497K 1 d497k.htm HIGH YIELD BOND FUND SUMMARY PROSPECTUS High Yield Bond Fund Summary Prospectus
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Summary Prospectus

MetWest High Yield Bond Fund

M Share Class – MWHYX

July 31, 2010

 

 

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 online at www.mwamllc.com/literature.php. You can also get this information at no cost by calling 800 241 4671 or by sending an email request to metwestclientservices@tcw.com.

 

The Fund’s current Prospectus and Statement of Additional Information, both dated July 31, 2010, are incorporated by reference into this Summary Prospectus.

    LOGO

MW-HYX_0710


LOGO

 

INVESTMENT OBJECTIVE

The High Yield Bond Fund seeks to maximize long-term total return consistent with preservation of capital.

FEES AND EXPENSES OF THE FUND

The table below describes the fees and expenses you may pay if you buy and hold shares of the Fund.

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 (12b-1) Fees 1

   0.25%

 

Other Expenses2

   0.12%
    

Total Annual Fund Operating Expenses

   0.87%
    

Fee Waiver and/or Expense Reimbursement3

   0.07%
    

Total Annual Fund Operating Expenses after Fee Waiver and/or Expense Reimbursement3

   0.80%
    

1 The Fund’s 12b-1 Plan allows for payments of up to 0.25% of the Fund’s average daily net assets.

2 Other Expenses include Acquired Fund Fees and Expenses (“AFFE”) which are indirect fees that the Fund incurs from investing in the shares of other investment companies (“Acquired Fund(s)”). The indirect fee represents a pro rata portion of the cumulative expenses charged by the Acquired Fund. AFFE are reflected in the Acquired Fund’s net asset value. Please note that the impact of AFFE in the table above is less than 0.01%.

3 Metropolitan West Asset Management, LLC (the “Adviser”) has contractually agreed to waive advisory fees and/or reimburse expenses, including distribution expenses, to limit the Fund’s total annual operating expenses (excluding interest, taxes, brokerage commissions, short sale dividend expenses, swap interest expenses, AFFE, and any expenses incurred in connection with any merger or reorganization or extraordinary expenses such as litigation) to 0.80% of average daily net assets. This contract will remain in place until July 31, 2011 unless the Board of Trustees approves its earlier termination. Total Annual Fund Operating Expenses shown do not reflect interest ultimately paid by the Fund during that fiscal year to the estate of Lehman Brothers on amounts owed at the time of its bankruptcy and invested by the Fund, which would increase that figure by 0.01%.

Example:

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 redeem 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:

 

1 Year

  3 Years   5 Years   10 Years  
   

$82

  $271   $475   $1,066  

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 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 40% of the average value of its portfolio.

PRINCIPAL INVESTMENT STRATEGIES

The Fund pursues its objective by investing, under normal circumstances, at least 80% of its net assets in high yield fixed income securities (commonly called “junk bonds”) which are rated below investment grade or are unrated and determined by the Adviser to be of similar quality. The remainder of the Fund’s net assets may be invested in investment grade securities rated by one of the nationally recognized statistical rating organizations or, if unrated, of comparable quality in the opinion of the Adviser.

Under normal conditions, the portfolio duration is two to eight years and the dollar-weighted average maturity ranges from two to fifteen years. The Fund invests in the U.S. and abroad, including emerging markets, and may purchase securities of varying maturities issued by domestic and foreign corporations and governments. The Adviser will concentrate the Fund’s portfolio holdings in areas of the bond market that the Adviser believes to be relatively undervalued.

Investments may include corporate bonds, mezzanine investments, collateralized bond obligations, collateralized debt obligations, collateralized loan obligations, swaps, credit default swaps, currency futures and options, bank loans, preferred stock, common stock, warrants, asset-backed securities, mortgage-backed securities, foreign securities, U.S. Treasuries and agency securities, cash and cash equivalents, private placements, defaulted debt securities and restricted securities. These investments may have interest rates that are fixed, variable or floating.

The Fund may hedge its exposure to foreign currencies, invest in futures and options, sell short and borrow from banks and or other financial institutions. The Fund may also seek to obtain market exposure to the securities in which it invests by entering into a series of purchase and sale contracts or by using other investment techniques such as reverse repurchase agreements.


 

1


Summary Prospectus

 

PRINCIPAL RISKS

Since the Fund holds securities with fluctuating market prices, the value of the Fund’s shares will vary as its portfolio securities increase or decrease in value. Therefore, the value of your investment in the Fund could go down as well as up. You can lose money by investing in the Fund.

