Strategy. Under normal market conditions, the Fund will invest not less than 90% of its assets in component securities of the Underlying Index. The Underlying Index is comprised of preferred securities listed on U.S. exchanges that are issued by real estate investment trusts ( REITs ). What are preferred securities ? Preferred securities are a class of equity security that typically pay fixed or floating dividends to investors and have preference over common stock (but are subordinated to bonds) in the payment of dividends and in the event of the bankruptcy or liquidation of a companys assets. Although preferred securities represent an ownership interest in a company, preferred stockholders usually have no voting rights with respect to corporate matters of the … Show more… Under normal market conditions, the Fund will invest not less than 90% of its assets in component securities of the Underlying Index. The Underlying Index is comprised of preferred securities listed on U.S. exchanges that are issued by real estate investment trusts ( REITs ). What are preferred securities ? Preferred securities are a class of equity security that typically pay fixed or floating dividends to investors and have preference over common stock (but are subordinated to bonds) in the payment of dividends and in the event of the bankruptcy or liquidation of a companys assets. Although preferred securities represent an ownership interest in a company, preferred stockholders usually have no voting rights with respect to corporate matters of the issuer. Instead, preferred securities typically have rights and characteristics similar to debt instruments. Preferred securities in the Underlying Index may include, without limitation, floating and fixed-rate preferred securities, callable preferred securities, cumulative and non-cumulative preferred securities, convertible preferred securities, trust preferred securities and depositary preferred securities. What is a REIT ? A REIT is a corporation, trust or association dedicated to owning, operating or financing income-producing real estate. To qualify as a REIT under the Code, a REIT is required to distribute at least 90% of its taxable income to shareholders annually and receive at least 75% of that income from rents, mortgages and sales of property. A REIT that qualifies under the Code is generally not taxed on income that it distributes to its shareholders. The Underlying Index may include preferred securities issued by Equity REITs, Mortgage REITs or Hybrid REITs. Equity REITs, which invest the majority of their assets directly in real property, derive their income primarily from rental and lease income, but may also realize capital gains by selling properties that have appreciated in value. Mortgage REITs, which provide loans to owners and operators of real estate assets or hold or trade mortgages or mortgage-backed securities, derive their income primarily from interest payments made on the underlying mortgages. Hybrid REITs may invest in a combination of properties, mortgages and mortgage-backed securities. The Underlying Index. The Underlying Index, which was launched in January 2015, is a modified market capitalization weighted index designed to provide diversified exposure to high yielding liquid preferred securities issued by REITs listed in the U.S. In a market capitalization weighted index, each component security is weighted by the issuers market capitalization relative to the overall capitalization of the index. The Underlying Index was co-developed by Infrastructure Capital Advisors, LLC, the Funds sub-adviser (the Sub-Adviser ), and Indxx, LLC ( Indxx ), the index provider of the Underlying Index. Indxx is not affiliated with the Fund, the Sub-Adviser, or the Funds adviser, Virtus Investment Advisers, LLC (the Adviser or VIA). Indxx owns the Underlying Index and is solely responsible for calculating, maintaining and rebalancing the Underlying Index. To be included in the Underlying Index, a security generally must meet the following minimum criteria as of each reconstitution date: Security Type: Preferred Securities Primary Exchange: United States Type of Issuer: REIT Market Capitalization: $75 million or more 6 Month Average Monthly Trading Volume: 150,000 shares or more Yield to Worst (i.e., an estimate of the lowest potential yield that can be received on a preferred security without issuer default): greater than 3% Constituent Weightings: No single issuer will exceed 10% of its representation in the Underlying Index upon rebalance. No REIT sub-sector will exceed 30% of the Underlying Index upon rebalance, with the exception of the Diversified REIT sub-sector, which will not exceed 35%. Review: At the end of every calendar quarter, each Underlying Index constituent will be reviewed and distressed companies may be excluded. Once the investment universe is appropriately narrowed based on the foregoing criteria, all remaining securities are chosen as index constituents, which are then weighted based on their modified market capitalization. Indxx reconstitutes and rebalances the Underlying Index semi-annually at the close of the last trading day of March and September of each year in accordance with the Underlying Index methodology. The Fund is generally reconstituted and rebalanced in accordance with the Underlying Index. As of December 31, 2025, the Underlying Index contained 86 constituents. Indxxs Index Committee is responsible for setting policy, determining index composition, and administering the Underlying Index in accordance with the Underlying Index methodology. The Index Committee reserves the right to use qualitative judgment to include, exclude, adjust, or postpone the inclusion of a constituent. Continued index membership of a constituent is not necessarily subject to the Underlying Index methodology. A constituent may be considered for exclusion by the Index Committee on the basis of corporate governance, accounting policies, lack of transparency and lack of representation, despite meeting all the criteria provided in the Underlying Index methodology. The Fund will not seek to beat the performance of the Underlying Index and will not seek temporary defensive measures when markets decline or appear overvalued. Instead, the Fund uses a passive or indexing investment approach to try to approximate the investment performance of the Underlying Index by investing in a portfolio of securities that generally replicates the Underlying Index; however, there may be times when the Fund does not hold every security in the Underlying Index. The Sub-Adviser expects that, over time, the correlation between the Funds performance before fees and expenses and that of the Underlying Index will be 95% or better. A figure of 100% would indicate perfect correlation. Under normal market conditions, the Fund will invest not less than 80% of its net assets (plus the amount of any borrowings for investment purposes) in preferred securities of REITs. The Fund will concentrate its investments (i.e., invest more than 25% of its total assets) in a particular industry or group of industries approximately to the same extent that the Underlying Index is concentrated. As of October 31, 2025, the Underlying Index is concentrated in the REITs industry. The Fund is non-diversified, which means that it can invest a greater percentage of its assets in any one issuer than a diversified fund can. In addition, in attempting to meet its investment objective, the Fund may engage in active and frequent trading of portfolio securities. Show less