Inspire Tactical Balanced ETF
(formerly, “Inspire Tactical Balanced ESG ETF”)
| RISN |
a series of Northern Lights Fund Trust IV
PROSPECTUS
October 14 , 2022
| Advised by: | |
| Inspire Investing, LLC | |
| 3597 E Monarch Sky Lane, Suite | |
| 330, Meridian, Idaho 83646 |
| inspireetf.com | phone: 877.658.9473 (toll-free) |
This Prospectus provides important information about the Fund that you should know before investing. Please read it carefully and keep it for future reference.
These securities have not been approved or disapproved by the Securities and Exchange Commission nor has the Securities and Exchange Commission passed upon the accuracy or adequacy of this Prospectus. Any representation to the contrary is a criminal offense.
Shares of the Fund are listed and traded on the NYSE Arca.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
FUND SUMMARY - Inspire Tactical Balanced ETF
Investment Objective: The Inspire Tactical Balanced ETF (the “Fund”) seeks to provide capital appreciation with lower volatility than the US large cap stock market over the long term.
Fees and Expenses of the Fund: This table describes the fees and expenses that you may pay if you buy, hold and sell shares of the Fund. You may pay other fees, such as brokerage commissions and other fees to financial intermediaries, which are not reflected in the table and Example below.
| Annual
Fund Operating Expenses (expenses that you pay each year as a percentage of the value of your investment) |
|
| Management Fees | 0.50% |
| Distribution and Service (12b-1) Fees | None |
| Other Expenses | 0.19% |
| Acquired Fund Fees and Expenses(1) | 0.02% |
| Total Annual Fund Operating Expenses | 0.71% |
| (1) | Acquired Fund Fees and Expenses, are the indirect costs of investing in other investment companies. The operating expenses in this fee table will not correlate to the expense ratio in the Fund’s financial highlights because the financial statements include only the direct operating expenses incurred by the Fund. |
Example: This Example is intended to help you compare the cost of investing in the Fund with the cost of investing in other funds.
The Example assumes that you invest $10,000 in the Fund for the time periods indicated and then sell all of your shares at the end of those periods. The Example also assumes that your investment has a 5% return each year and that the Fund’s operating expenses remain the same. Although your actual costs may be higher or lower, based upon these assumptions your costs would be:
| 1 Year | 3 Years | 5 Years | 10 Years |
| $ 73 | $ 227 | $ 395 | $ 883 |
Portfolio Turnover: The Fund pays transaction costs, such as commissions, when it buys and sells securities (or “turns over” its portfolio). A higher portfolio turnover rate may indicate higher transaction costs and may result in higher taxes when Fund shares are held in a taxable account. These costs, which are not reflected in annual fund operating expenses or in the Example, affect the Fund’s performance. During the fiscal period ended November 30, 2021, the Fund’s portfolio turnover rate was 114% of the average value of its portfolio.
Principal Investment Strategies: The Fund, an actively managed exchange-traded fund (ETF), uses a proprietary system of technical analysis to tactically allocate assets into US large cap stocks when the strategy identifies an uptrend in the US large cap stock market, and shifts into U.S. Treasury bonds via third-party ETFs, investment grade and high-yield corporate bonds, government agency bonds, and listed gold exchange-traded products and exchange-traded notes such as SPDR Gold Shares (GLD) when the strategy identifies a downtrend in the US large cap stock market. The Fund invests at least 80% of the Fund’s net assets plus any borrowings for investment purposes in stocks or fixed income securities that meet the Fund’s criteria described below.
Additionally, the Fund seeks to invest in the securities of the most inspiring, biblically aligned companies in the world as determined by the Inspire Impact Score® methodology which identifies companies operating as businesses of blessing with above average ratings than their industry peer groups, and avoiding investments in companies involved in activities like abortion, pornography and human trafficking that do not align with biblical values. The Fund obtains data from multiple third-party sources, including proprietary data from the adviser’s research team.
The Inspire Impact Score® methodology removes from the investment universe the securities of any company that has any degree of participation in the following activities or products that do not align with biblical values, which removes them from the eligible investment universe of securities of potential Fund investments. A score of zero is assigned to companies where no information is available about their participation in the following activities or products:
| ● | Abortifacients - Company produces abortifacient drugs. This category includes all pharmaceuticals used to terminate a pregnancy anytime from the moment of conception onward, including those labeled as “contraceptives” but which may cause a fertilized egg to be destroyed. |
| ● | Abortion Philanthropy - Corporate guided philanthropy to organizations that advocate for or provide abortions (excludes employee matching programs.) |
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| ● | Abortion Legislation - Corporate sponsored political, legal or other activism that advocates for or provides abortions. |
| ● | Abortion Procedures - Company offers abortion procedures as a service. |
| ● | Alcohol - Company produces or specifically distributes alcoholic beverages. |
| ● | Cannabis Retail THC- Company produces or distributes retail cannabis products containing THC, which is the psychoactive component of cannabis. |
| ● | Cannabis Cultivation/Processing- Company cultivates or processes cannabis for retail or wholesale distribution. |
| ● | Embryonic Stem Cell Research – Company is engaged directly or indirectly in embryonic stem cell research. This category includes companies which perform research on or produce products using embryonic stem cells, companies which provide embryonic stem cells to other entities and companies which utilize propagated stem cell lines which originally derived from embryonic stem cells. |
| ● | Gambling - Company generates revenue from gambling. This category includes the operation of casinos or other gambling facilities, as well as manufacturing gambling machinery and or other gambling specific equipment. |
| ● | Human Rights – Company has exploitative labor practices, working conditions or partnerships with exploitative supply partners, including unjust governmental entities and regimes. |
| ● | In Vitro Fertilization – Company offers In Vitro Fertilization services or manufacture equipment to aid in such procedures. |
| ● | LGBT Legislation - Corporate sponsored legal, political or other activism that advocates for the promotion and acceptance of the LGBT lifestyle. |
| ● | LGBT Philanthropy - Corporate guided philanthropy to organizations that advocate for the promotion and acceptance of the LGBT lifestyle (excludes employee match programs). |
| ● | LGBT Promotion – Company provides products or services designed specifically for the promotion and acceptance of the LGBT lifestyle, or otherwise uses corporate influence for the promotion and acceptance of the LGBT lifestyle. |
| ● | Pornography - Company produces or distributes pornography. This category includes all media types, such as film, print and online. Also included are companies that produce AO (Adult Only) rated video games which contain pornographic content. |
| ● | State Owned Enterprise – Company is owned and controlled by a Nation State or government that is a known human rights violator, including situations where the State has veto power, or a “golden share” is owned by the State or State controlled agency. |
| ● | Tobacco - Company derives revenue from growing, manufacture or distribution of tobacco products. |
The methodology then assigns a positive score based on the company’s track record of acting in alignment with biblical values across the following categories:
| ● | Access & Affordability: The category addresses a company’s ability to ensure broad access to its products and services, specifically in the context of underserved markets and/or population groups. It includes the management of issues related to universal needs, such as the accessibility and affordability of health care, financial services, utilities, education, and telecommunications. |
| ● | Air Quality: The category addresses a company’s management of air quality impacts resulting from stationary (e.g., factories, power plants) and mobile sources (e.g., trucks, delivery vehicles, planes). Relevant airborne pollutants include, but are not limited to, oxides of nitrogen, oxides of sulfur, volatile organic compounds, heavy metals, particulate matter, and chlorofluorocarbons. The category does not include the management of greenhouse gas emissions, which are addressed in a separate category. |
| ● | Business Ethics: The category addresses a company’s approach to managing risks and opportunities surrounding the ethical conduct of business, including fraud, corruption, bribery and facilitation payments, fiduciary responsibilities, and other business conduct that may have an ethical component. This includes sensitivity to business norms and standards as they shift over time, jurisdiction, and culture without compromising biblical values. It addresses the company’s ability to provide services that satisfy the highest professional and ethical standards of the industry, which means to avoid conflicts of interest, misrepresentation, bias, and negligence through training employees adequately and implementing policies and procedures to ensure employees provide services free from bias and error. |
| ● | Business Model Resilience: The category addresses a company’s capacity to manage risks and opportunities associated with incorporating social, environmental, and political transitions into its long-term business model planning without compromising biblical values. This includes responsiveness to the transition to a low-carbon and climate-constrained economy, as well as growth and creation of new markets among unserved and underserved socio-economic populations. The category identifies industries in which evolving environmental and social realities may challenge companies to fundamentally adapt or may put their business models at risk. |
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| ● | Competitive Behavior: The category covers social issues associated with the existence of monopolies, which may include, but are not limited to, excessive prices, poor quality of service, and inefficiencies. It addresses a company’s management of issues related to bargaining power, collusion, price fixing or manipulation, protection of patents and intellectual property, and other anti-competitive practices. |
| ● | Critical Incident Risk Management: The category addresses the company’s use of management systems and scenario planning to identify, understand, and prevent or minimize the occurrence of accidents and emergencies with significant potential environmental and social conseqeuences. It relates to the culture of safety at a company, its relevant safety management systems and technological controls, the potential human, environmental, and social implications of such events occurring, and the long-term effects to an organization, its workers, and society should these events occur. |
| ● | Customer Privacy: The category addresses management of risks related to the use of personally identifiable information and other customer or user data for secondary purposes including. but not limited to. marketing through affiliates and non-affiliates. The scope of the category includes social issues that may arise from a company’s approach to collecting data, obtaining consent (e.g., opt-in policies), managing user and customer expectations regarding how their data is used, and managing evolving regulation. It excludes social issues arising from cybersecurity risks, which are covered in Data Security. |
| ● | Customer Welfare: The category addresses customer welfare concerns over issues including, but not limited to, health and nutrition of foods and beverages, antibiotic use in animal production, and management of controlled substances. The category addresses the company’s ability to provide consumers with manufactured products and services that are aligned with societal expectations. It does not include issues directly related to quality and safety malfunctions of manufactured products and services, but instead addresses qualities inherent to the design and delivery of products and services where customer welfare may be in question. The scope of the category also captures companies’ ability to prevent counterfeit products. |
| ● | Data Security: The category addresses management of risks related to collection, retention, and use of sensitive, confidential, and/or proprietary customer or user data. It includes social issues that may arise from incidents such as data breaches in which personally identifiable information and other user or customer data may be exposed. It addresses a company’s strategy, policies, and practices related to IT infrastructure, staff training, record keeping, cooperation with law enforcement, and other mechanisms used to ensure security of customer or user data. |
| ● | Ecological Impacts: The category addresses management of the company’s impacts on ecosystems and biodiversity through activities including, but not limited to, land use for exploration, natural resource extraction, and cultivation, as well as project development, construction, and siting. The impacts include, but are not limited to, biodiversity loss, habitat destruction, and deforestation at all stages, planning, land acquisition, permitting, development, operations, and site remediation. The category does not cover impacts of climate change on ecosystems and biodiversity. |
