497K 1 d82894d497k.htm LM EMERGING MARKETS DIVERSIFIED CORE ETF LM Emerging Markets Diversified Core ETF

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Summary Prospectus   December 28, 2015

NASDAQ (Ticker Symbol): EDBI

 

 

LEGG MASON

EMERGING MARKETS DIVERSIFIED CORE ETF

 

 

Before you invest, you may want to review the fund’s Prospectus, which contains more information about the fund and its risks. You can find the fund’s Prospectus and other information about the fund, including the fund’s Statement of Additional Information and shareholder reports (when available), online at http://www.leggmason.com/etf (click on the name of the fund). You can also get this information at no cost by calling the fund at 888-386-5535 or by sending an e-mail request to prospectus@leggmason.com. The fund’s Prospectus, dated December 28, 2015 and as may be amended or further supplemented, and the fund’s Statement of Additional Information, dated December 28, 2015 and as may be amended or further supplemented, are incorporated by reference into this Summary Prospectus.

 

 

 

Investment objective

Legg Mason Emerging Markets Diversified Core ETF (the “fund”) seeks to track the investment results of an index composed of publicly traded equity securities in emerging markets.

Fees and expenses of the fund

The accompanying table describes the fees and expenses that you may pay if you buy and hold shares of the fund. The management agreement between Legg Mason ETF Equity Trust (the “Trust”) and Legg Mason Partners Fund Advisor, LLC (“LMPFA” or the “manager”) (the “Management Agreement”) provides that LMPFA will pay all operating expenses of the fund, except interest expenses, taxes, brokerage expenses, future Rule 12b-1 fees (if any), acquired fund fees and expenses, extraordinary expenses and the management fee payable to LMPFA under the Management Agreement.

 

 

INVESTMENT PRODUCTS: NOT FDIC INSURED • NO BANK GUARANTEE • MAY LOSE VALUE


Shareholder fees
(fees paid directly from your investment)
     None
  
Annual fund operating expenses (%)
(expenses that you pay each year as a percentage of the value of your investment)
Management fees    0.50
Distribution and/or service (12b-1) fees    0.00
Other expenses1    None
Total annual fund operating expenses    0.50

 

1 Other expenses are estimated for the current fiscal year. Actual expenses may differ from estimates.

Example:

This example is intended to help you compare the cost of investing in the fund with the cost of investing in other funds. The example assumes:

 

  You invest $10,000 in the fund for the time periods indicated
  Your investment has a 5% return each year and the fund’s operating expenses remain the same

 

You may also incur usual and customary brokerage commissions and other charges when buying or selling shares of the fund, which are not reflected in the example.

Although your actual costs may be higher or lower, based on these assumptions your costs would be:

 

Number of years you own shares ($)        
    1 year   3 years
Legg Mason Emerging Markets Diversified Core ETF   51   160

Portfolio turnover. 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 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. The fund is newly offered; therefore, it does not have a turnover rate to report for the most recent fiscal year.

Principal investment strategies

The fund seeks to track the investment results of the QS DBI Emerging Markets Diversified Index (the “Underlying Index”). The Underlying Index seeks to provide exposure to equity securities in emerging markets and is based on a proprietary methodology created and sponsored by QS Investors, LLC (“QS”), the fund’s subadviser. QS is affiliated with both LMPFA and the fund. The Underlying Index is composed of emerging markets equity securities that are included in the MSCI Emerging Markets Index. The proprietary rules-based process initially groups this universe of securities into multiple investment categories based on geography and sector. Within each of these investment categories, securities are weighted by market capitalization. The process then combines those investment categories with more highly correlated historical performance into a smaller number of “clusters.” A cluster is a group of investment categories based on geography and sector that have demonstrated a tendency to behave similarly (high correlation). Thereafter,

 

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each of these clusters are weighted in the Underlying Index to produce a highly diversified portfolio. QS anticipates that the number of component securities in the Underlying Index will range from 700 to 800 from approximately 21 countries, including Brazil, Chile, China, Colombia, the Czech Republic, Egypt, Greece, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, Peru, the Philippines, Poland, Russia, South Africa, Taiwan, Thailand and Turkey. The Underlying Index may include large, medium and small capitalization companies. The components of the Underlying Index, and the degree to which these components represent certain countries and sectors, may change over time. The Underlying Index’s components are reconstituted annually and rebalanced quarterly. The Underlying Index is reconstituted on a different date from the MSCI Emerging Markets Index. Securities that are removed from, or added to, the MSCI Emerging Markets Index are removed from, or considered for inclusion in, the Underlying Index at the next annual reconstitution or quarterly rebalancing of the Underlying Index. The fund’s portfolio is rebalanced when the Underlying Index is rebalanced or reconstituted. The fund may trade at times other than when the Underlying Index is rebalanced or reconstituted for a variety of reasons, including when adjustments may be made to its representative sampling process from time to time or when investing cash.

