Clifford Capital Partners Fund
Investor Class ( )
Institutional Class ( )
Super Institutional Class ( )
Clifford Capital Focused Small Cap Value Fund
Investor Class ( )
Institutional Class ( )
Super Institutional Class ( )
Clifford Capital International Value Fund
Investor Class ( )
Institutional Class ( )
Super Institutional Class ( )
PROSPECTUS
This prospectus describes the Clifford Capital Partners Fund, Clifford Capital Focused Small Cap Value Fund and Clifford Capital International Value Fund (the “Funds”), each a series of shares offered by World Funds Trust (the “Trust”). A series fund offers you a choice of investments, with each series having its own investment objective and a separate portfolio. The Clifford Capital Partners Fund, Clifford Capital Focused Small Cap Value Fund and Clifford Capital International Value Fund are each authorized to offer three classes of shares through this prospectus.
As with all mutual funds, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has not approved or disapproved of these securities, nor has the Commission determined that this prospectus is complete or accurate. Any representation to the contrary is a criminal offense.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Clifford Capital Partners Fund Summary |
The investment objective of the Clifford Capital Partners Fund (the “Partners Fund”) is long-term capital appreciation.
The following table describes the expenses and fees that you may pay if you buy and hold shares of the Partners Fund.
Investor Class | Institutional Class | Super Institutional Class | |
Redemption Fee (as a percentage of the amount redeemed on shares after holding them for 60 days or less)
|
|
|
|
|
|||
Management Fees | |||
Distribution and Service 12b-1 Fees | |
||
Shareholder Servicing Plan | |||
Other Expenses | |||
Total Annual Fund Operating Expenses | |||
Less Fee Waivers and/or Expense Reimbursements(1) | ( |
( |
( |
Total Annual Fund Operating Expenses After Fee Waivers and/or Expense Reimbursements(1) |
(1) |
The following example is intended to help you compare the cost of investing in the Partners Fund with the cost of investing in other mutual funds. The example assumes that you invest $10,000 in the Partners Fund for the time periods indicated and then redeem all of your shares at the end of those periods. The example also assumes that your investment has a 5% annual return each year and that the Fund’s operating expenses remain the same each year. The effect of the Adviser’s agreement to waive fees and/or reimburse expenses is reflected in the example shown below for the first year. Although your actual costs may be higher or lower, based on these assumptions your costs would be:
One Year | Three Years | Five Years | Ten Years | |
Investor Class | $ |
$ |
$ |
$ |
Institutional Class | $ |
$ |
$ |
$ |
Super Institutional Class | $ |
$ |
$ |
$ |
The Partners
Fund pays transaction costs, such as commissions, when it buys and sells
securities (or “turns over” its portfolio). A higher portfolio turnover 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 Partners Fund’s
performance. For the most recent fiscal year ended September 30, 2023, the
Partners Fund’s portfolio turnover rate was
To achieve its investment objective, the Partners Fund invests primarily in equity securities of U.S. companies of any size that the Fund’s investment adviser, Clifford Capital Partners, LLC (the “Adviser”), believes are trading at a discount to what they are worth at the time of purchase and have the potential for capital appreciation with acceptable downside risks.
The Adviser uses a disciplined “bottom-up” selection process to identify equity securities of companies that appear to be selling at a discount to the Adviser’s assessment of their potential value. To evaluate a company’s potential value, the Adviser uses analysis techniques such as normalized price multiples (including price to earnings, price to book value, and price to cash flow); estimated private market value; liquidation analysis; discounted cash flow analysis; and dividend discount models.
The Adviser strives to buy stocks at a discount to intrinsic value, taking advantage of price dislocations caused by short-term investor orientation, herd influences and other irrational investor behavior. The Adviser also buys stocks at a discount resulting from the increasing market clout of passive investors and investors who rely on non-company-specific analysis, such as investors who trade funds and ETFs of entire sectors or industries rather than individual stocks. These investment opportunities arise when, in the opinion of the Adviser, the expectations implied in a company’s stock price are too low relative to the firm’s long-term earnings power or to its current assets. The Fund also may invest in sponsored or unsponsored American Depository Receipts (“ADRs”).
The overall portfolio construction is guided by a dynamic mix of two types of stocks:
● | Core Value stocks – investments in companies the Adviser believes are high-quality companies that earn high returns on capital. These stocks will represent 50-75% of the Partners Fund’s holdings. |
2
● | Deep Value stocks – opportunistic investments in companies the Adviser believes are deeply-undervalued. These stocks, plus the Fund’s cash holdings, will represent the remaining 25-50% of the Partners Fund. |
The Partners Fund will normally hold between 25 and 35 securities. The Adviser believes that maintaining a relatively small number of portfolio holdings allows each security to have a meaningful impact on the portfolio’s results. The number of securities held by the Partners Fund may occasionally differ from this range at times such as when the portfolio manager is accumulating new positions, phasing out and exiting positions, or responding to exceptional market conditions.
Risks of Investing in Equity Securities. Overall equity market risks may affect the value of the Fund. Factors such as domestic economic growth and market conditions, interest rate levels, and political events affect the securities markets. When the value of the Fund’s investments goes down, your investment in the Fund decreases in value and you could lose money.
Risks of Small-Cap and Mid-Cap Securities. Investing in the securities of small-cap and mid-cap companies generally involves substantially greater risk than investing in larger, more established companies.
Risks of Large-Cap Securities. Prices of securities of larger companies tend to be less volatile than companies with smaller market capitalizations. In exchange for this potentially lower risk, the Fund’s value may not rise as much as the value of funds that emphasize companies with smaller capitalizations.
Focused Investment Risk. The Fund is a focused fund and generally holds stocks of between only 25 and 35 companies. Focused funds may invest a larger portion of their assets in the securities of a single issuer compared to other funds. Focusing investments in a small number of companies may subject the Fund to greater share price volatility and therefore a greater risk of loss because a single security’s increase or decrease in value may have a greater impact on the Fund’s value and total return. Economic, political or regulatory developments may have a greater impact on the value of the Fund’s portfolio than would be the case if the portfolio held more positions, and events affecting a small number of companies may have a significant and potentially adverse impact on the performance of the Fund. In addition, investors may buy or sell substantial amounts of Fund shares in response to factors affecting or expected to affect a small number of companies, resulting in extreme inflows and outflows of cash into or out of the Fund. To the extent such inflows or outflows of cash cause the Fund’s cash position or cash requirements to exceed normal levels, management of the Fund’s portfolio may be negatively affected.
Sector Risk. The Fund may emphasize investment in one or more particular business sectors at times, which may cause the value of its share price to be more susceptible to the financial, market, or economic events affecting issuers and industries within those sectors than a fund that does not emphasize investment in particular sectors. Economic or market factors, regulation or deregulation, and technological or other developments may negatively impact all companies in a particular sector and may increase the risk of loss of an investment in the Fund. This may increase the risk of loss associated with an investment in the Fund and increase the volatility of the Fund’s net asset value per share. During the fiscal year ended September 30, 2023, the Fund invested a substantial amount of its assets in securities of companies of the financial sector and industrial sector. Sectors in which the Fund invests may change. To the extent that the Fund invests in securities in the financial sector or industrial sector, it will be subject to the following risks:
Financial Companies Risk. Financial companies, such as retail and commercial banks, insurance companies and financial services companies, are especially subject to the adverse effects of economic recession, currency exchange rates, extensive government regulation, decreases in the availability of capital, volatile interest rates, portfolio concentrations in geographic markets, industries or products (such as commercial and residential real estate loans) and competition from new entrants in their fields of business.
3
Industrial Companies Risk: Industrial companies are affected by supply and demand both for their specific product or service and for industrial sector products in general. Government regulation, global events, exchange rates and economic conditions will likewise affect the performance of these companies.
Management Style Risk. Because the Fund invests primarily in value stocks (stocks that the Adviser believes are undervalued), the Fund’s performance may at times be better or worse than the performance of stock funds that focus on other types of stock strategies (e.g., growth stocks), or that have a broader investment style.
Depositary Receipts Risk. Depositary receipts are generally subject to the same risks as the foreign securities that they evidence or into which they may be converted, including the risk that there is often less publicly available information about foreign issuers, and the possibility of negative governmental actions and of political and social unrest.
On February 8, 2016, the Partners Fund was reorganized from a series of Cottonwood Mutual Funds, a Delaware statutory trust (the “Predecessor Fund”), to a series of the Trust, a Delaware statutory trust (the “Reorganization”).
The bar chart below shows the annual returns for the Partners Fund’s Investor Class shares for each full calendar year of the Partners Fund and the Predecessor Fund. The performance of the Partners Fund’s Institutional Class shares and Super Institutional Class shares will differ from the Investor Class shares returns shown in the bar chart because the expenses of the Classes differ.
4
During the period shown, the was % (quarter ended ) and the was % (quarter ended ).
The table
below shows how the average annual total returns of the Partners Fund’s and the
Predecessor Fund’s classes compared to those of the Partners Fund’s benchmark.
Return Before Taxes | One Year |
Five Years |
Since Inception* |
Investor Class Shares |
( ) | ||
Institutional Class Shares |
( ) | ||
Super Institutional Class Shares | N/A |
( ) |
Return After Taxes – Investor Class | One Year |
Five Years |
Since
Inception* ( ) |
Return After Taxes on Distributions | |||
Return After Taxes on Distributions and Sale of Fund Shares | |||
Russell 3000® Value Index (reflects no deduction for fees, expenses or taxes) |
* |
Management
Investment Adviser.
Clifford Capital Partners, LLC.
Portfolio Manager.
Ryan P. Batchelor, CFA, CPA, has managed the Fund since January 2014.
5
Clifford Capital Focused Small Cap Value Fund Summary |
The investment objective of the Clifford Capital Focused Small Cap Value Fund (the “Focused SCV Fund”) is long-term capital appreciation.
The following table describes the expenses and fees that you may pay if you buy and hold shares of the Focused SCV Fund.
Investor Class |
Institutional Class |
Super Institutional Class | |
Redemption Fee (as a percentage of the amount redeemed on shares after holding them for 60 days or less)
|
|
|
|
|
|||
Management Fees | |||
Distribution and Service 12b-1 Fees | |||
Shareholder Servicing Plan | |||
Other Expenses | |||
Total Annual Fund Operating Expenses | |||
Less Fee Waivers and/or Expense Reimbursements(1) |
( |
( |
( |
Total Annual Fund Operating Expenses After Fee Waivers and/or Expense Reimbursements(1) |
|
(1) |
6
The following example is intended to help you compare the cost of investing in the Focused SCV Fund with the cost of investing in other mutual funds. The example assumes that you invest $10,000 in the Focused SCV Fund for the time periods indicated and then redeem all of your shares at the end of those periods. The example also assumes that your investment has a 5% annual return each year and that the Focused SCV Fund’s operating expenses remain the same each year. The effect of the Adviser’s agreement to waive fees and/or reimburse expenses is reflected in the example shown below for the first year. Although your actual costs may be higher or lower, based on these assumptions your costs would be:
One Year | Three Years | Five Years | 10 Years | |
Investor Class | $ |
$ |
$ |
$ |
Institutional Class | $ |
$ |
$ |
$ |
Super Institutional Class | $ |
$ |
$ |
$ |
The Focused
SCV Fund pays transaction costs, such as commissions, when it buys and sells
securities (or “turns over” its portfolio). A higher portfolio turnover may
indicate higher transaction costs and may result in higher taxes when Focused
SCV 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
Focused SCV Fund’s performance. For the most recent fiscal year ended September
30, 2023, the Focused SCV Fund’s portfolio turnover rate was
Under normal market conditions, the Focused SCV Fund invests at least 80% of its net assets in the equity securities of U.S. companies with small market capitalizations (“small cap companies”) that the Fund’s investment adviser, Clifford Capital Partners, LLC (the “Adviser”), believes are trading at a discount to what they are worth at the time of purchase and have the potential for capital appreciation with acceptable downside risks. The Adviser considers a company to be a small cap company if its market capitalization is no larger than that of the largest company in the Russell 2000® Index at the time a new position is established, based on the index data as of the end of the previous calendar quarter. The market capitalization of the largest company in the index is subject to change. As of December 31, 2023, the market capitalization of the largest company in the Russell 2000® Index was $6.0 billion. This investment policy may be changed by the Focused SCV Fund upon 60 days’ prior notice to shareholders.
The Adviser uses a disciplined “bottom-up” selection process to identify equity securities of companies that appear to be selling at a discount to the Adviser’s assessment of their potential value. To evaluate a company’s potential value, the Adviser uses analysis techniques such as normalized price multiples (including price to earnings, price to book value, and price to cash flow); estimated private market value; liquidation analysis; discounted cash flow analysis; and dividend discount models.
The Adviser strives to buy stocks at a discount to intrinsic value, taking advantage of price dislocations caused by short-term investor orientation, herd influences, and other irrational investor behavior. The Adviser also buys stocks at a discount resulting from the increasing market clout of passive investors and investors who rely on non-company-specific analysis, such as investors who trade funds and ETFs of entire sectors or industries rather than individual stocks. These investment opportunities arise when, in the opinion of the Adviser, the expectations implied in a company’s stock price are too low relative to the firm’s long-term earnings power or to its current assets. The Fund also may invest in sponsored or unsponsored American Depository Receipts (“ADRs”).
7
The overall portfolio construction methodology is guided by a dynamic mix of two types of stocks:
● | Core Value stocks – investments in companies the Adviser believes are high-quality companies that earn high returns on capital. These stocks will represent 50-75% of the Focused SCV Fund’s holdings. |
● | Deep Value stocks – opportunistic investments in companies the Adviser believes are deeply-undervalued. These stocks, plus the Fund’s cash holdings, will represent the remaining 25-50% of the Focused SCV Fund. |
The Focused SCV Fund will normally hold between 25 and 35 securities. The Adviser believes that maintaining a relatively small number of portfolio holdings allows each security to have a meaningful impact on the portfolio’s results. The number of securities held by the Focused SCV Fund may occasionally differ from this range at times such as when the portfolio manager is accumulating new positions, phasing out and exiting positions, or responding to exceptional market conditions.
Risks of Investing in Equity Securities. Overall equity market risks may affect the value of the Fund. Factors such as domestic economic growth and market conditions, interest rate levels, and political events affect the securities markets. When the value of the Fund’s investments goes down, your investment in the Fund decreases in value and you could lose money.
Risks of Small-Cap and Mid-Cap Securities. Investing in the securities of small-cap and mid-cap companies generally involves substantially greater risk than investing in larger, more established companies. Although investing in securities of smaller companies offers potential above-average returns if the companies are successful, the risk exists that the companies will not succeed and the prices of the companies’ shares could significantly decline in value. The earnings and prospects of smaller companies are generally more volatile than larger companies, and smaller companies may experience higher failure rates than do larger companies. The trading volume of securities of smaller companies is normally less than that of larger companies and, therefore, may disproportionately affect their market price, tending to make prices fall more in response to selling pressure than is the case with larger companies. Smaller companies may also have limited markets, product lines, or financial resources, and may lack management experience.
Focused Investment Risk. The Fund is a focused fund and generally holds stocks of between only 25 and 35 companies. Focused funds may invest a larger portion of their assets in the securities of a single issuer compared to other funds. Focusing investments in a small number of companies may subject the Fund to greater share price volatility and therefore a greater risk of loss because a single security’s increase or decrease in value may have a greater impact on the Fund’s value and total return. Economic, political or regulatory developments may have a greater impact on the value of the Fund’s portfolio than would be the case if the portfolio held more positions, and events affecting a small number of companies may have a significant and potentially adverse impact on the performance of the Fund. In addition, investors may buy or sell substantial amounts of Fund shares in response to factors affecting or expected to affect a small number of companies, resulting in extreme inflows and outflows of cash into or out of the Fund. To the extent such inflows or outflows of cash cause the Fund’s cash position or cash requirements to exceed normal levels, management of the Fund’s portfolio may be negatively affected.
