TIP

About TIP

The Fund seeks to track the investment results of the Bloomberg Barclays U.S. Treasury Inflation Protected Securities (TIPS) Index (Series-L) (the “Underlying Index”), which measures the performance of the inflation-protected public obligations of the U.S. Treasury, commonly known as “TIPS.” TIPS are securities issued by the U.S. Treasury that are designed to provide inflation protection to investors. TIPS are income-generating instruments whose interest and principal payments are adjusted for inflation — a sustained increase in prices that erodes the purchasing power of money. The inflation adjustment, which is typically applied monthly to the principal of the bond, follows a designated inflation index, the Consumer Price Index (“CPI”), and TIPS' principal payments are adjusted according to changes in the CPI. A fixed coupon rate is applied to the inflation-adjusted principal so that as inflation rises, both the principal value and the interest payments increase. This can provide investors with a hedge against inflation, as it helps preserve the purchasing power of an investment. Because of this inflation adjustment feature, inflation-protected bonds typically have lower yields than conventional fixed-rate bonds.The Underlying Index includes all publicly-issued U.S. Treasury inflation-protected securities that have at least one year remaining to maturity, are rated investment-grade (as determined by Bloomberg Index Services Limited (the “Index Provider” or “Bloomberg”)) and have $300 million or more of outstanding face value, excluding amounts held by the Federal Reserve System (the “Fed”) Open Market Account or bought at issuance by the Fed. In addition, the securities in the Underlying Index must be denominated in U.S. dollars and must be fixed-rate and non-convertible. The Underlying Index is market capitalization-weighted and the securities in the Underlying Index are updated on the last calendar day of each month.BFA uses a “passive” or indexing approach to try to achieve the Fund’s 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.Indexing may eliminate the chance that the Fund will substantially outperform the Underlying Index but also may reduce some of the risks of active management, such as poor security selection. Indexing seeks to achieve lower costs and better after-tax performance by aiming to keep portfolio turnover low in comparison to actively managed investment companies.BFA uses a representative sampling indexing strategy to manage the Fund. “ Representative sampling” is an indexing strategy that involves investing in a representative sample of securities that collectively has an investment profile similar to that of an applicable underlying index. The securities selected are expected to have, in the aggregate, investment characteristics (based on factors such as market value and industry weightings), fundamental characteristics (such as return variability, duration, maturity, credit ratings and yield) and liquidity measures similar to those of an applicable underlying index. The Fund may or may not hold all of the securities in the Underlying Index.The Fund generally invests at least 90% of its assets in the bonds of the Underlying Index and at least 95% of its assets in U.S. government bonds. The Fund may invest up to 10% of its assets in U.S. government bonds not included in the Underlying Index, but which BFA believes will help the Fund track the Underlying Index. The Fund also may invest up to 5% of its assets in repurchase agreements collateralized by U.S. government obligations and in cash and cash equivalents, including shares of money market funds advised by BFA or its affiliates. The Fund seeks to track the investment results of the Underlying Index before fees and expenses of the Fund.The Fund may lend securities representing up to one-third of the value of the Fund's total assets (including the value of any collateral received).The Underlying Index is sponsored by Bloomberg, which is independent of the Fund and BFA. 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.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. For purposes of this limitation, securities of the U.S. government (including its agencies and instrumentalities), repurchase agreements collateralized by U.S. government securities, and securities of state or municipal governments and their political subdivisions are not considered to be issued by members of any industry.