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BREAKPOINT DISCLOSURE
STATEMENT Before investing in
mutual funds, it is important that you understand the sales charges,
expenses, and management fees that you will be charged, as well as
the breakpoint discounts to which you may be entitled. Understanding
these charges and breakpoint discounts will assist you in
identifying the best investment for your particular needs and may
help you reduce the cost of your investment. This disclosure
document will give you general background information about these
charges and discounts. However, sales charges, expenses, management
fees, and breakpoint discounts vary from mutual fund to mutual fund.
Therefore, you should discuss these issues with your financial
advisor and review each mutual fund’s prospectus and statement of
additional information, which are available from your financial
advisor, to get the specific information regarding the charges and
breakpoint discounts associated with a particular mutual
fund.
Sales
Charges Investors that purchase mutual funds must make
certain choices, including which funds to purchase and which class
share is most advantageous. Each mutual fund has a specified
investment strategy. You need to consider whether the mutual fund’s
investment strategy is compatible with your investment objectives.
Additionally, most mutual funds offer different share classes.
Although each share class represents a similar interest in the
mutual fund’s portfolio, the mutual fund will charge you different
fees and expenses depending upon your choice of share class. As a
general rule, Class A shares carry a “front-end?sales charge or
“load?that is deducted from your investment at the time you buy
fund shares. This sales charge is a percentage of your total
purchase. As explained below, many mutual funds offer volume
discounts to the front-end sales charge assessed on Class A shares
at certain pre-determined levels of investment, which are called
“breakpoint discounts.?In contrast, Class B and C shares usually do
not carry any front-end sales charges. Instead, investors that
purchase Class B or C shares pay asset-based sales charges, which
may be higher than the charges associated with Class A shares.
Investors that purchase Class B and C shares may also be required to
pay a sales charge known as a contingent deferred sales charge when
they sell their shares, depending upon the rules of the particular
mutual fund.
Breakpoint
Discounts Most mutual funds offer
investors a variety of ways to qualify for breakpoint discounts on
the sales charge associated with the purchase of Class A shares. In
general, most mutual funds provide breakpoint discounts to investors
who make large purchases at one time. The extent of the discount
depends upon the size of the purchase. Generally, as the amount of
the purchase increases, the percentage used to determine the sales
load decreases. In fact, the entire sales charge may be waived for
investors that make very large purchases of Class A shares. Mutual
fund prospectuses contain tables that illustrate the available
breakpoint discounts and the investment levels at which breakpoint
discounts apply. Additionally, most mutual funds allow investors to
qualify for breakpoint discounts based upon current holdings from
prior purchases through “Rights of Accumulation,?and future
purchases, based upon “Letters of Intent.?This document provides
general information regarding Rights of Accumulation and Letters of
Intent. However, mutual funds have different rules regarding the
availability of Rights of Accumulation and Letters of Intent.
Therefore, you should discuss these issues with your financial
advisor and review the mutual fund prospectus to determine the
specific terms upon which a mutual fund offers Rights of
Accumulation or Letters of Intent.
Rights of Accumulation ?Many mutual
funds allow investors to count the value of previous purchases of
the same fund, or another fund within the same fund family, with the
value of the current purchase, to qualify for breakpoint discounts.
Moreover, mutual funds allow investors to count existing holdings in
multiple accounts, such as IRAs or accounts at other broker-dealers,
to qualify for breakpoint discounts. Therefore, if you have accounts
at other broker-dealers and wish to take advantage of the balances
in these accounts to qualify for a breakpoint discount, you must
advise your financial advisor about those balances. You may need to
provide documentation establishing the holdings in those other
accounts to your financial advisor if you wish to rely upon balances
in accounts at another firm.
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In addition, many mutual funds allows
investors to count the value of holdings in accounts of certain
related parties, such as spouses or children, to qualify for
breakpoint discounts. Each mutual fund has different rules that
govern when relatives may rely upon each other’s holdings to qualify
for breakpoint discounts. You should consult with your financial
advisor or review the mutual fund’s prospectus or statement of
additional information to determine what these rules are for the
fund family in which you are investing. If you wish to rely upon the
holdings of related parties to qualify for a breakpoint discount,
you should advise your financial advisor about these accounts. You
may need to provide documentation to your financial advisor if you
wish to rely upon balances in accounts at another
firm.
Mutual funds also follow different
rules to determine the value of existing holdings. Some funds use
the current net asset value (NAV) of existing investments in
determining whether an investor qualifies for a breakpoint discount.
However, a small number of funds use the historical cost, which is
the cost of the initial purchase, to determine eligibility for
breakpoint discounts. If the mutual fund uses historical costs, you
may need to provide account records, such as confirmation statements
or monthly statements, to qualify for a breakpoint discount based
upon previous purchases. You should consult with your financial
advisor and review the mutual fund’s prospectus to determine whether
the mutual fund uses either NAV or historical costs to determine
breakpoint eligibility.
Letters of Intent ?Most
mutual funds allow investors to qualify for breakpoint discounts by
signing a Letter of Intent, which commits the investor to purchasing
a specified amount of Class A shares within a defined period of
time, usually 13 months. For example, if an investor plans to
purchase $50,000 worth of Class A shares over a period of 13 months,
but each individual purchase would not qualify for a breakpoint
discount, the investor could sign a Letter of Intent at the time of
the first purchase and receive the breakpoint discount associated
with $50,000 investments on the first and all subsequent purchases.
Additionally, some funds offer retroactive Letters of Intent that
allow investors to rely upon purchases in the recent past to qualify
for a breakpoint discount. However, if an investor fails to invest
the amount required by the Letter of Intent, the fund is entitled to
retroactively deduct the correct sales charges based upon the amount
that the investor actually invested. If you intend to make several
purchases within a 13 month period, you should consult your
financial advisor and the mutual fund prospectus to determine if it
would be beneficial for you to sign a Letter of
Intent.
As you can see, understanding the
availability of breakpoint discounts is important because it may
allow you to purchase Class A shares at a lower price. The
availability of breakpoint discounts may save you money and may also
affect your decision regarding the appropriate share class in which
to invest. Therefore, you should discuss the availability of
breakpoint discounts with your financial advisor and carefully
review the mutual fund prospectus and its statement of additional
information, which you can get from your financial advisor, when
choosing among the share classes offered by a mutual fund. If you
wish to learn more about mutual fund share classes or mutual fund
breakpoints, you may wish to review the investor alerts available on
the NASD Web site.

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