8
Sector Risk. The Fund may emphasize investment in one or more particular business sectors at times, which may cause the value of its share price to be more susceptible to the financial, market, or economic events affecting issuers and industries within those sectors than a fund that does not emphasize investment in particular sectors. Economic or market factors, regulation or deregulation, and technological or other developments may negatively impact all companies in a particular sector and may increase the risk of loss of an investment in the Fund. This may increase the risk of loss associated with an investment in the Fund and increase the volatility of the Fund’s net asset value per share. During the fiscal year ended September 30, 2023, the Fund invested a substantial amount of its assets in securities of companies of the financial sector and industrial sector. Sectors in which the Fund invests may change. To the extent that the Fund invests in securities in the financial sector or industrial sector, it will be subject to the following risks:
Financial Companies Risk. Financial companies, such as retail and commercial banks, insurance companies and financial services companies, are especially subject to the adverse effects of economic recession, currency exchange rates, extensive government regulation, decreases in the availability of capital, volatile interest rates, portfolio concentrations in geographic markets, industries or products (such as commercial and residential real estate loans) and competition from new entrants in their fields of business.
Industrial Companies Risk: Industrial companies are affected by supply and demand both for their specific product or service and for industrial sector products in general. Government regulation, global events, exchange rates and economic conditions will likewise affect the performance of these companies.
Management Style Risk. Because the Fund invests primarily in value stocks (stocks that the Adviser believes are undervalued), the Fund’s performance may at times be better or worse than the performance of stock funds that focus on other types of stock strategies (e.g., growth stocks), or that have a broader investment style.
Depositary Receipts Risk. Depositary receipts are generally subject to the same risks as the foreign securities that they evidence or into which they may be converted, including the risk that there is often less publicly available information about foreign issuers, and the possibility of negative governmental actions and of political and social unrest.
9
The bar chart below shows the annual returns for the Focused SCV Fund’s Institutional Class shares for each full calendar year of the Focused SCV Fund. The performance of the Focused SCV Fund’s Investor Class shares and Super Institutional Class shares will differ from the Investor Class shares returns shown in the bar chart because the expenses of the Classes differ.
During the period shown, the was (quarter ended ) and the was (quarter ended ).
The table
below shows how the average annual total returns of the Focused SCV Fund’s
classes compared to those of the Focused SCV Fund’s benchmark.
Return Before Taxes | One Year |
Since Inception |
Investor Class Shares |
( ) | |
Institutional Class Shares |
( ) | |
Super Institutional Class Shares |
( ) | |
Return After Taxes – Institutional Class | One Year | Since
Inception ( ) |
Return After Taxes on Distributions | ||
Return After Taxes on Distributions and Sale of Fund Shares | ||
Russell 2000® Total Return Value Index (reflects no deduction for fees, expenses or taxes) |
10
Management
Investment Adviser.
Clifford Capital Partners, LLC.
Portfolio Manager.
Ryan P. Batchelor, CFA, CPA, has managed the Fund since its inception in October 2019.
11
Clifford Capital International Value Fund Summary |
The investment objective of the Clifford Capital International Value Fund (the “International Value Fund”) is long-term capital appreciation.
The following table describes the expenses and fees that you may pay if you buy, hold and sell shares of the Fund.
Investor Class | Institutional Class | Super Institutional Class | |
Redemption Fee (as a percentage of the amount redeemed on shares after holding them for 60 days or less) |
|
|
|
|
|||
Management Fees | |||
Distribution and Service 12b-1 Fees | |||
Shareholder Servicing Plan | |||
Other Expenses | |||
Total Annual Fund Operating Expenses | |||
Less Fee Waivers and/or Expense Reimbursements(1) | ( |
( |
( |
Total Annual Fund Operating Expenses After Fee Waivers and/or Expense Reimbursements(1) |
(1) |
12
The following example is intended to help you compare the cost of investing in the International Value Fund with the cost of investing in other mutual funds. The example assumes that you invest $10,000 in the Fund for the time periods indicated and then redeem all of your shares at the end of those periods. The example also assumes that your investment has a 5% annual return each year and that the Fund’s operating expenses remain the same each year. The effect of the Adviser’s agreement to waive fees and/or reimburse expenses is reflected in the example shown below for the first year. Although your actual costs may be higher or lower, based on these assumptions your costs would be:
One Year | Three Years | Five Years | Ten Years | |
Investor Class | $ |
$ |
$ |
$ |
Institutional Class | $ |
$ |
$ |
$ |
Super Institutional Class | $ |
$ |
$ |
$ |
The Fund
pays transaction costs, such as commissions, when it buys and sells securities
(or “turns over” its portfolio). A higher portfolio turnover 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. For the most recent
fiscal year ended September 30, 2023, the International Value Fund’s portfolio
turnover rate was
To achieve its investment objective, the Fund invests primarily in equity securities of non-U.S. companies with a market capitalization of USD $10 billion or greater at time of original purchase that the Fund’s investment adviser, Clifford Capital Partners, LLC (the “Adviser”), believes are trading at a discount to what they are worth at the time of purchase and have the potential for capital appreciation with acceptable downside risks.
The Adviser considers an issuer to be non-U.S. based if: (1) the issuer is organized under the laws of a jurisdiction other than those of the U.S.; (2) the securities of the issuer have a primary listing on a stock exchange outside the U.S. regardless of the country in which the issuer is organized; or (3) the issuer derives 50% or more of its total revenue from goods and/or services produced or sold outside of the U.S. The Fund may invest up to 20% of the portfolio in securities of issuers located in emerging market countries.
The Adviser uses a disciplined “bottom-up” selection process to identify equity securities of companies that appear to be selling at a discount to the Adviser’s assessment of their intrinsic value. To estimate a company’s intrinsic value, the Adviser may employ a variety of analysis techniques that it deems appropriate for each individual company. Examples of such techniques include estimating a company’s future financial results such as revenues, earnings, cash flows, or earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (“EBITDA”) and then applying the Adviser’s estimate of a relevant price multiple that it will assign to these values based on the Adviser’s assessment of a “normalized” ratio (a ratio based on the company’s and/or its industry’s historical norms). Examples of these types of ratios are price to sales, price to earnings, price to cash flow, or enterprise value to earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization or “EV/EBITDA”. Other techniques that may be used to estimate intrinsic value include: the Adviser’s estimate of a company’s private market value; a fair value liquidation analysis; discounted cash flow analysis; or dividend discount models.
13
The Adviser strives to buy stocks at a discount to intrinsic value, taking advantage of price dislocations caused by short-term investor orientation, herd influences and other irrational investor behavior. The Adviser also buys stocks at a discount resulting from the increasing market clout of passive investors and investors who rely on non-company-specific analysis, such as investors who trade funds and exchange-traded funds (“ETFs”) of entire sectors or industries rather than individual stocks. These investment opportunities arise when, in the opinion of the Adviser, the expectations implied in a company’s stock price are too low relative to the firm’s long-term earnings power or to its current assets.
The overall portfolio construction is guided by a dynamic mix of two types of stocks:
● | Core Value stocks – investments in companies the Adviser believes are high-quality companies that earn high returns on capital. These stocks will represent 50-90% of the Fund’s holdings. |
● | Deep Value stocks – opportunistic investments in companies the Adviser believes are deeply-undervalued. These stocks, plus the Fund’s cash holdings, will represent the remaining 10-50% of the Fund. |
The Fund will normally hold between 25 and 45 securities. The Adviser believes that maintaining a relatively small number of portfolio holdings allows each security to have a meaningful impact on the portfolio’s results. The number of securities held by the Fund may occasionally differ from this range at times such as when the portfolio manager is accumulating new positions, phasing out and exiting positions, or responding to exceptional market conditions.
Active Management Risk. The Fund is actively-managed and is thus subject to management risk. The Adviser will apply its investment techniques and strategies in making investment decisions for the Fund, but there is no guarantee that its techniques will produce the intended results.
Risks of Investing in Equity Securities. Overall equity market risks may affect the value of the Fund. Factors such as domestic economic growth and market conditions, interest rate levels, and political events affect the securities markets. When the value of the Fund’s investments goes down, your investment in the Fund decreases in value and you could lose money.
Market and Geopolitical Risk. Market risk includes the possibility that the Fund’s investments will decline in value because of a downturn in the stock market, reducing the value of individual companies’ stocks regardless of the success or failure of an individual company’s operations. The value of your investment in the Fund is based on the market prices of the securities the Fund holds. These prices change daily due to economic and other events that affect markets generally, as well as those that affect particular regions, countries, industries, companies or governments. 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, 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. There is a risk that you may lose money by investing in the Fund.
14
Risks of Mid-Cap Securities. Investing in the securities of mid-cap companies generally involves substantially greater risk than investing in larger, more established companies.
Risks of Large-Cap Securities. Prices of securities of larger companies tend to be less volatile than companies with smaller market capitalizations. In exchange for this potentially lower risk, the Fund’s value may not rise as much as the value of funds that emphasize companies with smaller capitalizations.
Focused Investment Risk. The Fund is a focused fund and generally holds stocks of between only 25 and 45 companies. Focused funds may invest a larger portion of their assets in the securities of a single issuer compared to other funds. Focusing investments in a small number of companies may subject the Fund to greater share price volatility and therefore a greater risk of loss because a single security’s increase or decrease in value may have a greater impact on the Fund’s value and total return. Economic, political or regulatory developments may have a greater impact on the value of the Fund’s portfolio than would be the case if the portfolio held more positions, and events affecting a small number of companies may have a significant and potentially adverse impact on the performance of the Fund. In addition, investors may buy or sell substantial amounts of Fund shares in response to factors affecting or expected to affect a small number of companies, resulting in extreme inflows and outflows of cash into or out of the Fund. To the extent such inflows or outflows of cash cause the Fund’s cash position or cash requirements to exceed normal levels, management of the Fund’s portfolio may be negatively affected.
Sector Risk. The Fund may emphasize investment in one or more particular business sectors at times, which may cause the value of its share price to be more susceptible to the financial, market, or economic events affecting issuers and industries within those sectors than a fund that does not emphasize investment in particular sectors. Economic or market factors, regulation or deregulation, and technological or other developments may negatively impact all companies in a particular sector and may increase the risk of loss of an investment in the Fund. This may increase the risk of loss associated with an investment in the Fund and increase the volatility of the Fund’s net asset value (“NAV”) per share. During the fiscal year ended September 30, 2023, the Fund invested a substantial amount of its assets in securities of companies of the financial sector and healthcare sector. Sectors in which the Fund invests may change. To the extent that the Fund invests in securities in the financial sector or healthcare sector, it will be subject to the following risks:
Financial Companies Risk. Financial companies, such as retail and commercial banks, insurance companies and financial services companies, are especially subject to the adverse effects of economic recession, currency exchange rates, extensive government regulation, decreases in the availability of capital, volatile interest rates, portfolio concentrations in geographic markets, industries or products (such as commercial and residential real estate loans) and competition from new entrants in their fields of business.
Healthcare Companies Risk. The profitability of companies in the healthcare sector may be affected by government regulations and government healthcare programs, increases or decreases in the cost of medical products and services, an increased emphasis on outpatient services, demand for medical products and services and product liability claims, among other factors. Many healthcare companies are heavily dependent on patent protection, and the expiration of a company’s patent may adversely affect that company’s profitability. Healthcare companies are subject to competitive forces that may result in price discounting, and may be thinly capitalized and susceptible to product obsolescence.
15
Management Style Risk. Because the Fund invests primarily in value stocks (stocks that the Adviser believes are undervalued), the Fund’s performance may at times be better or worse than the performance of stock funds that focus on other types of stock strategies (e.g., growth stocks), or that have a broader investment style.
Economic and Political Risks. These effects may be short-term by causing a change in the global markets that is corrected in a year or less, or they may have long-term impacts which may cause changes in the markets that may last for many years. In any given country, some factors may affect changes in one sector of the economy or one stock, but don’t have an impact on the overall market. The particular sector of the economy or the individual stock may be affected for a short or long-term.
Emerging Markets Risk. Emerging market securities may present issuer, market, currency, liquidity, volatility, valuation, legal, political, and other risks different from, and potentially greater than, the risks of investing in securities of issuers in more developed markets. Emerging markets may have less established legal and accounting systems than those in more developed markets. Governments in emerging markets may be less stable and more likely to take extra-legal action with respect to companies, industries, assets, or foreign ownership than those in more developed markets. The economies of emerging markets may be dependent on relatively few industries and thus affected more severely by local or global changes. Emerging market securities may also be more volatile, more difficult to value, and have lower overall liquidity than securities economically tied to U.S. or developed non-U.S. issuer.
Non-U.S. Investment Risk. Securities of non-U.S. issuers (including American depository receipts (“ADRs”) and other securities that represent interests in a non-U.S. issuer’s securities) may be less liquid, more volatile, and harder to value than U.S. securities. Non-U.S. issuers may be subject to political, economic, or market instability, or unfavorable government action in their local jurisdictions or economic sanctions or other restrictions imposed by U.S. or foreign regulators. There may be less information publicly available about non-U.S. issuers and their securities and those issuers may be subject to lower levels of government regulation and oversight. These risks may be higher when investing in emerging market issuers. Certain of these elevated risks may also apply to securities of U.S. issuers with significant non-U.S. operations.
Foreign Currency Risk. Although the Fund will report its NAV and pay dividends in U.S. dollars, foreign securities often are purchased with and make any dividend and interest payments in foreign currencies. Therefore, the Fund’s NAV could decline solely as a result of changes in the exchange rates between foreign currencies and the U.S. dollar, particularly if the Fund invests a significant percentage of its assets in foreign securities or other assets denominated in currencies not tightly pegged to the U.S.
Inflation Risk. At any time, the Fund may have significant investments in cash or cash equivalents. When a substantial portion of a portfolio is held in cash or cash equivalents, there is the risk that the value of the cash account, including interest, will not keep pace with inflation, thus reducing purchasing power over time.
Cybersecurity Risk. The Fund and its shareholders could be negatively impacted as a result of a cybersecurity breach. Cybersecurity breaches can include unauthorized access to systems, networks, or devices; infection from computer viruses or other malicious software code; and attacks that shut down, disable, slow, or otherwise disrupt operations, business processes, or website access or functionality.
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The bar chart below shows the annual returns for the International Value Fund’s Institutional Class shares for each full calendar year of the International Value Fund. The performance of the International Value Fund’s Investor Class shares and Super Institutional Class shares will differ from the Investor Class shares returns shown in the bar chart because the expenses of the Classes differ.
During the period shown, the was (quarter ended ) and the was (quarter ended ).
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The table
below shows how the average annual total returns of the International Value
Fund’s classes compared to those of the International Value Fund’s benchmark.
Return Before Taxes | One Year |
Since Inception ( ) |
Investor Class Shares | ||
Institutional Class Shares | ||
Super Institutional Class Shares | ||
Return After Taxes – Institutional Class | One Year | Since
Inception ( ) |
Return After Taxes on Distributions | ||
Return After Taxes on Distributions and Sale of Fund Shares | ||
MSCI EAFE Net Total Return Index (reflects no deduction for fees, expenses or taxes)* | ||
MSCI EAFE Value Net Return Index (reflects no deduction for fees, expenses or taxes) |
* |
Management
Investment Adviser.
Clifford Capital Partners, LLC.
Portfolio Managers.
Allan C. Nichols, CFA, Principal and Portfolio Manager of the Adviser, has been a co-portfolio manager of the Fund since its inception.
Ryan P. Batchelor, CFA, CPA, Principal and Chief Investment Officer of the Adviser, has been a co-portfolio manager of the Fund since its inception.
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General Summary Information
Purchase and Sale of Fund Shares
The minimum initial and subsequent investment amounts for various types of accounts offered by the Partners Fund, the Focused SCV Fund and the International Value Fund (collectively the “Funds” or “Clifford Capital Funds”) are shown below. The Funds may waive minimums for purchases or exchanges through employer-sponsored retirement plans.
Investor Class | ||
Initial | Additional | |
Regular Account | $2,500 | $100 |
Automatic Investment Plan | $2,500 | $100 |
IRA Account | $2,500 |
$100
|
Institutional Class | ||
Initial | Additional | |
Regular Account | $100,000 | $1,000 |
Automatic Investment Plan | $100,000 | $100 |
IRA Account | $100,000 |
$100
|
Super Institutional Class | ||
Initial | Additional | |
Regular Account | $1,000,000 | $10,000 |
Automatic Investment Plan | $1,000,000 | $1,000 |
IRA Account | $1,000,000 | $1,000 |
Investors may purchase or redeem Fund shares on any business day through a financial intermediary, by mail (Clifford Capital Funds, c/o Commonwealth Fund Services, Inc., 8730 Stony Point Parkway, Suite 205, Richmond, Virginia 23235), by wire, or by telephone by calling toll free 800-673-0550. Purchases and redemptions by telephone are only permitted if you previously established this option on your account.