| ● | Employee Engagement, Diversity & Inclusion: The category addresses a company’s ability to ensure that its culture and hiring and promotion practices embrace the building of a diverse and inclusive workforce that reflects the makeup of local talent pools and its customer base in alignment with biblical values. It addresses the issues of discriminatory practices on the basis of race, gender, ethnicity, religion, and other factors. |
| ● | Employee Health & Safety: The category addresses a company’s ability to create and maintain a safe and healthy workplace environment that is free of injuries, fatalities, and illness (both chronic and acute). It is traditionally accomplished through implementing safety management plans, developing training requirements for employees and contractors, and conducting regular audits of their own practices as well as those of their subcontractors. The category further captures how companies ensure physical and mental health of workforce through technology, training, corporate culture, regulatory compliance, monitoring and testing, and personal protective equipment. |
| ● | Energy Management: The category addresses environmental impacts associated with energy consumption. It addresses the company’s management of energy in manufacturing and/or for provision of products and services derived from utility providers (grid energy) not owned or controlled by the company. More specifically, it includes management of energy efficiency and intensity, energy mix, as well as grid reliance. Upstream (e.g., suppliers) and downstream (e.g., product use) energy use is not included in the scope. |
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| ● | GHG Emissions: T he category addresses direct greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions that a company generates through its operations. This includes GHG emissions from stationary (e.g., factories, power plants) and mobile sources (e.g., trucks, delivery vehicles, planes), whether a result of combustion of fuel or non-combusted direct releases during activities such as natural resource extraction, power generation, land use, or biogenic processes. The category further includes management of regulatory risks, environmental compliance, and reputational risks and opportunities, as they related to direct GHG emissions. The seven GHGs covered under the Kyoto Protocol are included within the category are carbon dioxide, methane , nitrous oxide, hydrofluorocarbons, perfluorocarbons, sulfur hexafluoride, and nitrogen trifluoride. |
| ● | Human Rights & Community Relations: The category addresses management of the relationship between businesses and the communities in which they operate, including, but not limited to, management of direct and indirect impacts on core human rights and the treatment of indigenous peoples. More specifically, such management may cover socio-economic community impacts, community engagement, cultivation of local workforces, impact on local businesses, license to operate, and environmental/social impact assessments. The category does not include environmental impacts such as air pollution or waste which, although they may impact the health and safety of members of local communities, are addressed in separate categories. |
| ● | Labor Practices: The category addresses the company’s ability to uphold commonly accepted labor standards in the workplace, including compliance with labor laws and internationally accepted norms and standards. This includes, but is not limited to, ensuring basic human rights related to child labor, forced or bonded labor, exploitative labor, fair wages and overtime pay, and other basic workers’ rights. It also includes minimum wage policies and provision of benefits, which may influence how a workforce is attracted, retained, and motivated. The category further addresses a company’s relationship with organized labor and freedom of association. |
| ● | Management of the Legal & Regulatory Environment: The category addresses a company’s approach to engaging with regulators in cases where conflicting corporate and public interests may have the potential for long-term adverse direct or indirect environmental and social impacts. The category addresses a company’s level of reliance upon regulatory policy or monetary incentives (such as subsidies and taxes), actions to influence industry policy (such as through lobbying), overall reliance on a favorable regulatory environment for business competitiveness, and ability to comply with relevant regulations. It may relate to the alignment of management and investor views of regulatory engagement and compliance at large. |
| ● | Materials Sourcing & Efficiency: The category addresses issues related to the resilience of materials supply chains to environmental and social factors. It captures the impacts of such external factors on operational activity of suppliers, which can further affect availability and pricing of key resources. It addresses a company’s ability to manage these risks through product design, manufacturing, and end-of-life management, such as by using of recycled and renewable materials, reducing the use of key materials (dematerialization), maximizing resource efficiency in manufacturing, and making R&D investments in substitute materials. Additionally, companies can manage these issues by screening, selection, monitoring, and engagement with suppliers to ensure their resilience to external risks. It does not address issues associated with environmental and social impacts of individual suppliers’ operational activities, which is covered in Supply Chain Management. |
| ● | Product Design & Lifecycle Management: The category addresses incorporation of sustainability considerations in characteristics of products and services provided or sold by the company. It includes, but is not limited to, managing the lifecycle impacts of products and services, such as those related to packaging, distribution and other environmental and social impacts they may have during their use-phase or at the end of life. The category captures a company’s ability to address customer and societal demand for more sustainable products and services as well as to meet evolving environmental and social regulation. It does not address direct environmental or social impacts of the company’s operations nor does it address health and safety risks to consumers from product use, which are covered in other categories. |
| ● | Product Quality & Safety: The category addresses issues involving unintended characteristics of products sold or services provided that may create health or safety risks to end-users. It addresses a company’s ability to offer manufactured products and/or services that meet customer expectations with respect to their health and safety characteristics. It includes, but is not limited to, issues involving liability, management of recalls and market withdrawals, product testing, and chemicals/content/ingredient management in products. |
| ● | Selling Practices & Product Labeling: The category addresses social issues that may arise from a failure to manage the transparency, accuracy, and comprehensibility of marketing statements, advertising, and labeling of products and services. It includes, but is not limited to, advertising standards and regulations, ethical and responsible marketing practices, misleading or deceptive labeling, as well as discriminatory or predatory selling and lending practices. This may include deceptive or aggressive selling practices in which incentive structures for employees could encourage the sale of products or services that are not in the best interest of customers or clients. |
| ● | Supply Chain Management: The category addresses management of sustainability risks within a company’s supply chain. It addresses issues associated with environmental and social externalities created by suppliers through their operational activities. Such issues include, but are not limited to, environmental responsibility, human rights, labor practices, and ethics and corruption. Management may involve screening, selection, monitoring, and engagement with suppliers on their environmental and social impacts. The category does not address the impacts of external factors, such as climate change and other environmental and social factors, on suppliers, operations and/or on the availability and pricing of key resources, which is covered in a separate category. |
| ● | Systemic Risk Management: The category addresses the company’s contributions to or management of systemic risks resulting from large-scale weakening or collapse of systems upon which the economy and society depend. This includes financial systems, natural resource systems, and technological systems. It addresses the mechanisms a company has in place to reduce its contributions to systemic risks and to improve safeguards that may mitigate the impacts of systemic failure. For financial institutions, the category also captures the company’s ability to absorb shocks arising from financial and economic stress and meet stricter regulatory requirements related to the complexity and interconnectedness of companies in the industry. |
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| ● | Waste & Hazardous Materials Management: The category addresses environmental issues associated with hazardous and non-hazardous waste generated by companies. It addresses a company’s management of solid wastes in manufacturing, agriculture, and other industrial processes. It covers treatment, handling, storage, disposal, and regulatory compliance. The category does not cover emissions to air or wastewater nor does it cover waste from products at the end of their lifecycle, which are addressed in separate categories. |
| ● | Water & Wastewater Management: The category addresses a company’s water consumption, wastewater generation, and other operational impacts on water resources, which may be influenced by regional differences in the availability and quality of and competition for water resources. More specifically, it addresses management strategies including, but not limited to, water efficiency, rate of consumption, and recycling. Lastly, the category also addresses management of wastewater treatment and discharge, including groundwater and aquifer pollution. |
The adviser relies exclusively on software that analyzes publicly available data relating to the primary business activities, products and services, philanthropy, legal activities, policies and practices when assigning Inspire Impact Scores® to a company. The adviser invests Fund assets only in securities with an Inspire Impact Score® of zero or higher and the adviser will cause a portfolio security to be sold when the adviser deems appropriate if a portfolio security’s Impact Score® falls below a specified level.
Principal Investment Risks: As with all funds, there is a risk that you could lose money through your investment in the Fund. Many factors affect the Fund’s net asset value and performance.
The following describes the risks the Fund bears with respect to its investments. As with any fund, there is no guarantee that the Fund will achieve its goal.
Active Management Risk. The adviser’s judgments about the growth, value or potential appreciation of an investment may prove to be incorrect or fail to have the intended results, which could adversely impact the Fund’s performance and cause it to underperform relative to other funds with similar investment goals or relative to its benchmark, or not to achieve its investment goal.
Authorized Participant Risk. Only an Authorized Participant may engage in creation or redemption transactions directly with the Fund. The Fund has a limited number of institutions that may act as Authorized Participants on an agency basis (i.e., on behalf of other market participants). To the extent that Authorized Participants exit the business or are unable to proceed with creation or redemption orders with respect to the Fund and no other Authorized Participant is able to step forward to create or redeem Creation Units, Fund shares may be more likely to trade at a premium or discount to net asset value and possibly face trading halts or delisting. Authorized Participant concentration risk may be heightened for ETFs that invest in non-U.S. securities or other securities or instruments that have lower trading volumes.
Biblically Responsible Investment Risk. The Fund invests its assets in securities with an Inspire Impact Score® of zero or higher. As a result of its strategy, the Fund’s exclusion of securities of certain issuers for nonfinancial reasons may cause the Fund to forgo some market opportunities available to funds that do not use these criteria. This could be due to biblically responsible companies falling out of favor with investors or failing to perform as well as companies that do not receive a favorable Inspire Impact Score®.
Early Close/Trading Halt Risk. An exchange or market may close or impose a market trading halt or issue trading halts on specific securities, or the ability to buy or sell certain securities or financial instruments may be restricted, which may prevent the Fund from buying or selling certain securities or financial instruments. In these circumstances, the Fund may be unable to rebalance its portfolio, may be unable to accurately price its investments and may incur substantial trading losses.
Equity Securities Risk. Fluctuations in the value of equity securities held by the Fund will cause the net asset value (“NAV”) of the Fund and the price of its shares (“Shares”) to fluctuate.
