Principal Risks of Investing. The Fund is subject to the risks of fixed income investments and U.S. Treasury obligations risk as well as the risks and special considerations associated with investing in an index fund. Additional principal risks are identified in the Fund’s prospectus.
Principal Risks of Investing. The Fund is subject to the market and selection risks of equity investments as well as the special risks ofconvertible securities, derivatives, “new issue” securities, preferred securities, small cap securities, liquidity, the use of leverage, high portfolio turnover risk, and investment style risk.
Principal Risks of Investing. The Fund is subject to the risks of fixed income securities and U.S. treasury obligation risk as well as the risks and special considerations associated with investing in an index fund. Additional principal risks are identified in the Fund’s prospectus. Investment Objective, Strategy and Policies — The iShares Core U.S. Aggregate Bond ETF seeks to track the investment results of the Bloomberg Barclays U.S. Aggregate Bond Index (the “Underlying Index”), which measures the performance of the total U.S. investment-grade (as determined by Bloomberg Index Services Limited (“Bloomberg”)) bond market. The Underlying Index includes investment-grade U.S. Treasury bonds, government-related bonds, corporate bonds, mortgage- backed pass-through securities (“MBS”), commercial mortgage- backed securities and asset-backed securities (“ABS”) that are publicly offered for sale in the United States. The securities in the Underlying Index must have $300 million or more of outstanding face value and must have at least one year remaining to maturity, with the exception of amortizing securities such as ABS and MBS, which have lower thresholds as defined by Bloomberg. In addition, the securities in the Underlying Index must be denominated in U.S. dollars and must be fixed-rate and nonconvertible. Certain types of securities, such as state and local government series bonds, structured notes with embedded swaps or other special features, private placements, floating- rate securities and bonds that have been issued in one country’s currency but are traded outside of that country in a different monetary and regulatory system (Eurobonds), are excluded from the Underlying Index. The Underlying Index is market capitalization-weighted, and the securities in the Underlying Index are updated on the last business day of each month.
Principal Risks of Investing. The Fund is subject to market risk, the risks of fixed income investments, and high yield securities risk as well as the risks and special considerations associated with investing in an index fund. Additional principal risks are identified in the Fund’s prospectus. The iShares ETFs are not sponsored, endorsed, issued, sold or promoted by Xxxxx & Steers Capital Management, Inc., Markit, MSCI Inc., S&P, ICE Data Indices, Bloomberg or Barclays. None of these companies make any representation regarding the advisability of investing in the Funds. None of BlackRock Institutional Trust Company, N.A., BlackRock Fund Advisors, or any of their affiliates, are affiliated with the companies listed above. iShares® is a registered trademark of BlackRock Fund Advisors and its affiliates.
Principal Risks of Investing. The main risks of investing in the Fund are commodities related investment risk; convertible securities risk; derivatives risk; equity securities risk; high portfolio turnover risk; investment style risk; leverage risk; market risk and selection risk; “new issues” risk; and preferred securities risk. Investment Objective, Strategy and Policies — The investment objective of the Fund is to seek to provide investment results that correspond to the total return performance of publicly-traded common stocks in the aggregate, as represented by the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index. The Fund pursues its investment objective by seeking to replicate the total return performance of the S&P 500 Index, which is composed of approximately 500 selected common stocks, most of which are listed on the New York Stock Exchange. The S&P 500 Index is a capitalization-weighted index from a broad range of industries chosen for market size, liquidity and industry group representation. The component stocks are weighted according to the total float-adjusted market value of their outstanding shares (i.e., they are weighted according to the public float which is the total market value of their outstanding shares readily available to the general marketplace for trading purposes). The percentage of the Fund’s assets invested in a given stock is approximately the same as the percentage such stock represents in the S&P 500 Index. The Fund is managed by determining which securities are to be purchased or sold to reflect, to the extent feasible, the investment characteristics of its benchmark index. Under normal circumstances, at least 90% of the value of the Fund’s assets, plus the amount of any borrowing for investment purposes, is invested in securities comprising the S&P 500 Index. The Fund also may engage in futures and other derivative securities transactions and lend its portfolio securities, each of which involves risk. The Fund may use futures contracts and other derivative transactions to manage its short-term liquidity and/or as substitutes for comparable market positions in the securities in its benchmark index. The Fund may also invest in high-quality money market instruments, including shares of money market funds advised by BlackRock Fund Advisors or its affiliates. The Fund invests all of its assets in the S&P 500 Index Master Portfolio of Master Investment Portfolio, which has the same investment objective and strategies as the Fund.
Principal Risks of Investing. The Fund is subject to the risks of fixed-income investments, including, but not limited to, borrowing risk, dollar rolls risk, emerging markets risk, leverage risk, liquidity risk, market and selection risk, credit risk and U.S. government issuer risk. In addition, because the Fund may invest a portion of its assets in derivative instruments, the Fund is exposed to the risks associated with such investments. Derivatives may be volatile and involve significant risks, including credit risk, counterparty risk (the risk that the counterparty in a transaction will be unable to honor its obligations), leverage risk (the risk that relatively small market movements may result in large changes in the value of an investment) and liquidity risk (the risk that certain securities may be difficult or impossible to sell at the time or price that the seller would like). The Fund may invest in mortgage-backed and asset-backed securities. In addition to the normal fixed income investment risks, these securities are subject to prepayment risk and extension risk, and may involve more volatility than other bonds of similar maturities. The Fund is also subject to the special risks associated with foreign securities, emerging markets, derivatives and sovereign debt. High portfolio turnover resulting from active and frequent trading results in higher markups and other transaction costs and can result in a greater amount of dividends from ordinary income rather than capital gains.
