497K 1 d929201d497k.htm FORM 497K Form 497K
May 8, 2019
2019 Summary Prospectus
►  iShares iBonds 2025 Term High Yield and Income ETF* | IBHE | CBOE BZX
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 (including amendments and supplements) and other information about the Fund, including the Fund’s statement of additional information and shareholder report, online at https://www.ishares.com/prospectus. You can also get this information at no cost by calling 1-800-iShares (1-800-474-2737) or by sending an e-mail request to iSharesETFs@blackrock.com, or from your financial professional. The Fund’s prospectus and statement of additional information, both dated April 30, 2019, as amended and supplemented from time to time, are incorporated by reference into (legally made a part of) this Summary Prospectus.
Beginning on January 1, 2021, as permitted by regulations adopted by the Securities and Exchange Commission, paper copies of the Fund’s shareholder reports will no longer be sent by mail, unless you specifically request paper copies of the reports from your financial intermediary, such as a broker-dealer or bank. 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. If you hold accounts through a financial intermediary, you may contact your financial intermediary to enroll in electronic delivery. Please note that not all financial intermediaries may offer this service.
You may elect to receive all future reports in paper free of charge. If you hold accounts through a financial intermediary, you can follow the instructions included with this disclosure, if applicable, or contact your financial intermediary to request that you continue to receive paper copies of your shareholder reports. Please note that not all financial intermediaries may offer this service. Your election to receive reports in paper will apply to all funds held with your financial intermediary.
The Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) has not approved or disapproved these securities or passed upon the adequacy of this prospectus. Any representation to the contrary is a criminal offense.
*The iShares iBonds 2025 Term High Yield and Income ETF may also conduct business as the iBonds 2025 Term High Yield and Income ETF.

 


iSHARES® iBONDS® 2025 TERM HIGH YIELD AND INCOME ETF
Ticker: IBHE Stock Exchange: Cboe BZX
Investment Objective
The iShares iBonds 2025 Term High Yield and Income ETF (the “Fund”) seeks to track the investment results of an index composed of U.S. dollar-denominated, high yield and other income generating corporate bonds maturing in 2025.
Fees and Expenses
The following table describes the fees and expenses that you will incur if you own shares of the Fund. The investment advisory agreement between iShares Trust (the “Trust”) and BlackRock Fund Advisors (“BFA”) (the “Investment Advisory Agreement”) provides that BFA will pay all operating expenses of the Fund, except the management fees, interest expenses, taxes, expenses incurred with respect to the acquisition and disposition of portfolio securities and the execution of portfolio transactions, including brokerage commissions, distribution fees or expenses, litigation expenses and any extraordinary expenses.
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 that follows:
Annual Fund Operating Expenses
(ongoing expenses that you pay each year as a
percentage of the value of your investments)
Management
Fees
  Distribution and
Service (12b-1)
Fees
  Other
Expenses1
  Total Annual
Fund
Operating
Expenses
0.35%   None   0.00%   0.35%

1 The amount rounded to 0.00%.
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. Although your actual costs may be higher or lower, based on these assumptions, your costs would be:
  1 Year   3 Years  
  $36   $113  
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Portfolio Turnover. The Fund may pay 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 the Annual Fund Operating Expenses or in the Example, affect the Fund’s performance.
Principal Investment Strategies
The Fund seeks to meet its investment objective generally by investing in component securities of the Bloomberg Barclays 2025 Term High Yield and Income Index (the “Underlying Index”). The Fund may also invest in other exchange-traded funds (“ETFs”), U.S. government securities, short-term paper, cash and cash equivalents, including shares of money market funds advised by BFA or its affiliates.
The Fund is a term fund that will terminate on or about December 15, 2025, at which time it will distribute its remaining net assets to shareholders pursuant to a plan of liquidation. The Fund does not seek to return any predetermined amount at maturity or in periodic distributions. The Underlying Index is composed of U.S. dollar-denominated, taxable, fixed-rate, high yield and BBB or equivalently rated (as determined by Bloomberg Index Services Limited (the “Index Provider” or “Bloomberg”)) corporate bonds scheduled to mature after December 31, 2024 and before December 15, 2025. Securities eligible for inclusion in the Underlying Index are selected from a universe of corporate issuers (e.g., industrial, financial institutions, utilities)
determined by Bloomberg. As of March 25, 2019, a significant portion of the Underlying Index is represented by securities of companies in the consumer discretionary industry or sector. The components of the Underlying Index are likely to change over time.