| ● | Common Stock Risk. Common stock of an issuer in the Fund’s portfolio may decline in price if the issuer fails to make anticipated dividend payments. Common stock will be subject to greater dividend risk than preferred stocks or debt instruments of the same issuer. In addition, common stocks have experienced significantly more volatility in returns than other asset classes. |
| ● | Preferred Stock Risk. Generally, preferred stockholders (such as the Fund) have no voting rights with respect to the issuing company unless certain events occur. In addition, preferred stock will be subject to greater credit risk than debt instruments of an issuer, and could be subject to interest rate risk like fixed income securities, as described below. An issuer’s board of directors is generally not under any obligation to pay a dividend (even if dividends have accrued), and may suspend payment of dividends on preferred stock at any time. There is also a risk that the issuer of any of the Fund’s holdings will default and fail to make scheduled dividend payments on the preferred stock held by the Fund). |
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ETF Structure Risk. The Fund is structured as an ETF and as a result is subject to the special risks, including:
| ● | Not Individually Redeemable. Shares are not individually redeemable to retail investors and may be redeemed only by the ETF only to Authorized Participants at NAV in large blocks known as “Creation Units.” An Authorized Participant may incur brokerage costs purchasing enough Shares to constitute a Creation Unit. |
| ● | Trading Issues. An active trading market for the Shares may not be developed or maintained. Trading in Shares on NYSE Arca (the “Exchange”) may be halted due to market conditions or for reasons that, in the view of the Exchange, make trading in Shares inadvisable, such as extraordinary market volatility. There can be no assurance that Shares will continue to meet the listing requirements of the Exchange, which may result in the trading of the Shares being suspended or the Shares being delisted. An active trading market for the Shares may not be developed or maintained. If the Shares are traded outside a collateralized settlement system, the number of financial institutions that can act as Authorized Participants that can post collateral on an agency basis is limited, which may limit the market for the Shares and lead to a difference in the market price of the Shares and their underlying market value. |
| ● | Market Price Variance Risk. The market prices of Shares will fluctuate in response to changes in NAV and supply and demand for Shares and will include a “bid-ask spread” charged by the Exchange specialists, market makers or other participants that trade the particular security. |
| ○ | In times of market stress, market makers may step away from their role in market making in the Shares and in executing trades, which can lead to differences between the market value of Shares and the Fund’s NAV. |
| ○ | The market price of the Shares may deviate from the Fund’s NAV, particularly during times of market stress, with the result that investors may pay significantly more or significantly less for Shares than the Fund’s NAV, which is reflected in the bid and ask price for Shares or in the closing price. |
| ○ | When all or a portion of the Fund’s underlying securities trade in a market that is closed when the market for the Shares is open, there may be changes from the last quote of the closed market and the quote from the Fund’s domestic trading day, which could lead to differences between the market value of the Shares and the Fund’s NAV. |
| ○ | In stressed market conditions, the market for the Shares may become less liquid in response to the deteriorating liquidity of the Fund’s portfolio. This adverse effect on the liquidity of the Shares may, in turn, lead to differences between the market value of the Shares and the Fund’s NAV. |
Gold Risk. The Fund will have exposure to gold and precious metals. Investments in gold and precious metals may be speculative and subject to greater price volatility than investments in other types of assets. The price of metals is related to, among other things, worldwide metal prices and extraction and production costs. Worldwide metal prices may fluctuate substantially over short periods of time, and as a result, the Fund’s share price may be more volatile than other types of investments.
Issuer Risk. The performance of the Fund depends on the performance of individual securities to which the Fund has exposure. Changes in the financial condition or credit rating of an issuer of those securities may cause the value of the securities to decline.
Large Market Capitalization Companies Risk. The value of investments in larger companies may not rise as much as smaller companies, or larger companies may be unable to respond quickly to competitive challenges, such as changes in technology and consumer tastes.
Limited History of Operations Risk. The Fund is a new ETF with a limited history of operations for investors to evaluate.
Management Risk. The adviser’s judgments about the attractiveness, value and potential appreciation of particular stocks or other securities in which the Fund invests or sells may prove to be incorrect and there is no guarantee that the adviser’s judgment will produce the desired results.
Market and Geopolitical Risk. The increasing interconnectivity between global economies and financial markets increases the likelihood that events or conditions in one region or financial market may adversely impact issuers in a different country, region or financial market. Securities in the Fund’s portfolio may underperform due to inflation (or expectations for inflation), interest rates, global demand for particular products or resources, natural disasters, climate-change and climate-related events, pandemics, epidemics, terrorism, regulatory events and governmental or quasi-governmental actions. The occurrence of global events similar to those in recent years may result in market volatility and may have long term effects on both the U.S. and global financial markets. The current novel coronavirus (COVID-19) global pandemic and the aggressive responses taken by many governments, including closing borders, restricting international and domestic travel, and the imposition of prolonged quarantines or similar restrictions, as well as the forced or voluntary closure of, or operational changes to, many retail and other businesses, has had negative impacts, and in many cases severe negative impacts, on markets worldwide. It is not known how long such impacts, or any future impacts of other significant events described above, will or would last, but there could be a prolonged period of global economic slowdown, which may impact your Fund investment.
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Portfolio Turnover Risk. The Fund buys and sells investments frequently. Such a strategy often involves higher transaction costs, including brokerage commissions, and may increase the amount of capital gains (in particular, short term gains) realized by the Fund. Shareholders may pay tax on such capital gains.
Securities Lending Risk. Securities lending involves two primary risks: “investment risk” and “borrower default risk.” Investment risk is the risk that the Fund will lose money from the investment of the cash collateral. Borrower default risk is the risk that the Fund will lose money due to the failure of a borrower to return a borrowed security in a timely manner.
U.S. Government Securities Risk. Although U.S. government securities are considered among the safest investments, they are not guaranteed against price movements due to changing interest rates. Obligations issued by some U.S. government agencies are backed by the U.S. Treasury, while others are backed solely by the ability of the agency to borrow from the U.S. Treasury or by the agency’s own resources.
Performance: The bar chart and performance table below show the variability of the Fund’s returns, which is some indication of the risks of investing in the Fund by showing changes in the Fund’s performance from year to year and by showing the Fund’s one-year and since inception performance compared with those of a broad measure of market performance. The bar chart shows performance of the Fund’s shares for each calendar year since the Fund’s inception. The performance table compares the performance of the Fund over time to the performance of a broad-based securities market index. You should be aware that the Fund’s past performance (before and after taxes) is not necessarily an indication of how the Fund will perform in the future. Updated performance information will be available at no cost by visiting inspireetf.com or by calling 877.658.9473.
Performance Bar Chart For Calendar Year Ended December 31
| Best Quarter: | 2nd Quarter 2021 | 8.42% |
| Worst Quarter: | 3rd Quarter 2021 | (0.29)% |
Performance
Table
Average Annual Total Returns
(For periods ended December 31,
2021)
| One Year | Since Inception (7/15/20) | |
| Return before taxes | 22.15% | 20.43% |
| Return after taxes on distributions | 17.74% | 15.98% |
| Return after taxes on distributions and sale of Fund shares | 13.21% | 13.77% |
| S&P Target Risk Moderate Index (TR)* | 7.12% | 10.40% |
| * | The S&P Target Risk Moderate Index is designed to measure the performance of moderate stock-bond allocations to fixed income while seeking to increase opportunities for higher returns through equities. Investors cannot invest directly in an index. |
After-tax returns are calculated using the historical highest individual federal marginal income tax rates and do not reflect the impact of state and local taxes. Actual after-tax returns depend on an investor’s tax situation and may differ from those shown, and after-tax returns shown are not relevant to investors who hold their Shares through tax-deferred arrangements, such as 401(k) plans or individual retirement accounts.
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Investment Adviser: Inspire Investing, LLC (the “Adviser”)
Portfolio Managers: Darrell Jayroe, CFA®, Chief Investment Officer and Portfolio Manager, Robert Netzly, Chief Executive Officer, Keith Chandler, Portfolio Manager and Jacob Chandler, Portfolio Manager, have each served the Fund as a portfolio manager since it commenced operations in 2020. Tim Schwarzenberger, CFA®, Portfolio Manager, has served the Fund as a portfolio manager since March 2022.
Purchase and Sale of Fund Shares: Individual Shares of the Fund may be purchased and sold in secondary market transactions through a broker dealer or at market price. Shares are listed for trading on the Exchange and trade at market prices rather than NAV. Shares may trade at a price that is greater than, at, or less than NAV. An investor may incur costs attributable to the difference between the highest price a buyer is willing to pay to purchase Shares (bid) and the lowest price a seller is willing to accept for Shares (ask) when buying or selling Shares on the secondary market (the “bid-ask spread”). Information on the Fund’s NAV, market price, premiums and discounts, and bid-ask spreads, is available online at inspireetf.com.
Shares are listed for trading on the Exchange and trade at market prices rather than NAV. Shares may trade at a price that is greater than, at, or less than NAV.
Tax Information: The Fund’s distributions generally will be taxable as ordinary income or long-term capital gains. A sale of Shares may result in capital gain or loss.
Payments to Broker-Dealers and Other Financial Intermediaries: If you purchase the Fund through a broker-dealer or other financial intermediary (such as a bank), the Adviser or its related companies may pay the intermediary for the sale of Shares and related services. These payments may create a conflict of interest by influencing the broker-dealer or other intermediary and your salesperson to recommend the Fund over another investment. Ask your salesperson or visit your financial intermediary’s website for more information.
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ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ABOUT PRINCIPAL INVESTMENT STRATEGIES AND RELATED RISKS
INVESTMENT OBJECTIVE: The Fund seeks to provide capital appreciation with lower volatility than the US large cap stock market over the long term.
The Fund’s investment objective may be changed by the Board of Trustees upon 60 days’ written notice to shareholders. The Fund has adopted a policy to invest at least 80% of its assets in a particular type of security. The Fund may change its 80% policy upon 60 days’ written notice to its shareholders.
PRINCIPAL INVESTMENT STRATEGIES:
The Fund, an actively managed ETF, uses a proprietary system of technical analysis to tactically allocate assets into US large cap stocks when the strategy identifies an uptrend in the US large cap stock market, and shifts into U.S. Treasury bonds via third-party ETFs, investment grade and high-yield corporate bonds, government agency bonds, and listed gold exchange-traded products and exchange-traded notes such as SPDR Gold Shares (GLD) when the strategy identifies a downtrend in the US large cap stock market. The Fund invests at least 80% of the Fund’s net assets plus any borrowings for investment purposes in stocks or fixed income securities that meet the Fund’s criteria described below.
To narrow the applicable investment universe, Inspire Impact Score®, a proprietary selection methodology that is designed to assign a score to a particular security based on the security’s alignment with biblical values and the positive impact that the issuing company has on its customers, communities, workplace and the world .
