SPDR Series Trust

Before you invest in the SPDR Nuveen S&P VRDO Municipal Bond ETF (the “Fund”), you may want to review the Fund’s prospectus and statement of additional information, which contain more information about the Fund and the risks of investing in the Fund. The Fund’s prospectus and statement of additional information dated October 31, 2012, are incorporated by reference into this summary prospectus. You can find the Fund’s prospectus and statement of additional information, as well as other information about the Fund, online at https://www.spdrs.com/product/fund.seam?ticker=VRD. You may also obtain this information at no charge by calling (866) 787-2257 or by sending an e-mail request to Fund_inquiry@ssga.com.

This table describes the fees and expenses that you may pay if you buy and hold shares of the Fund (“Shares”). This table and the example below do not reflect brokerage commissions you may pay on purchases and sales of the Fund’s Shares.

This example is intended to help you compare the cost of investing in the Fund with the cost of investing in other mutual funds. The example assumes that you invest $10,000 in the Fund for the time periods indicated, and then sell all of your Shares at the end of those periods. The example also assumes that your investment has a 5% return each year and that the Fund’s operating expenses remain the same. Although your actual costs may be higher or lower, based on these assumptions your costs would be:

The Fund pays transaction costs, such as commissions, when it buys and sells securities (or “turns over” its portfolio). A higher portfolio turnover rate may indicate higher transaction costs and may result in higher taxes when Fund Shares are held in a taxable account. These costs, which are not reflected in annual fund operating expenses or in the example, affect the Fund’s performance. During the most recent fiscal year, the Fund’s portfolio turnover rate was 92% of the average value of its portfolio.

In seeking to track the performance of the S&P National AMT-Free Municipal VRDO Index (the “Index”), the Fund employs a sampling strategy, which means that the Fund is not required to purchase all of the securities represented in the Index. Instead, the Fund may purchase a subset of the securities in the Index in an effort to hold a portfolio of securities with generally the same risk and return characteristics of the Index. The quantity of holdings in the Fund will be based on a

number of factors, including asset size of the Fund. Nuveen Asset Management, LLC (“Nuveen Asset Management” or the “Sub-Adviser”), the investment sub-adviser to the Fund, generally expects the Fund to hold less than the total number of securities in the Index, but reserves the right to hold as many securities as it believes necessary to achieve the Fund’s investment objective.

Under normal market conditions, the Fund generally invests substantially all, but at least 80%, of its total assets in the securities comprising the Index or in securities that the Sub-Adviser determines have economic characteristics that are substantially identical to the economic characteristics of the securities that comprise the Index. The Fund will provide shareholders with at least 60 days notice prior to any material change in this 80% investment policy. Additionally, the Fund intends to invest, under normal circumstances, 80% of its assets in investments the income of which is exempt from Federal income tax. In addition, the Fund may invest in debt securities that are not included in the Index, cash and cash equivalents or money market instruments, such as repurchase agreements and money market funds (including money market funds advised by SSgA Funds Management, Inc. (“SSgA FM” or the “Adviser”), the investment adviser to the Fund).

The Index is designed to track investment grade VRDOs issued by U.S. states and territories or local governments or agencies, such that interest on the securities is exempt from U.S. federal income taxes, with maturities greater than or equal to one month. A VRDO is a short-term tax-exempt fixed income instrument whose coupon rate is reset on a periodic basis (e.g., weekly or monthly). VRDOs tend to be issued with long maturities of up to 30 or 40 years; however, they are considered short-term instruments because they include a bondholder put provision that coincides with the periodic coupon rate reset which allows the bondholder to redeem a bond at face value. VRDOs included in the Index reset weekly. VRDOs are put back to a bank or other entity that serves as a liquidity provider (the “Remarketing Agent”), rather than the issuer. The Remarketing Agent tries to resell those VRDOs or, failing that, holds them in its own inventory. In addition, VRDOs commonly hold a credit enhancement, such as a letter of credit from the Remarketing Agent or a bank, and/or bond insurance. To be included in the Index a security must: (i) be issued by a state (including Puerto Rico and U.S. territories) or local government or agency such that interest on the security is exempt from U.S. federal income taxes; (ii) be priced at par; (iii) have a minimum par amount of $10 million; (iv) be included in the Ipreo Holdings LLC product offering for VRDOs; (v) be rated A-3, VMIG-3 or F-3 or higher by one of the following statistical ratings agencies: Standard & Poor’s, Moody’s Investors Service or Fitch Inc., respectively; (vi) have a maturity of greater than or equal to one month; (vii) be a constituent of a deal with an original offering amount of at least $100 million, or, for up to a maximum of 25% of constituents, have no minimum deal size criteria but be the highest yielding constituents (that meet all of the other criteria for eligibility) chosen from the eligible VRDO universe at each monthly rebalancing; (viii) have a weekly reset; and (ix) have a credit or liquidity support facility. The Index is rebalanced after the close of the last business day of each month, based on new issuance, size and maturity. As of September 30, 2012, there were approximately 181 issues included in the Index.