The term “diversified” highlights the purpose of QS’ Diversification Based Investing methodology, which seeks to avoid concentration risks often identified with market cap-weighted funds. The term “core” highlights the segment of the investment universe where the fund invests—as opposed to introducing value or size biases or investing in niche segments of the market.

QS determines whether an issuer is located in an emerging market country by reference to the MSCI Emerging Markets Index methodology. MSCI Inc., which constructs the MSCI Emerging Markets Index, will generally deem an issuer to be located in an emerging market country if it is organized under the laws of the emerging market country and it is primarily listed in the emerging market country. In the event that these factors point to more than one country, the MSCI Emerging Markets Index methodology provides for consideration of certain additional factors.

The fund uses a “passive” or indexing investment approach to achieve its investment objective. Unlike many investment companies, the fund does not try to outperform its Underlying Index and does not seek temporary defensive positions when markets decline or appear overvalued. Indexing may eliminate the chance that the fund will substantially outperform the Underlying Index and also may reduce some of the risks of active management, such as poor security selection. Indexing seeks to achieve lower costs and better after-tax performance by keeping portfolio turnover low in comparison to actively managed investment companies.

QS may use a representative sampling indexing strategy to manage the fund. “Representative sampling” is an indexing strategy that involves investing in a representative sample of securities that collectively has an investment profile similar to that of the Underlying Index. When sampling is used, the securities selected are expected to have, in the aggregate, investment characteristics (based on factors such as return variability, risk, market capitalization, country/region exposures and sector exposures) and fundamental characteristics (such as portfolio yield, price/earnings ratios and price/book ratios) similar to those of the Underlying Index. The fund may or may not hold all of the securities in the Underlying Index.

The fund will invest at least 80% of its net assets, plus borrowings for investment purposes, if any, in securities that compose the Underlying Index. The equity securities that the fund will hold are principally common stocks.

 

Legg Mason Emerging Markets Diversified Core ETF   3


The fund may invest up to 20% of its net assets in certain index futures, options, options on index futures, swap contracts or other derivatives (“Financial Instruments”) related to its Underlying Index and its component securities; cash and cash equivalents; other investment companies, including exchange-traded funds; exchange-traded notes; depository receipts; and in securities and other instruments not included in its Underlying Index but which QS believes will help the fund track its Underlying Index. The fund may invest in exchange-traded equity index futures and currency derivatives to gain exposure to local markets and may also use currency derivatives for cash management purposes.

Industry concentration policy. The fund will concentrate its investments (i.e., hold 25% or more of its total assets) in a particular industry or group of industries to approximately the same extent that the Underlying Index is concentrated. For purposes of this limitation, securities of the U.S. government (including its agencies and instrumentalities) and repurchase agreements collateralized by U.S. government securities are not considered to be issued by members of any industry.

Principal risks

Risk is inherent in all investing. The value of your investment in the fund, as well as the amount of return you receive on your investment, may fluctuate significantly. You may lose part or all of your investment in the fund or your investment may not perform as well as other similar investments. The following is an alphabetical list of the principal risks of investing in the fund.

Asset class risk. Securities or other assets in the Underlying Index or in the fund’s portfolio may underperform in comparison to the general financial markets, a particular securities market or other asset classes.

Authorized Participant concentration risk. Only an Authorized Participant may engage in creation or redemption transactions directly with the fund. The fund has a limited number of institutions that act as Authorized Participants. To the extent that these institutions exit the business or are unable to proceed with creation and/or redemption orders with respect to the fund and no other Authorized Participant is able to step forward to create or redeem, in either of these cases, fund shares may trade at a discount to NAV and possibly face trading halts and/or delisting.

Calculation methodology risk. The Underlying Index relies on various sources of information to assess the criteria of issuers, including information that may be based on assumptions and estimates. Neither the fund, LMPFA nor QS can offer assurances that the Underlying Index’s calculation methodology will accurately assess criteria of included issuers.

Concentration risk. The fund may be susceptible to an increased risk of loss, including losses due to events that affect the fund’s investments more than the market as a whole, to the extent that the fund’s investments are concentrated in the securities of a particular issuer or issuers, country, group of countries, region, market, industry, group of industries, sector or asset class.

Currency risk. The value of investments in securities denominated in foreign currencies increases or decreases as the rates of exchange between those currencies and the U.S. dollar change. Currency conversion costs and currency fluctuations could erase investment gains or add to investment losses. Currency exchange rates can be volatile, and are affected by factors such as general economic conditions, the actions of the U.S. and foreign governments or central banks, the imposition of currency controls and speculation.