The bonds in the Underlying Index have $250 million or more of outstanding face value at the time of inclusion. The non-U.S. corporate issuers included in the Underlying Index consist primarily of corporate bonds issued by companies domiciled in developed countries. The Fund will invest in non-U.S. issuers to the extent necessary for it to track the Underlying Index. Each bond included in the Underlying Index must be registered with the SEC, have been exempt from registration at issuance, or have been offered pursuant to Rule 144A under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the “1933 Act”). Subject to the methodology of the Underlying Index discussed below, the securities in the Underlying Index may carry a coupon that steps-up according to a predetermined schedule (i.e., the interest rate paid on such securities will increase over time). The Underlying Index will be subject to issuer limits of 3%, with any excess redistributed among the remaining constituents on a pro-rata basis.
The Underlying Index consists of bonds chosen from two sub-indices, the Bloomberg Barclays U.S. High Yield Index (the “High Yield Index”) and the Bloomberg Barclays U.S. Corporate Index (the “Corporate Index”), both of which are stripped of securities maturing outside of the maturity range defined above. BBB-rated bonds from the Corporate Index will be introduced to the Underlying Index under the
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following conditions: (1) in the last 2.5 years but before the last 6 months of the Underlying Index’s term, the Underlying Index will add BBB-rated bonds as constituent high yield bonds are called, no longer qualify for inclusion (due to, among other factors, sector reclassifications of issuers, changes in the credit rating of bonds included in the Underlying Index or rebalances to maintain issuer limits), or decline in value compared to a reference point set at 2.5 years from the Underlying Index’s term or (2) if, prior to the last 2.5 years remaining in the Underlying Index’s term, the market value of the high yield bonds in the Underlying Index declines below $30 billion, the Underlying Index will add BBB-rated bonds to maintain a $30 billion minimum market value for the Underlying Index. In the final year of the Underlying Index’s term, any principal and interest paid by index constituents is treated as follows: (1) during the first six months of the final year, the Underlying Index reinvests proceeds pro-rata into the remaining bonds in the Underlying Index, and (2) during the last six months of the final year, proceeds are not reinvested and are presumed to be held in cash while earning no interest.
The securities in the Underlying Index are updated on the last calendar day of each month until one year prior to June 30, 2025. In addition, to be included in the Underlying Index, securities that are rated by all three of the rating agencies named below must be rated “high yield” to be selected from the High Yield Index and “BBB” to be selected from the Corporate Index. The bonds from the High Yield Index must have a rating equal to or below “Ba1”/”BB+”/”BB+” and above “CC”. The bonds from the Corporate Index must have a rating of
“BBB” (or equivalent). The Index Provider will use the middle rating of Moody’s Investors Service, Inc. (“Moody’s”), Standard & Poors® Financial Services LLC, a subsidiary of S&P Global (“S&P Global Ratings”) and Fitch Ratings, Inc. (“Fitch”); when a rating from only two agencies is available, the lower is used; when only one agency rates a bond, that rating is used. As the Fund approaches its termination date, its holdings of money market or similar funds may increase, causing the Fund to incur the fees and expenses of these funds. By December 15, 2025, the Underlying Index value will be represented almost entirely by cash as no securities will remain in the Underlying Index.
The Fund is a series of the iShares iBonds fixed maturity series of bond ETFs sponsored by BlackRock, Inc. (“BlackRock”). The iShares iBonds fixed maturity series do not invest in U.S. savings bonds or other U.S. government bonds (except to the extent the funds hold cash equivalent instruments consistent with their investment objectives) and are not designed to provide protection against inflation.
BFA uses a “passive” or indexing approach to try to achieve the Fund’s investment objective. Unlike many investment companies, the Fund does not try to “beat” the index it tracks 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 but 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
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turnover low in comparison to actively managed investment companies.
