497K 1 d34536d497k.htm GOLDMAN SACHS ETF TRUST Goldman Sachs ETF Trust

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Ticker:    GCOR    Stock Exchange:    NYSE Arca

Before you invest, you may want to review the Goldman Sachs Access U.S. Aggregate Bond ETF’s (the “Fund”) Prospectus, which contains more information about the Fund and its risks. You can find the Fund’s Prospectus, reports to shareholders and other information about the Fund online at www.gsamfunds.com/ETFfunds. You can also get this information at no cost by calling 800-621-2550 or by sending an e-mail request to gs-funds-document-requests@gs.com. The Fund’s Prospectus and Statement of Additional Information (“SAI”), both dated July 6, 2020, as supplemented to date, are incorporated by reference into this Summary Prospectus.

It is our intention that beginning on January 1, 2021, paper copies of the Fund’s annual and semi-annual shareholder reports will not be sent by mail, unless you specifically request paper copies of the reports from your financial intermediary. Instead, the reports will be made available on a website, and you will be notified by mail each time a report is posted and provided with a website link to access the report.

If you already elected to receive shareholder reports electronically, you will not be affected by this change and you need not take any action. At any time, you may elect to receive reports and certain communications from the Fund electronically by contacting your financial intermediary.

You may elect to receive all future shareholder reports in paper free of charge. You can inform your financial intermediary that you wish to receive paper copies of reports by contacting your financial intermediary. Your election to receive reports in paper will apply to all Goldman Sachs Funds held in your account.

 

INVESTMENT OBJECTIVE    

The Fund seeks to provide investment results that closely correspond, before fees and expenses, to the performance of the FTSE Goldman Sachs US Broad Bond Market Index (the “Index”).

 

FEES AND EXPENSES OF THE FUND    

The following table describes the fees and expenses that you may pay if you buy and hold Shares of the Fund. The table does not take into account brokerage commissions that you may pay on your purchases and sales of Shares of the Fund.

ANNUAL FUND OPERATING EXPENSES (expenses that you pay each year as a percentage of the value of your investment)

 

Management Fee

    0.14

Distribution and Service (12b-1) Fee

    0.00

Other Expenses1

    0.00

Total Annual Fund Operating Expenses

    0.14

 

1

The Fund’s “Other Expenses” have been estimated to reflect expenses expected to be incurred during the first fiscal year.

 

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2        SUMMARY PROSPECTUS — GOLDMAN SACHS ACCESS U.S. AGGREGATE BOND ETF

 

EXPENSE EXAMPLE    

This Example is intended to help you compare the cost of owning Shares of the Fund with the cost of investing in other 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. The Example does not take into account brokerage commissions that you may pay on your purchases and sales of Shares of the Fund. Although your actual costs may be higher or lower, based on these assumptions your costs would be:

 

PORTFOLIO TURNOVER    

 

                                                     
      1 Year    3 Years

Shares

   $        14    $        45

The Fund may pay transaction costs when it buys and sells securities or instruments (i.e., “turns over” its portfolio). A high rate of portfolio turnover may result in increased transaction costs, including brokerage commissions, which must be borne by the Fund and its shareholders, and is also likely to result in higher short-term capital gains for taxable shareholders. These costs are not reflected in total annual fund operating expenses or in the expense example above, but are reflected in the Fund’s performance. Because the Fund has not yet commenced operations as of the date of the Prospectus, there is no portfolio turnover information quoted for the Fund.

 

PRINCIPAL INVESTMENT STRATEGIES    

The Fund seeks to achieve its investment objective by investing at least 80% of its assets (exclusive of collateral held from securities lending) in securities included in its underlying index. To-Be-Announced (“TBA”) transactions representing securities included in the Fund’s underlying index are counted towards the Fund’s 80% investment policy.