Tax Information
Each Fund’s distributions may be subject to U.S. federal income tax and may be taxed as ordinary income or capital gain, unless you are investing through a tax-deferred account, such as a 401(k) plan, IRA or 529 college savings plan. In such a tax-deferred account, your tax liability is generally not incurred until you withdraw assets from such an account.
Payments to Broker-Dealers and Other Financial Intermediaries
If you purchase the Funds through a broker-dealer or other financial intermediary (such as a bank), the Funds and their related companies may pay the intermediary for the sale of Fund 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 Funds over another investment. Ask your salesperson or visit your financial intermediary’s web site for more information.
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Investment Objective, Principal Investment Strategies, Related Risks, and Disclosure of Portfolio Holdings |
Investment Objective
Each Fund’s investment objective is long-term capital appreciation. The investment objective is not fundamental and may be changed without shareholder approval, although the Funds will provide 60 days’ advance notice of any such change.
The Investment Selection Process Used by the Funds
Partners Fund
To achieve its investment objective, the Partners Fund invests primarily in the equity securities of U.S. companies of any size that the Adviser believes are trading at a discount to what they are worth at the time of purchase and have the potential for capital appreciation with acceptable downside risks. The Adviser believes investing in securities trading at a discount may enhance the investment’s potential upside when the Adviser’s investment thesis is proven correct and may dampen the potential loss when the investment thesis is disproven.
Focused SCV Fund
Under normal market conditions, the Focused SCV Fund invests at least 80% of its net assets in small cap companies that the Adviser believes are trading at a discount to what they are worth at the time of purchase and have the potential for capital appreciation with acceptable downside risks. The Adviser considers a company to be a small cap company if its market capitalization is no larger than that of the largest company in the Russell 2000® Index at the time a new position is established, based on the index data as of the end of the previous calendar quarter. The market capitalization of the largest company in the index is subject to change. As of December 31, 2023, the market capitalization of the largest company in the Russell 2000® Index was $6.0 billion. This investment policy may be changed by the Focused SCV Fund upon 60 days’ prior notice to shareholders.
International Value Fund
To achieve its investment objective, the Fund invests primarily in the equity securities of non-U.S. companies with a market capitalization of USD $10 billion or greater at the time of initial purchase that the Adviser believes are trading at a discount to what they are worth at the time of purchase and have the potential for capital appreciation with acceptable downside risks. The Adviser believes investing in securities trading at a discount may enhance the investment’s potential upside when the Adviser’s investment thesis is proven correct and may dampen the potential loss when the investment thesis is disproven.
Investment Philosophy Guiding the Funds
The Adviser seeks to buy stocks at a discount to intrinsic value, taking advantage of opportunities—usually because of short-term investor orientation, herd influences, and other irrational investor behavior—which are uncovered by its bottom-up research. The Adviser also buys stocks at a discount resulting from the increasing market clout of passive investors and investors who rely on non-company-specific analysis, such as investors who trade funds and ETFs of entire sectors or industries rather than individual stocks. The Adviser seeks opportunities where it believes the expectations implied in a company’s stock price are too low relative to the firm's long-term earnings power or to its current assets.
The Adviser considers an issuer to be non-U.S. based if: (1) the issuer is organized under the laws of a jurisdiction other than those of the U.S.; (2) the securities of the issuer have a primary listing on a stock exchange outside the U.S. regardless of the country in which the issuer is organized; or (3) the issuer derives 50% or more of its total revenue from goods and/or services produced or sold outside of the U.S. The International Value Fund may invest up to 20% of its assets in securities of issuers located in emerging market countries.
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The Adviser believes most of its investment opportunities arise because of short-term oriented trader and investor behavior, which differs from the Adviser’s research conclusions and its long-term investment philosophy. Common behaviors leading to these opportunities include but are not limited to: overreactions to short-term results; economic worries leading to low expectations or panic selling; fear of increased competition; focus on one underperforming business line overshadowing other solid segments; frustration with slower growth rates as a business or its industry matures; worries that meaningful changes being undertaken by a company will be ineffective or take too long; fear that cyclical issues affecting a firm or its industry have become permanent.
In identifying securities to be held by the Funds, the Adviser will utilize an overall portfolio construction methodology guided by a dynamic mix of Core Value stocks and Deep Value stocks.
Core Value. 50-75% of the Partners Fund and Focused SCV Fund and 50-90% of the International Value Fund are invested in Core Value firms. Core Value firms are defined as high-quality companies, evidenced by high returns on capital that the adviser believes have competitive advantages. The Adviser has identified a universe of a Core Value firms (the “Core List”) based on its proprietary quantitative and qualitative “10 Indicators of a Core Business” review process, summarized below. The 10 Indicators of a Core Business review is used as a screening process to populate the Core List with businesses that the Adviser would like to potentially invest in when the Adviser’s analysis suggests a Core Value company’s stock is undervalued. Prior to adding a security to the Core List, a company must pass the review. The Adviser selects its Core Value investments from this Core List universe and strives to invest in these companies only when their stock price is trading at a discount to the Adviser’s estimate of intrinsic value. The Adviser believes Core Value firms are ideal long-term holdings because of the expectation for long-term growth in cash flows, combined with the potential for downside protection because of their high-quality business models, as well as the Adviser’s insistence on only buying these companies at a discount to estimated fair value. The Adviser believes Core Value firms are also ideal for long-term holdings because of expectations for growth in intrinsic value, driven in the Adviser’s opinion by these firms’ competitive advantages that are expected to be sustained for at least 5 years.
Summary of the “10 Indicators of a Core Business” criteria used to assess whether a company meets the Adviser’s standard of a Core Value business.
1. | Consistently high returns on equity |
2. | Consistently high returns on assets |
3. | Upward-trending net income |
4. | Debt load that the Adviser believes is prudent for the individual business (i.e., Net Debt/EBITDA ratios below 3X for most non-financial companies) |
5. | Necessary and valuable products or services |
6. | Good employee relations (subjective determination based on Adviser’s research of management/employee relations) |
7. | Pricing power (Adviser’s determination of a company’s ability to increase the prices of its goods/services to offset inflationary pressures without significantly damaging demand) |
8. | Low capital intensity (i.e., low capital expenditures relative to revenues) |
9. | History of strong capital allocation |
10. | History of upward-trending book value and share price |
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The Adviser regularly reviews the Core List, searching for stocks that may potentially be trading at a discount to the Adviser’s estimates of fair value. The Adviser intends to hold its Core Value positions for the long-term.
Deep Value. Deep Value stocks plus cash make up the remaining 25-50% of the Partners and Focused SCV Funds’ portfolios and 10-50% of the International Value Fund’s portfolio. Deep Value stocks are opportunistic, non-Core Value investments uncovered by our fundamental research. These are often companies that have fallen out of favor to what the Adviser believes are very compelling valuation levels. Common situations that lead to Deep Value companies falling out of favor include but are not limited to: overreaction to short-term financial results; investor fears that cyclical issues have become secular; prolonged turnarounds; investor and Wall Street analyst apathy; one struggling segment overshadowing other strong business lines within the same company; misunderstood balance sheet or misunderstood accounting principles affecting a business’ valuation; a firm or its industry maturing leading to slower growth rates; or overreaction to political events, such as Brexit, and foreign exchange movements. The Adviser intends to hold a Deep Value position until it reaches its estimated fair value. These opportunistic investments tend to have higher return potential than Core Value positions but are subject to more uncertainty. In screening for Deep Value positions the Adviser uses a variety of methods to identify potential investment opportunities, including:
1. | Quantitative stock screens |
2. | Researching firms with weak recent or longer-term stock-price performance |
3. | Searching for companies and industries that are out of favor with investment analysts |
4. | Researching new firms to expand the Adviser’s knowledge base |
5. | The Adviser’s personal network of investment professionals |
6. | Publications from like-minded contrarian investors (e.g. quarterly investor commentaries, public speeches, SEC filings, and industry publications) |
The Adviser uses a disciplined “bottom-up” selection process to attempt to identify equity securities of companies that appear to be selling at a discount relative to the Adviser’s assessment of their potential value. As part of this process, the Adviser may employ a variety of analysis techniques that it deems appropriate for each individual company. Examples of such techniques include estimating a company’s future financial results such as revenues, earnings, cash flows, or EBITDA and then applying the Adviser’s estimate of a relevant price multiple that it will assign to these values based on the Adviser’s assessment of a “normalized” ratio (a ratio based on the company’s and/or its industry’s historical norms). Examples of these types of ratios are price to sales, price to earnings, price to cash flow, or EV/EBITDA. Other techniques that may be used to estimate intrinsic value include: the Adviser’s estimate of a company’s private market value; a fair value liquidation analysis; discounted cash flow analysis; or dividend discount models.
For each stock investment, the Adviser identifies, through its customized and focused individual stock research, several investment success factors (“Key Thesis PointsTM”). These Key Thesis PointsTM (typically 3 or 4 per stock) reflect differentiated viewpoints from market consensus opinion. The Key Thesis PointsTM process assists the Adviser in: 1) identifying the most important long-term catalysts for each stock’s success; 2) allowing for efficient ongoing portfolio monitoring – focusing on a manageable list of what the Adviser believes matters the most; 3) maintaining investment conviction when short-term noise overwhelms sentiment and stock prices; and 4) allowing for quick identification of mistakes when facts arise that refute a Key Thesis PointTM.
The Partners Fund and Focused SCV Fund will normally hold between 25 and 35 securities, and the International Value Fund will normally hold between 25 and 45 securities. The Adviser believes that maintaining a relatively small number of portfolio holdings allows each security to have a meaningful impact on the portfolio’s results. The number of securities held by the Funds may occasionally differ from this range at times such as when the portfolio manager is accumulating new positions, phasing out and existing positions, or responding to exceptional market conditions.
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The Adviser typically performs an additional review for any stock that declines 20% from its original purchase, or a stock that has declined by 20% over any 30-day period. The Adviser may reduce or sell a Fund’s investments in a particular security if, in the opinion of the Adviser, a security’s fundamentals change substantially, its price appreciation leads to overvaluation in relation to the Adviser’s estimates of future earnings and cash flow growth, there are better opportunities with another security, or for other reasons.
TEMPORARY DEFENSIVE POSITIONS. When the Adviser believes market, economic or political conditions are unfavorable for investors, the Funds may hold, as a temporary, defensive strategy, all or a portion of its assets in cash or cash-equivalents like money market funds, certificates of deposit, short-term debt obligations, and repurchase agreements. Under these circumstances, the Funds may not participate in stock market advances or declines to the same extent it would have had it remained more fully invested in common stocks. To the extent a Fund engages in a temporary, defensive strategy, the Fund may not achieve its investment objective. If a Fund invests in shares of a money market fund, shareholders of the Fund generally will be subject to duplicative management and other fees and expenses.
The Principal Risks of Investing in the Funds
Risks of Investing in Equity Securities. The Funds invest in equity securities, such as common stocks, which subjects a Fund and its shareholders to the risks associated with these types of securities. These risks include the financial risk of selecting individual companies that do not perform as anticipated, the risk that the stock markets in which a Fund invests may experience periods of turbulence and instability, and the general risk that domestic and global economies may go through periods of decline and cyclical change. Many factors affect the performance of each company that a Fund invests in, including the strength of the company’s management or the demand for its products or services. You should be aware that a company’s share price may decline as a result of poor decisions made by management or lower demand for the company’s products or services. In addition, a company’s share price may also decline if its earnings or revenues fall short of expectations.
There are overall stock market risks that may also affect the value of a Fund. Over time, the stock markets tend to move in cycles, with periods when stock prices rise generally and periods when stock prices decline generally. The value of a Fund’s investments may increase or decrease more than the stock markets in general.
Risks of Small Cap and Mid Cap Securities. Investing in the securities of small cap and mid cap companies generally involves substantially greater risk than investing in larger, more established companies. This greater risk is, in part, attributable to the fact that the securities of these companies usually have more limited marketability and, therefore, may be more volatile than securities of larger, more established companies or the market averages in general. Because these companies normally have fewer shares outstanding than larger companies, it may be more difficult to buy or sell significant amounts of such shares without an unfavorable impact on prevailing prices. Another risk factor is that these companies often have limited product lines, markets, or financial resources and may lack management depth. Additionally, these companies are typically subject to greater changes in earnings and business prospects than are larger, more established companies. These companies may not be well-known to the investing public, may not be followed by the financial press or industry analysts, and may not have institutional ownership. These factors affect the Adviser’s access to information about the companies and the stability of the markets for the companies’ securities. These companies may be more vulnerable than larger companies to adverse business or economic developments; the risk exists that the companies will not succeed; and the prices of the companies’ shares could dramatically decline in value. Therefore, an investment in a Fund may involve a substantially greater degree of risk than an investment in other mutual funds that seek capital growth by investing in more established, larger companies.
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Risks of Large Cap Securities (Partners Fund and International Value Fund). Companies with large market capitalizations go in and out of favor based on various market and economic conditions. Prices of securities of larger companies tend to be less volatile than companies with smaller market capitalizations. In exchange for this potentially lower risk, the Partners Fund’s value may not rise as much as the value of funds that emphasize companies with smaller market capitalizations.
Focused Investment Risk. The Partners Fund and Focused SCV Fund are focused funds and generally hold stocks of between only 25 and 35 companies. The International Value Fund is a focused fund and generally hold stocks of between only 25 and 45 companies. Focused funds may invest a larger portion of their assets in the securities of a single issuer compared to other funds. Focusing investments in a small number of companies may subject a Fund to greater share price volatility and therefore a greater risk of loss because a single security’s increase or decrease in value may have a greater impact on the Fund’s value and total return. Economic, political or regulatory developments may have a greater impact on the value of a Fund’s portfolio than would be the case if the portfolio held more positions, and events affecting a small number of companies may have a significant and potentially adverse impact on the performance of the Fund. In addition, investors may buy or sell substantial amounts of Fund shares in response to factors affecting or expected to affect a small number of companies, resulting in extreme inflows and outflows of cash into or out of a Fund. To the extent such inflows or outflows of cash cause a Fund’s cash position or cash requirements to exceed normal levels, management of the Fund’s portfolio may be negatively affected.
Sector Risk. Each Fund may emphasize investment in one or more particular business sectors at times, which may cause the value of its share price to be more susceptible to the financial, market, or economic events affecting issuers and industries within those sectors than a fund that does not emphasize investment in particular sectors. Economic or market factors, regulation or deregulation, and technological or other developments may negatively impact all companies in a particular sector and may increase the risk of loss of an investment in the Funds. This may increase the risk of loss associated with an investment in the Funds and increase the volatility of the Funds' net asset value per share. Sectors in which the Funds invest may change.
Financial Companies Risk. Performance of companies in the financial sector may be materially impacted by many factors, including but not limited to, government regulations, economic conditions, credit rating downgrades, changes in interest rates and decreased liquidity in credit markets. Profitability of these companies is largely dependent on the availability and cost of capital and can fluctuate significantly when interest rates change. Credit losses resulting from financial difficulties of borrowers also can negatively impact the sector. These companies are also subject to substantial government regulation and intervention, which may adversely impact the scope of their activities, the prices they can charge, the amount of capital they must maintain, and potentially, their size. Government regulation may change frequently and may have significant adverse consequences for financial companies, including effects that are not intended by such regulation. The impact of more stringent capital requirements, or recent or future regulation in various countries on any individual financial company or of the financial sector as a whole, cannot be predicted. The financial sector is also a target for cyber attacks and may experience technology malfunctions and disruptions, which have occurred more frequently in recent years.
Industrial Sector Risk. The value of securities issued by companies in the industrial sector may be adversely affected by supply and demand changes related to their specific products or services and industrial sector products in general. The products of manufacturing companies may face obsolescence due to rapid technological developments and frequent new product introduction. Global events, trade disputes and changes in government regulations, economic conditions and exchange rates may adversely affect the performance of companies in the industrials sector. Companies in the industrials sector may be adversely affected by liability for environmental damage and product liability claims. The industrials sector may also be adversely affected by changes or trends in commodity prices, which may be influenced by unpredictable factors. Companies in the industrial sector, particularly aerospace and defense companies, may also be adversely affected by government spending policies because companies in this sector tend to rely to a significant extent on government demand for their products and services.
