Bond Risk: Bond funds will tend to experience smaller fluctuations in value than stock funds. However, investors in any bond fund should anticipate fluctuations in price, especially for longer-term issues and in environments of rising interest rates.

Credit (Or Default) Risk: The risk that the inability or unwillingness of an issuer or guarantor of a fixed-income security to meet its payment or other financial obligations will adversely affect the value of the Fund’s investments and its returns. Changes in the credit rating of a debt security held by the Fund could have a similar effect.

High-Yield Risk is the risk that the Fund’s below-investment grade fixed-income securities, sometimes known as “junk bonds,” will be subject to greater credit risk, price volatility and risk of loss than investment grade securities, which can adversely impact the Fund’s return and NAV. High yield securities are considered highly speculative and are subject to the increased risk of an issuer’s inability to make principal and interest payments. 

Municipal Bond Risk: Debt securities issued by state or local governments may be subject to special political, legal, economic and market factors that can have a significant effect on the portfolio's yield or value

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.

Bloomberg U.S. Corporate High Yield 2% Issuer Capped Index is an unmanaged index that measures the market of the U.S. dollar-denominated, non-investment-grade, fixed-rate, taxable corporate bonds. It is a version of the Bloomberg High Yield Corporate Bond Index except it limits its exposure of each issuer to 2% of the total market value and redistributes any excess market value index-wide on a pro-rata basis. 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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