Strategy. The Underlying Index is designed to construct a high quality universe of companies, that in aggregate, possess lower overall absolute volatility characteristics relative to an eligible emerging market universe (the Eligible Universe). The Eligible Universe is a subset of the Northern Trust Global Index, limited to those securities domiciled in emerging markets and designated as large- and mid-capitalization companies by NTI, acting in its capacity as the index provider (the Index Provider). The Underlying Index places an emphasis on a companys income and capital growth, while also reducing overall volatility of returns relative to the Eligible Universe. To derive the Underlying Index, the Index Provider ranks all constituents of the Eligible Universe using a Northern Trust proprietary quality factor. This … Show more… The Underlying Index is designed to construct a high quality universe of companies, that in aggregate, possess lower overall absolute volatility characteristics relative to an eligible emerging market universe (the Eligible Universe). The Eligible Universe is a subset of the Northern Trust Global Index, limited to those securities domiciled in emerging markets and designated as large- and mid-capitalization companies by NTI, acting in its capacity as the index provider (the Index Provider). The Underlying Index places an emphasis on a companys income and capital growth, while also reducing overall volatility of returns relative to the Eligible Universe. To derive the Underlying Index, the Index Provider ranks all constituents of the Eligible Universe using a Northern Trust proprietary quality factor. This factor is a quantitative ranking based on: (a) management efficiency (e.g., corporate finance activities); (b) profitability (e.g., reliability and sustainability of financial performance); and (c) cash flow (e.g., cash flow generation). The Index Provider then excludes the lowest quintile of constituents ranked according to the quality factor and uses an optimization process to select and weight eligible securities in order to (a) seek to reduce overall portfolio volatility and (b) maximize the overall quality factor relative to the Eligible Universe. The optimization also includes sector, industry, country, style factor, single-security weight, historical beta (i.e., market sensitivity, relative to the Eligible Universe), liquidity and turnover constraints so that these characteristics of the Underlying Index vary within acceptable bands relative to the Eligible Universe. As of December 31, 2025 , the Underlying Index was comprised of 155 constituent securities with market capitalizations ranging from $ 3.7 billion to $ 1.2 trillion . The Underlying Index is reconstituted quarterly. The Fund generally reconstitutes its portfolio in accordance with the Underlying Index. NTI uses a passive or indexing approach to try to achieve the Funds investment objective. Unlike many investment companies, the Fund does not try to beat the index it tracks and does not seek temporary defensive positions when markets decline or appear overvalued. NTI uses a representative sampling strategy to manage the Fund. Representative sampling is investing in a representative sample of securities that collectively has an investment profile similar to the Underlying Index. The Fund may or may not hold all of the securities that are included in the Underlying Index. The Fund reserves the right to invest in substantially all of the securities in its Underlying Index in approximately the same proportions (i.e., replication) if NTI determines that it is in the best interest of the Fund. Under normal circumstances, the Fund will invest at least 80% of its total assets (exclusive of collateral held from securities lending) in the securities of the Underlying Index and in American Depositary Receipts (ADRs) and Global Depositary Receipts (GDRs) (collectively Depositary Receipts) based on the securities in the Underlying Index. The Fund may also invest up to 20% of its assets in cash and cash equivalents, including shares of money market funds advised by NTI or its affiliates, futures contracts, options on futures contracts and forward currency contracts, as well as securities not included in the Underlying Index, but which NTI believes will help the Fund track its Underlying Index. The Underlying Index is created and sponsored by NTI, as the Index Provider. NTI also serves as the investment adviser to the Fund. The Index Provider determines the composition and relative weightings of the securities in the Underlying Index and publishes information regarding the market value of the Underlying Index. The Fund may lend securities representing up to one-third of the value of the Funds total assets (including the value of the collateral received). From time to time the Fund may focus its investments ( i.e., invest more than 15% of its total assets) in one or more particular countries or geographic regions. As of December 31, 2025 , the Fund focused its investments in India, China and Taiwan. Industry Concentration Policy . The Fund will concentrate its investments (i.e., hold 25% or more of its total assets) in a particular industry or group of industries to approximately the same extent that the Underlying Index is concentrated. Show less