The Inspire Impact Score® methodology removes from the investment universe the securities of any company that has any degree of participation in the following activities or products that do not align with biblical values, which removes them from the eligible investment universe of securities of potential Fund investments. A score of zero is assigned to companies where no information is available about their participation in the following activities or products:
| ● | Abortifacients - Company produces abortifacient drugs. This category includes all pharmaceuticals used to terminate a pregnancy anytime from the moment of conception onward, including those labeled as “contraceptives” but which may cause a fertilized egg to be destroyed. |
| ● | Abortion Philanthropy - Corporate guided philanthropy to organizations that advocate for or provide abortions (excludes employee matching programs.) |
| ● | Abortion Legislation - Corporate sponsored political, legal or other activism that advocates for or provides abortions. |
| ● | Abortion Procedures - Company offers abortion procedures as a service. |
| ● | Alcohol - Company produces or specifically distributes alcoholic beverages. |
| ● | Cannabis Retail THC- Company produces or distributes retail cannabis products containing THC, which is the psychoactive component of cannabis. |
| ● | Cannabis Cultivation/Processing- Company cultivates or processes cannabis for retail or wholesale distribution. |
| ● | Embryonic Stem Cell Research – Company is engaged directly or indirectly in embryonic stem cell research. This category includes companies which perform research on or produce products using embryonic stem cells, companies which provide embryonic stem cells to other entities and companies which utilize propagated stem cell lines which originally derived from embryonic stem cells. |
| ● | Gambling - Company generates revenue from gambling. This category includes the operation of casinos or other gambling facilities, as well as manufacturing gambling machinery and or other gambling specific equipment. |
| ● | Human Rights - Exploitative labor practices, working conditions or partnerships with exploitative supply partners, including unjust governmental entities and regimes. |
| ● | In Vitro Fertilization – Company offers In Vitro Fertilization services or manufacture equipment to aid in such procedures. |
| ● | LGBT Legislation - Corporate sponsored legal, political or other activism that advocates for the promotion and acceptance of the LGBT lifestyle. |
| ● | LGBT Philanthropy - Corporate guided philanthropy to organizations that advocate for the promotion and acceptance of the LGBT lifestyle (excludes employee match programs). |
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| ● | LGBT Promotion – Company provides products or services designed specifically for the promotion and acceptance of the LGBT lifestyle, or otherwise uses corporate influence for the promotion and acceptance of the LGBT lifestyle. |
| ● | Pornography - Company produces or distributes pornography. This category includes all media types, such as film, print and online. Also included are companies that produce AO (Adult Only) rated video games which contain pornographic content. |
| ● | State Owned Enterprise – Company is owned and controlled by a Nation State or government that is a known human rights violator, including situations where the State has veto power, or a “golden share” is owned by the State or State controlled agency. |
| ● | Tobacco - Company derives revenue from growing, manufacturing or distributing tobacco products. |
The methodology then assigns a positive score based on the company’s track record of acting in alignment with biblical values across the following categories:
| ● | Access & Affordability: The category addresses a company’s ability to ensure broad access to its products and services, specifically in the context of underserved markets and/or population groups. It includes the management of issues related to universal needs, such as the accessibility and affordability of health care, financial services, utilities, education, and telecommunications. |
| ● | Air Quality: The category addresses the management of air quality impacts resulting from stationary (e.g., factories, power plants) and mobile sources (e.g., trucks, delivery vehicles, planes) as well as industrial emissions. Relevant airborne pollutants include, but are not limited to, oxides of nitrogen (NOx), oxides of sulfur (SOx), volatile organic compounds (VOCs), heavy metals, particulate matter, and chlorofluorocarbons. The category does not include GHG emissions, which are addressed in a separate category. |
| ● | Business Ethics: The category addresses the company’s approach to managing risks and opportunities surrounding ethical conduct of business, including fraud, corruption, bribery and facilitation payments, fiduciary responsibilities, and other behavior that may have an ethical component. This includes sensitivity to business norms and standards as they shift over time, jurisdiction, and culture without compromising biblical values. It addresses the company’s ability to provide services that satisfy the highest professional and ethical standards of the industry, which means to avoid conflicts of interest, misrepresentation, bias, and negligence through training employees adequately and implementing policies and procedures to ensure employees provide services free from bias and error. |
| ● | Business Model Resilience: The category addresses an industry’s capacity to manage risks and opportunities associated with incorporating social, environmental, and political transitions into long-term business model planning without compromising biblical values. This includes responsiveness to the transition to a low-carbon and climate-constrained economy, as well as growth and creation of new markets among unserved and underserved socio-economic populations. The category highlights industries in which evolving environmental and social realities may challenge companies to fundamentally adapt or may put their business models at risk. |
| ● | Competitive Behavior: The category covers social issues associated with existence of monopolies, which may include, but are not limited to, excessive prices, poor quality of service, and inefficiencies. It addresses a company’s management of legal and social expectation around monopolistic and anti-competitive practices, including issues related to bargaining power, collusion, price fixing or manipulation, and protection of patents and intellectual property (IP). |
| ● | Critical Incident Risk Management: The category addresses the company’s use of management systems and scenario planning to identify, understand, and prevent or minimize the occurrence of low-probability, high-impact accidents and emergencies with significant potential environmental and social externalities. It relates to the culture of safety at a company, its relevant safety management systems and technological controls, the potential human, environmental, and social implications of such events occurring, and the long-term effects to an organization, its workers, and society should these events occur. |
| ● | Customer Privacy: The category addresses management of risks related to the use of personally identifiable information (PII) and other customer or user data for secondary purposes including but not limited to marketing through affiliates and non-affiliates. The scope of the category includes social issues that may arise from a company’s approach to collecting data, obtaining consent (e.g., opt-in policies), managing user and customer expectations regarding how their data is used, and managing evolving regulation. It excludes social issues arising from cybersecurity risks, which are covered in a separate category. |
| ● | Customer Welfare: The category addresses customer welfare concerns over issues including, but not limited to, health and nutrition of foods and beverages, antibiotic use in animal production, and management of controlled substances. The category addresses the company’s ability to provide consumers with manufactured products and services that are aligned with societal expectations. It does not include issues directly related to quality and safety |
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malfunctions of manufactured products and services, but instead addresses qualities inherent to the design and delivery of products and services where customer welfare may be in question. The scope of the category also captures companies’ ability to prevent counterfeit products.
| ● | Data Security: The category addresses management of risks related to collection, retention, and use of sensitive, confidential, and/or proprietary customer or user data. It includes social issues that may arise from incidents such as data breaches in which personally identifiable information (PII) and other user or customer data may be exposed. It addresses a company’s strategy, policies, and practices related to IT infrastructure, staff training, record keeping, cooperation with law enforcement, and other mechanisms used to ensure security of customer or user data. |
| ● | Ecological Impacts: The category addresses management of the company’s impacts on ecosystems and biodiversity through activities including, but not limited to, land use for exploration, natural resource extraction, and cultivation, as well as project development, construction, and siting. The impacts include, but are not limited to, biodiversity loss, habitat destruction, and deforestation at all stages, planning, land acquisition, permitting, development, operations, and site remediation. The category does not cover impacts of climate change on ecosystems and biodiversity. |
| ● | Employee Engagement, Diversity & Inclusion: The category addresses a company’s ability to ensure that its culture and hiring and promotion practices embrace the building of a diverse and inclusive workforce that reflects the makeup of local talent pools and its customer base in alignment with biblical values. It addresses the issues of discriminatory practices on the basis of race, gender, ethnicity, religion, and other factors. |
| ● | Employee Health & Safety: The category addresses a company’s ability to create and maintain a safe and healthy workplace environment that is free of injuries, fatalities, and illness (both chronic and acute). It is traditionally accomplished through implementing safety management plans, developing training requirements for employees and contractors, and conducting regular audits of their own practices as well as those of their subcontractors. The category further captures how companies ensure physical and mental health of workforce through technology, training, corporate culture, regulatory compliance, monitoring and testing, and personal protective equipment. |
| ● | Energy Management: The category addresses environmental impacts associated with energy consumption. It addresses the company’s management of energy in manufacturing and/or for provision of products and services derived from utility providers (grid energy) not owned or controlled by the company. More specifically, it includes management of energy efficiency and intensity, energy mix, as well as grid reliance. Upstream (e.g., suppliers) and downstream (e.g., product use) energy use is not included in the scope. |
| ● | GHG Emissions: T he category addresses direct (Scope 1) greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions that a company generates through its operations. This includes GHG emissions from stationary (e.g., factories, power plants) and mobile sources (e.g., trucks, delivery vehicles, planes), whether a result of combustion of fuel or non-combusted direct releases during activities such as natural resource extraction, power generation, land use, or biogenic processes. The category further includes management of regulatory risks, environmental compliance, and reputational risks and opportunities, as they related to direct GHG emissions. The seven GHGs covered under the Kyoto Protocol are included within the category’s carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), nitrous oxide (N2O), hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), perfluorocarbons (PFCs), sulfur hexafluoride (SF6), and nitrogen trifluoride (NF3). |
| ● | Human Rights & Community Relations: The category addresses management of the relationship between businesses and the communities in which they operate, including, but not limited to, management of direct and indirect impacts on core human rights and the treatment of indigenous peoples. More specifically, such management may cover socio-economic community impacts, community engagement, environmental justice, cultivation of local workforces, impact on local businesses, license to operate, and environmental/social impact assessments. The category does not include environmental impacts such as air pollution or waste which, although they may impact the health and safety of members of local communities, are addressed in separate categories. |
| ● | Labor Practices: The category addresses the company’s ability to uphold commonly accepted labor standards in the workplace, including compliance with labor laws and internationally accepted norms and standards. This includes, but is not limited to, ensuring basic human rights related to child labor, forced or bonded labor, exploitative labor, fair wages and overtime pay, and other basic workers’ rights. It also includes minimum wage policies and provision of benefits, which may influence how a workforce is attracted, retained, and motivated. The category further addresses a company’s relationship with organized labor and freedom of association. |
| ● | Management of the Legal & Regulatory Environment: The category addresses a company’s approach to engaging with regulators in cases where conflicting corporate and public interests may have the potential for long-term adverse direct or indirect environmental and social impacts. The category addresses a company’s level of reliance upon regulatory policy or monetary incentives (such as subsidies and taxes), actions to influence industry policy (such as through lobbying), overall reliance on a favorable regulatory environment for business competitiveness, |
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and ability to comply with relevant regulations. It may relate to the alignment of management and investor views of regulatory engagement and compliance at large.
| ● | Materials Sourcing & Efficiency: The category addresses issues related to the resilience of materials supply chains to impacts of climate change and other external environmental and social factors. It captures the impacts of such external factors on operational activity of suppliers, which can further affect availability and pricing of key resources. It addresses a company’s ability to manage these risks through product design, manufacturing, and end-of-life management, such as by using of recycled and renewable materials, reducing the use of key materials (dematerialization), maximizing resource efficiency in manufacturing, and making R&D investments in substitute materials. Additionally, companies can manage these issues by screening, selection, monitoring, and engagement with suppliers to ensure their resilience to external risks. It does not address issues associated with environmental and social externalities created by operational activity of individual suppliers, which is covered in a separate category. |
| ● | Physical Impacts of Climate Change: The category addresses the company’s ability to manage risks and opportunities associated with direct exposure of its owned or controlled assets and operations to actual or potential physical impacts of climate change. It captures environmental and social issues that may arise from operational disruptions due to physical impacts of climate change. It further captures socio-economic issues resulting from companies failing to incorporate climate change consideration in products and services sold, such as insurance policies and mortgages. The category relates to the company’s ability to adapt to increased frequency and severity of extreme weather, shifting climate, sea level risk, and other expected physical impacts of climate change. Management may involve enhancing resiliency of physical assets and/or surrounding infrastructure as well as incorporation of climate change-related considerations into key business activities (e.g., mortgage and insurance underwriting, planning and development of real estate projects). |
| ● | Product Design & Lifecycle Management: The category addresses incorporation of sustainability considerations in characteristics of products and services provided or sold by the company. It includes, but is not limited to, managing the lifecycle impacts of products and services, such as those related to packaging, distribution, use-phase resource intensity, and other environmental and social externalities that may occur during their use-phase or at the end of life. The category captures a company’s ability to address customer and societal demand for more sustainable products and services as well as to meet evolving environmental and social regulation. It does not address direct environmental or social impacts of the company’s operations nor does it address health and safety risks to consumers from product use, which are covered in other categories. |
| ● | Product Quality & Safety: The category addresses issues involving unintended characteristics of products sold or services provided that may create health or safety risks to end-users. It addresses a company’s ability to offer manufactured products and/or services that meet customer expectations with respect to their health and safety characteristics. It includes, but is not limited to, issues involving liability, management of recalls and market withdrawals, product testing, and chemicals/content/ingredient management in products. |
| ● | Selling Practices & Product Labeling: The category addresses social issues that may arise from a failure to manage the transparency, accuracy, and comprehensibility of marketing statements, advertising, and labeling of products and services. It includes, but is not limited to, advertising standards and regulations, ethical and responsible marketing practices, misleading or deceptive labeling, as well as discriminatory or predatory selling and lending practices. This may include deceptive or aggressive selling practices in which incentive structures for employees could encourage the sale of products or services that are not in the best interest of customers or clients. |
| ● | Supply Chain Management: The category addresses management of sustainability risks within a company’s supply chain. It addresses issues associated with environmental and social externalities created by suppliers through their operational activities. Such issues include, but are not limited to, environmental responsibility, human rights, labor practices, and ethics and corruption. Management may involve screening, selection, monitoring, and engagement with suppliers on their environmental and social impacts. The category does not address the impacts of external factors, such as climate change and other environmental and social factors, on suppliers, operations and/or on the availability and pricing of key resources, which is covered in a separate category. |
| ● | Systemic Risk Management: The category addresses the company’s contributions to or management of systemic risks resulting from large-scale weakening or collapse of systems upon which the economy and society depend. This includes financial systems, natural resource systems, and technological systems. It addresses the mechanisms a company has in place to reduce its contributions to systemic risks and to improve safeguards that may mitigate the impacts of systemic failure. For financial institutions, the category also captures the company’s ability to absorb shocks arising from financial and economic stress and meet stricter regulatory requirements related to the complexity and interconnectedness of companies in the industry. |
| ● | Waste & Hazardous Materials Management: The category addresses environmental issues associated with hazardous and non-hazardous waste generated by companies. It addresses a company’s management of solid |
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wastes in manufacturing, agriculture, and other industrial processes. It covers treatment, handling, storage, disposal, and regulatory compliance. The category does not cover emissions to air or wastewater nor does it cover waste from end-of-life products, which are addressed in separate categories.