 

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Custody risk. Less developed markets are more likely to experience problems with the clearing and settling of trades and the holding of securities by local banks, agents and depositories.

Cybersecurity risk. Cybersecurity incidents may allow an unauthorized party to gain access to fund assets, customer data (including private shareholder information), or proprietary information, or cause the fund, the manager, the subadvisers, Authorized Participants, the relevant listing exchange and/or the fund’s service providers (including, but not limited to, fund accountants, custodians, sub-custodians, transfer agents and financial intermediaries) to suffer data breaches, data corruption or lose operational functionality.

Derivatives risk. Using derivatives can increase fund losses and reduce opportunities for gains when market prices, interest rates, currencies, or the derivatives themselves, behave in a way not anticipated by the fund. Using derivatives also can have a leveraging effect and increase fund volatility. Certain derivatives have the potential for unlimited loss, regardless of the size of the initial investment. Derivatives may be difficult to sell, unwind or value, and the counterparty may default on its obligations to the fund. Use of derivatives may have different tax consequences for the fund than an investment in the underlying security, and those differences may affect the amount, timing and character of income distributed to shareholders. The U.S. government and foreign governments are in the process of adopting and implementing regulations governing derivatives markets, including mandatory clearing of certain derivatives, margin and reporting requirements. The ultimate impact of the regulations remains unclear. Additional regulation of derivatives may make derivatives more costly, limit their availability or utility, otherwise adversely affect their performance or disrupt markets.

Foreign investment and emerging market risk. The fund’s investments in securities of foreign issuers or issuers with significant exposure to foreign markets involve additional risk. Foreign countries in which the fund may invest may have markets that are less liquid, less regulated and more volatile than U.S. markets. The value of the fund’s investments may decline because of factors affecting the particular issuer as well as foreign markets and issuers generally, such as unfavorable or unsuccessful government actions, reduction of government or central bank support and political or financial instability. Lack of information may also affect the value of these securities.

The risks of foreign investments are heightened when investing in issuers in emerging market countries. Emerging market countries tend to have economic, political and legal systems that are less fully developed and are less stable than those of more developed countries. They are often particularly sensitive to market movements because their market prices tend to reflect speculative expectations. Low trading volumes may result in a lack of liquidity and in extreme price volatility.

Index-related risk. There is no guarantee that the fund will achieve a high degree of correlation to the Underlying Index and therefore achieve its investment objective. Market disruptions and regulatory restrictions could have an adverse effect on the fund’s ability to adjust its exposure to the required levels in order to track the Underlying Index. Errors in index data, index computations and/or the construction of the Underlying Index in accordance with its methodology may occur from time to time and may not be identified and corrected by the index administrator for a period of time or at all, which may have an adverse impact on the fund and its shareholders.

 

Legg Mason Emerging Markets Diversified Core ETF   5


Issuer risk. The value of a security can go up or down more than the market as a whole and can perform differently from the value of the market as a whole, often due to disappointing earnings reports by the issuer, unsuccessful products or services, loss of major customers, major litigation against the issuer or changes in government regulations affecting the issuer or the competitive environment. The fund may experience a substantial or complete loss on an individual security.

Large capitalization company risk. Large capitalization companies may fall out of favor with investors based on market and economic conditions. In return for the relative stability and low volatility of large capitalization companies, the fund’s value may not rise as much as the value of funds that focus on companies with smaller market capitalizations.

Liquidity risk. Some assets held by the fund may be impossible or difficult to sell, particularly during times of market turmoil. These illiquid assets may also be difficult to value. If the fund is forced to sell an illiquid asset to meet redemption requests or other cash needs, the fund may be forced to sell at a loss.

Management risk. The fund may not fully replicate its Underlying Index and may hold securities not included in the Underlying Index. As a result, the fund is subject to the risk that QS’ investment strategy, the implementation of which is subject to a number of constraints, may not produce the intended results.

Market trading risk. The fund faces numerous market trading risks, including the potential lack of an active market for fund shares, losses from trading in secondary markets, periods of high volatility and disruptions in the creation/redemption process. ANY OF THESE FACTORS, AMONG OTHERS, MAY LEAD TO THE FUND’S SHARES TRADING AT A PREMIUM OR DISCOUNT TO NAV.

National closed market trading risk. Where the underlying securities held by the fund trade on foreign exchanges that are closed when the securities exchange on which the fund’s shares trade is open, there are likely to be deviations between the current price of such an underlying security and the last quoted price for the underlying security (i.e., the fund’s quote from the closed foreign market), resulting in premiums or discounts to the fund’s NAV that may be greater than those experienced by other ETFs.