The Index is sponsored by S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC (the “Index Provider”) which is not affiliated with the Fund, the Adviser or the Sub-Adviser. The Index Provider determines the composition of the Index, relative weightings of the securities in the Index and publishes information regarding the market value of the Index.

As with all investments, there are certain risks of investing in the Fund, and you could lose money on an investment in the Fund.

PASSIVE STRATEGY/INDEX RISK: The Fund is managed with a passive investment strategy, attempting to track the performance of an unmanaged index of securities. This differs from an actively managed fund, which typically seeks to outperform a benchmark index. As a result, the Fund may hold constituent securities of the Index regardless of the current or projected performance of a specific security or a particular industry or market sector. Maintaining investments in securities regardless of market conditions or the performance of individual securities could cause the Fund’s return to be lower than if the Fund employed an active strategy.

INDEX TRACKING RISK: While the Sub-Adviser seeks to track the performance of the Index as closely as possible (i.e., achieve a high degree of correlation with the Index), the Fund’s return may not match or achieve a high degree of correlation with the return of the Index due to operating expenses, transaction costs, cash flows, regulatory requirements and operational inefficiencies. For example, the Sub-Adviser anticipates that it may take several business days for additions and deletions to the Index to be reflected in the portfolio composition of the Fund.

DEBT SECURITIES INVESTING RISK: The value of the debt securities may increase or decrease as a result of the following: market fluctuations, increases in interest rates, inability of issuers to repay principal and interest or illiquidity in debt securities markets; the risk of low rates of return due to reinvestment of securities during periods of falling interest rates or repayment by issuers with higher coupon or interest rates; and/or the risk of low income due to falling interest rates. To the extent that interest rates rise, certain underlying obligations may be paid off substantially slower than originally anticipated and the value of those securities may fall sharply. This may result in a reduction in income from debt securities income.

TAX RISK: There is no guarantee that the Fund’s income will be exempt from federal or state income taxes. Events occurring after the date of issuance of a municipal bond or after the Fund’s acquisition of a municipal bond may result in a determination that interest on that bond is includible in gross income for federal income tax purposes retroactively to its date of issuance. Such a determination may cause a portion of prior distributions by the Fund to its shareholders to be taxable to those shareholders in the year of receipt. Federal or state changes in income or alternative minimum tax rates or in the tax treatment of municipal bonds may make municipal bonds less attractive as investments and cause them to decline in value.

POLITICAL RISK: A significant restructuring of federal income tax rates or even serious discussion on the topic in Congress could cause municipal bond prices to fall. The demand for municipal securities is strongly influenced by the value of tax-exempt income to investors. Lower income tax rates could reduce the advantage of owning municipals.

VARIABLE RATE DEMAND OBLIGATION RISK: Particular VRDOs may not have an active secondary market. As a result, the Fund could suffer a loss on these instruments during periods when the Fund is not entitled to exercise its demand rights or if the issuer and/or Remarketing Agent defaults on its payment obligation. In addition, VRDOs are generally supported by either a letter of credit or a stand-by bond purchase agreement to provide credit enhancement. A decline in the credit quality of the issuer of the credit enhancement may in turn cause a decrease in value of the VRDO supported by the credit enhancement.

