Strategy. Principal Investment Strategies Under normal circumstances, the Fund invests at least 80% of its net assets (plus the amount of any borrowings for investment purposes) in a diversified portfolio of investment grade fixed income securities (rated Baa3 or higher by Moodys, BBB- or higher by Standard & Poors, BBB- or higher by Fitch, or A-2 by S&P, P-2 by Moodys, or F-2 by Fitch for short-term debt obligations, or, if unrated, determined by the Funds subadviser, Metropolitan West Asset Management, LLC (MetWest), to be of comparable quality). These typically include bonds, notes, collateralized bond obligations, collateralized debt obligations, mortgage-related and asset-backed securities, municipal securities, private placements, and securities subject to legal restrictions on resale pursuant to Rule 144A. These investments … Show more… Principal Investment Strategies Under normal circumstances, the Fund invests at least 80% of its net assets (plus the amount of any borrowings for investment purposes) in a diversified portfolio of investment grade fixed income securities (rated Baa3 or higher by Moodys, BBB- or higher by Standard & Poors, BBB- or higher by Fitch, or A-2 by S&P, P-2 by Moodys, or F-2 by Fitch for short-term debt obligations, or, if unrated, determined by the Funds subadviser, Metropolitan West Asset Management, LLC (MetWest), to be of comparable quality). These typically include bonds, notes, collateralized bond obligations, collateralized debt obligations, mortgage-related and asset-backed securities, municipal securities, private placements, and securities subject to legal restrictions on resale pursuant to Rule 144A. These investments may have interest rates that are fixed, variable, or floating. The Fund invests in securities of varying maturities issued by domestic and foreign corporations and governments (and their agencies and instrumentalities). MetWest focuses the Funds portfolio holdings in areas of the bond market (based on quality, sector, coupon, or maturity) that the subadviser believes to be relatively undervalued. The Fund may invest up to 20% of its net assets in below investment grade debt securities (junk or high yield bonds), including securities in default and bank loans. In the event that a security is downgraded after its purchase by the Fund, the Fund may continue to hold the security if MetWest considers doing so would be consistent with the Funds investment objective. The Fund may invest up to 25% of its total assets in foreign securities that are denominated in U.S. dollars. The Fund may also invest up to 15% of its total assets in foreign securities that are not denominated in U.S. dollars and up to 10% of its total assets in emerging market foreign securities. The Fund may but will not necessarily engage in foreign currency forward transactions to take long or short positions in foreign currencies in order to seek to enhance the Funds investment return or to seek to hedge or to attempt to protect against adverse changes in currency exchange rates. In pursuing its investment objective, the Fund may (but is not obligated to) use a wide variety of exchange-traded and over-the-counter derivatives, including options, futures contracts, and swap contracts for hedging or investment purposes as a substitute for investing directly in securities or to adjust various portfolio characteristics, including the duration (interest rate volatility) of the Funds portfolio. Use of derivatives by the Fund may create investment leverage. The Fund may purchase and sell securities on a when-issued, delayed delivery, or forward commitment basis. The Fund may normally short sell up to 25% of the value of its total assets for hedging or investment purposes. The Fund may also invest in money market securities, including commercial paper. The Fund may enter into repurchase agreement transactions. The Fund may at times have significant exposure to one or more industries or sectors. The Fund may hold a portion of its assets in cash or cash equivalents. The Fund may enter into dollar roll or reverse repurchase agreement transactions. MetWest intends for the Funds portfolio duration to be between two to eight years. The dollar-weighted average maturity of the Funds portfolio is expected to range from two to fifteen years. Duration measures the price sensitivity of a bond to changes in interest rates. Duration is the dollar weighted average time to maturity of a bond utilizing the present value of all future cash flows. MetWest employs a value-oriented fixed income management philosophy with a goal of consistently outperforming the portfolio benchmark while maintaining volatility similar to the benchmark. The investment process is predicated on a long-term economic outlook, which is determined by the investment team on a quarterly basis and is reviewed constantly. Investments are characterized by diversification among the sectors of the fixed income marketplace. The investment management team seeks to achieve the desired outperformance through the measured and disciplined application of five fixed income management strategies which include duration management, yield curve positioning, sector allocation, security selection, and opportunistic execution. The first three strategies are top-down in orientation and start with a decision of where within the plus-or-minus one year range around the benchmark the duration should be established. Then comes a determination of how the overall average duration is to be effected with a concentration of intermediate maturity issues or a combination of long- and short-term issues. The relative value decision regarding where to overweight/underweight sectors, including governments, agencies, corporates, mortgages, or asset-backed securities, is dependent on the current market environment. Bottom-up security selection involves the day-to-day fundamental analysis of available bond market opportunities, while execution is characterized by the aggressive and informed negotiation of the prices at which transactions take place. The Fund expects that it will engage in active and frequent trading and so will typically have a relatively high portfolio turnover rate. Show less