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Select Class Shares | SA Emerging Markets Value Fund
SA Emerging Markets Value Fund
Goal

The Fund’s goal is to achieve long-term capital appreciation.

Fees and Expenses

The tables below describe the fees and expenses that you may pay if you buy and hold shares of the Fund.

Shareholder Fees (fees paid directly from your investment)
Shareholder Fees
Select Class Shares
SA Emerging Markets Value Fund
Class S
USD ($)
Sales charge (load) imposed on purchases none
Sales charge (load) imposed on reinvested dividends none
Redemption fee none
Exchange fee none
Annual Class Operating Expenses (expenses that you pay each year as a percentage of the value of your investment)
Annual Fund Operating Expenses
Select Class Shares
SA Emerging Markets Value Fund
Class S
Management fees 0.92%
Shareholder servicing fee 0.05%
Other expenses 0.40%
Total annual operating expenses 1.37%
Fee waiver and/or expense reimbursement (0.22%) [1]
Total annual operating expenses after fee waiver and/or expense reimbursement 1.15%
[1] The Adviser has contractually agreed to waive its management fees and/or to reimburse expenses with the effect that: (1) the Select Class shares' total annual operating expenses (excluding interest, taxes, brokerage commissions, acquired fund fees and expenses and extraordinary expenses) are 0.20% lower than the Investor Class shares' total annual operating expense ratio after fee waiver and/or expense reimbursement; and (2) the Select Class shares' total annual operating expenses (excluding interest, taxes, brokerage commissions, acquired fund fees and expenses and extraordinary expenses) will not exceed 1.15%. This expense limitation will remain in effect until October 28, 2021 and may be amended or terminated before such time only with the approval of the Board of Trustees of the Fund. Investor Class shares are not available through this Prospectus.
Expense Example

This expense 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 and the expense limitation remains in place for the time period indicated. Although your actual costs may be higher or lower, based on these assumptions your costs would be:

Expense Example
1 year
3 years
5 years
10 years
Select Class Shares | SA Emerging Markets Value Fund | Class S | USD ($) 117 389 707 1,607
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 Fund shares are held in a taxable account. These costs, which are not reflected in annual Select Class operating expenses or in the example, affect the Fund’s performance. During the most recent fiscal year, the Fund’s portfolio turnover rate was 12% of the average value of its portfolio.

Principal Investment Strategies

The Fund pursues its goal by generally investing in a broad and diverse group of equity securities of companies in emerging markets, which may include frontier markets (i.e., emerging market countries in an earlier stage of development). The Fund intends to purchase securities of companies with small, medium and large market capitalizations in their respective markets that Dimensional Fund Advisors LP (the “Sub-Adviser”) considers to be “value” stocks at the time of investment.

The Sub-Adviser considers value stocks primarily to be those of companies with a low price in relation to their book value. In assessing value, the Sub-Adviser may consider additional factors such as price-to-cash flow or price-to-earnings ratios. In addition, the Sub-Adviser may, in its discretion, adjust the representation in the Fund of an eligible company, or exclude an eligible company, after considering such factors as free float (a company’s share capital that is freely available for trading), size, value, trading strategies, liquidity, profitability, momentum, investment characteristics and other factors that the Sub-Adviser determines to be appropriate, given market conditions. In assessing profitability, the Sub-Adviser may consider different ratios, such as that of earnings or profits from operations relative to book value or assets. In assessing a company’s investment characteristics, the Sub-Adviser may consider ratios such as recent changes in assets or book value scaled by assets or book value. The criteria the Sub-Adviser uses for assessing value, profitability or investment characteristics are subject to change from time to time.

The Fund seeks to achieve its goal by investing in companies in countries designated by the Investment Committee of the Sub-Adviser from time to time as approved markets. The Fund is authorized to invest in the following approved markets: Brazil, Chile, China, Colombia, the Czech Republic, Greece, Hungary, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Mexico, the Philippines, Poland, Russia, South Africa, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, and Turkey. The Sub-Adviser may authorize other countries for investment in the future in addition to the approved markets listed above. In addition, the Fund may also continue to hold securities associated with countries that are not listed above as approved markets but had been authorized for investment in the past and may reinvest distributions received in connection with such existing investments in such previously approved countries. As a non-fundamental policy, under normal circumstances, the Fund will invest at least 80% of its net assets in emerging markets investments that are approved market securities.

The Fund’s definition of what constitutes a small, medium and large company varies across countries and is based primarily on market capitalization. In each approved market, the companies listed on selected exchanges are ranked based upon their market capitalizations. The minimum market capitalization of any company eligible for purchase is generally $50 million. This threshold will vary with market conditions.

The Fund may lend its portfolio securities to generate additional income.

Principal Investment Risks

The share price of the Fund may change daily based on market conditions and other factors. Therefore, you may lose money if you invest in the Fund.

The principal risks that apply to the Fund are:

Market Risk: The value of securities may go up or down in response to the prospects of individual issuers, general economic or market conditions, and/or investor behavior that leads investors’ perceptions of value (as reflected in the price of the security) to diverge from fundamental value.
   
Emerging Markets Risk: Investing in emerging market countries involves risks in addition to those generally associated with investing in developed foreign countries. Securities issued in these countries may be more volatile and less liquid than securities issued in foreign countries with more developed economies or markets. Numerous emerging market countries have experienced serious, and frequently continuing, economic and political problems. Stock markets in many emerging market countries are relatively small, expensive to trade and risky. Foreigners are often limited in their ability to invest in, and withdraw assets from, these markets. Additional restrictions may be imposed under emergency conditions. These risks may be magnified in countries that are frontier markets.
   