BFA uses 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 an applicable underlying index. The securities selected are expected to have, in the aggregate, investment characteristics (based on factors such as market capitalization and industry weightings), fundamental characteristics (such as return variability, duration, maturity, credit ratings and yield) and liquidity measures similar to those of an applicable underlying index. The Fund may or may not hold all of the securities in the Underlying Index.
The Fund generally will invest at least 90% of its assets in the component securities of the Underlying Index, except during the last months of the Fund’s operations, as described below, and may invest up to 10% of its assets in certain futures, options and swap contracts, cash and cash equivalents, including shares of money market funds advised by BFA or its affiliates (“BlackRock Cash Funds”), as well as in securities not included in the Underlying Index, but which BFA believes will help the Fund track the Underlying Index. From time to time when conditions warrant, however, the Fund may invest at least 80% of its assets in the component securities of the Underlying Index and may invest up to 20% of its assets in certain futures, options and swap contracts, cash and cash equivalents, including shares of BlackRock Cash Funds, as well as in securities not included in the Underlying Index, but which BFA believes will help
the Fund track the Underlying Index.
The Fund seeks to track the investment results of the Underlying Index before fees and expenses of the Fund. In the last six months of operation, as the bonds held by the Fund mature, the proceeds will not be reinvested by the Fund in bonds but instead will be held in cash and cash equivalents. By December 15, 2025, the Underlying Index is expected to consist almost entirely of cash acquired in this manner. On or around this date, the Fund will wind up and terminate, and its net assets will be distributed to then-current shareholders pursuant to a plan of liquidation. The Fund should not be confused with a target date fund, which has assets that are managed according to a particular investment strategy that convert fund assets to conservative investments over time.
The Fund may lend securities representing up to one-third of the value of the Fund's total assets (including the value of any collateral received).
The Underlying Index is sponsored by Bloomberg, which is independent of the Fund and BFA. The Index Provider determines the composition and relative weightings of the securities in the Underlying Index and publishes information regarding the market value of the Underlying Index.
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), repurchase
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agreements collateralized by U.S. government securities, and securities of state or municipal governments and their political subdivisions are not considered to be issued by members of any industry.
Summary of Principal Risks
As with any investment, you could lose all or part of your investment in the Fund, and the Fund's performance could trail that of other investments. The Fund is subject to certain risks, including the principal risks noted below, any of which may adversely affect the Fund's net asset value per share (“NAV”), trading price, yield, total return and ability to meet its investment objective. The order of the below risk factors does not indicate the significance of any particular risk factor.
Asset Class Risk. Securities and other assets in the Underlying Index or in the Fund's portfolio may underperform in comparison to the general financial markets, a particular financial market or other asset classes.
Assets Under Management (AUM) Risk. From time to time, an Authorized Participant (as defined in the Creations and Redemptions section of this prospectus (the “Prospectus”)), a third-party investor, the Fund’s adviser or an affiliate of the Fund’s adviser, or a fund may invest in the Fund and hold its investment for a specific period of time to allow the Fund to achieve size or scale. There can be no assurance that any such entity would not redeem its investment or that the size of the Fund would be maintained at such levels, which could negatively impact the Fund.
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 may act as Authorized Participants on an agency basis (i.e., on behalf of other market participants). To the extent that Authorized Participants exit the business or are unable to proceed with creation or redemption orders with respect to the Fund and no other Authorized Participant is able to step forward to create or redeem Creation Units (as defined in the Purchase and Sale of Fund Shares section of the Prospectus), Fund shares may be more likely to trade at a premium or discount to NAV and possibly face trading halts or delisting.
Call Risk. During periods of falling interest rates, an issuer of a callable bond held by the Fund may “call” or repay the security before its stated maturity, and the Fund may have to reinvest the proceeds in securities with lower yields, which would result in a decline in the Fund's income, or in securities with greater risks or with other less favorable features.
Concentration Risk. The Fund may be susceptible to an increased risk of loss, including losses due to adverse 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.
Consumer Discretionary Sector Risk. The consumer discretionary sector may be affected by changes in domestic and international economies, exchange and interest rates, competition, consumers' disposable income, consumer
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preferences, social trends and marketing campaigns.
