497K 1 d76916d497k.htm 497K 497K
March 1, 2016
2016 Summary Prospectus
►  iShares U.S. Fixed Income Balanced Risk ETF | INC | 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 March 1, 2016, 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® U.S. FIXED INCOME BALANCED RISK ETF
Ticker: INC Stock Exchange: BATS
Investment Objective
The iShares U.S. Fixed Income Balanced Risk ETF (the “Fund”) seeks total return and preservation of capital.
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 may 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. The impact of Acquired Fund Fees and Expenses is 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, if any, attributable to investments by the Fund in other registered investment companies advised by BFA, or its affiliates, until February 28, 2019. The contractual waiver may be terminated prior to February 28, 2019 only upon written agreement of the Trust and BFA. During the most recently completed fiscal year, the amount of such expenses incurred and fees waived rounded to 0.00%.
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)1
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   0.00%   0.25%   (0.00)%   0.25%
1 The expense information in the table has been restated to reflect current fees.
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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   5 Years   10 Years
$26   $80   $141   $318
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. From inception (February 24, 2015) to the most recent fiscal year end, the Fund's portfolio turnover rate was 362% of the average value of its portfolio.
Principal Investment Strategies
The Fund seeks to achieve its investment objective by investing, under normal circumstances, at least 80% of its net assets in U.S. dollar denominated investment-grade and high-yield fixed-income securities. The Fund primarily invests in fixed-rate securities of varying maturities, such as corporate bonds, including U.S. dollar-denominated securities of foreign issuers, U.S. Treasuries, privately-issued securities, and mortgage-backed securities. The Fund may enter into to-be-announced transactions (“TBA transactions”) on a regular basis with
respect to the percentage of the portfolio (if any) that consists of mortgage-pass through securities. The Fund may also invest in other exchange-traded funds (“ETFs”) (including other iShares funds), short-term paper, cash and cash equivalents, including shares of money market funds advised by BFA or its affiliates.
The Fund may invest, without limitation, in high-yield securities rated CCC or higher by Moody's Investors Service, Inc. (“Moody’s”), or equivalently rated by Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services or Fitch Ratings, Inc. (“Fitch”), or, if unrated, determined by BFA to be of comparable quality (commonly known to investors as “junk bonds”).
The Fund seeks to balance interest rate and credit spread risk by investing in a portfolio of fixed-income securities that in the aggregate has approximately equal exposure to credit spread risk and interest rate risk, which are measured by BFA as the volatility of returns of a security associated with changes in the security's credit spread or changes in interest rates. The Fund will adjust the allocation among its underlying securities in an effort to achieve a target credit spread risk and interest rate risk for the Fund’s portfolio. When necessary to balance the Fund’s exposure to interest rate risk against its
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exposure to credit spread risk, the Fund may take short or long positions in U.S. Treasury futures and short positions in U.S. Treasury securities through transactions in interest rate swaps. BFA will determine the aggregate credit spread risk and interest rate risk of the Fund’s portfolio.
The Fund may also invest in other interest rate futures contracts, including, but not limited to, Eurodollar and Federal Funds futures. The Fund’s short positions in U.S. Treasury futures are not intended to mitigate credit spread risk or other factors influencing the price of non-government bonds, which may have a greater impact than interest rates.
The Fund is an actively managed 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 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 NAV, trading price, yield, total return and ability to meet its investment objective. Unlike many ETFs, the Fund is not an index-based ETF.
Agency Debt Risk. The Fund invests in unsecured bonds or debentures issued by government agencies, including the
Federal National Mortgage Association (“Fannie Mae”) and the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation (“Freddie Mac”). Bonds or debentures issued by government agencies, government-sponsored entities, or government corporations, including, among others, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, are generally backed only by the general creditworthiness and reputation of the government agency, government-sponsored entity, or government corporation issuing the bond or debenture and are not guaranteed by the U.S. Department of the Treasury or backed by the full faith and credit of the U.S. government. As a result, there is uncertainty as to the current status of many obligations of Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and other agencies that are placed under conservatorship of the federal government. Government National Mortgage Association (“Ginnie Mae”) securities are generally backed by the full faith and credit of the U.S. government.
