The fund seeks maximum total return in the long term by investing in mega-and large-size companies in the United States.

The investment process starts with a list of companies in the benchmark index and the research team utilizes quantitative techniques and fundamental analysis to identify investment opportunities.

The research team focuses on companies that demonstrate favorable ratings on environmental issues, social responsibility and corporate governance.

Typically, environmental assessment categories includ

The fund seeks maximum total return in the long term by investing in mega-and large-size companies in the United States.

The investment process starts with a list of companies in the benchmark index and the research team utilizes quantitative techniques and fundamental analysis to identify investment opportunities.

The research team focuses on companies that demonstrate favorable ratings on environmental issues, social responsibility and corporate governance.

Typically, environmental assessment categories include climate change, natural resource use, waste management and environmental opportunities.

Social evaluation categories include human capital, product safety and social opportunities.

Governance assessment categories include corporate governance, business ethics and government and public policy.

Other ESG considerations would include how well companies adhere to international norms and principles and involvement in major ESG controversies.

In addition, the investment team’s screening process utilizes positive screening to preference companies that demonstrate positive or improving performance on ESG criteria, and negative screening to exclude companies that do not meet minimum ESG performance standards.

Next, the team employs proprietary multi-factor computer models to select stocks that exhibit reasonable prices, good fundamentals and rising earnings expectations.

Also, the team ranks securities based on criteria such as valuation ratios, profitability and earnings-related measures.

Then the manager constructs a portfolio of 80 to 120 holdings that meet the fund’s environmental, socially responsible and governance criteria.

The fund prefers to allocate capital on an equal-weight basis while constructing a portfolio.

The manager strives to optimize the portfolio to seek broad diversification across sectors, industries and individual companies, while controlling turnover.