F Fund Performance

OBJECTIVE
The F Fund's investment objective is to match the performance of the Bloomberg Barclays U.S. Aggregate Bond Index, a broad index representing the U.S. bond market.

STRATEGY
The F Fund assets are held in a separate account and managed to track the Bloomberg Barclays U.S. Aggregate Bond Index. This broad index includes U.S. Government, mortgage-backed, corporate, and foreign government (issued in the U.S.) sectors of the U.S. bond market. The earnings consist of interest income on the securities and gains (or losses) in the value of the securities. The F Fund uses an indexing approach to investing. In other words, it is a passively managed fund that remains invested according to its investment strategy regardless of conditions in the bond market or the economy.

RISKS
Because the F Fund returns move up and down with the returns in the bond market, your F Fund investment is subject to market risk. For example, when interest rates rise, bond prices (and thus, the returns of the index and the F Fund) fall. Conversely, in an environment of falling interest rates, bond prices, as well as the index and F Fund returns, rise. As an F Fund investor, you are also exposed to credit (default) risk, or the possibility that principal and interest payments on the bonds that comprise the index will not be paid. The F Fund is subject to inflation risk, meaning your F Fund investment may not grow enough to offset the reduction in purchasing power that results from inflation. Your F Fund investment is also exposed to prepayment risk, which is the probability that if interest rates fall, bonds that are represented in the index will be paid back early thus forcing lenders to reinvest at lower rates.