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Healthcare Companies Risk. The profitability of companies in the healthcare sector may be adversely affected by the following factors, among others: extensive government regulations, restrictions on government reimbursement for medical expenses, rising costs of medical products and services, pricing pressure, an increased emphasis on outpatient services, changes in the demand for medical products and services, a limited number of products, industry innovation, changes in technologies and other market developments. A number of issuers in the healthcare sector have recently merged or otherwise experienced consolidation. The effects of this trend toward consolidation are unknown and may be far-reaching. Many healthcare companies are heavily dependent on patent protection. The expiration of a company’s patents may adversely affect that company’s profitability. Many healthcare companies are subject to extensive litigation based on product liability and similar claims. Healthcare companies are subject to competitive forces that may make it difficult to raise prices and, in fact, may result in price discounting. Many new products in the healthcare sector may be subject to regulatory approvals. The process of obtaining such approvals may be long and costly, and such efforts ultimately may be unsuccessful. Companies in the healthcare sector may be thinly capitalized and may be susceptible to product obsolescence.
Management Style Risk. Different types of securities tend to shift into and out of favor with stock market investors depending on market and economic conditions. Because the Funds invest primarily in value stocks (stocks that the Adviser believes are undervalued), the Funds’ performance may at times be better or worse than the performance of stock funds that focus on other types of stock strategies (e.g., growth stocks), or that have a broader investment style. Value stocks tend to be inexpensive relative to their earnings or assets compared to other types of stocks. However, value stocks can continue to be inexpensive for long periods of time and may not ever realize their full value. If the Adviser's assessment of a company’s value or prospects for exceeding earnings expectations or market conditions is wrong, the Fund could suffer losses or produce poor performance relative to other funds.
Active Management Risk. The Adviser’s skill in choosing appropriate investments will play a large part in determining whether a Fund is able to achieve its investment objective. If the Adviser’s assessment of the prospects for individual securities is incorrect, it could result in significant losses to a Fund and the Fund may not achieve its investment objective.
Cybersecurity Risks. The computer systems, networks and devices used by the Funds and their service providers to carry out routine business operations employ a variety of protections designed to prevent damage or interruption from computer viruses, network failures, computer and telecommunication failures, infiltration by unauthorized persons and security breaches. Despite the various protections utilized by the Funds and their service providers, systems, networks, or devices potentially can be breached. The Funds and their shareholders could be negatively impacted as a result of a cybersecurity breach. Cybersecurity breaches can include unauthorized access to systems, networks, or devices; infection from computer viruses or other malicious software code; and attacks that shut down, disable, slow, or otherwise disrupt operations, business processes, or website access or functionality. Cybersecurity breaches may cause disruptions and impact the Funds business operations, potentially resulting in financial losses; interference with the Funds ability to calculate its NAV; impediments to trading; the inability of the Funds, the Adviser, and other service providers to transact business; violations of applicable privacy and other laws; regulatory fines; penalties, reputational damage, reimbursement or other compensation costs, or additional compliance costs; as well as the inadvertent release of confidential information.
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Economic and Political Risks. These risks may be short-term by causing a change in the market that is corrected in a year or less, or they may have long-term impacts which may cause changes in the market that last for many years. Some factors may affect one sector of the economy or a single stock, but may not have a significant impact on the overall market.
Market and Geopolitical Risk. The prices of securities held by the Fund may decline in response to certain events taking place around the world, including those directly involving the companies whose securities are owned by the Fund; conditions affecting the general economy; overall market changes; local, regional or global political, social or economic instability; and currency, interest rate and commodity price fluctuations. The securities purchased by the Funds may involve large price swings and potential for loss. Investors in the Funds should have a long- term perspective and be able to tolerate potentially sharp declines in value. The market’s daily movements, sometimes called volatility, may be greater or less depending on the types of securities the Funds own and the markets in which the securities trade. 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 a Fund’s portfolio may underperform due to inflation (or expectations for inflation), interest rates, global demand for particular products or resources, natural disasters, 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. The value and growth-oriented equity securities purchased by the Funds may experience large price swings and potential for loss.
Inflation Risk. At any time, a Fund may have significant investments in cash or cash equivalents. When a substantial portion of a portfolio is held in cash or cash equivalents, there is the risk that the value of the cash account, including interest, will not keep pace with inflation, thus reducing purchasing power over time.
Non-U.S. Investment Risk. Investing in foreign (non-U.S.) securities may result in the Fund experiencing more rapid and extreme changes in value than a fund that invests exclusively in securities of U.S. companies due to: smaller markets; differing reporting, accounting, and auditing standards; nationalization, expropriation, or confiscatory taxation; foreign currency fluctuations, currency blockage, or replacement; sovereign solvency considerations; less liquid and more volatile exchanges and/or markets; or political changes or diplomatic developments. Exposure to foreign markets may increase the risk of negative external political events on investment performance. ADRs are issued by an American bank or trust company and represent ownership of underlying securities of a foreign company. Unsponsored ADRs are issued without the participation of the issuer of the underlying securities. As a result, information concerning the issuer may not be as current as for sponsored ADRs. Holders of unsponsored ADRs generally bear all of the costs of the ADR facilities. The depositary of an unsponsored facility frequently is under no obligation to distribute shareholder communications received from the issuer of the deposited securities or to pass through voting rights to the holders of such receipts in respect of the deposited securities. Therefore, there may not be a correlation between information concerning the issuer of the security and the market value of an unsponsored ADR.
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Foreign Currency Risk. Although the Funds will report their NAV and pay dividends in U.S. dollars, foreign securities often are purchased with and make any dividend and interest payments in foreign currencies. Therefore, a Fund’s NAV could decline solely as a result of changes in the exchange rates between foreign currencies and the U.S. dollar, particularly if the Fund invests a significant percentage of its assets in foreign securities or other assets denominated in currencies not tightly pegged to the U.S.
Emerging Markets Risk (International Value Fund only). Non-U.S. Investment Risk (described below) may be particularly high to the extent the Fund invests in emerging market securities. Emerging market securities may present issuer, market, currency, liquidity, legal, political, and other risks different from, and potentially greater than, the risks of investing in securities and instruments tied to U.S. or developed non-U.S. issuers. Emerging markets may have less established legal and accounting systems than those in more developed markets. Governments in emerging markets may be less stable and more likely to take extra-legal action with respect to companies, industries, assets, or foreign ownership than those in more developed markets. The economies of emerging markets may be dependent on relatively few industries and thus affected more severely by local or global changes. Emerging market securities may also be more volatile, less liquid, and more difficult to value than securities economically tied to U.S. or developed non-U.S. issuers.
Portfolio Holdings Disclosure
A description of the Funds’ policies and procedures with respect to the disclosure of the Funds’ portfolio securities is available in the Funds’ Statement of Additional Information (“SAI”). Complete holdings (as of the dates of such reports) are available in reports on Form N-PORT and Form N-CSR filed with the SEC.
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General Information |
Management
The Investment Adviser
Clifford Capital Partners, LLC (the “Adviser”) is the investment adviser of the Funds and has responsibility for the management of the Funds’ affairs, under the supervision of the Trust’s Board of Trustees. The Adviser is a registered investment adviser. The Adviser was organized in 2010 as an Illinois limited liability company and its address is 363 S. Main Street, Suite 101, Alpine, Utah 84004. The Adviser is primarily owned and controlled by Ryan P. Batchelor, CFA, CPA and Roger Hill. As of December 31, 2023, the Adviser had approximately $406 million in assets under management and $266 million in assets under advisement. Additional information about the Adviser is available in the SAI.
The Adviser manages the investment portfolio of the Funds, subject to policies adopted by the Trust’s Board of Trustees.
Management Fee and Expense Limitation Agreement
Partners Fund. Under the Investment Advisory Agreement for the Partners Fund, the Adviser, at its own expense and without reimbursement from the Trust, furnishes office space and all necessary office facilities, equipment and executive personnel necessary for managing the assets of the Partners Fund. For its services, the Adviser receives an investment management fee equal to 0.75% of the daily net assets of the Partners Fund. The Adviser has contractually agreed to reduce fees and reimburse expenses of the Partners Fund until January 31, 2025 in order to keep net operating expenses (exclusive of interest, distribution and service fees pursuant to Rule 12b-1 Plans, taxes, brokerage commissions, acquired fund fees and expenses, dividend expense on short sales, other expenditures capitalized in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles and other extraordinary expenses not incurred in the ordinary course of business) from exceeding 0.82%, 0.90% and 0.90%, respectively, of the daily net assets of the Super Institutional Class, Institutional Class, and Investor Class. This waiver or reimbursement of an expense by the Adviser is subject to repayment by the Partners Fund within three years following the date such waiver and/or reimbursement was made, provided that the Partners Fund is able to make the repayment without exceeding the expense limitation in place at the time of the waiver or reimbursement and at the time the waiver or reimbursement is recouped. For the fiscal year ended September 30, 2023, following fee reductions, the Adviser received an aggregate fee of 0.47% for investment advisory services performed, expressed as a percentage of average net assets of the Fund. Under the Investment Advisory Agreement for the Partners Fund in effect prior to January 31, 2020, the Adviser paid the operating expenses of the Partners Fund excluding management fees, brokerage fees and commissions, taxes, borrowing costs such as interest expense and dividend expenses on securities sold short, acquired fund fees and expenses, 12b-1 fees and shareholder service fees, and extraordinary expenses.
Focused SCV Fund. Under the Investment Advisory Agreement for the Focused SCV Fund, the Adviser, at its own expense and without reimbursement from the Trust, furnishes office space and all necessary office facilities, equipment and executive personnel necessary for managing the assets of the Focused SCV Fund. For its services the Adviser receives an investment management fee equal to 0.90% of the daily net assets of the Focused SCV Fund. The Adviser has contractually agreed to reduce fees and reimburse expenses of the Focused SCV Fund until January 31, 2025 in order to keep net operating expenses (exclusive of interest, distribution and service fees pursuant to Rule 12b-1 Plans, taxes, brokerage commissions, acquired fund fees and expenses, dividend expense on short sales, other expenditures capitalized in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles and extraordinary expenses not incurred in the ordinary course of business) from exceeding 0.97%, 1.05% and 1.05%, respectively, of the daily net assets of the Super Institutional Class, Institutional Class, and Investor Class. This waiver or reimbursement of an expense by the Adviser is subject to repayment by the Focused SCV Fund within three years following the date such waiver and/or reimbursement was made, provided that the Focused SCV Fund is able to make the repayment without exceeding the expense limitation in place at the time of the waiver or reimbursement and at the time the waiver or reimbursement is recouped. For the fiscal year ended September 30, 2023, following fee reductions and expense reimbursements to the Focused SCV Fund, the Adviser received an aggregate fee of 0.00% for investment advisory services performed, expressed as a percentage of average net assets of the Focused SCV Fund.
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International Value Fund. Under the Investment Advisory Agreement for the Fund, the Adviser, at its own expense and without reimbursement from the Trust, furnishes office space and all necessary office facilities, equipment and executive personnel necessary for managing the assets of the Fund. For its services, the Adviser receives an investment management fee equal to 0.85% of the daily net assets of the Fund. The Adviser has contractually agreed to reduce fees and reimburse expenses of the Fund until January 31, 2025 in order to keep net operating expenses (exclusive of interest, distribution and service fees pursuant to Rule 12b-1 Plans, taxes, brokerage commissions, acquired fund fees and expenses, dividend expense on short sales, other expenditures capitalized in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles and other extraordinary expenses not incurred in the ordinary course of business) from exceeding 1.05% of the daily net assets of the Fund’s Investor Class and Institutional Class and 0.97% of the daily net assets of the Fund’s Super Institutional Class. This waiver or reimbursement of an expense by the Adviser is subject to repayment by the Fund within three years following the date such waiver and/or reimbursement was made, provided that the Fund is able to make the repayment without exceeding the expense limitation in place at the time of the waiver or reimbursement and at the time the waiver or reimbursement is recouped. For the fiscal year ended September 30, 2023, following fee reductions and expense reimbursements to the International Value Fund, the Adviser received an aggregate fee of 0.00% for investment advisory services performed, expressed as a percentage of average net assets of the International Value Fund.
A discussion regarding the basis of the Board of Trustees’ approval of the Investment Advisory Agreement between the Trust and the Adviser is available in the Funds’ annual report to shareholders for the year ended September 30, 2022.
Portfolio Manager’s Bio:
Ryan P. Batchelor, CFA, CPA
The Partners Fund and the Focused SCV Fund are managed by Ryan P. Batchelor, CFA, CPA, and Mr. Batchelor serves as co-portfolio manager of the International Value Fund. Mr. Batchelor has managed each Fund since its inception. Ryan Batchelor is Principal, co-founder and Chief Investment Officer at the Adviser. Prior to founding the Adviser in April 2010, he served as a senior equity analyst at Wells Capital Management from March 2007 until March 2010 where he was a generalist, scouring all sectors of the market but also had specific responsibility for the financial services sector.
Before joining Wells Capital Management, Mr. Batchelor was an equity strategist and analyst with Morningstar, Inc. where he served as specialty finance analyst and team leader. He initiated the five-page InternationalInvestor section in the firm’s flagship StockInvestor monthly stock investment newsletter and implemented department-wide improvements to Morningstar’s foreign coverage universe. Ryan was quoted in local and national media, including The Wall Street Journal, Barron’s, The Economist, Financial Times, USA Today, and US News & World Report. He also made live television appearances on CNBC and Bloomberg TV, as well as radio spots on NPR, Bloomberg Radio and local stations. Mr. Batchelor graduated summa cum laude from Brigham Young University - Hawaii in 1999 with a B.S. in Accounting and received his MBA in Finance from the Marriott School of Management at Brigham Young University in 2004. He holds the Chartered Financial Analyst and Certified Public Accountant professional designations.
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Allan C. Nichols, CFA
The International Value Fund is co-managed by Allan C. Nichols, CFA. Mr. Nichols has managed the International Value Fund since its inception.
Allan Nichols is Principal and Portfolio Manager of the Adviser. Prior to joining the Adviser in 2019, he spent fifteen years at Morningstar as a Senior Equity Analyst with a focus on Europe, living in the Netherlands for three years to establish the firm’s European office for equity analysts. Before joining Morningstar in 2004, he was a Senior Equity Analyst and Portfolio Manager at Kirr, Marbach & Co., working on the firm’s international equity team. In addition to his years of experience in equity portfolio management and analysis, he also volunteered for two years in Southeast England with an international non-governmental organization. He graduated from the University of Utah with a B.S. in Finance with an emphasis in investments and received his M.B.A. from Indiana University with an emphasis in Finance and Economics. He holds the Chartered Financial Analyst® designation.
The Funds’ SAI provides information about the portfolio managers’ compensation, other accounts managed by the portfolio managers, and the portfolio managers’ ownership of Fund shares.
Shareholder Information |
Pricing of Fund Shares
The Fund’s share price, called the NAV per share, is determined on each business day that the NYSE is open for trading, as of the close of business of the regular session of the NYSE (generally 4:00 p.m., Eastern time). NAV per share is computed by adding the total value of a Fund’s investments and other assets attributable to the Fund’s Investor Class, Institutional Class and Super Institutional Class shares, subtracting any liabilities attributable to the applicable class and then dividing by the total number of the applicable classes’ shares outstanding. Since different expenses may be charged against shares of different classes of the Funds, the NAV of the different classes may vary. Because a Fund may hold securities that are primarily listed on foreign exchanges that trade on weekends or days when a Fund does not price its shares, the value of the securities held in a Fund may change on days when you will not be able to purchase or redeem Fund shares.
Shares of the Funds are bought or exchanged at the public offering price per share next determined after a request has been received in proper form. The public offering price of each Fund’s shares is equal to the NAV plus the applicable front-end sales charge, if any. Shares of a Fund held by you are sold or exchanged at the NAV per share next determined after a request has been received in proper form, less any applicable deferred sales charge. Any request received in proper form before the Valuation Time, will be processed the same business day. Any request received in proper form after the Valuation Time, will be processed the next business day.