The principal risks affecting the Fund that can cause a decline in value are:

Non-Diversification Risk. The risk that because a relatively higher percentage of the Fund’s assets may be invested in the securities of a limited number of issuers, the Fund may be more susceptible to any single economic, political or regulatory event than a diversified fund.

Market Risk. The risk that returns from the securities in which the Fund invests will underperform returns from the general securities markets or other types of securities.

High Yield Risk. The risk that these bonds have a higher degree of default risk and may be less liquid and subject to greater price volatility than investment grade bonds.

Price Volatility Risk. The risk that the value of the Fund’s investment portfolio will change as the prices of its investments go up or down.

Interest Rate Risk. The risk that debt securities will decline in value because of changes in interest rates.

Derivatives Risk. The risk that changes in the value of a derivative may not correlate perfectly with the underlying asset, reference rate or index and the Fund could lose more than the principal amount invested.

Leverage Risk. The risk that leverage may result from certain transactions, including the use of derivatives, borrowing and reverse repurchase agreements. Leverage may exaggerate the effect of an increase in the value of the Fund’s portfolio securities causing the Fund to be more volatile than if leverage was not used.

Foreign Securities Risk. The value of the Fund’s investments in foreign securities also depends on changing currency values, different political and economic environments and other overall economic conditions in the countries where the Fund invests. Emerging market debt securities tend to be of lower credit quality and subject to greater risk of default than higher rated securities from more developed markets. Investments by the Fund in currencies other than U.S. dollars may decline in value against the U.S. dollar if not properly hedged.

Securities Selection Risk. The risk that the securities held by the Fund will underperform other funds investing in the same asset class or benchmarks that are representative of the asset class because of the portfolio managers’ choice of securities.

Portfolio Management Risk. The risk that an investment strategy may fail to produce the intended results.

Prepayment Risk of Asset-Backed and Mortgage-Backed Securities. The risk that in times of declining interest rates, the Fund’s higher yielding securities will be prepaid and the Fund will have to replace them with securities having a lower yield.

Extension Risk of Asset-Backed and Mortgage-Backed Securities. The risk that in times of rising interest rates prepayments will slow causing securities considered short or intermediate term to be long-term securities which fluctuate more widely in response to changes in interest rates than shorter term securities.

Asset-Backed Securities Investment Risk. The risk that the impairment of the value of the collateral underlying the security such as non-payment of loans, will result in a reduction in the value of the security.

Liquidity Risk. The risk that there may be no willing buyer of the Fund’s portfolio securities and the Fund may have to sell those securities at a lower price or may not be able to sell the securities at all, each of which would have a negative effect on performance.

Please see “Additional Fund Information – Principal Risks” for a more detailed description of the risks of investing in the Fund.

Your investment in the Fund is not a bank deposit and is not insured or guaranteed by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation or any other government agency, entity or person.

PERFORMANCE INFORMATION

The following bar chart and table provide some indication of the risks of investing in the Fund. The bar chart shows changes in the Fund’s performance from year to year. The table compares the average annual total returns of the Fund to a broad-based securities market index. Total returns would have been lower if certain fees and expenses had not been waived or reimbursed. The Fund’s past performance (before and after taxes) is not necessarily an indication of how the Fund will perform in the future. Updated performance information for the Fund is available on our website at www.mwamllc.com or by calling 800 241 4671.

ANNUAL TOTAL RETURNS

FOR YEARS ENDED 12/31

LOGO

Year-to-Date Total Return as of June 30, 2010: 3.92%

 

Highest/Lowest quarterly results during this period were:
Highest       21.58%    (quarter ended June 30, 2009)
Lowest      -15.30%    (quarter ended December 31, 2008)

 

 

 

  2  


AVERAGE ANNUAL TOTAL RETURNS

For the periods ended December 31, 2009

 

High Yield Bond Fund

(Class M Shares)

  

1

Year

   5
Years
  

Since

Inception

(9/30/2002)

 

Return Before Taxes

   54.69%    6.95%    11.44%

Return After Taxes on Distributions

   48.94%    3.61%    7.54%

Return After Taxes on Distributions and Sale of Fund Shares

   34.92%    3.90%    7.53%

Barclays Capital

   58.76%    6.49%    10.66%

U.S. Corporate High Yield Index - 2% Issuer Cap

(Reflects no deduction for fees, expenses or taxes)

After-tax returns are calculated using the historical highest individual federal marginal income tax rates and do not reflect the impact of state and local taxes. Actual after-tax returns depend on an investor’s tax situation and may differ from those shown. After-tax returns shown are not relevant to investors who hold their Fund shares through tax-deferred arrangements, such as 401(k) plans or individual retirement accounts. In some cases, returns after taxes on distributions and sale of Fund shares may be higher than returns before taxes because the calculations assume that the investor received a tax deduction for any loss incurred on the sale of the shares.

