The Morningstar Sustainability Rating^TM is intended to measure how well the issuing companies of the securities within a fund’s portfolio holdings are managing their financially material environmental, social and governance, or ESG, risks relative to the fund’s Morningstar Global Category peers. The Morningstar Sustainability Rating calculation is a five-step process. First, each fund with at least 67% of assets covered by a company-level ESG Risk Score from Sustainalytics receives a Morningstar Portfolio Sustainability Score. The Morningstar Portfolio Sustainability Score is an asset-weighted average of company-level ESG Risk Scores. The Portfolio Sustainability Score ranges between 0 to 100, with a higher score indicating that a fund has, on average, more of its assets invested in companies with high ESG Risk. Second, the Historical Sustainability Score is an exponential weighted moving average of the Portfolio Sustainability Scores over the past 12 months. The process rescales the current Portfolio Sustainability Score to reflect the consistency of the scores. The Historical Sustainability Score ranges between 0 to 100, with a higher score indicating that a fund has, on average, more of its assets invested in companies with high ESG Risk, on a consistent historical basis. Third, the Morningstar Sustainability Rating is then assigned to all scored funds within Morningstar Global Categories in which at least thirty (30) funds receive a Historical Sustainability Score and is determined by each fund′s Morningstar Sustainability Rating Score rank within the following distribution: High (highest 10%), Above Average (next 22.5%), Average (next 35%), Below Average (next 22.5%) and Low (lowest 10%). Fourth, we apply a 1% rating buffer from the previous month to increase rating stability. This means a fund must move 1% beyond the rating breakpoint to change ratings. Fifth, we adjust downward positive Sustainability Ratings to funds with high ESG Risk scores. The logic is as follows: If Portfolio Sustainability score is above 40, then the fund receives a Low Sustainability Rating. If Portfolio Sustainability score is above 35 and preliminary rating is Average or better, then the fund is downgraded to Below Average. If Portfolio Sustainability score is above 30 and preliminary rating is Above Average, then the fund is downgraded to Average. If Portfolio Sustainability score is below 30, then no adjustment is made. The Morningstar Sustainability Rating is depicted by globe icons where High equals 5 globes and Low equals 1 globe. Since a Sustainability Rating is assigned to all funds that meet the above criteria, the rating it is not limited to funds with explicit sustainable or responsible investment mandates. Morningstar updates its Sustainability Ratings monthly. The Portfolio Sustainability Score is calculated when Morningstar receives a new portfolio. Then, the Historical Sustainability Score and the Sustainability Rating is calculated one month and six business days after the reported as-of date of the most recent portfolio. As part of the evaluation process, Morningstar uses Sustainalytics’ ESG scores from the same month as the portfolio as-of date.  Please click on http://corporate1.morningstar.com/SustainableInvesting/ for more detailed information about the Morningstar Sustainability Rating methodology and calculation frequency.

ESG Investing Risk is the risk stemming from the ESG factors that the Fund applies in selecting securities. The use of ESG factors in securities selection may affect the Fund’s exposure to certain companies or industries and cause the Fund to forego certain investment opportunities. The Fund’s performance results may be lower than the broader equity market or than other funds that do or do not use ESG factors, scores, or screens in their securities selection process, or use a different ESG methodology. Information used by the Fund to evaluate ESG factors, including data provided by the Fund’s third-party vendor, may not be readily available, complete or accurate, which could negatively impact the Fund’s ability to accurately determine companies’ ESG ratings, which in turn could negatively impact the Fund’s performance. Currently, there is a lack of common industry standards relating to the development and application of ESG criteria which may make it difficult to compare the Fund’s principal investment strategies with the investment strategies of other funds that apply certain ESG criteria or that use a different third-party vendor for ESG data.

