497K 1 d882691d497k.htm FORM 497K Form 497K
March 4, 2015
2015 Summary Prospectus
►  iShares Short Maturity Municipal Bond ETF  |  MEAR | BATS
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 http://us.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 February 13, 2015, as amended and supplemented from time to time, are incorporated by reference into (legally made a part of) this Summary Prospectus.
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.


iSHARES® SHORT MATURITY
MUNICIPAL BOND ETF
Ticker: MEAR Stock Exchange: BATS
Investment Objective
The iShares Short Maturity Municipal Bond ETF (the “Fund”) seeks to maximize tax-free current income.
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 U.S. ETF Trust (the “Trust”) and BlackRock Fund Advisors (“BFA”) (formerly, Barclays Global Fund Advisors (“BGFA”)) (the “Investment Advisory Agreement”) provides that BFA will pay all operating expenses of the Fund, except interest expenses, taxes, brokerage expenses, future distribution fees or expenses, and extraordinary expenses. The Fund will also pay Acquired Fund Fees and Expenses. “Acquired Fund Fees and Expenses” reflect the Fund's pro rata share of the fees and expenses incurred by investing in other investment companies. As the Fund has not commenced operations prior to the date of the Fund’s prospectus (the “Prospectus”), Acquired Fund Fees and Expenses are based on an estimate of the Fund’s allocation to other investment companies for the current fiscal year. The impact of Acquired Fund Fees and Expenses will be included in the total returns of the Fund. Acquired Fund Fees and Expenses are not used to calculate the Fund's net asset value per share (“NAV”). BFA, the investment adviser to the Fund, has contractually agreed to waive a portion of its management fees in an amount equal to the Acquired Fund Fees and Expenses attributable to the Fund's investments in other registered investment companies advised by BFA, or its affiliates, until February 29, 2016. The contractual waiver may be terminated prior to February 29, 2016 only upon written agreement of the Trust and BFA.
You may also incur usual and customary brokerage commissions 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
Expenses
  Acquired Fund Fees
and Expenses
  Total Annual
Fund
Operating
Expenses
  Fee Waiver   Total Annual
Fund
Operating
Expenses
After
Fee Waiver
0.25%   None   None   0.04%   0.29%   (0.04)%   0.25%
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.
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Although your actual costs may be higher or lower, based on these assumptions, your costs would be:
  1 Year   3 Years    
  $26   $89    
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 Annual Fund Operating Expenses or in the Example, affect the Fund's performance.
Principal Investment Strategies
The Fund seeks to achieve its investment objective by investing, under normal circumstances, at least 80% of its net assets in municipal securities such that the interest on each bond is exempt from U.S. federal income taxes and the federal alternative minimum tax (“AMT”). Under normal circumstances, the Fund primarily invests in U.S. dollar-denominated investment-grade short-term fixed- and floating-rate municipal securities with remaining maturities of five years or less, such as municipal bonds, municipal notes and variable rate demand obligations, as well as money market instruments and registered investment companies. Investment-grade securities are rated a minimum of BBB- or higher by Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services and/or Fitch, or Baa3 or higher by Moody’s, or, if unrated, determined by the management team to be of equivalent quality. Municipal bonds include debt
obligations issued by or on behalf of a governmental entity or other qualifying issuer that pay interest that is, in the opinion of bond counsel to the issuer at the time of issuance, generally excludable from gross income for U.S. federal income tax purposes. The Fund may invest up to 20% of its net assets in municipal securities that pay interest that is subject to the federal AMT. Issuers may be states, territories and possessions of the United States, including the District of Columbia, and their political subdivisions, agencies and instrumentalities. BFA or its affiliates may advise the money market funds and investment companies in which the Fund may invest.
Under normal circumstances, the Fund's effective duration will be 1.2 years or less, as calculated by the management team, and it is not expected to exceed 1.5 years. Effective duration is a measure of the Fund’s price sensitivity to changes in yields or interest rates; however, investors should be aware that effective duration is not an exact measurement and may not reliably predict a particular security’s price sensitivity to changes in yield or interest rates.
Under normal circumstances, the Fund will also seek to maintain a weighted average maturity that is less than three years. Weighted average maturity is a U.S. dollar-weighted average of the remaining term to maturity of the underlying securities in the Fund’s portfolio. For the purposes of
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determining the Fund’s weighted average maturity, a security’s final maturity date, or for amortizing securities such as asset-backed and mortgage-backed securities, its weighted average life, will be used for calculation purposes.
The Fund is an actively managed exchange-traded fund (“ETF”) that does not seek to replicate the performance of a specified index. The Fund may have a higher degree of portfolio turnover than funds that seek to replicate the performance of an index.
The Fund is not a money market fund and does not seek to maintain a stable net asset value of $1.00 per share. Please see the Fund’s Statement of Additional Information (“SAI”) for further information.
The Fund may lend securities representing up to one-third of the value of the Fund's total assets (including the value of the collateral received).
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 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. Unlike many ETFs, the Fund is not an index-based ETF.
Asset Class Risk. Securities in the Fund's portfolio may underperform in comparison to the general securities markets, a particular securities market or other asset classes.