INVESTMENT ADVISER

Metropolitan West Asset Management, LLC.

PORTFOLIO MANAGERS

Steve Kane, CFA – Founding Partner and Generalist Portfolio Manager, has been a member of the team managing the Fund since 1996.

Laird Landmann – Founding Partner and Generalist Portfolio Manager, has been a member of the team managing the Fund since 1996.

Jamie Farnham – Managing Director and Director of Credit Research, has been a member of the team managing the Fund since 2002.

Gino Nucci – Senior Vice President and Corporate Specialist, has been a member of the team managing the Fund since 2004.

PURCHASE AND SALE OF FUND SHARES

You may purchase or redeem shares of the Funds on any business day (normally any day that the New York Stock Exchange is open). Generally, purchase and redemption orders for the Fund shares are processed at the net asset value next calculated after an order is received by the Fund. You may conduct transactions by mail (Metropolitan West Funds, c/o BNY Mellon Investment Servicing, P.O. Box 9793, Providence, RI 02940), or telephone 800 241 4671. You may also purchase or redeem Fund shares through your dealer or financial advisor.

The following table provides the Fund’s minimum initial and subsequent investment requirements. The minimums may be reduced or waived in some cases.

 

Type of Account  

Minimum Initial

Investment

  Subsequent
Investments
 

Regular Accounts

  $5,000   $0

Individual Retirement Accounts

  $1,000   $0

Automatic Investment Plan

  $5,000   $100

TAX INFORMATION

Dividends and capital gains distributions you receive from the Fund are subject to federal income taxes and may also be subject to state and local taxes, unless you are investing through a tax-deferred arrangement, such as a 401(k) plan or an individual retirement account. Such tax-deferred arrangements may be taxed later upon withdrawal from those arrangements.

PAYMENTS TO BROKER-DEALERS AND OTHER FINANCIAL INTERMEDIARIES

If you purchase shares of the Funds through a broker-dealer or other financial intermediary (such as a bank), the Fund and/or the Adviser may pay the intermediary for the sale of Fund shares and related services. Shareholders who purchase or hold shares through an intermediary may inquire about such payments from that intermediary. 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.


 

3


LOGO   

 

Summary Prospectus

MetWest High Yield Bond Fund

I Share Class – MWHIX

July 31, 2010

 

 

Before you invest, you may want to review the Fund’sProspectus, which contains more information about the Fundand its risks. You can find the Fund’s Prospectus and otherinformation about the Fund online at www.mwamllc.com/literature.php. You can also get this information at no cost by calling800 241 4671 or by sending an email request to metwestclientservices@tcw.com.

 

The Fund’s current Prospectus and Statement of Additional Information, both dated July 31, 2010, are incorporated by reference into this Summary Prospectus.

     LOGO

MW-HYX_0710


LOGO

 

INVESTMENT OBJECTIVE

The High Yield Bond Fund seeks to maximize long-term total return consistent with preservation of capital.

FEES AND EXPENSES OF THE FUND

The table below describes the fees and expenses you may pay if you buy and hold shares of the Fund.

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 (12b-1) Fees

   None

 

Other Expenses1

   0.12%
    

Total Annual Fund Operating Expenses

   0.62%
    

Fee Waiver and/or Expense Reimbursement2

   0.07%
    

Total Annual Fund Operating Expensesafter Fee Waiver and/or Expense Reimbursement1,2

   0.55%
    

1 Other expenses include AFFE which are indirect fees that the Fund incurs from investing in the shares of other investment companies (“Acquired Fund(s)”). The indirect fee represents a pro rata portion of the cumulative expenses charged by the Acquired Fund. AFFE are reflected in the Acquired Fund’s net asset value. Please note that the impact of AFFE in the table above is less than 0.01%.

2 Metropolitan West Asset Management, LLC (the “Adviser”) has contractually agreed to waive advisory fees and/or reimburse expenses, including distribution expenses, to limit the Fund’s total annual operating expenses (excluding interest, taxes, brokerage commissions, short sale dividend expenses, swap interest expense, acquired fund fees and expenses (“AFFE”), and any expenses incurred in connection with any merger or reorganization or extraordinary expenses such as litigation) to 0.55% of average daily net assets. This contract will remain in place until July 31, 2011 unless the Board of Trustees approves its earlier termination. Total Annual Fund Operating Expenses shown do not reflect interest ultimately paid by the Fund during that fiscal year to the estate of Lehman Brothers on amounts owed at the time of its bankruptcy and invested by the Fund, which would increase that figure by 0.01%.