| ● | Water & Wastewater Management: The category addresses a company’s water use, water consumption, wastewater generation, and other impacts of operations on water resources, which may be influenced by regional differences in the availability and quality of and competition for water resources. More specifically, it addresses management strategies including, but not limited to, water efficiency, rate of consumption, and recycling. Lastly, the category also addresses management of wastewater treatment and discharge, including groundwater and aquifer pollution. |
The Adviser uses software that analyzes publicly available data relating to the primary business activities, products and services, philanthropy, legal activities, policies and practices when assigning Inspire Impact Scores to a company. The screening process looks through a company to its parents, subsidiaries, and affiliates in determining whether a company has any degree of participation in these activities. The Adviser invests Fund assets only in securities with an Inspire Impact Score® of zero or higher and will cause a portfolio security to be sold when the Adviser deems appropriate if a portfolio security’s Impact Score® falls below a specified level.
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).
Shares of the Funds (“Shares”) are listed for trading on NYSE Arca. The market price for a share of the Funds may be different from the Funds’ most recent NAV.
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The following describes the risks born by the Fund with respect to its investments.
Active Management Risk. The Adviser’s judgments about the growth, value or potential appreciation of an investment may prove to be incorrect or fail to have the intended results, which could adversely impact the Fund’s performance and cause it to underperform relative to other funds with similar investment goals or relative to its benchmark, or not to achieve its investment goal.
Authorized Participant Risk. Only an Authorized Participant may engage in creation or redemption transactions directly with the Fund. The Fund has a limited number of institutions that may act as Authorized Participants on an agency basis (i.e., on behalf of other market participants). To the extent that Authorized Participants exit the business or are unable to proceed with creation or redemption orders with respect to the Fund and no other Authorized Participant is able to step forward to create or redeem Creation Units, Fund shares may be more likely to trade at a premium or discount to net asset value and possibly face trading halts or delisting. Authorized Participant concentration risk may be heightened for ETFs that invest in non-U.S. securities or other securities or instruments that have lower trading volumes.
Biblically Responsible Investment Risk. The Fund invests its assets in companies with Inspire Impact Score® of zero and higher. As a result of its strategy, the Fund’s exclusion of securities of certain issuers for nonfinancial reasons may cause the Fund to forgo some market opportunities available to funds that do not use these criteria. This could be due to biblically responsible companies falling out of favor with investors or failing to perform as well as companies that do not receive a favorable Inspire Impact Score®.
Early Close/Trading Halt Risk. An exchange or market may close or impose a market trading halt or issue trading halts on specific securities, or the ability to buy or sell certain securities or financial instruments may be restricted, which may prevent the Fund from buying or selling certain securities or financial instruments. In these circumstances, the Fund may be unable to rebalance its portfolio, may be unable to accurately price its investments and may incur substantial trading losses.
Equity Securities Risk. Fluctuations in the value of equity securities held by the Fund will cause the net asset value (“NAV”) of the Fund and the price of iShares to fluctuate.
| ● | Common Stock Risk. Common stock of an issuer in the Fund’s portfolio may decline in price if the issuer fails to make anticipated dividend payments. Common stock will be subject to greater dividend risk than preferred stocks or debt instruments of the same issuer. In addition, common stocks have experienced significantly more volatility in returns than other asset classes. |
| ● | Preferred Stock Risk. Generally, preferred stockholders (such as the Fund) have no voting rights with respect to the issuing company unless certain events occur. In addition, preferred stock will be subject to greater credit risk than debt instruments of an issuer, and could be subject to interest rate risk like fixed income securities, as described below. An issuer’s board of directors is generally not under any obligation to pay a dividend (even if dividends have accrued), and may suspend payment of dividends on preferred stock at any time. There is also a risk that the issuer of any of the Fund’s holdings will default and fail to make scheduled dividend payments on the preferred stock held by the Fund). |
ETF Structure Risk. The Fund is structured as an ETF and as a result is subject to the special risks, including:
| ● | Not Individually Redeemable. The Shares are not redeemable by retail investors and may be redeemed only by the Authorized Participants at NAV and only in Creation Units. A retail investor generally incurs brokerage costs when selling shares. |
| ● | Trading Issues. Trading in Shares on the Exchange may be halted due to market conditions or for reasons that, in the view of the Exchange, make trading in Shares inadvisable, such as extraordinary market volatility. There can be no assurance that Shares will continue to meet the listing requirements of the Exchange, which may result in the trading of the Shares being suspended or the Shares being delisted. An active trading market for the Shares may not be developed or maintained. If the Shares are traded outside a collateralized settlement system, the number of financial institutions that can act as Authorized Participants that can post collateral on an agency basis is limited, which may limit the market for the Shares and lead to a difference in the market price of the Shares and their underlying value. |
| ● | Market Price Variance Risk. Individual Shares of the Fund that are listed for trading on the Exchange can be bought and sold in the secondary market at market prices. The market prices of Shares will fluctuate in response to changes in NAV and supply and demand for Shares. There may be times when the market price and the NAV vary significantly and you may pay more than NAV when buying Shares on the secondary market, and you may receive less than NAV when you sell those Shares. The market price of Shares, like the price of any exchange-traded security, includes a “bid-ask spread” charged by the exchange specialists, market makers or other participants that trade the particular security. In times of severe market disruption, the bid-ask spread often increases significantly. This means that Shares may trade at a discount to NAV and the discount is likely to be greatest when the price of Shares is falling fastest, which may be the time that you most want to sell your Shares. The Fund’s investment results are measured based upon the daily NAV of the Fund over a period of time. Investors purchasing and selling Shares in the secondary market may not experience investment results consistent with those experienced by those Authorized Participants creating and redeeming directly with the Fund. |
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| ○ | In times of market stress, market makers may step away from their role in market making in the Shares and in executing trades, which can lead to differences between the market value of Shares and the Fund’s NAV. |
| ○ | The market price of the Shares may deviate from the Fund’s NAV, particularly during times of market stress, with the result that investors may pay significantly more or significantly less for Shares than the Fund’s NAV, which is reflected in the bid and ask price for Shares or in the closing price. |
| ○ | When all or a portion of the Fund’s underlying securities trade in a market that is closed when the market for the Shares is open, there may be changes from the last quote of the closed market and the quote from the Fund’s domestic trading day, which could lead to differences between the market value of the Shares and the Fund’s NAV. |
| ○ | In stressed market conditions, the market for the Shares may become less liquid in response to the deteriorating liquidity of the Fund’s portfolio. This adverse effect on the liquidity of the Shares may, in turn, lead to differences between the market value of the Shares and the Fund’s NAV. |
Gold Risk. The Fund will have exposure to gold and precious metals. Investments in gold and precious metals may be speculative and subject to greater price volatility than investments in other types of assets. The price of metals is related to, among other things, worldwide metal prices and extraction and production costs. Worldwide metal prices may fluctuate substantially over short periods of time, and as a result, the Fund’s share price may be more volatile than other types of investments. In addition, metals may be significantly affected by changes in global demand for certain metals, economic developments, energy conservation, the success of exploration projects, changes in exchange rates, interest rates, economic conditions, tax treatment, trade treaties, and government regulation and intervention, and events in the regions which the Fund has exposure (e.g., expropriation, nationalization, confiscation of assets and property of mining companies, the imposition of restrictions on foreign investments or repatriation of capital, military coups, social or political unrest, violence and labor unrest). Metals may also be subject to the effects of competitive pressures in the metals and mining industry.
Issuer Risk. The performance of the Fund depends on the performance of individual securities to which the Fund has exposure. Changes in the financial condition or credit rating of an issuer of those securities may cause the value of the securities to decline.
Large Market Capitalization Companies Risk. The value of investments in larger companies may not rise as much as smaller companies, or larger companies may be unable to respond quickly to competitive challenges, such as changes in technology and consumer tastes.
Limited History of Operations Risk. The Fund is a new ETF with a limited history of operations for investors to evaluate.
Management Risk. The Adviser’s judgments about the attractiveness, value and potential appreciation of particular stocks or other securities in which the Fund invests or sells may prove to be incorrect and there is no guarantee that the Adviser’s judgment will produce the desired results.
Market and Geopolitical Risk. The increasing interconnectivity between global economies and financial markets increases the likelihood that events or conditions in one region or financial market may adversely impact issuers in a different country, region or financial market. Securities in the Fund’s portfolio may underperform due to inflation (or expectations for inflation), interest rates, global demand for particular products or resources, natural disasters, climate-change and climate-related events, pandemics, epidemics, terrorism, regulatory events and governmental or quasi-governmental actions. The occurrence of global events similar to those in recent years, such as terrorist attacks around the world, natural disasters, social and political discord or debt crises and downgrades, among others, may result in market volatility and may have long term effects on both the U.S. and global financial markets. It is difficult to predict when similar events affecting the U.S. or global financial markets may occur, the effects that such events may have and the duration of those effects. Any such event(s) could have a significant adverse impact on the value and risk profile of the Fund’s portfolio. The current novel coronavirus (COVID-19) global pandemic and the aggressive responses taken by many governments, including closing borders, restricting international and domestic travel, and the imposition of prolonged quarantines or similar restrictions, as well as the forced or voluntary closure of, or operational changes to, many retail and other businesses, has had negative impacts, and in many cases severe negative impacts, on markets worldwide. It is not known how long such impacts, or any future impacts of other significant events described above, will or would last, but there could be a prolonged period of global economic slowdown, which may impact your Fund investment. Therefore, the Fund could lose money over short periods due to short-term market movements and over longer periods during more prolonged market downturns. During a general market downturn, multiple asset classes may be negatively affected. Changes in market conditions and interest rates can have the same impact on all types of securities and instruments. In times of severe market disruptions, you could lose your entire investment.