Credit Risk. Debt issuers and other counterparties may be unable or unwilling to make timely interest and/or principal payments when due or otherwise honor their obligations. Changes in an issuer’s credit rating or the market’s perception of an issuer’s creditworthiness may also adversely affect the value of the Fund’s investment in that issuer. The degree of credit risk depends on an issuer's or counterparty's financial condition and on the terms of an obligation.
Cyber Security Risk. Failures or breaches of the electronic systems of the Fund, the Fund's adviser, distributor, and other service providers, the Index Provider, market makers, Authorized Participants or the issuers of securities in which the Fund invests have the ability to cause disruptions and negatively impact the Fund’s business operations, potentially resulting in financial losses to the Fund and its shareholders. While the Fund has established business continuity plans and risk management systems seeking to address system breaches or failures, there are inherent limitations in such plans and systems. Furthermore, the Fund cannot control the cyber security plans and systems of the Fund’s service providers, the Index Provider, market makers, Authorized Participants or issuers of securities in which the Fund invests.
Declining Yield Risk. During the six months prior to the Fund’s planned termination date, the Fund’s yield will generally tend to move toward prevailing money market rates and may be lower than the yields of the bonds previously held by the Fund and lower
than prevailing yields for bonds in the market.
Fluctuation of Yield and Liquidation Amount Risk. The Fund, unlike a direct investment in a bond that has a level coupon payment and a fixed payment at maturity, will make distributions of income that vary over time. It is expected that an investment in the Fund, if held through maturity, will produce aggregate returns comparable to a direct investment in a group of bonds of similar credit quality and maturity. Unlike a direct investment in bonds, the breakdown of returns between Fund distributions and liquidation proceeds are not predictable at the time of your investment. For example, at times during the Fund's existence it may make distributions at a greater (or lesser) rate than the coupon payments received on the Fund's portfolio, which would result in the Fund returning a lesser (or greater) amount on liquidation than would otherwise be the case. The rate of Fund distribution payments may adversely affect the tax characterization of your returns from an investment in the Fund relative to a direct investment in bonds. If the amount you receive as liquidation proceeds upon the Fund's termination is higher or lower than your cost basis, you may experience a gain or loss for tax purposes.
High Yield Securities Risk. Securities that are rated below investment-grade (commonly referred to as “junk bonds,” which may include those bonds rated below “BBB-” by S&P Global Ratings and Fitch, or “Baa3” by Moody's), or are unrated, may be deemed speculative, may involve greater levels of risk than higher-rated securities of similar maturity and may be more likely to default. BBB-rated bonds, although
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investment-grade, may share some of the same speculative characteristics as “junk bonds.”
Illiquid Investments Risk. The Fund may invest up to an aggregate amount of 15% of its net assets in illiquid investments. An illiquid investment is any investment that the Fund reasonably expects cannot be sold or disposed of in current market conditions in seven calendar days or less without significantly changing the market value of the investment. To the extent the Fund holds illiquid investments, the illiquid investments may reduce the returns of the Fund because the Fund may be unable to transact at advantageous times or prices.
Income Risk. The Fund's income may decline if interest rates fall. This decline in income can occur because the Fund may subsequently invest in lower-yielding instruments as bonds in its portfolio mature, are near maturity or are called, bonds in the Underlying Index are substituted, or the Fund otherwise needs to purchase additional bonds. As the Fund does not seek to return any predetermined amount at maturity or in periodic distributions, the amount of income generated by the Fund may vary during its term or when the BBB-rated bonds are added to the Underlying Index as constituent high yield bonds are called, no longer qualify for inclusion or decline in value compared to a reference point. Such change may result in a net decrease in the average yield of bonds held by the Fund. In addition, the Fund’s income is expected to decline in the months leading up to its maturity date because its portfolio will increasingly consist of cash and cash equivalents.
Index-Related Risk. There is no guarantee that the Fund’s investment results will have a high degree of correlation to those of the Underlying Index or that the Fund will 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 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 Provider for a period of time or at all, which may have an adverse impact on the Fund and its shareholders. To the extent that the Underlying Index includes a non-standard methodology, errors in index data, index computation or the construction of the Underlying Index may be more likely to occur.
Interest Rate Risk. An increase in interest rates may cause the value of securities held by the Fund to decline, may lead to heightened volatility in the fixed-income markets and may adversely affect the liquidity of certain fixed-income investments. The historically low interest rate environment, together with recent modest rate increases, heightens the risks associated with rising interest rates.