The Fund’s assessment of a company, based on the company’s level of involvement in a particular industry or ESG controversy or the company’s ESG ranking or rating, may differ from that of other funds or an investor. Information used by the Fund to evaluate ESG factors may vary across providers and issuers as ESG is not a uniformly defined characteristic. ESG standards differ by region and industry, and a company’s ESG practices or data providers’ assessment of a company’s ESG practices may change over time. As a result, the companies in which the Fund invests may not reflect the beliefs and values of any particular investor and may not be deemed to exhibit positive or favorable ESG characteristics if different metrics were used to evaluate them. Regulatory changes or interpretations regarding the definitions and/or use of ESG criteria could have a material adverse effect on the Fund’s ability to invest in accordance with its investment policies and/or achieve its investment objective. 

Equity Risk: Equity securities (stocks) are more volatile and carry more risk than other forms of investments, including investments in high-grade fixed-income securities. The net asset value per share of this Fund will fluctuate as the value of the securities in the portfolio changes.

Mid Cap Stock Risk is the risk that stocks of mid-sized companies may be subject to more abrupt or erratic market movements than stocks of larger, more established companies, and may lack sufficient market liquidity.  Securities of smaller companies may trade less frequently and in lower volume than the securities of larger companies, which could lead to higher transaction costs. 

Derivatives Risk is the risk that derivatives may pose risks in addition to and greater than those associated with investing directly in securities, currencies and other instruments, may be illiquid or less liquid, more volatile, more difficult to value and leveraged so that small changes in the value of the underlying instrument may produce disproportionate losses to the Fund. Derivatives are also subject to counterparty risk, which is the risk that the other party to the transaction will not perform its contractual obligations. The use of derivatives is a highly specialized activity that involves investment techniques and risks different from those associated with investments in more traditional securities and instruments. 

Quantitative Investing Risk is the risk that the value of securities or other investments selected using quantitative analysis can perform differently from the market as a whole or from their expected performance and the Fund may realize a loss. This may be as a result of the factors used in building a multifactor quantitative model, the weights placed on each factor, the accuracy of historical data utilized, and changing sources of market returns. 

Sector Risk is the risk that companies in similar businesses may be similarly affected by particular economic or market events, which may, in certain circumstances, cause the value of securities of all companies in a particular sector of the market to decrease.

Russell 1000^® Index is an unmanaged index which measures the performance of the 1,000 largest companies in the Russell 3,000^® Index, based on market capitalization. It is not possible to invest directly in an index.

View investment terms definitions

Please carefully read the prospectus and summary prospectus and consider the investment objectives, risks, charges and expenses of Northern Funds carefully before investing. Call 800-595-9111 to obtain a prospectus and summary prospectus, which contains this and other information about the funds.

Investing involves risk. Principal loss is possible.

Not FDIC insured | May lose value | No bank guarantee

The Morningstar Rating^TM for funds, or "star rating," is calculated for managed products (including mutual funds, variable annuity and variable life subaccounts, exchange-traded funds, closed-end funds, and separate accounts) with at least a three-year history. Exchange-traded funds and open-ended mutual funds are considered a single population for comparative purposes. It is calculated based on a Morningstar Risk-Adjusted Return measure that accounts for variation in a managed product's monthly excess performance, placing more emphasis on downward variations and rewarding consistent performance. The top 10% of products in each product category receive 5 stars, the next 22.5% receive 4 stars, the next 35% receive 3 stars, the next 22.5% receive 2 stars, and the bottom 10% receive 1 star. The Overall Morningstar Rating for a managed product is derived from a weighted average of the performance figures associated with its three-, five-, and 10-year (if applicable) Morningstar Rating metrics. The weights are: 100% three-year rating for 36-59 months of total returns, 60% five-year rating/40% three-year rating for 60-119 months of total returns, and 50% 10-year rating/30% five-year rating/20% three-year rating for 120 or more months of total returns. While the 10-year overall star rating formula seems to give the most weight to the 10-year period, the most recent three-year period actually has the greatest impact because it is included in all three rating periods. Past performance is no guarantee of future results.

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©2024 Northern Funds | Northern Funds are distributed by Northern Funds Distributors, LLC, not affiliated with Northern Trust.