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 at lower interest rates, resulting in a decline in the Fund's income.
Credit Risk. Debt issuers and other counterparties may not honor their obligations or may have their debt downgraded by ratings agencies.
Extension Risk. During periods of rising interest rates, certain debt obligations may be paid off substantially more slowly than originally anticipated and the value of those securities may fall sharply, resulting in a decline in the Fund’s income and potentially in the value of the Fund’s investments.
Floating Rate Notes Risk. Securities with floating or variable interest rates can be less sensitive to interest rate changes than securities with fixed interest rates, but may decline in value if their coupon rates do not reset as high, or as quickly, as comparable market interest rates, and generally carry lower yields than fixed notes of the same maturity. Although floating rate notes are less sensitive to interest rate risk than fixed rate securities, they are subject to credit risk and default risk, which could impair their value.
High Portfolio Turnover Risk. The Fund may engage in active and frequent trading of its portfolio securities. High portfolio turnover (higher than 100%) may result in increased transaction costs to the Fund, including brokerage commissions, dealer mark-ups and other transaction costs on the sale of the securities and on reinvestment in other securities.
Income Risk. The Fund’s income may decline when interest rates fall because the Fund may hold a significant portion
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of short duration securities and/or securities that have floating or variable interest rates. The Fund’s income may decline because the Fund invests in lower yielding bonds, and as the bonds in its portfolio mature, the Fund needs to purchase additional bonds.
Interest Rate Risk. An increase in interest rates may cause the value of fixed-income securities held by the Fund to decline.
Issuer Risk. Fund performance depends on the performance of individual securities to which the Fund has exposure. Changes in the financial condition or credit rating of an issuer of those securities may cause the value of the securities to decline.
Liquidity Risk. Liquidity risk exists when particular investments are difficult to purchase or sell. This can reduce the Fund's returns because the Fund may be unable to transact at advantageous times or prices.
Management Risk. The Fund is subject to management risk, which is the risk that the investment process, techniques and risk analyses applied by BFA will not produce the desired results, and that securities selected by BFA may underperform the market or any relevant benchmark. In addition, legislative, regulatory, or tax developments may affect the investment techniques available to BFA in connection with managing the Fund and may also adversely affect the ability of the Fund to achieve its investment objective.
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 disruption in the creation/redemption process. Unlike some ETFs that track specific indexes, the Fund does not seek to replicate the performance of a specified index. Index-based ETFs have generally traded at prices that closely correspond to NAV. Given the high level of transparency of the Fund's holdings, BFA believes that the trading experience of the Fund should be similar to that of index-based ETFs. However, ETFs that do not seek to replicate the performance of a specified index have a limited trading history and, therefore, there can be no assurance as to whether, and/or the extent to which, the Fund's shares will trade at premiums or discounts to NAV. ANY OF THESE FACTORS, AMONG OTHERS, MAY LEAD TO THE FUND'S SHARES TRADING AT A PREMIUM OR DISCOUNT TO NAV.
Municipal Securities Risk. Municipal securities can be significantly affected by political or economic changes as well as uncertainties in the municipal market related to taxation, legislative changes or the rights of municipal security holders. Municipal securities backed by current or anticipated revenues from a specific project or specific assets can be negatively affected by the inability to collect revenues for the project or from the assets.
Not a Money Market Fund. The Fund is not a money market fund and is not subject to the strict rules that govern the quality, maturity, liquidity and other features of securities that money market funds may purchase. Under normal circumstances, the Fund’s
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investments may be more susceptible than a money market fund is to credit risk, interest rate risk, valuation risk and other risks relevant to the Fund’s investments. The Fund does not seek to maintain a stable net asset value of $1.00 per share.
Risk of Investing in the United States. The Fund has significant exposure to U.S. issuers. 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 the 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.
Tax Risk. There is no guarantee that the Fund's income will be exempt from U.S. federal income taxes, the federal AMT or the federal Medicare contribution tax of 3.8% on “net investment income.”
Valuation Risk. The sale price the Fund could receive for a security may differ from the Fund's valuation of the
security, particularly for securities or assets that trade in low volume or volatile markets or that are valued using a fair value methodology. In addition, the value of the securities or assets in the Fund's portfolio may change on days when shareholders will not be able to purchase or sell the Fund's shares.
Performance Information
As of the date of the Fund's prospectus (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. The Fund's investment adviser is BFA.
Portfolio Managers. Scott Radell and William Henderson (the “Portfolio Managers”) are responsible for the day-to-day management of the Fund. Each Portfolio Manager supervises a portfolio management team. Mr. Radell and Mr. Henderson have been Portfolio Managers of the Fund since its inception.
Purchase and Sale of Fund Shares
The Fund is an ETF. Individual Fund shares may only be purchased and sold on a national securities exchange 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 50,000 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 primarily from net tax exempt income (but not necessarily free from federal AMT), although distributions of taxable capital gains may also occur. The Fund is generally not an appropriate investment for a 401(k) plan or an individual retirement account (“IRA”). Please consult your personal tax adviser.
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-MEAR-0315
Investment Company Act file No.: 811-22649