The Funds’ securities are valued at current market prices. Investments in securities traded on national securities exchanges are valued at the last reported sale price. For securities traded on NASDAQ, the NASDAQ Official Closing Price will be used. Other securities traded in the over-the-counter market and listed securities for which no sales are reported on a given date are valued at the last reported bid price. Debt securities are valued by appraising them at prices supplied by a pricing agent approved by the Board, which prices may reflect broker-dealer supplied valuations and electronic data processing techniques. Short-term debt securities (less than 60 days to maturity) are valued at their fair market value using amortized cost. Other assets for which market prices are not readily available are valued at their fair value as determined in good faith by the Funds’ Adviser, under procedures set by the Board. The Board has appointed the Adviser as “valuation designee” (the “Valuation Designee”) to be responsible for all fair value determinations for the Funds. Generally, trading in corporate bonds, U.S. government securities and money market instruments is substantially completed each day at various times before the scheduled close of the NYSE. The value of these securities used in computing the NAV is determined as of such times so long as the Valuation Designee believes that these values reflect fair value at the time the Fund’s NAV is determined.
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The Trust has a policy that contemplates the use of fair value pricing to determine the NAV per share of a Fund when market prices are unavailable as well as under special circumstances, such as: (i) if the primary market for a portfolio security suspends or limits trading or price movements of the security; and (ii) when an event occurs after the close of the exchange on which a portfolio security is principally traded that is likely to have changed the value of the security.
When the Trust uses fair value pricing to determine the NAV per share of a Fund, securities will not be priced on the basis of quotations from the primary market in which they are traded, but rather may be priced by another method that the Valuation Designee believes accurately reflects fair value. Any method used will be approved by the Board and results will be monitored to evaluate accuracy. The Trust’s policy is intended to result in a calculation of the Fund’s NAV that fairly reflects security values as of the time of pricing.
Share Class Alternatives. Each Fund offers investors three different classes of shares through this prospectus. The different classes of shares represent investments in the same portfolio of securities, but the classes are subject to different expenses and fees and may have different share prices and minimum investment requirements. When you buy shares, be sure to specify the class of shares in which you choose to invest. Because each share class has a different combination of sales charges, expenses and other features, you should consult your financial adviser to determine which class best meets your financial objectives.
Customer Identification Program
Federal regulations require that the Trust obtain certain personal information about you when opening a new account. As a result, the Trust must obtain the following information for each person that opens a new account:
Name; |
Date of birth (for individuals); |
Residential or business street address (although post office boxes are still permitted for mailing); and |
Social security number, taxpayer identification number, or other identifying number. |
You may also be asked for a copy of your driver’s license, passport, or other identifying document in order to verify your identity. In addition, it may be necessary to verify your identity by cross referencing your identification information with a consumer report or other electronic database. Additional information may be required to open accounts for corporations and other entities.
After an account is opened, the Trust may restrict your ability to purchase additional shares until your identity is verified. The Trust also may close your account or take other appropriate action if it is unable to verify your identity within a reasonable time.
If your account is closed for this reason, your shares will be redeemed at the NAV next calculated after the account is closed.
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How to Buy and Sell Shares |
The price you pay for a share of a Fund is the NAV next determined upon receipt by such Fund (or its appropriately designated agent) or your financial intermediary (such as fund supermarkets or through brokers or dealers who are authorized by the Funds’ principal underwriter (the “Distributor”) to sell shares of the Funds (collectively, “Financial Intermediaries”). A Fund will be deemed to have received your purchase or redemption order when it (i.e., the Fund) or the Financial Intermediary receives the order. Such Financial Intermediaries are authorized to designate other intermediaries to receive purchase and redemption orders on a Fund’s behalf.
You may purchase shares of the Funds through Financial Intermediaries and directly from the Funds (or their agent). Financial Intermediaries may charge transaction fees or set different minimum investment amounts. Financial Intermediaries may also have policies and procedures that are different from those contained in this prospectus. Investors should consult their Financial Intermediary regarding its procedures for purchasing and selling shares of the Funds as the policies and procedures may be different. Certain Financial Intermediaries may have agreements with the Funds that allow them to enter confirmed purchase and redemption orders on behalf of clients and customers. Under this arrangement, the Financial Intermediary must send your payment to the Funds by the time a Fund prices its shares on the following business day. The Funds are not responsible for ensuring that a Financial Intermediary carries out its obligations. You should look to the Financial Intermediary through whom you wish to invest for specific instructions on how to purchase or redeem shares of the Funds.
Minimum Investments
The Trust may waive the minimum initial investment requirement for purchases made by Trustees, officers and employees of the Trust. The Trust may also waive the minimum investment requirement for purchases by its affiliated entities and certain related advisory accounts and retirement accounts (such as IRAs). The Trust may also change or waive policies concerning minimum investment amounts at any time. The Trust retains the right to refuse to accept an order.
Investor Class | ||
Initial | Additional | |
Regular Account | $2,500 | $100 |
Automatic Investment Plan | $2,500 | $100* |
IRA Account | $2,500 |
$100
|
Institutional Class | ||
Initial | Additional | |
Regular Account | $100,000 | $1,000 |
Automatic Investment Plan | $100,000 | $100* |
IRA Account | $100,000 | $100 |
Super Institutional Class | ||
Initial | Additional | |
Regular Account | $1,000,000 | $10,000 |
Automatic Investment Plan | $1,000,000 | $1,000* |
IRA Account | $1,000,000 | $1,000 |
* An Automatic Investment Plan requires the minimum automatic monthly or quarterly investment.
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Types of Account Ownership
You can establish the following types of accounts by completing a Shareholder Account Application:
● | Individual or Joint Ownership. Individual accounts are owned by one person. Joint accounts have two or more owners. |
● | A Gift or Transfer to Minor (UGMA or UTMA). A UGMA/UTMA account is a custodial account managed for the benefit of a minor. To open an UGMA or UTMA account, you must include the minor’s social security number on the application. |
● | Trust. An established trust can open an account. The names of each trustee, the name of the trust and the date of the trust agreement must be included on the application. |
● | Business Accounts. Corporation and partnerships may also open an account. The application must be signed by an authorized officer of the corporation or a general partner of a partnership. |
● | IRA Accounts. See “Types of Tax-Deferred Accounts”. |
Types of Tax-Deferred Accounts
● | Traditional IRA. An individual retirement account. Your contribution may or may not be deductible depending on your circumstances. Assets can grow tax-deferred and distributions are taxable as income. |
● | Roth IRA. An IRA with non-deductible contributions, tax-free growth of assets, and tax-free distributions for qualified distributions. |
● | Spousal IRA. An IRA funded by a working spouse in the name of a non-earning spouse. |
● | SEP-IRA. An individual retirement account funded by employer contributions. Your assets grow tax-deferred and distributions are taxable as income. |
● | Keogh or Profit-Sharing Plans. These plans allow corporations, partnerships and individuals who are self-employed to make tax-deductible contributions of up to $35,000 for each person covered by the plans. |
● | 403(b) Plans. An arrangement that allows employers of charitable or educational organizations to make voluntary salary reduction contributions to a tax-deferred account. |
● | 401(k) Plans. Allows employees of corporations of all sizes to contribute a percentage of their wages on a tax-deferred basis. These accounts need to be established by the trustee of the plan. |
Purchases by Mail. For initial purchases, the account application, which accompanies this prospectus, should be completed, signed and mailed to Commonwealth Fund Services, Inc. (the “Transfer Agent”), the Funds’ transfer and dividend disbursing agent, at 8730 Stony Point Parkway, Suite 205, Richmond, Virginia 23235, together with your check payable to a Fund. When you buy shares, be sure to specify the class of shares in which you choose to invest. For subsequent purchases, include with your check the tear-off stub from a prior purchase confirmation or otherwise identify the name(s) of the registered owner(s) and social security number(s).
Purchases by Wire. You may purchase shares by requesting your bank to transmit payment by wire directly to the Transfer Agent. To invest by wire, please call the Funds toll-free 800-673-0550 or the Transfer Agent toll-free 800-628-4077 to advise the Funds of your investment and to receive further instructions. Your bank may charge you a fee for this service. Once you have arranged to purchase shares by wire, please complete and mail the account application promptly to the Transfer Agent. This account application is required to complete the Funds’ records. You will not have access to your shares until the purchase order is completed in proper form, which includes the receipt of completed account information by the Transfer Agent. Once your account is opened, you may make additional investments using the wire procedure described above. Be sure to include your name and account number in the wire instructions you provide your bank.
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Purchases by Telephone. You may also purchase shares by telephone, by contacting the Funds toll-free 800-673-0550 or the Transfer Agent toll-free 800-628-4077.
How to Sell Shares. You may redeem your shares of the Funds at any time and in any amount by contacting your Financial Intermediary or by contacting the Funds by mail or telephone. For your protection, the Transfer Agent will not redeem your shares until it has received all information and documents necessary for your request to be considered in “proper form.” The Transfer Agent will promptly notify you if your redemption request is not in proper form. The Transfer Agent cannot accept redemption requests which specify a particular date for redemption or which specify any special conditions.
The Funds typically expect to meet redemption requests through cash holdings or cash equivalents and anticipates using these types of holdings on a regular basis. The Funds typically expect to pay redemption proceeds for shares redeemed within the following days after receipt by the transfer agent of a redemption request in proper form: (i) for payment by check, the Funds typically expect to mail the check within two business days; and (ii) for payment by wire or ACH, the Funds typically expect to process the payment within two business days. Payment of redemption proceeds may take up to 7 calendar days as permitted under the Investment Company Act of 1940 (“the 1940 Act”). Under unusual circumstances as permitted by the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Funds may suspend the right of redemption or delay payment of redemption proceeds for more than 7 days. When shares are purchased by check or through ACH, the proceeds from the redemption of those shares will not be paid until the purchase check or ACH transfer has been converted to federal funds, which could take up to 15 calendar days.
To the extent cash holdings or cash equivalents are not available to meet redemption requests, the Funds will meet redemption requests by either (i) rebalancing their overweight securities or (ii) selling portfolio assets. In addition, if the Funds determine that it would be detrimental to the best interest of a Fund’s remaining shareholders to make payment in cash, a Fund may pay redemption proceeds in whole or in part by a distribution-in-kind of readily marketable securities.
If you sell your shares through a securities dealer or investment professional, it is such person’s responsibility to transmit the order to the Funds in a timely fashion. Any loss to you resulting from failure to do so must be settled between you and such person.
Delivery of the proceeds of a redemption of shares purchased and paid for by check shortly before the receipt of the redemption request may be delayed until the Funds determine that the Transfer Agent has completed collection of the purchase check, which may take up to 15 calendar days. Also, payment of the proceeds of a redemption request for an account for which purchases were made by wire may be delayed until the Funds receive a completed account application for the account to permit the Funds to verify the identity of the person redeeming the shares and to eliminate the need for backup withholding.
Note that the Funds will assess a 2.00% redemption fee on Investor Class shares of the Funds redeemed within 60 days of purchase as a percentage of the amount redeemed. See “Frequent Purchases and Redemptions” below.
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Redemption by Mail. To redeem shares by mail, send a written request for redemption, signed by the registered owner(s) exactly as the account is registered, to the Clifford Capital Funds, Attn: Redemptions, 8730 Stony Point Parkway, Suite 205, Richmond, Virginia 23235. Certain written requests to redeem shares may require signature guarantees. For example, signature guarantees may be required if you sell a large number of shares, if your address of record on the account application has been changed within the last 30 days, or if you ask that the proceeds be sent to a different person or address. Signature guarantees are used to help protect you and the Funds. You can obtain a signature guarantee from most banks or securities dealers, but not from a Notary Public. Please call the Transfer Agent toll-free 800-628-4077 to learn if a signature guarantee is needed or to make sure that it is completed appropriately in order to avoid any processing delays. There is no charge to shareholders for redemptions by mail.
Redemption by Telephone. You may redeem your shares by telephone provided that you requested this service on your initial account application. If you request this service at a later date, you must send a written request along with a signature guarantee to the Transfer Agent. Once your telephone authorization is in effect, you may redeem shares by calling the Transfer Agent toll-free 800-628-4077. There is no charge to shareholders for redemptions by telephone. If it should become difficult to reach the Transfer Agent by telephone during periods when market or economic conditions lead to an unusually large volume of telephone requests, a shareholder may send a redemption request by overnight mail to the Transfer Agent, c/o Clifford Capital Funds, at 8730 Stony Point Parkway, Suite 205, Richmond, Virginia 23235.
Redemption by Wire. If you request that your redemption proceeds be wired to you, please call your bank for instructions prior to writing or calling the Transfer Agent. Be sure to include your name, Fund name, Fund account number, your account number at your bank and wire information from your bank in your request to redeem by wire. There is no charge to shareholders for redemptions by wire.
Redemption in Kind. The Funds typically expect to satisfy requests by using holdings of cash or cash equivalents or selling portfolio assets. On a less regular basis, and if the Adviser believes it is in the best interest of a Fund and its shareholders not to sell portfolio assets, a Fund may satisfy redemption requests by using short-term borrowing from the Fund’s custodian to the extent such arrangements are in place with the custodian. In addition to paying redemption proceeds in cash, the Funds reserve the right to make payment for a redemption in securities rather than cash, which is known as a “redemption in kind.” While the Funds do not intend, under normal circumstances, to redeem shares by payment in kind, it is possible that conditions may arise in the future which would, in the opinion of the Trustees, make it undesirable for a Fund to pay for all redemptions in cash. In such a case, the Trustees may authorize payment to be made in readily marketable portfolio securities of a Fund, either through the distribution of selected individual portfolio securities or a pro-rata distribution of all portfolio securities held by the Fund. Securities delivered in payment of redemptions would be valued at the same value assigned to them in computing a Fund’s NAV per share. Shareholders receiving them may incur brokerage costs when these securities are sold and will be subject to market risk until such securities are sold. An irrevocable election has been filed under Rule 18f-1 of the 1940 Act, wherein the Funds must pay redemptions in cash, rather than in kind, to any shareholder of record of a Fund who redeems during any 90-day period, the lesser of (a) $250,000 or (b) 1% of a Fund’s net assets at the beginning of such period. Redemption requests in excess of this limit may be satisfied in cash or in kind at a Fund’s election. The Funds’ methods of satisfying shareholder redemption requests will normally be used during both regular and stressed market conditions.
Signature Guarantees. To help protect you and the Funds from fraud, signature guarantees are required for: (1) all redemptions ordered by mail if you require that the check be made payable to another person or that the check be mailed to an address other than the one indicated on the account registration; (2) all requests to transfer the registration of shares to another owner; and (3) all authorizations to establish or change telephone redemption service, other than through your initial account application. Signature guarantees may be required for certain other reasons. For example, a signature guarantee may be required if you sell a large number of shares or if your address of record on the account has been changed within the last thirty (30) days.
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In the case of redemption by mail, signature guarantees must appear on either: (1) the written request for redemption; or (2) a separate instrument of assignment (usually referred to as a “stock power”) specifying the total number of shares being redeemed. The Trust may waive these requirements in certain instances.
An original signature guarantee assures that a signature is genuine so that you are protected from unauthorized account transactions. Notarization is not an acceptable substitute. Acceptable guarantors only include participants in the Securities Transfer Agents Medallion Program (STAMP2000). Participants in STAMP2000 may include financial institutions such as banks, savings and loan associations, trust companies, credit unions, broker-dealers and member firms of a national securities exchange.
Proper Form. Your order to buy shares is in proper form when your completed and signed account application and check or wire payment is received by the Transfer Agent. Your written request to sell or exchange shares is in proper form when written instructions signed by all registered owners, with a signature guarantee if necessary, is received by the Funds.
Automatic Investment Plan. Existing shareholders, who wish to make regular monthly investments in amounts of $100 or more, may do so through the Automatic Investment Plan. Under the Automatic Investment Plan, your designated bank or other financial institution debits a pre-authorized amount from your account on or about the 15th day of each month and applies the amount to the purchase of Fund shares. To use this service, you must authorize the transfer of funds by completing the Automatic Investment Plan section of the account application and sending a blank voided check.
Exchange Privilege. To the extent that the Adviser manages other funds in the Trust, you may exchange all or a portion of your shares in a Fund for shares of the same class of certain other funds of the Trust managed by the Adviser having different investment objectives, provided that the shares of the fund you are exchanging into are registered for sale in your state of residence. An exchange is treated as a redemption and purchase and will generally result in realization of a taxable gain or loss on the transaction. You will not pay a deferred sales charge on an exchange from a Fund. However, if you exchange shares of another mutual fund that is not advised by the Adviser for shares of a Fund, you may pay a deferred sales charge on the sale of those fund shares, as applicable. As of the date of this prospectus, the Adviser manages two funds in the Trust.