Asset Class Risk. Securities and other assets in the Fund's portfolio may underperform in comparison to the general financial markets, a particular financial market or other asset classes.
Authorized Participant Concentration Risk. Only an Authorized Participant (as defined in the Creations and Redemptions section of the Fund's prospectus (the “Prospectus”)) may engage in creation or redemption transactions directly with the Fund. The Fund has a limited number of institutions that act as Authorized Participants. To the extent that these institutions exit the business or are unable to proceed with creation and/or redemption orders with respect to the Fund and no other Authorized Participant is able to step forward to
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create or redeem Creation Units (as defined below), Fund shares may trade at a discount to NAV and possibly face trading halts and/or delisting.
Balancing Risk Exposure Strategy Risk. The Fund seeks long exposure to investment-grade and high-yield corporate bonds, long exposure to U.S. dollar-denominated mortgage-backed securities and TBAs, long exposure to U.S. Treasury securities and short exposure to U.S. Treasury futures and/or swaps, with a goal of balancing the expected contribution to risk from interest rates and credit spreads. There is no guarantee that the interest rate risk and credit spread risk will be balanced, or that the returns on the Fund’s long or short positions will produce high, or even positive, returns and the Fund could lose money if either or both the Fund’s long and short positions produce negative returns.
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 greater risks or other less favorable features or in securities with lower yields, which would result in a decline in the Fund's income.
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.
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 affect the value of the Fund’s investment in that issuer. The degree of credit risk depends on the issuer’s financial condition and on the terms of the securities.
Credit Spread Risk. Credit spread risk is the risk that credit spreads (i.e., the difference in yield between securities that have differences in credit quality or other factors) may increase, which may reduce the market values of the Fund's securities. While the Fund may employ strategies to mitigate credit spread risk, these strategies may not be successful.
Custody Risk. Less developed markets are more likely to experience problems with the clearing and settling of trades, as well as the holding of securities by local banks, agents and depositories.
Cyber Security Risk. Failures or breaches of the electronic systems of the Fund, the Fund's adviser, and the Fund's other service providers, 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
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Fund’s service providers, market makers, Authorized Participants or issuers of securities in which the Fund invests.
Derivatives Risk. The Fund’s use of derivatives may reduce the Fund’s returns and/or increase volatility. Volatility is defined as the characteristic of a security, an index or a market to fluctuate significantly in price within a short time period. Derivatives may also be subject to counterparty risk, which is the risk that the other party in the transaction will not fulfill its contractual obligation. A risk of the Fund’s use of derivatives is that the fluctuations in their values may not correlate perfectly with the value of the underlying asset, the performance of the asset class to which the Fund seeks exposure or to the performance of the overall securities markets. The possible lack of a liquid secondary market for derivatives and the resulting inability of the Fund to sell or otherwise close a derivatives position could expose the Fund to losses and could make derivatives more difficult for the Fund to value accurately. The Fund could also suffer losses related to its derivatives positions as a result of unanticipated market movements, which losses are potentially unlimited. Certain derivatives may give rise to a form of leverage and may expose the Fund to greater risk and increase its costs. To the extent that the Fund invests in rolling futures contracts, it may be subject to additional risk. The impact of increasing U.S. and global regulation of derivatives may make derivatives more costly, may limit the availability of derivatives, or may otherwise adversely affect the value or performance of derivatives.
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.
Financials Sector Risk. Performance of companies in the financials sector may be adversely impacted by many factors, including, among others, government regulations, economic conditions, credit rating downgrades, changes in interest rates, and decreased liquidity in credit markets. The impact of more stringent capital requirements, recent or future regulation of any individual financial company, or recent or future regulation of the financials sector as a whole cannot be predicted. In recent years, cyber attacks and technology malfunctions and failures have become increasingly frequent in this sector and have caused significant losses to companies in this sector, which may negatively impact the Fund.