Portfolio Turnover Risk. The Fund buys and sells investments frequently. Such a strategy often involves higher transaction costs, including brokerage commissions, and may increase the amount of capital gains (in particular, short term gains) realized by the Fund. Shareholders may pay tax on such capital gains.
Securities Lending Risk. Securities lending involves two primary risks: “investment risk” and “borrower default risk.” Investment risk is the risk that the Fund will lose money from the investment of the cash collateral. Borrower default risk is the risk that the Fund will lose money due to the failure of a borrower to return a borrowed security in a timely manner.
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U.S. Government Securities Risk. Although U.S. government securities are considered to be among the safest investments, they are not guaranteed against price movements due to changing interest rates. Obligations issued by some U.S. government agencies are backed by the U.S. Treasury, while others are backed solely by the ability of the agency to borrow from the U.S. Treasury or by the agency’s own resources. There is no guarantee that government agencies will receive support from the U.S. Treasury during financial difficulties.
SECURITIES LENDING: To generate additional income, the Fund may lend its portfolio securities to qualified banks, broker-dealers and other financial institutions (referred to as “borrowers”), provided that: (i) the loan is continuously secured by collateral in cash, cash equivalents, bank letters of credit or U.S. government securities equal to at least 100% of the value of the loaned securities, and such collateral is valued, or “marked to market,” daily (borrowers are required to furnish additional collateral to the Fund as necessary to fully cover its obligations); (ii) the loan may be recalled at any time by the Fund and the loaned securities returned; (iii) the Fund will receive any interest, dividends or other distributions paid on the loaned securities; and (iv) the aggregate value of the loaned securities will not exceed 33 1/3% of the Fund’s total assets. The Fund generally retains part or all of the interest received on investment of the cash collateral or receives a fee from the borrower. While this practice will not impact the Fund’s principal investment strategy, it does subject the Fund to the securities lending risk described in this Prospectus.
Loans of securities involve a risk that the borrower may fail to return the securities or may fail to maintain the proper amount of collateral, which may result in a loss of money by the Fund or a delay in recovering the loaned securities. In addition, in the event of bankruptcy of the borrower, the Fund could experience delays in recovering the loaned securities or only recover cash or a security of equivalent value. Therefore, the Fund will only enter into portfolio loans after a review of all pertinent factors by the Adviser under the oversight of the Board of Trustees, including the creditworthiness of the borrower and then only if the consideration to be received from such loans would justify the risk. Creditworthiness will be monitored on an ongoing basis by the Adviser. An attempt may be made to recall a loan in time to vote proxies if fund management has knowledge of a material vote respect to the loaned securities and the matter involved would have a material effect on the Fund’s investment in the security. The costs of securities lending are not reflected in the “Annual Fund Operating Expenses” table or “Example” above.
Securities Lending Risk. The Fund may lend its portfolio securities to financial institutions under guidelines adopted by the Board of Trustees, including a requirement that the Fund receive cash collateral from the borrower equal to no less than 100% of the market value of the securities loaned. The Fund may invest this cash collateral in high quality short-term debt obligations, government obligations, bank guarantees or money market mutual funds. Securities lending involves two primary risks: “investment risk” and “borrower default risk.” Investment risk is the risk that the Fund will lose money from the investment of the cash collateral. Borrower default risk is the risk that the Fund will lose money due to the failure of a borrower to return a borrowed security in a timely manner.
PORTFOLIO HOLDINGS DISCLOSURE: The Fund’s portfolio holdings is disclosed every day on its website at inspireetf.com. A description of the Fund’s policies and procedures regarding the release of portfolio holdings information is available in the Fund’s Statement of Additional Information (“SAI”).
OPERATIONAL AND CYBERSECURITY RISK: Fund operations, including business, financial, accounting, data processing systems or other operating systems and facilities may be disrupted, disabled or damaged as a result of a number of factors, including events that are wholly or partially beyond our control. For example, there could be electrical or telecommunications outages; degradation or loss of internet or web services; natural disasters, such as earthquakes, tornados and hurricanes; climate-change and climate-related events; disease pandemics; or events arising from local or larger scale political or social events, as well as terrorist acts. The Fund is also subject to the risk of potential cyber incidents, which may include, but are not limited to, the harming of or unauthorized access to digital systems (for example, through “hacking” or infection by computer viruses or other malicious software code), denial-of-service attacks on websites, and the inadvertent or intentional release of confidential or proprietary information. Cyber incidents may, among other things, harm Fund operations, result in financial losses to the Fund and its shareholders, cause the release of confidential or highly restricted information, and result in regulatory penalties, reputational damage, and/or increased compliance, reimbursement or other compensation costs. Fund operations that may be disrupted or halted due to a cyber incident include trading, the processing of shareholder transactions, and the calculation of the Fund’s net asset value.
Issues affecting operating systems and facilities through cyber incidents, any of the scenarios described above, or other factors, may harm the Fund by affecting the adviser, or other service providers, or issuers of securities in which the Fund invests. Although the Fund has business continuity plans and other safeguards in place, including what the Fund believes to be robust information security procedures and controls, there is no guarantee that these measures will prevent cyber incidents or prevent or ameliorate the effects of significant and widespread disruption to our physical infrastructure or operating systems. Furthermore, the Fund cannot directly control the security or other measures taken by unaffiliated service providers or the issuers of securities in which the Fund invests. Such risks at issuers of securities in which the Fund invests could result in material adverse consequences for such issuers and may cause the Fund’s investment in such securities to lose value.
16
INVESTMENT ADVISER: Inspire Investing LLC, located at3597 E Monarch Sky Lane, Suite 330, Meridian, Idaho 83646, serves as the Fund’s investment adviser (the “Adviser”). The Adviser is registered with the SEC as an investment adviser under the Investment Advisers Act of 1940, as amended. The Adviser manages accounts for individuals and institutions as well as the Fund. As of December 31, 2021, it had approximately $1.985 billion in assets under management.
Subject to the oversight of the Board of Trustees, the Adviser is responsible for managing the Fund’s investments, placing trade orders and providing related administrative services and facilities under an advisory agreement between the Fund and the Adviser (the “Investment Advisory Agreement”).
The management fee set forth in the Investment Advisory Agreement is 0.50% of the Fund’s average daily net assets, annually to be paid on a monthly basis. In addition to investment advisory fees, the Fund pays other expenses including costs incurred in connection with the maintenance of securities law registration, printing and mailing prospectuses and statements of additional information to shareholders, certain financial accounting services, taxes or governmental fees, custodial, transfer and shareholder servicing agent costs, expenses of outside counsel and independent accountants, preparation of shareholder reports and expenses of trustee and shareholders meetings.
A discussion regarding the basis for the Board of Trustees’ approval of the Investment Advisory Agreement is available in the Fund’s annual report to shareholders for the period ended November 30, 2020.
Keith Chandler has been an investment adviser representative with the Adviser since 2019. Mr. Chandler has been the Senior Financial Advisor and Founder of Chandler Wealth Management, a financial planning and investment advisory firm located in Southern California, from 1994 to present.
Jacob Chandler has been an investment adviser representative with the Adviser since 2019. Mr. Chandler has been a Financial Advisor and co-owner of Chandler Wealth Management, a financial planning and investment advisory firm located in Southern California, from 2007 to present.
Darrell Jayroe, CFA, CKA®, CFP® has been Portfolio Manager with the Adviser since 2016. Mr. Jayroe previously held the position of Senior Portfolio Manager at Bank of Oklahoma from 2004 to 2016. Prior to that, he held management positions at Southwest Securities (2003 to 2004) and at UBS Paine Weber (1994 to 2003).
Robert Netzly is the founder of the Adviser and has been its CEO since 2015. Mr. Netzly is a nationally recognized expert in Biblically Responsible Investing (BRI) and leader in the BRI movement. He also served as founder and CEO of Christian Wealth Management from 2011 to 2015. Mr. Netzly was a registered representative at Wells Fargo Investments, Private Client Service, serving the bank’s high net worth clientele from 2008 to 2011.
Tim Schwarzenberger, CFA® has been Portfolio Manager with the Adviser since September 2021. Mr. Schwarzenberger previously held the positions of Managing Director (2018 to 2021), Sr. Director – Client Services (2014 to 2018), and Investment Advisor (2005 to 2014) at Christian Brothers Investment Services (CBIS), Prior to that, he was an investment analyst with Willis Towers Watson (2004 to 2005).
The SAI provides additional information about the Portfolio Managers’ compensation, other accounts managed and ownership of Fund shares.
17
Shares of the Fund are bought and sold at a price in two different ways depending upon the type of investor.
All investors including retail investors and Authorized Participants may buy and sell Shares in secondary market transactions through brokers at market prices and the Shares will trade at market prices.
Only Authorized Participants may buy and redeem Shares from the Fund directly and those transactions are effected at the Fund’s NAV.
The NAV of the Fund is determined at close of regular trading (normally 4:00 p.m. Eastern Time) on each day the Exchange is open for business. NAV is computed by determining, the aggregate market value of all assets of the applicable Fund, less its liabilities, divided by the total number of shares outstanding ((assets-liabilities)/number of shares = NAV). The Exchange is closed on weekends and New Year’s Day, Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, Presidents’ Day, Good Friday, Memorial Day, Juneteenth, Independence Day, Labor Day, Thanksgiving Day and Christmas Day (“Exchange Close”). The NAV takes into account, the expenses and fees of the Fund, including management, administration, and distribution fees, which are accrued daily. The determination of NAV for the Fund for a particular day is applicable to all applications for the purchase of shares, as well as all requests for the redemption of shares, received by the Fund (or an authorized broker or agent, or its authorized designee) before the close of trading on the Exchange on that day.
Generally, the Fund’s portfolio securities, including securities issued by ETFs, are valued each day at the last quoted sales price on each security’s primary exchange. Securities traded or dealt in upon one or more securities exchanges (whether domestic or foreign) for which market quotations are readily available and not subject to restrictions against resale shall be valued at the last quoted sales price on the primary exchange or, in the absence of a sale on the primary exchange, at the mean between the current bid and ask prices on such exchange. Securities primarily traded in the National Association of Securities Dealers’ Automated Quotation System (“NASDAQ”) National Market System for which market quotations are readily available shall be valued using the NASDAQ Official Closing Price. Securities that are not traded on any securities exchange (whether domestic or foreign) and for which over-the-counter market quotations are readily available generally shall be valued at the last sale price or, in the absence of a sale, at the mean between the current bid and ask price on such over-the-counter market. Debt securities not traded on an exchange may be valued at prices supplied by a pricing agent(s) based on broker or dealer supplied valuations or matrix pricing, a method of valuing securities by reference to the value of other securities with similar characteristics, such as rating, interest rate and maturity.