Passive investment risk. The fund is not actively managed and neither LMPFA nor QS attempts to take defensive positions.

Small and medium capitalization company risk. The fund will be exposed to additional risks as a result of its investments in the securities of small and medium capitalization companies. Small and medium capitalization companies may fall out of favor with investors; may have limited product lines, operating histories, markets or financial resources; or may be dependent upon a limited management group. The prices of securities of small and medium capitalization companies generally are more volatile than those of large capitalization companies and are more likely to be adversely affected than large capitalization companies by changes in earnings results and investor expectations or poor economic or market conditions, including those experienced during a recession. Securities of small and medium capitalization companies may underperform large capitalization companies and may offer greater potential for losses.

Stock market and equity securities risk. The securities markets are volatile and the market prices of the fund’s securities may decline generally. Securities fluctuate in price based on changes in a

 

6    Legg Mason Emerging Markets Diversified Core ETF


company’s financial condition and overall market and economic conditions. If the market prices of the securities owned by the fund fall, the value of your investment in the fund will decline.

Trading issues risk. Trading in shares on NASDAQ may be halted in certain circumstances. There can be no assurance that the requirements of NASDAQ necessary to maintain the listing of the fund will continue to be met.

Tracking error risk. Tracking error is the divergence of the fund’s performance from that of the Underlying Index. Tracking error may occur because of differences between the securities and other instruments held in the fund’s portfolio and those included in the Underlying Index, pricing differences (including differences between a security’s price at the local market close and the fund’s valuation of a security at the time of calculation of the fund’s NAV), transaction costs, the fund’s holding of uninvested cash, differences in timing of the accrual of distributions, changes to the Underlying Index or the need to meet various new or existing regulatory requirements. This risk may be heightened during times of increased market volatility or other unusual market conditions. Tracking error also may result because the fund incurs fees and expenses, while the Underlying Index does not.

Valuation risk. The sale price the fund could receive for a security or other asset may differ from the fund’s valuation of the security or other asset and may differ from the value used by the Underlying Index, particularly for securities or assets that trade in low volume or volatile markets or that are valued using a fair value methodology. In addition, the value of the securities or assets in the fund’s portfolio may change on days when shareholders will not be able to purchase or sell the fund’s shares. The fund’s ability to value its investments may be impacted by technological issues and/or errors by pricing services or other third party service providers.

These risks are discussed in more detail in the fund’s Prospectus or in the Statement of Additional Information (“SAI”).

Performance

The fund has not yet operated for a full calendar year. Once the fund has a performance record of at least one calendar year, a bar chart and performance table will be included in the fund’s Prospectus. The performance information will provide some indication of the risks of investing in the fund by showing changes in the fund’s performance from year to year and by showing how the fund’s average annual returns compare with those of a broad measure of market performance.

Management

Investment manager: Legg Mason Partners Fund Advisor, LLC (“LMPFA”)

Subadviser: QS Investors, LLC (“QS”)

Portfolio managers: Robert Wang, Russell Shtern and Michael LaBella. Mr. Wang (Head of Portfolio Management and Trading at QS), Mr. Shtern (Portfolio Manager and Head of Equity Portfolio Management and Trading at QS) and Mr. LaBella (Portfolio Manager at QS) have been portfolio managers of the fund since December 2015.

 

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Purchase and sale of fund shares

The fund is an exchange-traded fund (commonly referred to as an “ETF”). Individual shares of the fund are listed on a national securities exchange. Most investors will buy and sell shares of the fund through a broker-dealer. The price of fund shares is based on market price, and because ETF shares trade at market prices rather than at NAV, shares may trade at a price greater than NAV (a premium) or less than NAV (a discount). The fund will only issue or redeem shares that have been aggregated into blocks of 250,000 shares or multiples thereof (“Creation Units”) to Authorized Participants who have entered into agreements with the fund’s distributor. The fund generally will issue or redeem Creation Units in return for a designated portfolio of securities (and an amount of cash) that the fund specifies each day.

Tax information

The fund’s distributions are taxable, and will be taxed as ordinary income and/or capital gains, unless you are investing through a tax-deferred arrangement, such as a 401(k) plan or individual retirement account. Withdrawals from such tax-deferred arrangements may be subject to tax at a later date.

Payments to broker-dealers and other financial intermediaries

If you purchase shares of the fund through a broker-dealer or other financial intermediary (such as a bank), LMPFA or other related companies may pay the intermediary for marketing activities and presentations, educational training programs, conferences, the development of technology platforms and reporting systems or other services related to the sale or promotion of the fund. These payments may create a conflict of interest by influencing the broker-dealer or other intermediary and your salesperson to recommend the fund over another investment. Ask your salesperson or visit your financial intermediary’s website for more information.

 

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