Example:

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 redeem 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:

 

1 Year

  3 Years   5 Years   10 Years  
   

$56

  $191   $339   $768  

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 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 40% of the average value of its portfolio.

PRINCIPAL INVESTMENT STRATEGIES

The Fund pursues its objective by investing, under normal circumstances, at least 80% of its net assets in high yield fixed income securities (commonly called “junk bonds”) which are rated below investment grade or are unrated and determined by the Adviser to be of similar quality. The remainder of the Fund’s net assets may be invested in investment grade securities rated by one of the nationally recognized statistical rating organizations or, if unrated, of comparable quality in the opinion of the Adviser.

Under normal conditions, the portfolio duration is two to eight years and the dollar-weighted average maturity ranges from two to fifteen years. The Fund invests in the U.S. and abroad, including emerging markets, and may purchase securities of varying maturities issued by domestic and foreign corporations and governments. The Adviser will concentrate the Fund’s portfolio holdings in areas of the bond market that the Adviser believes to be relatively undervalued.

Investments may include corporate bonds, mezzanine investments, collateralized bond obligations, collateralized debt obligations, collateralized loan obligations, swaps, credit default swaps, currency futures and options, bank loans, preferred stock, common stock, warrants, asset-backed securities, mortgage-backed securities, foreign securities, U.S. Treasuries and agency securities, cash and cash equivalents, private placements, defaulted debt securities and restricted securities. These investments may have interest rates that are fixed, variable or floating.

The Fund may hedge its exposure to foreign currencies, invest in futures and options, sell short and borrow from banks and or other financial institutions. The Fund may also seek to obtain market exposure to the securities in which it invests by entering into a series of purchase and sale contracts or by using other investment techniques such as reverse repurchase agreements.


 

1


Summary Prospectus

 

PRINCIPAL RISKS

Since the Fund holds securities with fluctuating market prices, the value of the Fund’s shares will vary as its portfolio securities increase or decrease in value. Therefore, the value of your investment in the Fund could go down as well as up. You can lose money by investing in the Fund.

The principal risks affecting the Fund that can cause a decline in value are:

Non-Diversification Risk. The risk that because a relatively higher percentage of the Fund’s assets may be invested in the securities of a limited number of issuers, the Fund may be more susceptible to any single economic, political or regulatory event than a diversified fund.

Market Risk. The risk that returns from the securities in which the Fund invests will underperform returns from the general securities markets or other types of securities.

High Yield Risk. The risk that these bonds have a higher degree of default risk and may be less liquid and subject to greater price volatility than investment grade bonds.

Price Volatility Risk. The risk that the value of the Fund’s investment portfolio will change as the prices of its investments go up or down.

Interest Rate Risk. The risk that debt securities will decline in value because of changes in interest rates.

Derivatives Risk. The risk that changes in the value of a derivative may not correlate perfectly with the underlying asset, reference rate or index and the Fund could lose more than the principal amount invested.

Leverage Risk. The risk that leverage may result from certain transactions, including the use of derivatives, borrowing and reverse repurchase agreements. Leverage may exaggerate the effect of an increase in the value of the Fund’s portfolio securities causing the Fund to be more volatile than if leverage was not used.

Foreign Securities Risk. The value of the Fund’s investments in foreign securities also depends on changing currency values, different political and economic environments and other overall economic conditions in the countries where the Fund invests. Emerging market debt securities tend to be of lower credit quality and subject to greater risk of default than higher rated securities from more developed markets. Investments by the Fund in currencies other than U.S. dollars may decline in value against the U.S. dollar if not properly hedged.

Securities Selection Risk. The risk that the securities held by the Fund will underperform other funds investing in the same asset class or benchmarks that are representative of the asset class because of the portfolio managers’ choice of securities.

Portfolio Management Risk. The risk that an investment strategy may fail to produce the intended results.

Prepayment Risk of Asset-Backed and Mortgage-Backed Securities. The risk that in times of declining interest rates, the Fund’s higher yielding securities will be prepaid and the Fund will have to replace them with securities having a lower yield.

 

Extension Risk of Asset-Backed and Mortgage-Backed Securities. The risk that in times of rising interest rates prepayments will slow causing securities considered short or intermediate term to be long-term securities which fluctuate more widely in response to changes in interest rates than shorter term securities.

