Important Disclosure
^Equity analysts referred to are part of Morningstar’s Equity Research group which consists of various wholly-owned subsidiaries of Morningstar, Inc., including but not limited to, Morningstar Research Services LLC.
1Van Eck Associates Corporation (the “Adviser”) has agreed to waive fees and/or pay Fund expenses to the extent necessary to prevent the operating expenses of the Fund (excluding acquired fund fees and expenses, interest expense, trading expenses, dividends and interest payments on securities sold short, taxes and extraordinary expenses) from exceeding 0.59% for Class I, and 0.49% for Class Z of the Fund’s average daily net assets per year until May 1, 2020. During such time, the expense limitation is expected to continue until the Board of Trustees acts to discontinue all or a portion of such expense limitation. Other expenses and acquired fund fees and expenses are based on estimated amounts for the current fiscal year.
Effective June 20, 2016, Morningstar implemented several changes to the Morningstar Wide Moat Focus Index construction rules. Among other changes, the index increased its constituent count from 20 stocks to at least 40 stocks and modified its rebalance and reconstitution methodology. These changes may result in more diversified exposure, lower turnover, and longer holding periods for index constituents than under the rules in effect prior to this date. Past performance is no guarantee of future results.
2The Morningstar®Wide Moat Focus IndexSMwas created and is maintained by Morningstar, Inc. Morningstar, Inc. does not sponsor, endorse, issue, sell, or promote the VanEck Morningstar Wide Moat Fund and bears no liability with respect to the Fund or any security. Morningstar®is a registered trademark of Morningstar, Inc. Morningstar®Wide Moat Focus IndexSMis a service mark of Morningstar, Inc.
The Morningstar®Wide Moat Focus IndexSMconsists of companies identified as having sustainable, competitive advantages and whose stocks are attractively priced, according to Morningstar.
3The S&P 500®Index consists of 500 widely held common stocks covering the leading industries of the U.S. economy.
The S&P 500 Index (“Index”) is a product of S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC and/or its affiliates and has been licensed for use by Van Eck Associates Corporation. Copyright © 2018 S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC, a division of S&P Global, Inc., and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Redistribution or reproduction in whole or in part are prohibited without written permission of S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC. For more information on any of S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC’s indices please visit www.spdji.com. S&P is a registered trademark of S&P Global and Dow Jones®is a registered trademark of Dow Jones Trademark Holdings LLC. Neither S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC, Dow Jones Trademark Holdings LLC, their affiliates nor their third party licensors make any representation or warranty, express or implied, as to the ability of any index to accurately represent the asset class or market sector that it purports to represent and neither S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC, Dow Jones Trademark Holdings LLC, their affiliates nor their third party licensors shall have any liability for any errors, omissions, or interruptions of any index or the data included therein.
You can lose money by investing in the Fund. Any investment in the Fund should be part of an overall investment program rather than a complete program. An investment in the Fund may be subject to risks which include, among others, investing in concentration, equity securities, index tracking and data, consumer staples, financial services, the health care, information technology, underlying fund, market, medium-capitalization companies, non-diversification, operational and replication management risks, which may make these investments volatile in price or difficult to trade. Medium-capitalization companies may be subject to elevated risks. The Fund's assets may be concentrated in a particular sector and may be subject to more risk than investments in a diverse group of sectors.
Investing involves risk, including possible loss of principal. An investor should consider investment objectives, risks, charges and expenses of the investment company carefully before investing. The prospectus and summary prospectus contain this and other information. Please read them carefully before investing.