Frequent purchases and redemptions (“Frequent Trading”) (as discussed below) can adversely impact Fund performance and shareholders. Therefore, the Trust reserves the right to temporarily or permanently modify or terminate the Exchange Privilege. The Trust also reserves the right to refuse exchange requests by any person or group if, in the Trust’s judgment, a Fund would be unable to invest the money effectively in accordance with its investment objective and policies or would otherwise potentially be adversely affected. The Trust further reserves the right to restrict or refuse an exchange request if the Trust has received or anticipates simultaneous orders affecting significant portions of a Fund’s assets or detects a pattern of exchange requests that coincides with a “market timing” strategy. Although the Trust will attempt to give you prior notice when reasonable to do so, the Trust may modify or terminate the Exchange Privilege at any time.
Transferring Shares. If you wish to transfer shares to another owner, send a written request to the Transfer Agent, c/o Clifford Capital Funds, at 8730 Stony Point Parkway, Suite 205, Richmond, Virginia 23235. Your request should include: (i) the name of the Fund and existing account registration; (ii) signature(s) of the registered owner(s); (iii) the new account registration, address, taxpayer identification number and how dividends and capital gains are to be distributed; (iv) any stock certificates which have been issued for the shares being transferred; (v) signature guarantees (See “Signature Guarantees”); and (vi) any additional documents which are required for transfer by corporations, administrators, executors, trustees, guardians, etc. If you have any questions about transferring shares, call the Transfer Agent toll-free 800-628-4077.
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Account Statements and Shareholder Reports. Each time you purchase, redeem or transfer shares of a Fund, you will receive a written confirmation. You will also receive a year-end statement of your account if any dividends or capital gains have been distributed, and an annual and a semi-annual report.
Shareholder Communications. The Funds may eliminate duplicate mailings of portfolio materials to shareholders who reside at the same address, unless instructed to the contrary. Investors may request that the Funds send these documents to each shareholder individually by calling the Funds toll-free 800-673-0550.
General. The Funds will not be responsible for any losses from unauthorized transactions (such as purchases, sales or exchanges) if it follows reasonable security procedures designed to verify the identity of the investor. You should verify the accuracy of your confirmation statements immediately after you receive them.
Other Important Investment Information |
Dividends, Distributions and Taxes
Dividends and Capital Gains Distributions. All income dividends and capital gains distributions will be automatically reinvested in shares of the Funds unless you indicate otherwise on the account application or in writing.
Dividends from net investment income, if any, are declared and paid annually by the Funds. The Funds intend to distribute annually any net capital gains.
There are no sales charges or transaction fees for reinvested dividends and all shares will be purchased at NAV. Shareholders generally will be subject to tax on all distributions (including dividends) whether paid to them in cash or reinvested in shares. If the investment in shares is made within an IRA or 401(k), all dividends and capital gain distributions must be reinvested.
Unless you are investing through a tax deferred retirement account, such as an IRA or 401(k), it is disadvantageous for you to buy shares of the Funds shortly before the next distribution, because doing so can cost you money in taxes. This is known as “buying a dividend”. To avoid buying a dividend, check the Funds’ distribution schedule before you invest.
Taxes. In general, Fund distributions are taxable to you as ordinary income, qualified dividend income or capital gain. This is true whether you reinvest your distributions in additional shares of a Fund or receive them in cash. Any long-term capital gains a Fund distributes are taxable to you as long-term capital gains, no matter how long you have owned your shares. Other Fund distributions (including distributions attributable to short-term capital gain of a Fund) will generally be taxable to you at ordinary income tax rates, except those distributions that are designated as “qualified dividend income” will be taxable at the rates applicable to long-term capital gain. After the close of the taxable year, you will receive a statement that shows the tax status of distributions you received for the previous year. Distributions declared in December but paid in January are taxable as if they were paid in December. The one major exception to these tax principles is that distributions on, and sales, exchanges, and redemptions of, shares held in an IRA or 401(k) (or other tax-deferred arrangement) will not be currently taxable.
When you sell shares of a Fund, you will generally have a capital gain or loss. For tax purposes, an exchange of your shares of a Fund for shares of a different fund of the Trust is the same as a sale. The individual tax rate on any gain from the sale or exchange of your shares depends on how long you have held your shares and your income for the year.
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Fund distributions and gains from the sale or exchange of your shares will generally be subject to applicable state and local income tax. Non-U.S. investors may be subject to U.S. federal withholding and estate tax. You should consult with your tax adviser about the U.S. federal, state, local or foreign tax consequences of your investment in a Fund.
The Fund must backup withhold 24% of your taxable distributions and proceeds if you fail to properly furnish the Fund with a correct taxpayer identification number, you have under-reported dividend or interest income, or you fail to properly certify to the Fund that you are not subject to such withholding.
Cost Basis Reporting. Mutual fund companies report their shareholders’ cost basis, gain/loss, and holding period to the Internal Revenue Service on the Fund’s shareholders’ Consolidated Form 1099s.
The Funds have chosen average cost as the standing (default) tax lot identification method for all shareholders. A tax lot identification method is the way the Funds will determine which specific shares are deemed to be sold when there are multiple purchases on different dates at differing net asset values, and the entire position is not sold at one time. The Funds’ standing tax lot identification method is the method covered shares will be reported on your Consolidated Form 1099 if you do not select a specific tax lot identification method. You may choose a method different than the Funds’ standing method and will be able to do so at the time of your purchase or upon the sale of shares.
The Funds are responsible for maintaining accurate cost basis and tax lot information for tax reporting purposes. The Funds and their service providers do not provide tax advice. You should consult independent sources, which may include a tax professional, with respect to any decisions you may make with respect to choosing a tax lot identification method given your particular situation.
Possible Tax Law Changes. At the time that this prospectus is being prepared, various administrative and legislative changes to the U.S. federal tax laws are under consideration, but it is not possible at this time to determine whether any of these changes will take place, what the changes might entail or whether they will have retroactive effect.
The Trust
The Funds are series of the Trust, an open-end management investment company organized as a Delaware statutory trust on April 9, 2007. The Trustees supervise the operations of the Funds according to applicable state and federal law, and the Trustees are responsible for the overall management of the Funds’ business affairs.
Rule 12b-1 Fees
The Funds have adopted a Distribution and Shareholder Services Plan Pursuant to Rule 12b-1 (the “Plan”) for the Investor Class shares. Pursuant to the Plan, the Funds may compensate Financial Intermediaries that provide services for shareholders of the Funds. The Plan provides that for activities relating to these services, each Fund will pay the annual rate of 0.25% of the daily net assets of its Investor Class. Such activities may include the provision of sub-accounting, recordkeeping and/or administrative services, responding to customer inquiries, and providing information on customer investments. Because the shareholder service fees are paid out of a Fund’s assets on an on-going basis, these fees, over time, will increase the cost of your investment and may cost you more than paying other types of sales charges. The Plan, while primarily intended to compensate for shareholder service expenses, was adopted pursuant to Rule 12b-1 under the 1940 Act, and it therefore may be used to pay for certain expenditures related to financing distribution- related activities of the Funds.
38
Shareholder Services Plan
The Funds have adopted a shareholder services plan for their Investor Class and Institutional Class shares. Under a shareholder services plan, the Funds may pay an authorized firm up to 0.25% on an annualized basis of daily net assets attributable to its customers who are shareholders. For this fee, the authorized firms may provide a variety of services, including but not limited to: (i) arranging for bank wires; (ii) responding to inquiries from shareholders concerning their investment in a Fund; (iii) assisting shareholders in changing dividend options, account designations and addresses; (iv) providing information periodically to shareholders showing their position in Fund shares; (v) forwarding shareholder communications from the Funds such as proxies, shareholder reports, annual reports, and dividend distribution and tax notices; (vi) processing purchase, exchange and redemption requests from shareholders and placing orders with the Funds or their service providers; (vii) providing sub-accounting with respect to Fund shares; and (viii) processing dividend payments from the Funds on behalf of shareholders.
Because the Funds have adopted the shareholder services plan to compensate authorized firms for providing the types of services described above, the Funds believes the shareholder services plan is not covered by Rule 12b-1 under the 1940 Act, which relates to payment of distribution fees. The Funds, however, follows the procedural requirements of Rule 12b-1 in connection with the implementation and administration of the shareholder services plan.
An authorized firm generally represents in a service agreement used in connection with the shareholder services plan that all compensation payable to the authorized firm from its customers in connection with the investment of their assets in the Funds will be disclosed by the authorized firm to its customers. It also generally provides that all such compensation will be authorized by the authorized firm’s customers.
Frequent Purchases and Redemptions
Frequent purchases and redemptions (“Frequent Trading”) of shares of the Funds may present a number of risks to other shareholders of the Funds. These risks may include, among other things, dilution in the value of shares of the Funds held by long-term shareholders, interference with the efficient management by the Adviser of a Fund’s portfolio holdings, and increased brokerage and administration costs. Due to the potential of an overall adverse market, economic, political, or other conditions affecting the sale price of portfolio securities, a Fund could face untimely losses as a result of having to sell portfolio securities prematurely to meet redemptions. Current shareholders of the Funds may face unfavorable impacts as portfolio securities concentrated in certain sectors may be more volatile than investments across broader ranges of industries as sector-specific market or economic developments may make it more difficult to sell a significant amount of shares at favorable prices to meet redemptions. Frequent Trading may also increase portfolio turnover, which may result in increased capital gains taxes for shareholders of the Funds. These capital gains could include short-term capital gains taxed at ordinary income tax rates.
The Funds will assess a 2.00% redemption fee on Investor Class shares of a Fund redeemed within 60 days of purchase as a percentage of the amount redeemed. The redemption fee is deducted from your proceeds and is retained by the Funds for the benefit of long-term shareholders. The “first in-first out” (“FIFO”) method is used to determine the holding period; this means that if you purchase shares on different days, the shares you held longest will be redeemed first for purposes of determining whether the redemption fee applies. The fee does not apply to Fund shares acquired through the reinvestment of dividends and the Automatic Investment Plan or shares redeemed through the Systematic Withdrawal Program. The Funds reserve the right to change the terms and amount of this fee upon at least a 60-day notice to shareholders.
39
The Trustees have adopted a policy that is intended to identify and discourage Frequent Trading by shareholders of a Fund under which the Trust’s Chief Compliance Officer and Transfer Agent will monitor Frequent Trading through the use of various surveillance techniques. Under these policies and procedures, shareholders may not engage in more than four “round-trips” (a purchase and sale or an exchange in and then out of a Fund) within a rolling twelve-month period. Shareholders exceeding four round-trips will be investigated by a Fund and possibly restricted from making additional investments in the Fund. The intent of the policies and procedures is not to inhibit legitimate strategies, such as asset allocation, dollar cost averaging or similar activities that may nonetheless result in Frequent Trading of Fund shares. The Funds reserve the right to reject any exchange or purchase of Fund shares with or without prior notice to the account holder. In the event the foregoing purchase and redemption patterns occur, it shall be the policy of the Trust that the shareholder’s account and any other account with a Fund under the same taxpayer identification number shall be precluded from investing in a Fund (including investment that are part of an exchange transaction) for such time period as the Trust deems appropriate based on the facts and circumstances (including, without limitation, the dollar amount involved and whether the Investor has been precluded from investing in the Fund before); provided that such time period shall be at least 30 calendar days after the last redemption transaction. The above policies shall not apply if the Trust determines that a purchase and redemption pattern is not a Frequent Trading pattern or is the result of inadvertent trading errors.
These policies and procedures will be applied uniformly to all shareholders and the Funds will not accommodate market timers.
The policies also apply to any account, whether an individual account or accounts with Financial Intermediaries such as investment advisers, broker dealers or retirement plan administrators, commonly called omnibus accounts, where the intermediary holds Fund shares for a number of its customers in one account. Omnibus account arrangements permit multiple investors to aggregate their respective share ownership positions and purchase, redeem and exchange Fund shares without the identity of the particular shareholder(s) being known to the Funds. Accordingly, the ability of the Funds to monitor and detect Frequent Trading activity through omnibus accounts may be more limited and there is no guarantee that the Funds will be able to identify shareholders who may be engaging in Frequent Trading through omnibus accounts or to curtail such trading. However, the Funds will establish information sharing agreements with intermediaries as required by Rule 22c-2 under the 1940 Act, and otherwise use reasonable efforts to work with intermediaries to identify excessive short-term trading in underlying accounts.
If a Fund identifies that excessive short-term trading is taking place in a participant-directed employee benefit plan accounts, the Funds or their Adviser or Transfer Agent will contact the plan administrator, sponsor or trustee to request that action be taken to restrict such activity. However, the ability to do so may be constrained by regulatory restrictions or plan policies. In such circumstances, it is generally not the policy of the Funds to close the account of an entire plan due to the activity of a limited number of participants. However, the Funds will take such actions as deemed appropriate in light of all the facts and circumstances.
The Funds’ policies provide for ongoing assessment of the effectiveness of current policies and surveillance tools, and the Trustees reserves the right to modify these or adopt additional policies and restrictions in the future. Shareholders should be aware, however, that any surveillance techniques currently employed by the Funds or other techniques that may be adopted in the future, may not be effective, particularly where the trading takes place through certain types of omnibus accounts. As noted above, if the Funds are unable to detect and deter trading abuses, the Funds’ performance, and their long-term shareholders, may be harmed. In addition, shareholders may be harmed by the extra costs and portfolio management inefficiencies that result from Frequent Trading, even when the trading is not for abusive purposes.
40
Distribution Arrangements
The Funds are offered through financial supermarkets, investment advisers and consultants, financial planners, brokers, dealers and other investment professionals. Investment professionals who offer shares may request fees from their individual clients. If you invest through a third party, the policies and fees may be different than those described in this prospectus. For example, third parties may charge transaction fees or set different minimum investment amounts. If you purchase your shares through a broker-dealer, the broker-dealer firm is entitled to receive a percentage of the sales charge you pay in order to purchase Fund shares.
Financial Highlights |
The following tables are intended to help you better understand the financial performance of the Partners Fund, the Focused SCV Fund and the International Value Fund for the past 5 years or for the period of the Funds’ or share classes' operations. Certain information reflects financial results for a single Fund share. The total returns in the tables represent 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 Cohen & Company, Ltd., the Funds’ independent registered public accounting firm, whose report, along with the Funds’ financial statements, are included in the Funds’ annual report to shareholders and are incorporated by reference into the SAI. The annual report and the SAI are available from the Funds upon request without charge.
41
Clifford Capital Partners Fund
Institutional Class
Financial Highlights
Selected data for a share outstanding throughout the year.
Institutional Class | |||||||||||||||||
Years ended September 30, | |||||||||||||||||
2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020(2) | 2019 | |||||||||||||
Net asset value, beginning of year | $ | 16.31 | $ | 19.61 | $ | 14.03 | $ | 14.65 | $ | 15.83 | |||||||
Investment activities | |||||||||||||||||
Net investment income (loss)(1) | 0.31 | 0.27 | 0.29 | 0.31 | 0.23 | ||||||||||||
Net realized and unrealized gain (loss) on investments | 0.88 | (2.74 | ) | 5.63 | (0.68 | ) | (0.65 | ) | |||||||||
Total from investment activities | 1.19 | (2.47 | ) | 5.92 | (0.37 | ) | (0.42 | ) | |||||||||
Distributions | |||||||||||||||||
Net investment income | (0.20 | ) | (0.29 | ) | (0.34 | ) | (0.25 | ) | (0.15 | ) | |||||||
Net realized gain | (0.17 | ) | (0.54 | ) | — | — | (0.61 | ) | |||||||||
Total distributions | (0.37 | ) | (0.83 | ) | (0.34 | ) | (0.25 | ) | (0.76 | ) | |||||||
Net asset value, end of year | $ | 17.13 | $ | 16.31 | $ | 19.61 | $ | 14.03 | $ | 14.65 | |||||||
Total Return | 7.17 | % | (13.23 | %) | 42.63 | % | (2.68 | %) | (1.87 | %) | |||||||
Ratios/Supplemental Data | |||||||||||||||||
Ratios to average net assets | |||||||||||||||||
Expenses, gross | 1.18 | % | 1.29 | % | 1.42 | % | 1.45 | % | 0.90 | % | |||||||
Expenses, net of fee waivers and reimbursements | 0.90 | % | 0.90 | % | 0.90 | % | 0.90 | % | 0.90 | % | |||||||
Net investment income (loss) | 1.73 | % | 1.46 | % | 1.51 | % | 2.28 | % | 1.60 | % | |||||||
Portfolio turnover rate | 27.59 | % | 10.55 | % | 26.01 | % | 59.61 | % | 22.99 | % | |||||||
Net assets, end of year (000’s) | $ | 114,404 | $ | 90,591 | $ | 49,699 | $ | 24,549 | $ | 23,553 | |||||||
(1) | Per share amounts calculated using the average number of shares outstanding throughout the year. |
(2) | Prior to February 1, 2020 the Advisor paid all operating expenses except for management fees and 12b-1 expenses. |
42
Clifford Capital Partners Fund
Investor Class
Financial Highlights
Selected data for a share outstanding throughout the year.