Value Stock Risk: Value stocks may perform differently from the market as a whole, and following a value-oriented investment strategy may cause the Fund to, at times, underperform equity funds that use other investment strategies.
   
Large Company Stock Risk: Larger, more established companies may be unable to respond quickly to competitive challenges, such as changes in technology and consumer tastes.
   
Medium-Size Company Stock Risk: Stocks of medium-size companies are usually more sensitive to adverse business developments and economic, political, regulatory and market factors than stocks of larger companies, and the prices of stocks of medium-size companies may be more volatile.
   
Small Company Stock Risk: The stocks of small companies may involve more risk than those of larger companies. Small companies often have narrower markets and more limited managerial and financial resources than larger, more established companies. As a result, they may be more sensitive to changing economic conditions, which could increase the volatility of their share prices. In addition, small company stocks typically are traded in lower volume, making them more difficult to purchase or sell at the desired time and price or in the desired amount. Generally, the smaller the company size, the greater these risks.
   
Foreign Securities and Currency Risk: Foreign securities involve risks in addition to those associated with comparable U.S. securities. Additional risks may include exposure to less developed or less efficient trading markets; social, political or economic instability; nationalization or expropriation of assets; currency controls or redenomination; changes in tax policy; high transaction costs; settlement, custodial or other operational risks; and less stringent accounting, auditing, financial reporting, and legal standards and practices. As a result, foreign securities can fluctuate more widely in price, and may also be less liquid, than comparable U.S. securities. Values of securities denominated in foreign currencies also may be negatively affected by changes in the exchange rates between the U.S. dollar and foreign currencies.
   
Securities Lending Risk: Securities lending involves possible delay in recovery of the securities or possible loss of rights in the collateral should the borrower fail financially. As a result, the value of the Fund shares may fall. The value of the Fund shares could also fall if a loan is called and the Fund is required to liquidate reinvested collateral at a loss or if the Fund is unable to reinvest cash collateral at rates which exceed the costs involved.
   
Sector Risk: Companies with similar characteristics may be grouped together in broad categories called sectors. The Fund may be overweight in certain sectors at various times. To the extent the Fund invests more heavily in a particular sector, its performance will be especially sensitive to any economic, business, regulatory or other developments which generally affect that sector. Individual sectors may underperform other sectors or the market as a whole.
   
Cybersecurity Risk: Cybersecurity breaches may allow an unauthorized party to gain access to Fund assets, customer data, or proprietary information, or cause the Fund and/or its service providers to suffer data corruption or lose operational functionality. Cyber-attacks affecting the Fund, any of its service providers or any issuer in which the Fund invests may adversely impact the Fund.
   
Management Risk: The investment techniques and risk analyses applied by the Sub-Adviser may not produce the desired results. Furthermore, legislative, regulatory, or tax restrictions, policies, or developments may affect the investment techniques available to the Sub-Adviser in connection with managing the Fund. There is no guarantee that the investment objective of the Fund will be achieved.
   
Large Investor Risk. Ownership of shares of the Fund may be concentrated in one or a few large investors. Such investors may redeem shares in large quantities or on a frequent basis. Redemptions by a large investor may: affect the performance of the Fund; increase realized capital gains; accelerate the realization of taxable income to shareholders; and increase transaction costs and/or other expenses for the Fund.
Performance

The bar chart and table below provide some indication of the risks of investing in the Fund. The bar chart shows how the Fund’s performance has varied from year to year. The table shows how the Fund’s average annual total returns for certain time periods compare to those of a broad-based securities market index. The past performance information shown below for periods prior to July 3, 2017 (the commencement of operations for Select Class shares) is for Investor Class shares, which are not available through this Prospectus. Although Investor Class shares would have similar annual returns to Select Class shares because the classes are invested in the same portfolio of securities, the returns for Select Class shares will vary from Investor Class shares because of the lower expenses paid by Select Class shares.

 

The Fund’s past performance (before and after taxes) is not necessarily an indication of how it will perform in the future. Updated Fund performance information can be obtained by visiting http://www.sa-funds.com.

Annual Total Returns – Select Class Shares (per calendar year)
Bar Chart

The year-to-date return through the calendar quarter ended September 30, 2019 was (0.98)%.

Highest/lowest quarterly return during the periods shown:

    Quarter Ended   Total Return
Best Quarter     9/30/2018     2.41%
Worst Quarter     6/30/2018     (8.64)%
Average Annual Total Returns (for periods ended December 31, 2018)
Average Annual Total Returns - Select Class Shares - SA Emerging Markets Value Fund
1 Year
5 Years
10 Years
Class S (11.99%) 0.01% 6.98%
Class S | After Taxes on Distributions (12.26%) (0.14%) 6.75%
Class S | After Taxes on Distributions and Sales (6.63%) 0.18% 5.82%
MSCI Emerging Markets Value Index (net div.) (10.74%) 0.51% 6.99%

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. In certain situations, the “Return After Taxes on Distributions and Sale of Fund Shares” may be higher than the other return figures for the same period. A higher after-tax return can occur when a capital loss occurs upon redemption and translates into an assumed tax deduction that benefits the shareholder. After-tax returns are shown for Investor Class shares. After-tax returns for Select Class shares will vary from Investor Class shares because of the lower expenses paid by Select Class shares. 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-advantaged arrangements, such as 401(k) plans or individual retirement accounts.