The Index is a rules-based index that is designed to measure the performance of investment grade, U.S. dollar (“USD”)-denominated bonds issued in the United States that meet certain liquidity and fundamental screening criteria. The Index consists of the following fixed income asset class sectors: U.S. Treasury Securities (as defined below), corporate bonds, mortgage-backed securities, government-sponsored securities, non-U.S. sovereign and provincial securities and asset-backed securities. As of June 5, 2020, there were 7,354 constituents in the Index and the Index had a weighted average maturity of 7.56 years. In addition, as of June 5, 2020, the percentage breakdown of bonds included in the Index was as follows: U.S. Treasury Securities (37.4%), corporate bonds (28.8%), mortgage-backed securities (26.9%), government-sponsored securities (2.3%), non-U.S. sovereign and provincial securities (4.5%), and asset backed securities (0.2%).

The Index is a custom index that is owned and calculated by FTSE Fixed Income LLC (“FTSE”), a trading name of the London Stock Exchange Group plc and its group undertakings (collectively, the “LSE Group” or the “Index Provider”). The Index is based on the FTSE US Broad Investment-Grade (USBIG®) Index (the “Reference Index”), using concepts developed with Goldman Sachs Asset Management, L.P. (the “Investment Adviser” or “GSAM”).

Given the Fund’s investment objective of attempting to track the Index, the Fund does not follow traditional methods of active investment management, which may involve buying and selling securities based upon analysis of economic and market factors.

The Index Provider constructs the Index in accordance with a rules-based methodology that involves two steps.

Step 1

In the first step, the Index Provider defines a universe of potential index constituents (the “Universe”) by applying specified criteria to constituents of the Reference Index as described below. All constituents of the Reference Index must have a minimum of one year to maturity and are rated at least BBB- by Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services (“S&P”) or Baa3 by Moody’s Investors Service, Inc. (“Moody’s”).

 

U.S. Treasury Securities:

“U.S. Treasury Securities” refer to securities issued or guaranteed by the U.S. Treasury where the payment of principal and interest is backed by the full faith and credit of the U.S. government. U.S. Treasury Securities include U.S. Treasury notes, U.S. Treasury bills and U.S. Treasury floating rate bonds. U.S. Treasury Securities that are included in the Reference Index must have a minimum of $5 billion outstanding (before taking into account the Federal Reserve System Open Market Account (“SOMA”) holdings). Only fixed-rate U.S. Treasury Securities within the Reference Index are included in the Universe.

 

Corporate Bonds:

Corporate bonds that are included in the Reference Index must have a minimum of $250 million outstanding. Only corporate bonds within the Reference Index from issuers with at least two eligible bonds outstanding are included in the Universe. A maturity bucketing process is used to approximate the average effective duration of the Reference Index.

 

Mortgage-Backed Securities:

Mortgage-backed securities that are included in the Reference Index must have a minimum issuer size of $250 million. Only mortgage-backed securities within the Reference Index that have a minimum of $1 billion outstanding per origination year generic when the coupon has a minimum amount outstanding of $5 billion are included in the Universe.

 

Government-Sponsored Securities, Non-U.S. Sovereign and Provincial Securities and Asset-Backed Securities:

Government-sponsored securities, non-U.S. sovereign and provincial securities and asset-backed securities that are included in the Reference Index must have a minimum of $1 billion, $500 million and $250 million outstanding, respectively. All government-sponsored securities, non-U.S. sovereign and provincial securities and asset-backed securities within the Reference Index are included in the Universe, except for callable zero coupon bonds, bonds callable less than one year from the issue date, and bonds issued by supranational entities.


 

3        SUMMARY PROSPECTUS — GOLDMAN SACHS ACCESS U.S. AGGREGATE BOND ETF

 

Step 2

In the second step, the Index Provider applies specified fundamental screens to each type of constituents in the Universe as described below.

 

U.S. Treasury Securities:

U.S. Treasury Securities within the Universe are screened to exclude securities that are “on-the-run” bonds, or the newest issues for each security term. The remaining U.S. Treasury Securities are divided into “maturity sectors” according to their weighted average maturities. The weight of each U.S. Treasury Security within its maturity sector is determined through an optimization process with the goal of maximizing projected one-month return net of transaction costs subject to a cap on volatility.