Investor Class | |||||||||||||||||
Years ended September 30, | |||||||||||||||||
2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020(2) | 2019 | |||||||||||||
Net asset value, beginning of year | $ | 16.16 | $ | 19.47 | $ | 13.97 | $ | 14.61 | $ | 15.77 | |||||||
Investment activities | |||||||||||||||||
Net investment income (loss)(1) | 0.29 | 0.21 | 0.25 | 0.27 | 0.20 | ||||||||||||
Net realized and unrealized gain (loss) on investments | 0.83 | (2.70 | ) | 5.60 | (0.67 | ) | (0.64 | ) | |||||||||
Total from investment activities | 1.12 | (2.49 | ) | 5.85 | (0.40 | ) | (0.44 | ) | |||||||||
Distributions | |||||||||||||||||
Net investment income | (0.19 | ) | (0.28 | ) | (0.35 | ) | (0.24 | ) | (0.11 | ) | |||||||
Net realized gain | (0.17 | ) | (0.54 | ) | — | — | (0.61 | ) | |||||||||
Total distributions | (0.36 | ) | (0.82 | ) | (0.35 | ) | (0.24 | ) | (0.72 | ) | |||||||
Paid-in capital from redemption fees | — | — | (3) | — | — | — | |||||||||||
Net asset value, end of year | $ | 16.92 | $ | 16.16 | $ | 19.47 | $ | 13.97 | $ | 14.61 | |||||||
Total Return | 6.78 | % | (13.44 | %) | 42.29 | % | (2.86 | %) | (2.07 | %) | |||||||
Ratios/Supplemental Data | |||||||||||||||||
Ratios to average net assets | |||||||||||||||||
Expenses, gross | 1.59 | % | 1.50 | % | 1.61 | % | 1.57 | % | 1.10 | % | |||||||
Expenses, net of fee waivers and reimbursements | 1.15 | % | 1.15 | % | 1.15 | % | 1.13 | % | 1.10 | % | |||||||
Net investment income (loss) | 1.61 | % | 1.12 | % | 1.32 | % | 1.93 | % | 1.39 | % | |||||||
Portfolio turnover rate | 27.59 | % | 10.55 | % | 26.01 | % | 59.61 | % | 22.99 | % | |||||||
Net assets, end of period (000’s) | $ | 520 | $ | 1,123 | $ | 549 | $ | 397 | $ | 785 | |||||||
(1) | Per share amounts calculated using the average number of shares outstanding throughout the year. |
(2) | Prior to February 1, 2020 the Advisor paid all operating expenses except for management fees and 12b-1 expenses. |
(3) | Less than 0.005 per share. |
43
Clifford Capital Partners Fund
Super Institutional Class
Financial Highlights
Selected data for a share outstanding throughout the period.
Super Institutional Class | |||||||||||||
Period | |||||||||||||
October 17, | |||||||||||||
2019(2) to | |||||||||||||
Years ended September 30, | September 30, | ||||||||||||
2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | ||||||||||
Net asset value, beginning of period | $ | 16.47 | $ | 19.84 | $ | 14.21 | $ | 14.67 | |||||
Investment activities | |||||||||||||
Net investment income (loss)(1) | 0.33 | 0.31 | 0.31 | 0.30 | |||||||||
Net realized and unrealized gain (loss) on investments | 0.90 | (2.80 | ) | 5.70 | (0.70 | ) | |||||||
Total from investment activities | 1.23 | (2.49 | ) | 6.01 | (0.40 | ) | |||||||
Distributions | |||||||||||||
Net investment income | (0.29 | ) | (0.34 | ) | (0.38 | ) | (0.06 | ) | |||||
Net realized gain | (0.17 | ) | (0.54 | ) | — | — | |||||||
Total distributions | (0.46 | ) | (0.88 | ) | (0.38 | ) | (0.06 | ) | |||||
Net asset value, end of period | $ | 17.24 | $ | 16.47 | $ | 19.84 | $ | 14.21 | |||||
Total Return(3) | 7.29 | % | (13.23 | %) | 42.74 | % | (2.74 | %) | |||||
Ratios/Supplemental Data | |||||||||||||
Ratios to average net assets(4) | |||||||||||||
Expenses, gross | 1.08 | % | 1.21 | % | 1.35 | % | 1.43 | % | |||||
Expenses, net of fee waivers and reimbursements | 0.82 | % | 0.82 | % | 0.82 | % | 0.85 | % | |||||
Net investment income (loss) | 1.84 | % | 1.64 | % | 1.65 | % | 2.29 | % | |||||
Portfolio turnover rate(3) | 27.59 | % | 10.55 | % | 26.01 | % | 59.61 | % | |||||
Net assets, end of period (000’s) | $ | 12 | $ | 11 | $ | 18 | $ | 13 |
(1) | Per share amounts calculated using the average number of shares outstanding throughout the period. |
(2) | Commencement of operations. |
(3) | Total return and portfolio turnover rate are for the period indicated and have not been annualized for periods less than one year. |
(4) | Ratios to average net assets have been annualized for periods less than one year. |
44
Clifford Capital Focused Small Cap Value Fund
Institutional Class
Financial Highlights
Selected data for a share outstanding throughout the period.
Institutional Class | ||||||||||||||
Period | ||||||||||||||
October 1, | ||||||||||||||
2019(3) to | ||||||||||||||
Years ended September 30, | September 30, | |||||||||||||
2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | |||||||||||
Net asset value, beginning of period | $ | 9.62 | $ | 13.72 | $ | 9.04 | $ | 10.00 | ||||||
Investment activities | ||||||||||||||
Net investment income (loss)(1) | 0.16 | 0.11 | 0.11 | 0.19 | ||||||||||
Net realized and unrealized gain (loss) on investments | 1.71 | (2.65 | ) | 4.74 | (1.14 | ) | ||||||||
Total from investment activities | 1.87 | (2.54 | ) | 4.85 | (0.95 | ) | ||||||||
Distributions | ||||||||||||||
Net investment income | (0.04 | ) | (0.12 | ) | (0.17 | ) | (0.01 | ) | ||||||
Net realized gains | (0.54 | ) | (1.44 | ) | — | — | (2) | |||||||
Total distributions | (0.58 | ) | (1.56 | ) | (0.17 | ) | (0.01 | ) | ||||||
Net asset value, end of period | $ | 10.91 | $ | 9.62 | $ | 13.72 | $ | 9.04 | ||||||
Total Return(4) | 19.73 | % | (21.06 | %) | 54.02 | % | (9.53 | %) | ||||||
Ratios/Supplemental Data | ||||||||||||||
Ratios to average net assets(5) | ||||||||||||||
Expenses, gross | 2.84 | % | 2.65 | % | 3.01 | % | 6.47 | % | ||||||
Expenses, net of fee waivers and reimbursements | 1.05 | % | 1.05 | % | 1.05 | % | 1.05 | % | ||||||
Net investment income (loss) | 1.52 | % | 0.92 | % | 0.84 | % | 2.32 | % | ||||||
Portfolio turnover rate(4) | 34.00 | % | 43.27 | % | 40.68 | % | 102.07 | % | ||||||
Net assets, end of period (000’s) | $ | 7,808 | $ | 11,475 | $ | 11,657 | $ | 4,532 | ||||||
(1) | Per share amounts calculated using the average number of shares outstanding throughout the period. |
(2) | Less than $0.005. |
(3) | Commencement of operations. |
(4) | Total return and portfolio turnover rate are for the period indicated and have not been annualized for periods less than one year. |
(5) | Ratios to average net assets have been annualized for periods less than one year. |
45
Clifford Capital Focused Small Cap Value Fund
Investor Class
Financial Highlights
Selected data for a share outstanding throughout the period.
Investor Class | ||||||||||||||
Period | ||||||||||||||
January 31, | ||||||||||||||
2020(2) to | ||||||||||||||
Years ended September 30, | September 30, | |||||||||||||
2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | |||||||||||
Net asset value, beginning of period | $ | 9.56 | $ | 13.64 | $ | 9.02 | $ | 9.96 | ||||||
Investment activities | ||||||||||||||
Net investment income (loss)(1) | 0.14 | 0.08 | 0.05 | 0.12 | ||||||||||
Net realized and unrealized gain (loss) on investments | 1.68 | (2.63 | ) | 4.76 | (1.06 | ) | ||||||||
Total from investment activities | 1.82 | (2.55 | ) | 4.81 | (0.94 | ) | ||||||||
Distributions | ||||||||||||||
Net investment income | — | (0.09 | ) | (0.19 | ) | — | ||||||||
Net realized gain | (0.54 | ) | (1.44 | ) | — | — | ||||||||
Total distributions | (0.54 | ) | (1.53 | ) | (0.19 | ) | — | |||||||
Net asset value, end of period | $ | 10.84 | $ | 9.56 | $ | 13.64 | $ | 9.02 | ||||||
Total Return(3) | 19.30 | % | (21.26 | %) | 53.71 | % | (9.44% | ) | ||||||
Ratios/Supplemental Data | ||||||||||||||
Ratios to average net assets(4) | ||||||||||||||
Expenses, gross | 3.18 | % | 3.01 | % | 3.30 | % | 5.43 | % | ||||||
Expenses, net of fee waivers and reimbursements | 1.30 | % | 1.30 | % | 1.30 | % | 1.30 | % | ||||||
Net investment income (loss) | 1.30 | % | 0.63 | % | 0.38 | % | 2.15 | % | ||||||
Portfolio turnover rate(3) | 34.00 | % | 43.27 | % | 40.68 | % | 102.07 | % | ||||||
Net assets, end of period (000’s) | $ | 20 | $ | 14 | $ | 10 | $ | 2 | ||||||
(1) | Per share amounts calculated using the average number of shares outstanding throughout the period. |
(2) | Commencement of operations |
(3) | Total return and portfolio turnover rate are for the period indicated and have not been annualized for periods less than one year. |
(4) | Ratios to average net assets have been annualized for periods less than one year. |
46
Clifford Capital Focused Small Cap Fund
Super Institutional Class
Financial Highlights
Selected data for a share outstanding throughout the period.
Super Institutional Class | ||||||||||||||
Period | ||||||||||||||
January 31, | ||||||||||||||
2020(2) to | ||||||||||||||
Years ended September 30, | September 30, | |||||||||||||
2023 | 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | |||||||||||
Net asset value, beginning of period | $ | 9.57 | $ | 13.67 | $ | 9.04 | $ | 9.96 | ||||||
Investment activities | ||||||||||||||
Net investment income (loss)(1) | 0.17 | 0.13 | 0.13 | 0.14 | ||||||||||
Net realized and unrealized gain (loss) on investments | 1.69 | (2.64 | ) | 4.72 | (1.06 | ) | ||||||||
Total from investment activities | 1.86 | (2.51 | ) | 4.85 | (0.92 | ) | ||||||||
Distributions | ||||||||||||||
Net investment income | (0.04 | ) | (0.15 | ) | (0.22 | ) | — | |||||||
Net realized gain | (0.54 | ) | (1.44 | ) | — | — | ||||||||
Total distributions | (0.58 | ) | (1.59 | ) | (0.22 | ) | — | |||||||
Net asset value, end of period | $ | 10.85 | $ | 9.57 | $ | 13.67 | $ | 9.04 | ||||||
Total Return(3) | 19.72 | % | (20.98 | %) | 54.10 | % | (9.24 | %) | ||||||
Ratios/Supplemental Data | ||||||||||||||
Ratios to average net assets(4) | ||||||||||||||
Expenses, gross | 2.61 | % | 2.40 | % | 2.93 | % | 5.19 | % | ||||||
Expenses, net of fee waivers and reimbursements | 0.97 | % | 0.97 | % | 0.97 | % | 0.97 | % | ||||||
Net investment income (loss) | 1.62 | % | 1.04 | % | 0.95 | % | 2.48 | % | ||||||
Portfolio turnover rate(3) | 34.00 | % | 43.27 | % | 40.68 | % | 102.07 | % | ||||||
Net assets, end of period (000’s) | $ | 3 | $ | 2 | $ | 3 | $ | 2 | ||||||
(1) | Per share amounts calculated using the average number of shares outstanding throughout the period. |
(2) | Commencement of operations. |
(3) | Total return and portfolio turnover rate are for the period indicated and have not been annualized for periods less than one year. |
(4) | Ratios to average net assets have been annualized for periods less than one year. |
47
Clifford Capital International Value Fund
Institutional Class
Financial Highlights
Selected data for a share outstanding throughout the period.
Institutional Class | |||||||
Year
ended September 30, 2023 |
Period
May 6, 2022(2) to September 30, 2022 |
||||||
Net asset value, beginning of period | $ | 8.12 | $ | 10.00 | |||
Investment activities | |||||||
Net investment income (loss)(1) | 0.30 | 0.22 | |||||
Net realized and unrealized gain (loss) on investments | 1.64 | (2.10 | ) | ||||
Total from investment activities | 1.94 | (1.88 | ) | ||||
Distributions | |||||||
Net investment income | (0.18 | ) | — | ||||
Total distributions | (0.18 | ) | — | ||||
Net asset value, end of period | $ | 9.88 | $ | 8.12 | |||
Total Return(3) | 24.04 | % | (18.80 | %) | |||
Ratios/Supplemental Data | |||||||
Ratios to average net assets(4) | |||||||
Expenses, gross | 13.20 | % | 28.72 | % | |||
Expenses, net of fee waivers and reimbursements | 1.05 | % | 1.05 | % | |||
Net investment income (loss) | 3.06 | % | 5.87 | % | |||
Portfolio turnover rate(3) | 10.56 | % | 11.14 | % | |||
Net assets, end of period (000’s) | $ | 4,148 | $ | 197 | |||
(1) | Per share amounts calculated using the average number of shares outstanding throughout the period. |
(2) | Commencement of operations. |
(3) | Total return and portfolio turnover rate are for the period indicated and have not been annualized. |
(4) | Ratios to average net assets have been annualized. |
48
Clifford Capital International Value Fund
Investor Class
Financial Highlights
Selected data for a share outstanding throughout the period.
Investor Class | |||||||
Year
ended September 30, 2023 |
Period
May 6, 2022(2) to September 30, 2022 |
||||||
Net asset value, beginning of period | $ | 8.11 | $ | 10.00 | |||
Investment activities | |||||||
Net investment income (loss)(1) | 0.25 | 0.21 | |||||
Net realized and unrealized gain (loss) on investments | 1.67 | (2.10 | ) | ||||
Total from investment activities | 1.92 | (1.89 | ) | ||||
Distributions | |||||||
Net investment income | (0.17 | ) | — | ||||
Total distributions | (0.17 | ) | — | ||||
Net asset value, end of period | $ | 9.86 | $ | 8.11 | |||
Total Return(3) | 23.77 | % | (18.90 | %) | |||
Ratios/Supplemental Data | |||||||
Ratios to average net assets(4) | |||||||
Expenses, gross | 27.49 | % | 28.97 | % | |||
Expenses, net of fee waivers and reimbursements | 1.30 | % | 1.30 | % | |||
Net investment income (loss) | 2.50 | % | 5.62 | % | |||
Portfolio turnover rate(3) | 10.56 | % | 11.14 | % | |||
Net assets, end of period (000’s) | $ | 17 | $ | 14 | |||
(1) | Per share amounts calculated using the average number of shares outstanding throughout the period. |
(2) | Commencement of operations. |
(3) | Total return and portfolio turnover rate are for the period indicated and have not been annualized. |
(4) | Ratios to average net assets have been annualized. |
49
Clifford Capital International Value Fund
Super Institutional Class
Financial Highlights
Selected data for a share outstanding throughout the period.