If market quotations are not readily available, securities will be valued at their fair market value as determined using the “fair value” procedures approved by the Board of Trustees. Fair value pricing involves subjective judgments and it is possible that the fair value determined for a security may be materially different than the value that could be realized upon the sale of that security. The fair value prices can differ from market prices when they become available or when a price becomes available. The Board of Trustees has delegated execution of these procedures to a fair value committee composed of one or more representatives from each of the (i) Trust, (ii) administrator, and (iii) Adviser. The committee may also enlist third party consultants such as an audit firm or financial officer of a security issuer on an as-needed basis to assist in determining a security-specific fair value. The Board of Trustees reviews and ratifies the execution of this process and the resultant fair value prices at least quarterly to assure the process produces reliable results.
The Fund may use independent pricing services to assist in calculating the value of the Fund’s portfolio securities. In addition, market prices for foreign securities are not determined at the same time of day as the NAV for the Fund. Because the Fund may invest in underlying ETFs which hold portfolio securities primarily listed on foreign exchanges, and these exchanges may trade on weekends or other days when the underlying ETFs do not price their shares, the value of some of the Fund’s portfolio securities may change on days when you may not be able to buy or sell Fund shares.
In computing the NAV, the Fund values foreign securities held by the Fund at the latest closing price on the exchange in which they are traded immediately prior to closing of the NYSE. Prices of foreign securities quoted in foreign currencies are translated into U.S. dollars at current rates. If events materially affecting the value of a security in the Fund’s portfolio, particularly foreign securities, occur after the close of trading on a foreign market but before the Fund prices its shares, the security may be priced using alternative market prices provided by a pricing service. For example, if trading in a portfolio security is halted and does not resume before the Fund calculates its NAV, alternative market prices may be used to value the security. Without a fair value price, short-term traders could take advantage of the arbitrage opportunity and dilute the NAV of long-term investors. Fair valuation of the Fund’s portfolio securities can serve to reduce arbitrage opportunities available to short-term traders, but there is no assurance that fair value pricing policies will prevent dilution of the Fund’s NAV by short term traders. The determination of fair value involves subjective judgments. As a result, using fair value to price a security may result in a price materially different from the prices used by other mutual funds to determine NAV, or from the price that may be realized upon the actual sale of the security.
With respect to any portion of the Fund’s assets that are invested in one or more open-end management investment companies registered under the 1940 Act, the Fund’s NAV is calculated based upon the NAVs of those open-end management investment companies, and the prospectuses for these companies explain the circumstances under which those companies will use fair value pricing and the effects of using fair value pricing.
18
Shares of the Fund are listed for trading on the Exchange under the symbol RISN. Share prices are reported in dollars and cents per Share. Shares can be bought and sold on the secondary market throughout the trading day like other publicly traded shares and Shares typically trade in blocks of less than a Creation Unit. There is no minimum investment required. Shares may only be purchased and sold on the secondary market when the Exchange is open for trading. The Exchange is open for trading Monday through Friday and is closed on weekends and the following holidays, as observed: New Year’s Day, Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, Presidents’ Day, Good Friday, Memorial Day, Juneteenth, Independence Day, Labor Day, Thanksgiving Day and Christmas Day.
When buying or selling Shares through a broker, you will incur customary brokerage commissions and charges, and you may pay some or all of the spread between the bid and the offered price in the secondary market on each leg of a round trip (purchase and sale) transaction.
Authorized Participants may acquire Shares directly from the Fund, and Authorized Participants may tender their Shares for redemption directly to the Fund, at NAV per Share only in large blocks, or Creation Units, of 25,000 Shares for the Fund.
Purchases and redemptions directly with the Fund must follow the Fund’s procedures, which are described in the SAI.
The Fund may liquidate and terminate at any time without shareholder approval.
Retail investors will buy and sell Shares in secondary market transactions through brokers at market prices and the Shares will trade at market prices. The market price of Shares may be greater than, equal to, or less than NAV. Market forces of supply and demand, economic conditions and other factors may affect the trading prices of Shares.
Shares are held in book entry form, which means that no stock certificates are issued. The Depository Trust Company (“DTC”) or its nominee is the record owner of all outstanding Shares and is recognized as the owner of all Shares for all purposes.
Investors owning Shares are beneficial owners as shown on the records of DTC or its participants. DTC serves as the securities depository for all Shares. Participants in DTC include securities brokers and dealers, banks, trust companies, clearing corporations and other institutions that directly or indirectly maintain a custodial relationship with DTC. As a beneficial owner of Shares, you are not entitled to receive physical delivery of stock certificates or to have Shares registered in your name, and you are not considered a registered owner of Shares. Therefore, to exercise any right as an owner of Shares, you must rely upon the procedures of DTC and its participants. These procedures are the same as those that apply to any other securities that you hold in book entry or “street name” form.
FREQUENT PURCHASES AND REDEMPTIONS OF FUND SHARES
The Board of Trustees has not adopted a policy of monitoring for other frequent trading activity because shares of the Fund are listed for trading on a national securities exchange.
The Fund has adopted a distribution and service plan (“Plan”) pursuant to Rule 12b-1 under the 1940 Act. Under the Plan, the Fund is authorized to pay distribution fees to the distributor and other firms that provide distribution and shareholder services (“Service Providers”). If a Service Provider provides these services, the Fund may pay fees at an annual rate not to exceed 0.25% of average daily net assets, pursuant to Rule 12b-1 under the1940 Act.
No distribution or service fees are currently paid by the Fund and will not be paid by the Fund unless authorized by the Board of Trustees. There are no current plans to impose these fees. In the event Rule 12b-1 fees were charged, over time they would increase the cost of an investment in the Fund.
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DIVIDENDS, OTHER DISTRIBUTIONS AND TAXES
Shares are traded throughout the day in the secondary market on a national securities exchange on an intra-day basis and are created and redeemed in-kind and/or for cash in Creation Units at each day’s next calculated NAV. In-kind arrangements are designed to protect ongoing shareholders from the adverse effects on the Fund’s portfolio that could arise from frequent cash redemption transactions. In a mutual fund, redemptions can have an adverse tax impact on taxable shareholders if the mutual fund needs to sell portfolio securities to obtain cash to meet net fund redemptions. These sales may generate taxable gains for the ongoing shareholders of the mutual fund, whereas the Shares’ in-kind redemption mechanism generally will not lead to a tax event for the Fund or its ongoing shareholders.
Ordinarily, dividends from net investment income, if any, are declared and paid quarterly by the Fund. The Fund distributes its net realized capital gains, if any, to shareholders annually. The Fund may also pay a special distribution at the end of a calendar year to comply with federal tax requirements.
No dividend reinvestment service is provided by the Fund. Broker-dealers may make available the DTC book-entry Dividend Reinvestment Service for use by beneficial owners of the Fund for reinvestment of their dividend distributions. Beneficial owners should contact their broker to determine the availability and costs of the service and the details of participation therein. Brokers may require beneficial owners to adhere to specific procedures and timetables. If this service is available and used, dividend distributions of both income and realized gains will be automatically reinvested in additional whole shares of the Fund purchased in the secondary market.
Distributions in cash may be reinvested automatically in additional whole Shares only if the broker through whom you purchased Shares makes such option available.
As with any investment, you should consider how your investment in Shares will be taxed. The tax information in this Prospectus is provided as general information. You should consult your own tax professional about the tax consequences of an investment in Shares.
Unless your investment in Shares is made through a tax-exempt entity or tax-deferred retirement account, such as an individual retirement account, you need to be aware of the possible tax consequences when:
| ● | the Fund makes distributions, |
| ● | you sell your Shares listed on the Exchange, and |
| ● | you purchase or redeem Creation Units. |
Distributions from the Fund’s net investment income, including net short-term capital gains, if any, are taxable to you as ordinary income, except that the Fund’s dividends attributable to its “qualified dividend income” (i.e., dividends received on stock of most domestic and certain foreign corporations with respect to which the Fund satisfies certain holding period and other restrictions), if any, generally are subject to federal income tax for non-corporate shareholders who satisfy those restrictions with respect to their Shares at the rate for net capital gain. A part of the Fund’s dividends also may be eligible for the dividends-received deduction allowed to corporations -- the eligible portion may not exceed the aggregate dividends the Fund receives from domestic corporations subject to federal income tax (excluding REITs) and excludes dividends from foreign corporations -- subject to similar restrictions. However, dividends a corporate shareholder deducts pursuant to that deduction are subject indirectly to the federal alternative minimum tax.
In general, your distributions are subject to federal income tax when they are paid, whether you take them in cash or reinvest them in the Fund (if that option is available). Distributions reinvested in additional Shares through the means of a dividend reinvestment service, if available, will be taxable to shareholders acquiring the additional Shares to the same extent as if such distributions had been received in cash. Distributions of net long-term capital gains, if any, in excess of net short-term capital losses are taxable as long-term capital gains, regardless of how long you have held the Shares.
Distributions in excess of the Fund’s current and accumulated earnings and profits are treated as a tax-free return of capital to the extent of your basis in the Shares and as capital gain thereafter. A distribution will reduce the Fund’s NAV per Share and may be taxable to you as ordinary income or capital gain (as described above) even though, from an investment standpoint, the distribution may constitute a return of capital.
By law, the Fund is required to withhold 28% of your distributions and redemption proceeds if you have not provided the Fund with a correct Social Security number or other taxpayer identification number and in certain other situations.
20
Taxes on Exchange-Listed Share Sales
Any capital gain or loss realized upon a sale of Shares is generally treated as long-term capital gain or loss if the Shares have been held for more than one year and as short-term capital gain or loss if the Shares have been held for one year or less. The ability to deduct capital losses from sales of Shares may be limited.
Taxes on Purchase and Redemption of Creation Units
An Authorized Participant that exchanges securities for Creation Units generally will recognize a gain or a loss equal to the difference between the market value of the Creation Units at the time of the exchange and the sum of the exchanger’s aggregate basis in the securities surrendered plus any Cash Component it pays. An Authorized Participant that exchanges Creation Units for securities will generally recognize a gain or loss equal to the difference between the exchanger’s basis in the Creation Units and the sum of the aggregate market value of the securities received plus any cash equal to the difference between the NAV of the Shares being redeemed and the value of the securities. The Internal Revenue Service (“Service”), however, may assert that a loss realized upon an exchange of securities for Creation Units cannot be deducted currently under the rules governing “wash sales” or for other reasons. Persons exchanging securities should consult their own tax advisor with respect to whether wash sale rules apply and when a loss might be deductible.
Any capital gain or loss realized upon redemption of Creation Units is generally treated as long-term capital gain or loss if the Shares have been held for more than one year and as short-term capital gain or loss if the Shares have been held for one year or less.
