Security Valuation
Each Fund's investments are valued
at fair value each day that the New York Stock Exchange (“NYSE”) is open and, for financial reporting purposes, as of the report date should the reporting period end on a day that the NYSE is not open.
Fair value is generally defined as the price the fund would receive to sell an asset or pay to transfer a liability in an orderly transaction between market participants at the measurement date. By its nature, a fair
value price is a good faith estimate of the valuation in a current sale and may not reflect an actual market price. The investments of each Fund are valued pursuant to the policy and procedures developed by the
Oversight Committee (the “Committee”) and approved by the Board. The Committee provides oversight of the valuation of investments for the Funds. The Board has responsibility for overseeing the
determination of the fair value of investments.
Valuation techniques used to value
each Fund’s investments by major category are as follows:
• Investments in registered investment companies (including money market funds) or other unitized pooled investment vehicles that are not traded on an exchange are valued at that
day’s published net asset value (“NAV”) per share or unit.
• Government and municipal fixed income securities are generally valued using quotations from independent pricing services or brokers. Certain government inflation-indexed securities
may require a calculated fair valuation as the cumulative inflation is contained within the price provided by the pricing service or broker. For these securities, the inflation component of the price is
“cleaned” from the pricing service or broker price utilizing the published inflation factors in order to ensure proper accrual of income.
• Debt obligations (including short-term investments and convertible debt securities) are valued using quotations from independent pricing services or brokers or are generally valued
at the last reported evaluated prices.
In the event prices or quotations
are not readily available or that the application of these valuation methods results in a price for an investment that is deemed to be not representative of the fair value of such investment, fair value will be
determined in good faith by the Committee, in accordance with the valuation policy and procedures approved by the Board.
Fair value pricing could result in
a difference between the prices used to calculate a Fund's NAV and the prices used by the Funds' underlying benchmark. Various inputs are used in determining the value of the Portfolios' or Funds' investments.
The Funds value their assets and
liabilities at fair value using a fair value hierarchy consisting of three broad levels that prioritize the inputs to valuation techniques giving the highest priority to readily available unadjusted quoted prices in
active markets for identical assets or liabilities (Level 1 measurements) and the lowest priority to unobservable inputs (Level 3 measurements) when market prices are not readily available or reliable. The
categorization of a value determined for an investment within the hierarchy is based upon the pricing transparency of the investment and is not necessarily an indication of the risk associated with investing in it.
The three levels of the fair value
hierarchy are as follows:
• Level 1 –
Unadjusted quoted prices in active markets for an identical asset or liability;
• Level 2 – Inputs other than quoted prices included within Level 1 that are observable for the asset or liability either directly or indirectly, including quoted prices for
similar assets or liabilities in active markets, quoted prices for identical or similar assets or liabilities in markets that are not considered to be active, inputs other than quoted prices that are observable for
the asset or liability (such as exchange rates, financing terms, interest rates, yield curves, volatilities, prepayment speeds, loss severities, credit risks and default rates) or other market-corroborated inputs;
and
• Level 3 – Unobservable inputs for the asset or liability, including the Committee’s assumptions used in determining the fair value of investments.
The value of each Fund’s
investments according to the fair value hierarchy as of November 30, 2024, is disclosed in each Fund's respective Schedule of Investments.