 

Corporate Bonds:

Corporate bond issuers within the Universe are grouped into three broad industry groups: financials, industrials and utilities. Within each industry group, issuers are measured by two fundamental factors, operating margin and leverage, subject to certain exceptions. The Index Provider ranks each issuer based on the two fundamental factors, equally weighted. The Index is constructed by including the highest ranking eligible securities in each industry group and screening out lowest ranking eligible securities. An issuer weight cap is applied to each Index constituent.

 

Mortgage-Backed Securities:

Mortgage-backed securities within the Universe are grouped by issuer agency and are ranked within each issuer agency group based on “seasoning” (i.e., the length of time the security has been publicly traded). “Unseasoned” mortgage-backed securities (i.e., securities with less than six months of loan age) within each issuer agency group are removed from the Index. In addition, the most “negatively convex” mortgage-backed securities within each issuer agency group are removed from the Index (“negative convexity” refers to the tendency for a security’s price to fall when interest rates fall). The weights of the remaining mortgage-backed securities in the Index are determined according to their market capitalizations within the Reference Index, and the weight of each issuer agency group is adjusted to match the weighted average effective duration of such group within the Reference Index.

 

Government-Sponsored Securities, Non-U.S. Sovereign and Provincial Securities and Asset-Backed Securities:

Government-sponsored securities, non-U.S. sovereign and provincial securities and asset-backed securities within the Universe are included in the Index in accordance with their market capitalizations.

The Index is rebalanced (i) monthly on the last business day of each month, to account for changes in maturities, duration, corporate actions or ratings migration, and (ii) quarterly, to account for updates to the corporate bond constituents of the Index on the basis of the fundamental factors (as described above).

The Investment Adviser uses a representative sampling strategy to manage the Fund. “Representative sampling” is an indexing strategy in which the Fund invests in a representative sample of constituent securities that has a collective investment profile similar to that of the Index. The securities selected for investment by the Fund are expected to have, in the aggregate, investment characteristics, fundamental characteristics and liquidity measures similar to those of the Index. The Fund may or may not hold all of the securities in the Index.

The Fund may invest in mortgage-back securities included in the Index through TBA transactions. TBA transactions are forward agreements for the purchase or sale of securities, including mortgage-backed securities, for a fixed price, with payment and delivery on an agreed upon future settlement date. The specific securities to be delivered are not identified at the trade date. However, delivered securities must meet specified terms, including, for TBA mortgage-backed securities, issuer, rate and mortgage terms.

The Fund may concentrate its investments (i.e., hold more than 25% of its total assets) in a particular industry or group of industries to the extent that the Index is concentrated. The degree to which components of the Index represent certain sectors or industries may change over time.

 

PRINCIPAL RISKS OF THE FUND    

Loss of money is a risk of investing in the Fund. An investment in the Fund is not a bank deposit and is not insured or guaranteed by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (“FDIC”) or any government agency. The Fund should not be relied upon as a complete investment program. There can be no assurance that the Fund will achieve its investment objective. Investments in the Fund involve substantial risks which prospective investors should consider carefully before investing. The Fund’s principal risks are presented below in alphabetical order, and not in the order of importance or potential exposure.

Calculation Methodology Risk. The Index relies on various sources of information to assess the criteria of issuers included in the Index (or the Reference Index), including information that may be based on assumptions and estimates. Neither the Fund, the Investment Adviser nor the Index Provider can offer assurances that the Index’s calculation methodology or sources of information will provide a correct valuation of securities, nor can they guarantee the availability or timeliness of the production of the Index.

Credit/Default Risk. An issuer or guarantor of fixed income securities or instruments held by the Fund may default on its obligation to pay interest and repay principal or default on any other obligation. Additionally, the credit quality of securities may deteriorate rapidly, which may impair the Fund’s liquidity and cause significant deterioration in net asset value (“NAV”).