MUNICIPAL INSURANCE RISK: The Fund’s portfolio may be comprised of municipal securities covered by insurance that guarantees the bond’s scheduled payment of interest and repayment of principal. Because a significant portion of the insured municipal securities are insured by a small number of insurance companies, an event involving one or more of these insurance companies could have an adverse effect on the value of the insured municipal securities and the municipal bond market.

NON-DIVERSIFICATION RISK: The Fund is non-diversified and may invest a larger percentage of its assets in securities of a few issuers or a single issuer than that of a diversified fund. As a result, the Fund’s performance may be disproportionately impacted by the performance of relatively few securities.

The after-tax returns presented in the table below are calculated using highest historical individual federal marginal income tax rates and do not reflect the impact of state and local taxes. Your actual after-tax returns will depend on your specific tax situation and may differ from those shown below. After-tax returns are not relevant to investors who hold Shares of the Fund through tax-deferred arrangements, such as 401(k) plans or individual retirement accounts. The returns after taxes can exceed the return before taxes due to an assumed tax benefit for a shareholder from realizing a capital loss on a sale of Fund Shares.

PORTFOLIO MANAGEMENT

INVESTMENT ADVISER

SSgA FM serves as the investment adviser to the Fund. Nuveen Asset Management serves as sub-adviser to the Fund, subject to supervision by the Adviser and the Board of Trustees. To the extent that a reference in this Prospectus refers to the “Adviser,” such reference should also be read to refer to Nuveen Asset Management with respect to the Fund where the context requires.

PORTFOLIO MANAGERS

The professionals primarily responsible for the day-to-day management of the Fund are Timothy Ryan and Steven Hlavin.

TIMOTHY RYAN, CFA, is a Senior Vice President and Portfolio Manager at Nuveen Asset Management. Mr. Ryan joined an affiliate of Nuveen Asset Management in 2010.

STEVEN HLAVIN is a Vice President and Assistant Portfolio Manager at Nuveen Asset Management. Mr. Hlavin joined an affiliate of Nuveen Asset Management in 2003.

PURCHASE AND SALE INFORMATION

The Fund will issue (or redeem) Shares to certain institutional investors (typically market makers or other broker-dealers) only in large blocks of 100,000 Shares known as “Creation Units.” Creation Unit transactions are typically conducted in exchange for the deposit or delivery of in-kind securities and/or cash constituting a substantial replication, or a representation, of the securities included in the Fund’s benchmark Index.

Individual Shares of the Fund may only be purchased and sold on the NYSE Arca, Inc., other national securities exchanges, electronic crossing networks and other alternative trading systems through your broker-dealer at

market prices. Because Fund Shares trade at market prices rather than at net asset value (“NAV”), Shares may trade at a price greater than NAV (premium) or less than NAV (discount).

TAX INFORMATION

The Fund intends to pay income that is exempt from regular federal income tax, but which may be subject to the federal alternative minimum tax (“AMT”). To the extent the Fund invests in securities that do not produce income exempt from regular federal income tax and/or the AMT, a portion of the Fund’s distributions may be subject to such taxes. Income from municipal securities of states other than the shareholder’s state of residence generally will not qualify for tax-free treatment for such shareholder with respect to state and local taxes.


ANNUAL FUND OPERATING EXPENSES (expenses that you pay each year as a percentage of the value of your investment):
MANAGEMENT FEES		0.20%
DISTRIBUTION AND SERVICE (12b-1) FEES (1)		None
OTHER EXPENSES (2)		0.00%
TOTAL ANNUAL FUND OPERATING EXPENSES (2)		0.20%


YEAR 1	YEAR 3	YEAR 5	YEAR 10
$20	$64	$113	$255


	ONE YEAR	SINCE INCEPTION (9/23/09)
RETURN BEFORE TAXES	0.86%	0.65%
RETURN AFTER TAXES ON DISTRIBUTIONS	0.86%	0.65%
RETURN AFTER TAXES ON DISTRIBUTIONS AND SALE OF FUND SHARES	0.86%	0.65%
S&P NATIONAL AMT-FREE MUNICIPAL VRDO INDEX (reflects no deductions for fees, expenses or taxes)	0.31%	0.32%


SPDR^® Nuveen S&P^® VRDO Municipal Bond ETF			VRD


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