Issuer Risk. The performance of the Fund depends on the performance of individual securities to which the Fund has exposure. Changes to the financial condition or credit rating of an issuer of those securities may cause the value of the securities to decline.
Management Risk. As the Fund will not fully replicate the Underlying Index, it is
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subject to the risk that BFA's investment strategy may not produce the intended results.
Market Risk. The Fund could lose money over short periods due to short-term market movements and over longer periods during more prolonged market downturns.
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.
Non-Diversification Risk. The Fund may invest a large percentage of its assets in securities issued by or representing a small number of issuers. As a result, the Fund's performance may depend on the performance of a small number of issuers.
Operational Risk. The Fund is exposed to operational risks arising from a number of factors, including, but not limited to, human error, processing and communication errors, errors of the Fund’s service providers, counterparties or other third-parties, failed or inadequate processes and technology or systems failures. The Fund and BFA seek to reduce these operational risks through controls and procedures. However, these measures do not address every possible risk and may be inadequate to address significant operational risks.
Passive Investment Risk. The Fund is not actively managed, and BFA generally does not attempt to take defensive
positions under any market conditions, including declining markets.
Reinvestment Risk. The Fund may invest a portion of its assets in short-term fixed-income instruments and, as a result, may be adversely affected if interest rates fall because it may have to invest in lower-yielding instruments as bonds in the Fund's portfolio mature.
Reliance on Trading Partners Risk. The Fund invests in countries or regions whose economies are heavily dependent upon trading with key partners. Any reduction in this trading may have an adverse impact on the Fund's investments. Through its holdings of securities of certain issuers, the Fund is specifically exposed to Asian Economic Risk and North American Economic Risk.
Risk of Investing in the U.S. Certain changes in the U.S. economy, such as when the U.S. economy weakens or when its financial markets decline, may have an adverse effect on the securities to which the Fund has exposure.
Securities Lending Risk. The Fund may engage in securities lending. Securities lending involves the risk that the Fund may lose money because the borrower of the loaned securities fails to return the securities in a timely manner or at all. The Fund could also lose money in the event of a decline in the value of collateral provided for loaned securities or a decline in the value of any investments made with cash collateral. These events could also trigger adverse tax consequences for the Fund.
Small Fund Risk. When the Fund’s size is small, the Fund may experience low trading volume and wide bid/ask spreads. In addition, the Fund may face the risk of being delisted if the Fund
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does not meet certain conditions of the listing exchange.
Tracking Error Risk. The Fund may be subject to tracking error, which 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, as applicable, 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), differences in transaction costs, the Fund’s holding of uninvested cash, differences in timing of the accrual of or the valuation of distributions, the requirements to maintain pass-through tax treatment, portfolio transactions carried out to minimize the distribution of capital gains to shareholders, changes to the Underlying Index or the costs to the Fund of complying with 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. BFA EXPECTS THAT THE FUND MAY EXPERIENCE HIGHER TRACKING ERROR THAN IS TYPICAL FOR SIMILAR INDEX ETFs.
Valuation Risk. Because the bond market may be open on days or during time periods when the Fund does not price its shares, the value of the securities or other assets in the Fund’s portfolio may change on days or during time periods when shareholders will not be able to purchase or sell the Fund’s shares.
Performance Information
As of the date of the Prospectus, the Fund has been in operation for less than one full calendar year and therefore does not report its performance information.
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Management
Investment Adviser. BlackRock Fund Advisors.
Portfolio Managers. James Mauro and Scott Radell (the “Portfolio Managers”) are primarily responsible for the day-to-day management of the Fund. Each Portfolio Manager supervises a portfolio management team. Mr. Mauro and Mr. Radell have been Portfolio Managers of the Fund since inception.
Purchase and Sale of Fund Shares
The Fund is 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 100,000 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 intends to make distributions that may be taxable to you 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 (“IRA”), in which case, your distributions generally will be taxed when withdrawn.
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), BFA 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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For more information visit www.iShares.com or call 1-800-474-2737
IS-SP-IBHE-0519
Investment Company Act file No.: 811-09729