Financial Services Industry Group Risk. An adverse development in the financial services industry group, including U.S. and foreign banks, broker-dealers, insurance companies, finance companies (e.g., automobile finance) and related asset-backed securities, may affect the value of the Fund’s investments more than if the Fund were not invested to such a degree in this industry group. Companies in the financial services industry group may be particularly susceptible to certain economic factors


 

4        SUMMARY PROSPECTUS — GOLDMAN SACHS ACCESS U.S. AGGREGATE BOND ETF

 

such as interest rate changes, fiscal, regulatory and monetary policy and general economic cycles.

Foreign Risk. Securities of foreign issuers may be subject to risk of loss because of more or less foreign government regulation, less public information and less economic, political and social stability in such foreign countries. The imposition of exchange controls, sanctions, confiscations, trade restrictions (including tariffs) and other government restrictions by the United States or other governments or from problems in share registration, settlement or custody, may also result in losses.

Index Risk. The Fund will be negatively affected by general declines in the securities and asset classes represented in the Index. In addition, because the Fund is not “actively” managed, unless a specific security is removed from the Index, the Fund generally would not sell a security because the security’s issuer was in financial trouble, and the Fund does not take defensive positions in declining markets. 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 Index. The Index Provider may utilize third party data in constructing the Index, but it does not guarantee the accuracy or availability of any such third party data. The Index Provider makes no guarantee with respect to the accuracy, availability or timeliness of the production of the Index, or the suitability of the Index for the purpose to which it is being put by GSAM.

Industrials Industry Group Risk. Industrial companies can be impacted by supply and demand for their specific product or service and for industrial company products in general. Government regulation, world events, exchange rates and economic conditions, technological developments and liabilities for environmental damage and general civil liabilities may affect the performance of these companies.

Industry Concentration Risk. In following its methodology, the Index from time to time may be concentrated to a significant degree in securities of issuers located in a single industry or group of industries. To the extent that the Index concentrates in the securities of issuers in a particular industry or group of industries, the Fund also may concentrate its investments to approximately the same extent. By concentrating its investments in an industry or group of industries, the Fund may face more risks than if it were diversified broadly over numerous industries or groups of industries. If the Index is not concentrated in a particular industry or group of industries, the Fund will not concentrate in a particular industry or group of industries.

Interest Rate Risk. When interest rates increase, fixed income securities or instruments held by the Fund will generally decline in value. Long-term fixed income securities or instruments will normally have more price volatility because of this risk than short-term fixed income securities or instruments. The risks associated with changing interest rates may have unpredictable effects on the markets and the Fund’s investments. Fluctuations in interest rates may also affect the liquidity of fixed income securities and instruments held by the Fund.

Large Shareholder Risk. Certain shareholders, including other funds advised by the Investment Adviser, may from time to time own a substantial amount of the Fund’s Shares. In addition, a third party investor, the Investment Adviser or an affiliate of the Investment Adviser, an authorized participant, a lead market maker, or another entity (i.e., a seed investor) may invest in the Fund and hold its investment solely to facilitate commencement of the Fund or to facilitate the Fund’s achieving a specified size or scale. Any such investment may be held for a limited period of time. There can be no assurance that any large shareholder would not redeem its investment, that the size of the Fund would be maintained at such levels or that the Fund would continue to meet applicable listing requirements. Redemptions by large shareholders could have a significant negative impact on the Fund, including on the Fund’s liquidity. In addition, transactions by large shareholders may account for a large percentage of the trading volume on the NYSE Arca, Inc. (“NYSE Arca”) and may, therefore, have a material upward or downward effect on the market price of the Shares.

Market Risk. The value of the securities in which the Fund invests may go up or down in response to the prospects of governments and/or general economic conditions throughout the world due to increasingly interconnected global economies and financial markets. Events such as war, acts of terrorism, social unrest, natural disasters, the spread of infectious illness or other public health threats could also significantly impact the Fund and its investments.

