decisions, it is not an exclusive factor and Aristotle Pacific may elect to invest in an issue based upon its own fundamental research analysis. The Fund seeks to invest in debt issuers with a lower average carbon intensity than the average carbon intensity of the debt securities within the Bloomberg US Aggregate Bond Index (the Funds benchmark index) for which this data is available using the carbon intensity definition and calculation methodology of an independent third-party ESG data provider. Carbon intensity is considered a separate ESG metric than the Overall ESG Rating(s) for debt issuers. Investments in companies possessing higher carbon intensity compared to others within the benchmark can be made as long as the Funds overall carbon intensity level remains lower than that of the benchmark. An investment is generally sold when the fundamentals of the issuer are deteriorating, when the issue has realized its price appreciation target, the issue no longer offers relative value, or an adverse change in corporate or sector fundamentals has occurred. Each Sub-Adviser will re-evaluate the ESG criteria of the portfolio securities periodically to determine which securities should be considered for sale based on whether the portfolio securities continue to meet the ESG criteria. In addition, a company that meets a Sub-Advisers ESG criteria at the time of investment may subsequently fail to meet the ESG criteria, either due to the availability of more information or changing circumstances, and the Sub-Adviser is under no obligation to sell the security upon the occurrence of those circumstances or availability of that information. Show less