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# Information Available to Investment Company Shareholders

Before you invest in any traditional investment company—such as a mutual fund, closed-end fund, or unit investment trust (UIT)—you should read the fund’s prospectus and any other available information from the fund. Below you’ll find descriptions of the different types of information that investment companies provide to investors. For information available to exchange-traded fund (ETF) investors, please refer to that separate topic.

## Prospectus

An investment company prospectus contains important information about its fees and expenses, investment objectives, investment strategies, risks, performance, pricing, and more. A UIT’s prospectus (but not a mutual fund’s or closed-end fund’s prospectus) will also typically list the securities that the UIT holds.

When you purchase shares of a mutual fund or a UIT, the fund or UIT must provide you with a prospectus.  Some mutual funds (but not closed-end funds or UITs) may furnish you with a summary prospectus containing key information about the fund.  If you receive a summary prospectus, the fund’s long-form prospectus will be available on an Internet Web site, and you can obtain a paper copy upon request and without charge.  You can find tips on how to read a mutual fund prospectus on our website.

When you purchase shares of a closed-end fund during the fund’s public offering, the fund must provide you with a prospectus. When you purchase shares of a closed-end fund on the secondary market, however, you will not necessarily receive a prospectus. This is because you are purchasing your shares from another investor rather than from the fund itself.

## Statement of Additional Information (SAI)

Mutual funds and closed-end funds (but not UITs) also are required to have statements of additional information (SAIs). Funds must give you the SAI without charge if you request it. 

The SAI conveys information about the fund that some investors find useful. The SAI affords the fund an opportunity to expand discussions of the matters described in the prospectus. The SAI generally includes the fund’s financial statements and information (or additional information) about: the history of the fund; some fund policies (such as on borrowing and concentration policies); officers, directors and persons who control the fund; investment advisory and other services; brokerage commissions; tax matters; and performance measures, such as, average annual total return.

## Shareholder Reports

A mutual fund and a closed-end fund respectively must provide shareholders with annual and semi-annual reports 60 days after the end of the fund’s fiscal year and 60 days after the fund’s fiscal mid-year. These reports contain updated financial information, a list of the fund’s portfolio securities, and other information. The information in the shareholder reports will be current as of the date of the particular report (that is, the last day of the fund’s fiscal year for the annual report, and the last day of the fund’s fiscal mid-year for the semi-annual report). 

## Other Reports

A mutual fund and a closed-end fund must file a Form N-Q each quarter and a Form N-PX each year on the SEC’s EDGAR database, although funds are not required to mail these reports to shareholders. Funds disclose portfolio holdings on Form N-Q. Form N-PX identifies specific proposals on which the fund has voted portfolio securities over the past year and discloses how the fund voted on each. This disclosure enables fund shareholders to monitor their funds’ involvement in the governance activities of portfolio companies. 

## How to Obtain These Documents

You can obtain all of these documents by: calling or writing to the investment company (all investment companies have toll-free telephone numbers); from the investment company’s website; contacting a broker that sells the investment company’s shares; accessing the SEC’s EDGAR database; or by accessing How to Request Public Documents.

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