Market Trading Risk. The NAV of the Fund and the value of your investment may fluctuate. Market prices of Shares may fluctuate, in some cases significantly, in response to the Fund’s NAV, the intraday value of the Fund’s holdings and supply and demand for Shares. The Fund faces numerous market trading risks, including disruptions to creations and redemptions, the existence of extreme market volatility or potential lack of an active trading market for Shares. Any of these factors, among others, may result in Shares trading at a significant premium or discount to NAV, which will be reflected in the intraday bid/ask spreads and/or the closing price of Shares as compared to NAV. If a shareholder purchases Shares at a time when the market price is at a premium to the NAV or sells Shares at a time when the market price is at a discount to the NAV, the shareholder may sustain losses. Additionally, in stressed market conditions, the market for Shares may become less liquid in response to deteriorating liquidity in the markets for the Fund’s underlying portfolio holdings.

Mortgage-Backed and Other Asset-Backed Securities Risk. Mortgage-related and other asset-backed securities are subject to certain additional risks, including “extension risk” (i.e., in periods of rising interest rates, issuers may pay principal later than expected) and “prepayment risk” (i.e., in periods of declining interest rates, issuers may pay principal more quickly than expected, causing the Fund to reinvest proceeds at lower prevailing interest rates). Mortgage-backed securities offered by non-governmental issuers are subject to other risks as well, including failures of private insurers to meet their obligations and unexpectedly high rates of default on the mortgages backing the securities. Other asset-backed securities are subject to risks similar to those associated with mortgage-backed securities, as well as risks associated with the nature and servicing of the assets backing the securities. Asset-backed securities may not have the benefit


 

5        SUMMARY PROSPECTUS — GOLDMAN SACHS ACCESS U.S. AGGREGATE BOND ETF

 

of a security interest in collateral comparable to that of mortgage assets, resulting in additional credit risk.

Sampling Risk. The Fund’s use of a representative sampling approach will result in its holding a smaller number of securities than are in the Index. As a result, an adverse development respecting a security held by the Fund could result in a greater decline in NAV than would be the case if the Fund held all of the securities in the Index. Conversely, a positive development relating to a security in the Index that is not held by the Fund could cause the Fund to underperform the Index. To the extent the assets in the Fund are smaller, these risks will be greater.

Seed Investor Risk. GSAM and/or its affiliates may make payments to one or more investors that contribute seed capital to the Fund. Such payments may continue for a specified period of time and/or until a specified dollar amount is reached. Those payments will be made from the assets of GSAM and/or such affiliates (and not the Fund). Seed investors may contribute all or a majority of the assets in the Fund. There is a risk that such seed investors may redeem their investments in the Fund, particularly after payments from GSAM and/or its affiliates have ceased. As with redemptions by other large shareholders, such redemptions could have a significant negative impact on the Fund, including on the Fund’s liquidity and the market price of the Fund’s Shares.

Sovereign Default Risk. An issuer of non-U.S. sovereign debt, or the governmental authorities that control the repayment of the debt, may be unable or unwilling to repay the principal or interest when due. This may result from political or social factors, the general economic environment of a country, levels of foreign debt or foreign currency exchange rates.

Tracking Error Risk. Tracking error is the divergence of the Fund’s performance from that of the Index. The performance of the Fund may diverge from that of the Index for a number of reasons. Tracking error may occur because of transaction costs, the Fund’s holding of cash, changes to the Index or the need to meet new or existing regulatory requirements. Unlike the Fund, the returns of the Index are not reduced by investment and other operating expenses, including the trading costs associated with implementing changes to its portfolio of investments. Tracking error risk may be heightened during times of market volatility or other unusual market conditions. In addition, the Fund’s use of a representative sampling approach may cause the Fund’s returns to not be as well correlated with the return of the Index as would be the case if the Fund purchased all of the securities in the Index in the proportions in which they are represented in the Index. The Fund may be required to deviate its investments from the securities and relative weightings of the Index to comply with the Investment Company Act of 1940, as amended (the “Investment Company Act”), to meet the issuer diversification requirements of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended (the “Code”), applicable to regulated investment companies, or as a result of market restrictions or other legal reasons, including regulatory limits or other restrictions on securities that may be purchased by the Investment Adviser and its affiliates.