If an Authorized Participant purchases or redeems Creation Units, the Authorized Participant will be sent a confirmation statement showing how many Shares the Authorized Participant purchased or sold and at what price. See “Tax Status” in the SAI for a description of the newly effective requirement regarding basis determination methods applicable to Share redemptions and the Fund’s obligation to report basis information to the Service.
The foregoing discussion summarizes some of the possible consequences under current federal tax law of an investment in the Fund. It is not a substitute for personal tax advice. Consult your personal tax advisor about the potential tax consequences of an investment in the Shares under all applicable tax laws. See “Tax Status” in the SAI for more information.
Ultimus Fund Solutions, LLC is the Fund’s administrator and fund accountant. It has its principal office at 225 Pictoria Drive, Suite 450, Cincinnati, OH 45246, and is primarily in the business of providing administrative, fund accounting and transfer agent services to retail and institutional mutual funds and exchange-traded funds.
Brown Brothers Harriman & Co., 50 Post Office Square, Boston, MA 02110, is the Fund’s transfer agent and custodian.
Foreside Financial Services, LLC (the “Distributor”), Three Canal Plaza, Suite 100, Portland, ME 04101, is the distributor for the shares of the Fund. The Distributor is a registered broker-dealer and member of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, Inc. (“FINRA”).
Thompson Hine LLP, 41 South High Street, 17th Floor, Columbus, OH 43215, serves as legal counsel to the Trust.
BBD, LLP, 1835 Market Street, 3rd Floor, Philadelphia, PA 19103, serves as the Fund’s independent registered public accounting firm. The independent registered public accounting firm is responsible for auditing the annual financial statements of the Fund.
21
The method by which Creation Units of Shares are created and traded may raise certain issues under applicable securities laws. Because new Creation Units of Shares are issued and sold by the Fund on an ongoing basis, a “distribution,” as such term is used in the Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the “Securities Act”), may occur at any point. Broker-dealers and other persons are cautioned that some activities on their part may, depending on the circumstances, result in their being deemed participants in a distribution in a manner which could render them statutory underwriters and subject them to the prospectus delivery requirement and liability provisions of the Securities Act.
For example, a broker-dealer firm or its client may be deemed a statutory underwriter if it takes Creation Units after placing an order with the Distributor, breaks them down into constituent Shares and sells the Shares directly to customers or if it chooses to couple the creation of a supply of new Shares with an active selling effort involving solicitation of secondary market demand for Shares. A determination of whether one is an underwriter for purposes of the Securities Act must take into account all the facts and circumstances pertaining to the activities of the broker-dealer or its client in the particular case, and the examples mentioned above should not be considered a complete description of all the activities that could lead to a characterization as an underwriter.
Broker-dealer firms should also note that dealers who are not “underwriters” but are effecting transactions in Shares, whether or not participating in the distribution of Shares, are generally required to deliver a prospectus. This is because the prospectus delivery exemption in Section 4(3) of the Securities Act is not available in respect of such transactions as a result of Section 24(d) of the 1940 Act. As a result, broker-dealer firms should note that dealers who are not “underwriters” but are participating in a distribution (as contrasted with engaging in ordinary secondary market transactions) and thus dealing with the Shares that are part of an overallotment within the meaning of Section 4(3)(C) of the Securities Act, will be unable to take advantage of the prospectus delivery exemption provided by Section 4(3) of the Securities Act. For delivery of prospectuses to exchange members, the prospectus delivery mechanism of Rule 153 under the Securities Act is only available with respect to transactions on a national exchange.
Dealers effecting transactions in the Shares, whether or not participating in this distribution, are generally required to deliver a Prospectus. This is in addition to any obligation of dealers to deliver a Prospectus when acting as underwriters.
22
The following table is intended to help you better understand the Fund’s financial performance since its inception. Certain information reflects financial results for a single Fund share. Total return represents the rate you would have earned (or lost) on an investment in the Fund, assuming reinvestment of all dividends and distributions. The information has been audited by BBD, LLP, an independent registered public accounting firm, whose report, along with the Funds’ financial statements, is included in the annual report, which is available upon request.
| Inspire Tactical Balanced ETF |
| FINANCIAL HIGHLIGHTS |
| Per Share Data and Ratios for a Share of Beneficial Interest Outstanding Throughout the Year or Period Presented |
| Year Ended | Period Ended | |||||||
| November 30, 2021 | November 30, 2020(1) | |||||||
| Net asset value, beginning of period | $ | 26.26 | $ | 25.00 | ||||
| Activity from investment operations: | ||||||||
| Net investment income(2) | 0.20 | 0.08 | ||||||
| Net realized and unrealized gain on investments | 4.93 | 1.21 | ||||||
| Total from investment operations | 5.13 | 1.29 | ||||||
| Less distributions from: | ||||||||
| Net investment income | (0.25 | ) | (0.03 | ) | ||||
| Net realized gains | (1.05 | ) | — | |||||
| Total distributions | (1.30 | ) | (0.03 | ) | ||||
| Net asset value, end of period | $ | 30.09 | $ | 26.26 | ||||
| Total return(6) | 20.49 | % | 5.18 | %(4) | ||||
| Net assets, at end of period (000s) | $ | 109,824 | $ | 71,552 | ||||
| Ratio of net expenses to average net assets(3) | 0.69 | % | 0.80 | % | ||||
| Ratio of net investment income to average net assets(3) | 0.70 | % | 0.81 | % | ||||
| Portfolio Turnover Rate(5) | 114 | % | 282 | %(4) | ||||
| (1) | The Inspire Tactical Balanced ETF commenced operations on July 15, 2020. |
| (2) | Per share amounts calculated using the average shares method, which more appropriately presents the per share data for the period. |
| (3) | Annualized for periods less than one year. |
| (4) | Not annualized. |
| (5) | Portfolio turnover rate excludes portfolio securities received or delivered as a result of processing capital share transactions in Creation Units. |
| (6) | Total return is calculated assuming a purchase of shares at net asset value on the first day and a sale at net asset value on the last day of the period. Distributions are assumed, for the purpose of this calculation, to be reinvested at the ex-dividend date net asset value per share on their respective payment dates. |
23
Northern Lights Fund Trust IV
Rev. August 2015
| FACTS | WHAT DOES NORTHERN LIGHTS FUND TRUST IV DO WITH YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION? |
| Why? | Financial companies choose how they share your personal information. Federal law gives consumers the right to limit some, but not all sharing. Federal law also requires us to tell you how we collect, share, and protect your personal information. Please read this notice carefully to understand what we do. |
| What? |
The types of personal information we collect and share depends on the product or service that you have with us. This information can include:
● Social Security number and wire transfer instructions
● account transactions and transaction history
● investment experience and purchase history
When you are no longer our customer, we continue to share your information as described in this notice. |
| How? | All financial companies need to share customers’ personal information to run their everyday business. In the section below, we list the reasons financial companies can share their customers’ personal information; the reasons Northern Lights Fund Trust IV chooses to share; and whether you can limit this sharing. |
| Reasons
we can share your personal information: |
Does
Northern Lights Fund Trust IV share information? |
Can you limit this sharing? |
| For our everyday business purposes - such as to process your transactions, maintain your account(s), respond to court orders and legal investigations, or report to credit bureaus. | YES | NO |
| For our marketing purposes - to offer our products and services to you. | NO | We don’t share |
| For joint marketing with other financial companies. | NO | We don’t share |
| For our affiliates’ everyday business purposes - information about your transactions and records. | NO | We don’t share |
| For our affiliates’ everyday business purposes - information about your credit worthiness. | NO | We don’t share |
| For nonaffiliates to market to you | NO | We don’t share |
| QUESTIONS? | Call 1-631-490-4300 |
24
PRIVACY NOTICE
Northern Lights Fund Trust IV
| Page 2 |
| What we do: | ||
|
How
does Northern Lights Fund Trust IV protect my
|
To protect your personal information from unauthorized access and use, we use security measures that comply with federal law. These measures include computer safeguards and secured files and buildings.
Our service providers are held accountable for adhering to strict policies and procedures to prevent any misuse of your nonpublic personal information. | |
|
How
does Northern Lights Fund Trust IV collect my
|
We collect your personal information, for example, when you
● open an account or deposit money
● direct us to buy securities or direct us to sell your securities
● seek advice about your investments
We also collect your personal information from others, such as credit bureaus, affiliates, or other companies. | |
|
Why
can’t I limit
|
Federal law gives you the right to limit only:
● sharing for affiliates’ everyday business purposes – information about your creditworthiness.
● affiliates from using your information to market to you.
● sharing for nonaffiliates to market to you.
State laws and individual companies may give you additional rights to limit sharing. | |
| Definitions | ||
| Affiliates |
Companies related by common ownership or control. They can be financial and nonfinancial companies.
● Northern Lights Fund Trust IV has no affiliates. | |
| Nonaffiliates |
Companies not related by common ownership or control. They can be financial and nonfinancial companies.
● Northern Lights Fund Trust IV does not share with nonaffiliates so they can market to you. | |
| Joint marketing |
A formal agreement between nonaffiliated financial companies that together market financial products or services to you.
● Northern Lights Fund Trust IV does not jointly market. | |
25
Inspire Tactical Balanced ETF
| Adviser | Inspire
Investing, LLC 3597 E Monarch Sky Lane, Suite 330, Meridian, ID 83646 |
Distributor | Foreside
Financial Services, LLC Three Canal Plaza, Suite 100 Portland, ME 04101 |
| Custodian &Transfer Agent | Brown
Brothers Harriman & Co. 50 Post Office Square Boston, MA 02110 |
Legal Counsel |
Thompson
Hine LLP 41 South High Street, Suite 1700 Columbus, OH 43215 |
| Administrator | Ultimus
Fund Solutions, LLC 225 Pictoria Drive, Suite 450 Cincinnati, OH 45246 |
Independent Registered Public Accountant |
BBD,
LLP 1835 Market Street, 3rd Floor Philadelphia, PA 19103 |
Additional information about the Fund is included in the Fund’s SAI dated October 14 , 2022. The SAI is incorporated into this Prospectus by reference (i.e., legally made a part of this Prospectus). The SAI provides more details about the Fund’s policies and management. Additional information about the Fund’s investments is available in the Fund’s Annual and Semi-Annual Reports to Shareholders. In the Fund’s Annual Report, you will find a discussion of the market conditions and investment strategies that significantly affected the Fund’s performance during the last fiscal year.
To obtain a free copy of the SAI and the Annual and Semi-Annual Reports to Shareholders, or other information about the Fund, or to make shareholder inquiries about the Fund, please call toll free 877.658.9473. Information relating to the Fund can be found on the website at inspireetf.com. You may also write to:
Inspire Tactical Balanced ETF
c/o Ultimus Fund Solutions, LLC
P.O. Box 541150
Omaha, Nebraska 68154
Reports and other information about the Fund are available on the EDGAR Database on the SEC’s Internet site at http://www.sec.gov. Copies of the information may be obtained, after paying a duplicating fee, by electronic request at the following E-mail address: [email protected].
Investment Company Act File # 811-23066