Principal Risks of Investing. An investment in the Cash Allocation Account is not insured or guaranteed by any government agency, the Program Distributor, the Investment Manager, the Program Manager or FAME and involves credit and interest rate risks. Investment in Maine CDs involves some of the special considerations discussed under "PROGRAM AND PORTFOLIO RISKS AND OTHER CONSIDERATIONS- Investment Risks of Underlying Funds — Underlying Funds Investing in Fixed Income Securities (Including Money Market Securities)." Composition — Since September 5, 2001, for the periods shown, the Cash Allocation Account has been invested in securities that are high quality, short-term securities, which may primarily consist of direct U.S. Government obligations, U.S. Government agency securities, obligations of domestic and foreign banks, U.S. dollar denominated commercial paper, other short-term debt securities issued by U.S. and foreign entities, repurchase agreements, and Maine CDs. Although the Cash Allocation Account was invested in Maine CDs until September 10, 2012, the Cash Allocation Account may or may not be continuously invested in Maine CDs after such date. Cash Allocation Account 0.00% 1.13% 1.00% 0.54% 1.21% 09/05/01** * Average annual total return is a hypothetical rate of return that, if achieved annually, would have produced the same cumulative total return if performance had been constant over the entire period. (Cumulative total return reflects actual change in the value of an investment over a given period.) Average annual total return smooths out variations in performance; it is not the same as actual year-by-year results. Returns covering periods of less than one year represent cumulative total returns. ** From August 5, 1999 through September 4, 2001, the Cash Allocation Account was invested in Class II shares of the Retirement Reserves Money Fund of the Retirement Series Trust ("Money Fund"). For the period August 5, 1999 through September 4, 2001, the average annual total return of the Money Fund's Class II shares was 5.28%. General — Substantially all of the assets of each iShares Portfolio (each of which is also a BlackRock Portfolio) are invested in iShares ETFs that are recommended by BlackRock for that iShares Portfolio and approved by FAME for use in that iShares Portfolio. Certain iShares Portfolios may hold cash, pending investment in the iShares ETFs that are Underlying Funds of such Portfolios. All of the Underlying Funds in which iShares Portfolios invest are curren...
Principal Risks of Investing. The Fund is subject to market risk, equity securities risk and non-U.S. securities risk as well as the risks and special considerations associated with investing in an index fund. Additional principal risks are identified in the Fund's prospectus. Investment Objective, Strategy and Policies — The iShares ESG Aware MSCI EAFE ETF seeks to track the investment results of an index composed of large- and mid-capitalization developed market equities, excluding the U.S. and Canada that have positive environmental, social and governance characteristics as identified by the index provider while exhibiting risk and return characteristics similar to those of the parent index. The Fund seeks to track the investment results of the MSCI EAFE Extended ESG Focus Index (the “Underlying Index”), which has been developed by MSCI Inc. (the “Index Provider” or “MSCI”). The Underlying Index is an optimized index designed to reflect the equity performance of developed market companies (excluding the U.S. and Canada) that have favorable ESG characteristics (as determined by the Index Provider), while exhibiting risk and return characteristics similar to those of the MSCI EAFE Index (the “Parent Index”). The Index Provider begins with the Parent Index and excludes securities of companies involved in the business of tobacco, companies involved with controversial weapons, producers and retailers of civilian firearms, and companies involved in certain fossil fuels- related activity such as the production of thermal coal, thermal coal-based power generation and extraction of oil sands based on revenue or percentage of revenue thresholds for certain categories (e.g., $20 million or 5%) and categorical exclusions for others (e.g., controversial weapons). The Index Provider also excludes companies that are directly involved in very severe ongoing business controversies (in each case as determined by the Index Provider), and then follows a quantitative process that is designed to determine optimal weights for securities to maximize exposure to securities of companies with higher ESG ratings, subject to maintaining risk and return characteristics similar to the Parent Index. For each industry, the Index Provider identifies key ESG issues that can lead to unexpected costs for companies in the medium to long term. The Index Provider then calculates the size of each company’s exposure to each key issue based on the company’s business segment and geographic risk and analyzes the extent to whic...
Principal Risks of Investing. The Portfolio is subject to interest rate risk, ownership risk, bank changes, bank viability risk and FDIC insurance risk.
Principal Risks of Investing. The Fund is subject to the risks of fixed-income investments, including, but not limited to, commodities related investments risk, deflation risk, derivatives risk, dollar rolls risk, emerging markets risk, foreign securities risk, high portfolio turnover risk, leverage risk, illiquid investments risk, indexed and inverse securities risk, inflation- indexed bonds risk, market and selection risk, mortgage- and asset-backed securities risk, non-investment grade securities risk, repurchase agreements and purchase and sale contracts risk, reverse repurchase agreements risk, subsidiary risk, U.S. government issuer risk and credit risk. In addition, because the Fund may invest a portion of its assets in derivative instruments, the Fund is exposed to the risks associated with such investments. Derivatives may be volatile and involve significant risks, including credit risk, counterparty risk (the risk that the counterparty in a transaction will be unable to honor its obligations), leverage risk (the risk that relatively small market movements may result in large changes in the value of an investment) and liquidity risk (the risk that certain securities may be difficult or impossible to sell at the time or price that the seller would like). The Fund may invest in mortgage-backed and asset-backed securities. In addition to the normal fixed income investment risks, these securities are subject to prepayment risk and extension risk, and may involve more volatility than other bonds of similar maturities. Additional principal risks are identified in the Fund’s prospectus.