U.S. Government Securities Risk. The U.S. government may not provide financial support to U.S. government agencies, instrumentalities or sponsored enterprises if it is not obligated to do so by law. U.S. Government Securities issued by the Federal National Mortgage Association (“Fannie Mae”), Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation (“Freddie Mac”) and the Federal Home Loan Banks are neither issued nor guaranteed by the U.S. Treasury and, therefore, are not backed by the full faith and credit of the United States. The maximum potential liability of the issuers of some U.S. Government Securities held by the Fund may greatly exceed their current resources, including their legal right to support from the U.S. Treasury. It is possible that issuers of U.S. Government Securities will not have the funds to meet their payment obligations in the future.

U.S. Treasury Securities Risk. A security backed by the U.S. Treasury or the full faith and credit of the United States is guaranteed only as to the timely payment of interest and principal when held to maturity, but the market prices for such securities are not guaranteed and will fluctuate. Because U.S. Treasury Securities trade actively outside the United States, their prices may rise and fall as changes in global economic conditions affect the demand for these securities. In addition, changes in the credit rating or financial condition of the U.S. government may cause the value of U.S. Treasury Securities to decline.

Utilities Industry Group Risk. Securities in the utilities industry group can be very volatile and can be impacted significantly by supply and demand for services or fuel, government regulation, conservation programs, commodity price fluctuations and other factors. Government regulation of utility companies may limit those companies’ profits or the dividends they can pay to investors. In addition, utility companies may face regulatory restrictions with respect to expansion to new markets, limiting their growth potential. Technological developments may lead to increased competition, which could impact a company’s performance.

Valuation Risk. The sale price the Fund could receive for a security may differ from the Fund’s valuation of the security and may differ from the value used by the Index, particularly for securities that trade in low volume or volatile markets or that are valued using a fair value methodology. Because non-U.S. exchanges may be open on days when a Fund does not price its Shares, the value of foreign securities or assets in the Fund’s portfolio may change on days when investors will not be able to purchase or sell the Fund’s Shares. The Fund relies on various sources to calculate its NAV. The information may be provided by third parties that are believed to be reliable, but the information may not be accurate due to errors by such pricing sources, technological issues or otherwise. NAV calculation may also be impacted by operational risks arising from factors such as failures in systems and technology.

 

PERFORMANCE    

Because the Fund had not yet commenced investment operations as of the date of the Prospectus, there is no performance information quoted for the Fund. Once available, the Fund’s performance information will be accessible at no cost at www.gsamfunds.com/performance or by calling the appropriate phone number on the back cover of the Prospectus.


 

6        SUMMARY PROSPECTUS — GOLDMAN SACHS ACCESS U.S. AGGREGATE BOND ETF

 

PORTFOLIO MANAGEMENT    

Goldman Sachs Asset Management, L.P. is the investment adviser for the Fund.

Portfolio Managers: Jason Singer, Managing Director; and David Westbrook, Vice President, have managed the Fund since inception.

 

BUYING AND SELLING FUND SHARES    

The Fund will issue and redeem Shares at NAV only in a large specified number of Shares each called a “Creation Unit,” or multiples thereof. A Creation Unit consists of 50,000 Shares.

Individual Shares of the Fund may only be purchased and sold in secondary market transactions through brokers. Shares of the Fund are anticipated to be approved for listing and trading on NYSE Arca, subject to notice of issuance, and because Shares trade at market prices rather than NAV, Shares of the Fund may trade at a price greater than or less than NAV.

 

TAX INFORMATION    

The Fund’s distributions are taxable, and will be taxed as ordinary income or capital gains, unless you are investing through a tax-deferred arrangement, such as a 401(k) plan or an individual retirement account. Investments made through tax-deferred arrangements may become taxable upon withdrawal from such arrangements.

 

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), GSAM or other related companies may pay the intermediary for the sale of Fund Shares or related services. 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.


 

7        SUMMARY PROSPECTUS — GOLDMAN SACHS ACCESS U.S. AGGREGATE BOND ETF

 

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8        SUMMARY PROSPECTUS — GOLDMAN SACHS ACCESS U.S. AGGREGATE BOND ETF

 

 

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