Asset-Backed Securities Investment Risk. The risk that the impairment of the value of the collateral underlying the security such as non-payment of loans, will result in a reduction in the value of the security.

Liquidity Risk. The risk that there may be no willing buyer of the Fund’s portfolio securities and the Fund may have to sell those securities at a lower price or may not be able to sell the securities at all, each of which would have a negative effect on performance.

Please see “Additional Fund Information – Principal Risks” for a more detailed description of the risks of investing in the Fund.

Your investment in the Fund is not a bank deposit and is not insured or guaranteed by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation or any other government agency, entity or person.

PERFORMANCE INFORMATION

The following bar chart and table provide some indication of the risks of investing in the Fund. The bar chart shows changes in the Fund’s performance from year to year. The table compares the average annual total returns of the Fund to a broad-based securities market index. Total returns would have been lower if certain fees and expenses had not been waived or reimbursed. The Fund’s past performance (before and after taxes) is not necessarily an indication of how the Fund will perform in the future. Updated performance information for the Fund is available on our website at www.mwamllc.com or by calling 800 241 4671.

ANNUAL TOTAL RETURNS

FOR YEARS ENDED 12/31

 

LOGO

Year-to-Date Total Return as of June 30, 2010: 4.05%

 

Highest/Lowest quarterly results during this period were:

Highest      21.65%   (quarter ended June 30, 2009)
Lowest    -15.36%   (quarter ended December 31, 2008)

 

2


AVERAGE ANNUAL TOTAL RETURNS

For the periods ended December 31, 2009

 

High Yield Bond Fund

(Class I Shares)

  

1

Year

  5
Years
  Since
Inception
(3/31/2003)
 

Return Before Taxes

   55.27%   7.20%   9.77%

Return After Taxes on Distributions

   49.38%   3.77%   5.82%

Return After Taxes on Distributions and Sale of Fund Shares

   35.29%   4.05%   6.00%

Barclays Capital

   58.76%   6.49%   9.29%

U.S. Corporate High Yield Index—2% Issuer Cap

(Reflects no deduction for fees, expenses or taxes)

After-tax returns are calculated using the historical highest individual federal marginal income tax rates and do not reflect the impact of state and local taxes. Actual after-tax returns depend on an investor’s tax situation and may differ from those shown. After-tax returns shown are not relevant to investors who hold their Fund shares through tax-deferred arrangements, such as 401(k) plans or individual retirement accounts. In some cases, returns after taxes on distributions and sale of Fund shares may be higher than returns before taxes because the calculations assume that the investor received a tax deduction for any loss incurred on the sale of the shares.

INVESTMENT ADVISER

Metropolitan West Asset Management, LLC.

PORTFOLIO MANAGERS

Steve Kane, CFA – Founding Partner and Generalist Portfolio Manager, has been a member of the team managing the Fund since 1996.

Laird Landmann – Founding Partner and Generalist Portfolio Manager, has been a member of the team managing the Fund since 1996.

Jamie Farnham – Managing Director and Director of Credit Research, has been a member of the team managing the Fund since 2002.

 

Gino Nucci – Senior Vice President and Corporate Specialist, has been a member of the team managing the Fund since 2004.

PURCHASE AND SALE OF FUND SHARES

You may purchase or redeem shares of the Funds on any business day (normally any day that the New York Stock Exchange is open). Generally, purchase and redemption orders for the Fund shares are processed at the net asset value next calculated after an order is received by the Fund. You may conduct transactions by mail (Metropolitan West Funds, c/o BNY Mellon Investment Servicing, P.O. Box 9793, Providence, RI 02940), or telephone 800 241 4671. You may also purchase or redeem Fund shares through your dealer or financial advisor.

The following table provides the Fund’s minimum initial and subsequent investment requirements. The minimums may be reduced or waived in some cases.

 

Type of Account    Minimum Initial
Investment
  Subsequent
Investments
 

Regular Accounts

   $3,000,000   $50,000

TAX INFORMATION

Dividends and capital gains distributions you receive from the Fund are subject to federal income taxes and may also be subject to state and local taxes, unless you are investing through a tax-deferred arrangement, such as a 401(k) plan or an individual retirement account. Such tax-deferred arrangements may be taxed later upon withdrawal from those arrangements.

PAYMENTS TO BROKER-DEALERS AND OTHER FINANCIAL INTERMEDIARIES

If you purchase shares of the Funds through a broker-dealer or other financial intermediary (such as a bank), the Fund and/or the Adviser may pay the intermediary for the sale of Fund shares and related services. Shareholders who purchase or hold shares through an intermediary may inquire about such payments from that intermediary. 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.


 

3