Super Institutional Class | |||||||
Year
ended September 30, 2023 |
Period
May 6, 2022(2) to September 30, 2022 |
||||||
Net asset value, beginning of period | $ | 8.12 | $ | 10.00 | |||
Investment activities | |||||||
Net investment income (loss)(1) | 0.28 | 0.23 | |||||
Net realized and unrealized gain (loss) on investments | 1.67 | (2.11 | ) | ||||
Total from investment activities | 1.95 | (1.88 | ) | ||||
Distributions | |||||||
Net investment income | (0.18 | ) | — | ||||
Total distributions | (0.18 | ) | — | ||||
Net asset value, end of period | $ | 9.89 | $ | 8.12 | |||
Total Return(3) | 24.20 | % | (18.80 | %) | |||
Ratios/Supplemental Data | |||||||
Ratios to average net assets(4) | |||||||
Expenses, gross | 26.69 | % | 28.33 | % | |||
Expenses, net of fee waivers and reimbursements | 0.97 | % | 0.97 | % | |||
Net investment income (loss) | 2.83 | % | 5.97 | % | |||
Portfolio turnover rate(3) | 10.56 | % | 11.14 | % | |||
Net assets, end of period (000’s) | $ | 354 | $ | 246 | |||
(1) | Per share amounts calculated using the average number of shares outstanding throughout the period. |
(2) | Commencement of operations. |
(3) | Total return and portfolio turnover rate are for the period indicated and have not been annualized. |
(4) | Ratios to average net assets have been annualized. |
50
APPENDIX
Adviser’s Prior Performance – Partners Fund |
The data below is provided to illustrate the past performance of Clifford Capital Partners, LLC, the Partners Fund’s adviser, in managing fully discretionary private advisory accounts that are managed in accordance with the Clifford Capital All Cap Value investment strategy (formerly named the Clifford Capital Institutional Portfolio) as measured against market indices, and does not represent the performance of the Partners Fund, nor should it be considered a substitute for the Partners Fund’s performance. You should not consider this performance data as a prediction or an indication of future performance of the Partners Fund or the performance that one might achieve by investing in the Partners Fund.
The Clifford Capital All Cap Value strategy (the “Composite”) represents all fully discretionary private advisory accounts that are managed in accordance with the Clifford Capital All Cap Value investment strategy (formerly named the Clifford Capital Institutional Portfolio). The Partners Fund is also managed in a manner that is substantially similar to the manner in which these discretionary private advisory accounts are managed. The investment objectives, strategies, and policies of the Partners Fund are substantially similar to the discretionary private advisory accounts included in the Composite. The Composite began on August 1, 2010, the first full month the Adviser began managing accounts.
The manner in which the performance was calculated for the Composite differs from that of registered mutual funds like the Partners Fund. The SEC standard method for calculation of performance information for mutual funds was not utilized to calculate the performance of the Composite. The performance information shown below is not representative of the performance information that typically would be shown for a registered mutual fund. The discretionary private advisory accounts that are included in the Composite are not subject to the same type of expenses to which the Partners Fund is subject and are not subject to the diversification requirements, specific tax restrictions, and investment limitations imposed on the Partners Fund by the Investment Company Act of 1940, as amended, or the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended. Consequently, the performance results for the Composite could have been adversely affected if the discretionary private advisory accounts in the Composite were subject to the same federal securities tax laws as the Partners Fund. In addition, the discretionary private advisory accounts are not subject to the same adverse effects of cash inflows and outflows of investor money that a public mutual fund such as the Partners Fund may be subject to, and accordingly the performance of these accounts may be higher than for a public mutual fund managed under the same investment strategy. “Composite Net-of-Fees” performance results are net of all fees, expenses, and, if applicable, sales loads or placement fees. Because of variation in fee levels, the “net of fees” Composite returns may not be reflective of performance in any one particular account. The use of a methodology different than that used below to calculate performance could result in different performance data.
The operating expenses incurred by the discretionary private advisory accounts in the Composite differ from the anticipated operating expenses of the Partners Fund, with some higher and some lower. The Adviser believes that the net effect of these differences would not have been material to its prior performance results.
51
The
Adviser’s Clifford Capital All Cap Value Composite
(August
1, 2010 through December 31, 2023)
The following data illustrates the past performance of the Adviser in managing all substantially similar discretionary private advisory accounts and does not represent the performance of the Partners Fund.
Year | Total
Return (net of investment management fees) |
Total
Return (gross of investment management fees) |
Russell
3000® Value Total Return Index |
Aug. 1 – Dec. 31, 2010 | 14.32% | 14.57% | 14.35% |
2011 | 4.20% | 5.18% | -0.10% |
2012 | 20.15% | 21.29% | 17.55% |
2013 | 33.22% | 34.46% | 32.69% |
2014 | 17.49% | 18.63% | 12.70% |
2015 | -10.53% | -10.08% | -4.13% |
2016 | 37.02% | 37.92% | 18.40% |
2017 | 12.45% | 13.10% | 13.19% |
2018 | -8.37% | -8.01% | -8.58% |
2019 | 25.02% | 25.32% | 26.26% |
2020 | 12.89% | 13.17% | 2.87% |
2021 | 21.20% | 22.00% | 25.37% |
2022 | -3.55% | -3.03% | -8.01% |
2023 | 5.33% | 5.91% | 11.61% |
Composite
Average Annual Returns (as of December 31, 2023)
Time Period | Total
Return (net of investment management fees) |
Total
Return (gross of investment management fees) |
Russell
3000® Value Total Return Index |
One year | 5.33% | 5.91% | 11.61% |
Three years | 7.18% | 7.81% | 8.76% |
Five years | 11.68% | 12.18% | 10.81% |
Ten years | 9.94% | 10.52% | 8.25% |
Since
Inception (8/1/2010 – 12/31/2023) |
12.60% | 13.31% | 10.76% |
52
Adviser’s Prior Performance – Focused SCV Fund |
The data below is provided to illustrate the past performance of Clifford Capital Partners, LLC, the Focused SCV Fund’s adviser, in managing fully discretionary private advisory accounts that are managed in accordance with the Clifford Capital Focused Small Cap Value investment strategy as measured against market indices, and does not represent the performance of the Focused SCV Fund, nor should it be considered a substitute for the Focused SCV Fund’s performance. You should not consider this performance data as a prediction or an indication of future performance of the Focused SCV Fund or the performance that one might achieve by investing in the Focused SCV Fund.
The Clifford Capital Focused Small Cap Value strategy (the “Composite”) represents all fully discretionary private advisory accounts that are managed in accordance with the Clifford Capital Focused Small Cap Value investment strategy. The Focused SCV Fund is also managed in a manner that is substantially similar to the manner in which these discretionary private advisory accounts are managed. The investment objectives, strategies, and policies of the Focused SCV Fund are substantially similar to the discretionary private advisory accounts included in the Composite. The Composite began on April 1, 2016.
The way the performance was calculated for the Composite differs from that of registered mutual funds like the Focused SCV Fund. The SEC standard method for calculation of performance information for mutual funds was not utilized to calculate the performance of the Composite. The performance information shown below is not representative of the performance information that typically would be shown for a registered mutual fund. The discretionary private advisory accounts that are included in the Composite are not subject to the same type of expenses to which the Focused SCV Fund is subject and are not subject to the diversification requirements, specific tax restrictions, and investment limitations imposed on the Focused SCV Fund by the Investment Company Act of 1940, as amended, or the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended. Consequently, the performance results for the Composite could have been adversely affected if the discretionary private advisory accounts in the Composite were subject to the same federal securities tax laws as the Focused SCV Fund. In addition, the discretionary private advisory accounts are not subject to the same adverse effects of cash inflows and outflows of investor money that a public mutual fund such as the Focused SCV Fund may be subject to, and accordingly the performance of these accounts may be higher than for a public mutual fund managed under the same investment strategy. “Composite Net-of-Fees” performance results are net of all fees, expenses, and, if applicable, sales loads or placement fees. Because of variation in fee levels, the “net of fees” Composite returns may not be reflective of performance in any one particular account. The use of a methodology different than that used below to calculate performance could result in different performance data.
The operating expenses incurred by the discretionary private advisory accounts in the Composite differ from the anticipated operating expenses of the Focused SCV Fund, with some higher and some lower. The Adviser believes that the net effect of these differences would not have been material to its prior performance results.
53
The
Adviser’s Clifford Capital Focused Small Cap Value Composite
(April 1,
2016 through December 31, 2023)
The following data illustrates the past performance of the Adviser in managing all substantially similar discretionary private advisory accounts and does not represent the performance of the Focused SCV Fund.
Year | Total
Return (net of investment management fees) |
Total
Return (gross of investment management fees) |
Russell
2000® Value Total Return Index |
Apr. 1 – Dec. 31, 2016 | 32.62% | 33.62% | 29.54% |
2017 | 11.25% | 12.22% | 7.84% |
2018 | -13.75% | -12.95% | -12.86% |
2019 | 14.00% | 15.06% | 22.39% |
2020 | 9.60% | 10.63% | 4.63% |
2021 | 22.38% | 23.44% | 28.27% |
2022 | -10.84% | -10.24% | -14.50% |
2023 | 18.11% | 19.15% | 14.58% |
Composite Average Annual Returns (as of December 31, 2023)
Time Period | Total
Return (net of investment management fees) |
Total
Return (gross of investment management fees) |
Russell
2000® Value Total Return Index |
One year | 18.11% | 19.15% | 14.58% |
Three years | 8.78% | 9.70% | 7.89% |
Five years | 9.98% | 10.94% | 9.96% |
Since
Inception (4/1/2016 – 12/31/2023) |
9.69% | 10.66% | 9.04% |
54
Adviser’s Prior Performance – International Value Fund |
The data below is provided to illustrate the past performance of Clifford Capital Partners, LLC, the Fund’s adviser, in managing fully discretionary private advisory accounts that are managed in accordance with the Clifford Capital International Value investment strategy as measured against market indices, and does not represent the performance of the Fund, nor should it be considered a substitute for the Fund’s performance. You should not consider this performance data as a prediction or an indication of future performance of the Fund or the performance that one might achieve by investing in the Fund.
The Clifford Capital International Value strategy (the “Composite”) represents all fully discretionary private advisory accounts that are managed in accordance with the Clifford Capital International Value investment strategy. The International Value Fund is also managed in a manner that is substantially similar to the manner in which these discretionary private advisory accounts are managed. The investment objectives, strategies, and policies of the Fund are substantially similar to the discretionary private advisory accounts included in the Composite. The Composite began on August 1, 2019, the first full month the Adviser began managing International investment accounts.
The Composite performance results were calculated by the Adviser on a cash flow basis (i.e., dividends and other cash flows are included in performance results when paid/incurred) and are consistent with GIPS performance reporting standards. This method of calculation differs somewhat from that of registered mutual funds like the Fund. The performance information shown below is not representative of the performance information that typically would be shown for a registered mutual fund. The discretionary private advisory accounts that are included in the Composite are not subject to the same type of expenses to which the Fund is subject and are not subject to the diversification requirements, specific tax restrictions, and investment limitations imposed on the Fund by the 1940 Act, as amended, or the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended. Consequently, the performance results for the Composite could have been adversely affected if the discretionary private advisory accounts in the Composite were subject to the same federal securities and tax laws as the Fund. In addition, the discretionary private advisory accounts are not subject to the same adverse effects of cash inflows and outflows of investor money that a public mutual fund such as the Fund may be subject to, and accordingly the performance of these accounts may be higher than for a public mutual fund managed under the same investment strategy. Composite Total Return (net of investment management fees)” performance results are net of all fees, expenses, and, if applicable, sales loads or placement fees. Because of variation in fee levels, the “net of fees” Composite returns may not be reflective of performance in any one particular account. The use of a methodology different than that used below to calculate performance could result in different performance data.
The operating expenses incurred by the discretionary private advisory accounts in the Composite differ from the anticipated operating expenses of the Fund, with some higher and some lower. The Adviser believes that the net effect of these differences would not have been material to its prior performance results.
55
The
Adviser’s Clifford Capital International Value Composite
(August
1, 2019 through December 31, 2023)
The following data illustrates the past performance of the Adviser in managing all substantially similar discretionary private advisory accounts and does not represent the performance of the Fund.
Year | Total
Return (net of investment management fees) |
Total
Return (gross of investment management fees) |
MSCI
EAFE Net |
MSCI
EAFE Value |
Aug. 1 – Dec. 31, 2019 | 10.59% | 11.05% | 8.38% | 8.38% |
2020 | -3.65% | -2.68% | 7.82% | -2.63% |
2021 | 18.17% | 19.36% | 11.26% | 10.89% |
2022 | -6.23% | -5.50% | -14.45% | -5.58% |
2023 | 13.41% | 14.32% | 18.24% | 18.95% |
Composite Average Annual Returns (as of December 31, 2023)
Time Period | Total
Return (net of investment management fees) |
Total
Return (gross of investment management fees) |
MSCI
EAFE Net |
MSCI
EAFE Value |
One year | 13.41% | 14.32% | 18.24% | 18.95% |
Three years | 7.91% | 8.84% | 4.02% | 7.60% |
Since
Inception (8/1/2019 – 12/31/2023) |
6.82% | 7.79% | 6.40% | 6.38% |
* Effective January 31, 2024, the comparative benchmark index changed to the MSCI EAFE Net Total Return Index, which the Adviser believes is a more appropriate performance comparison reflecting the broader international market in which the accounts comprising the Composite invest.
56
Fund Service Providers
Investment Adviser
Clifford Capital Partners, LLC, located at 363 S. Main Street, Suite 101, Alpine, Utah 84004
Administrator, Transfer Agent and Fund Accountant
Commonwealth Fund Services, Inc., located at 8730 Stony Point Parkway, Suite 205, Richmond, Virginia 23235
Distributor
Foreside Fund Services, LLC, located at Three Canal Plaza, Suite 100, Portland, Maine 04101
Custodian
Fifth Third Bank, located at 38 Fountain Square
Plaza, Cincinnati, Ohio 45263
Independent Registered Public Accounting Firm
Cohen & Company, Ltd., located at 1350 Euclid Ave., Suite 800, Cleveland, Ohio 44115
Legal Counsel
Practus, LLP, located at 11300 Tomahawk Creek Parkway, Suite 310, Leawood, Kansas 66211
57
How to Get More Information |
Where to Go for Information
For shareholder inquiries, please call toll-free 800-628-4077 .
The SAI is on file with the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”), contains additional and more detailed information about the Fund, and is incorporated into this Prospectus by reference. Additional information about the Funds’ investments is available in the Funds’ annual and semi-annual reports to shareholders. In the Funds’ annual report, you will find a discussion of the market conditions and investment strategies that significantly affected a Fund’s performance during its last fiscal year. There are three ways to get a copy of these documents.
1. | Call or write for one, and a copy will be sent without charge. |
Clifford Capital Partners Fund, Clifford Capital Focused Small Cap Value Fund and/or Clifford Capital
International Value Fund
c/o Commonwealth Fund Services, Inc.
8730 Stony Point Parkway, Suite 205
Richmond, Virginia 23235
800-628-4077
2. | Reports and other information regarding the Funds are available on the EDGAR Database on the SEC’s Internet site free of charge at http://www.sec.gov, and copies of this information may be obtained, after paying a duplicating fee, by electronic request at the following e-mail address: [email protected]. |
3. | Copies of these documents may also be obtained free of charge by visiting the Funds’ website at https://cliffordcap.com/fundreports/. You may also e-mail the Funds at [email protected]. |
No dealer, salesman, or other person has been authorized to give any information or to make any representations, other than those contained in this Prospectus, and, if given or made, such other information or representations must not be relied upon as having been authorized by the Funds or the Adviser. This Prospectus does not constitute an offering in any state in which such offering may not lawfully be made.
Reports and other information regarding the Funds are available on the EDGAR Database on the SEC's Internet site at http://www.sec.gov, and copies of this information may be obtained, after paying a duplicating fee, by electronic request at the following e-mail address: [email protected].
The Adviser’s Contact Information is:
Clifford Capital Partners, LLC
363 S. Main Street, Suite 101
Alpine, Utah 84004
385-387-1212
SEC file number 811-22172
58