Hedging Risk. The Fund seeks to mitigate the potential impact of interest rates on the performance of bonds by entering into short positions in U.S. Treasury futures or short positions in U.S. Treasury securities through transactions in interest rate swaps. The Fund’s short positions in U.S. Treasury futures and interest rate swaps are not intended to mitigate credit spread risk or other factors influencing the price of bonds, which may have a greater impact than interest rates. There is no guarantee that the Fund’s short positions will completely eliminate the interest rate risk of the long positions in bonds. In addition, when interest rates fall, long–only bond investments will perform better than the Fund’s investments. In certain falling interest rate environments, the Fund’s hedging
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strategy could result in disproportionately larger losses in the short U.S. Treasury futures and interest rate swaps positions as compared to gains in the long bond positions attributable to interest rate changes. There is no guarantee the Fund will have positive returns, even in environments of sharply rising Treasury interest rates in which the Fund’s short positions might be expected to mitigate the effects of such rises. The Fund will incur expenses when entering into short positions.
High Portfolio Turnover Risk. The Fund may engage in active and frequent trading of its portfolio securities. High portfolio turnover (considered by the Fund to mean higher than 100% annually) 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.
High Yield Securities Risk. Securities that are rated below investment-grade (commonly referred to as “junk bonds,” including those bonds rated lower than “BBB-” by Standard & Poor's Ratings Services and Fitch, or “Baa3” by Moody's), or are unrated, may be deemed speculative, involve greater levels of risk than higher-rated securities of similar maturity and are more likely to default.
Income Risk. The Fund’s income may decline when interest rates fall because the Fund may hold a significant portion 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, are near maturity
or are called, the Fund needs to purchase additional bonds.
Industrials Sector Risk. The industrials sector may be adversely affected by changes in the supply of and demand for products and services, product obsolescence, claims for environmental damage or product liability and general economic conditions, among other factors.
Interest Rate Risk. An increase in interest rates may cause the value of securities held by the Fund to decline.
Investment Exposure Risk. BFA considers certain investment factors in seeking to implement the Fund’s investment program. BFA will not attempt to consider factors outside of these targeted investment factors or take defensive positions under any market conditions, including declining markets. The Fund could lose money as a result of targeting its exposure to fixed-income markets.
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
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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 disruptions 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.
Model Risk. Neither the Fund nor BFA can offer assurances that the allocation model utilized in the Fund’s securities selection process will result in improved issuer creditworthiness, maximize
returns or minimize risk, or be appropriate for every investor seeking a particular risk profile.
Mortgage-Backed Securities Risk. The Fund invests in mortgage-backed securities (“MBS”), some of which may not be backed by the full faith and credit of the U.S. government. Mortgage-backed securities are subject to prepayment or call risk and extension risk. Because of these risks, mortgage-backed securities react differently than other bonds to changes in interest rates. Small movements in interest rates (both increases and decreases) may quickly and significantly reduce the value of certain mortgage-backed securities. Default or bankruptcy of a counterparty to a TBA transaction would expose the Fund to possible loss.
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.
North American Economic Risk. Economic events in any one North American country can have a significant economic effect on the entire North American region and on some or all of the North American countries in which the Fund invests.
Operational Risk. The Fund is exposed to operational risk 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 for those risks that they are intended to address.
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Prepayment Risk. During periods of falling interest rates, an issuer of mortgages and other fixed-income securities may repay principal prior to the security’s maturity, which may cause the Fund to have to reinvest in securities with lower yields or higher risk of default, resulting in a decline in the Fund’s income or return potential.
Privately-Issued Securities Risk. The Fund will invest in privately-issued securities, including those that are normally purchased pursuant to Rule 144A or Regulation S promulgated under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the “1933 Act”). Privately-issued securities are securities that have not been registered under the 1933 Act and as a result are subject to legal restrictions on resale. Privately-issued securities are not traded on established markets and may be illiquid, difficult to value and subject to wide fluctuations in value. Delay or difficulty in selling such securities may result in a loss to the Fund.
Risk of Investing in Developed Countries. The Fund’s investment in developed country issuers may subject the Fund to regulatory, political, currency, security, economic and other risks specific to developed countries. Developed countries tend to represent a significant portion of the global economy and have generally experienced slower economic growth than some less developed countries. Many developed countries experienced a significant economic slowdown during the financial crisis that began in 2007. In addition, developed countries may be impacted by changes to the economic health of certain key trading partners, regulatory burdens, debt burdens and the price or availability of certain commodities.
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 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.
U.S. Government Issuers Risk. Obligations of U.S. government agencies and authorities are supported by varying degrees of credit, but generally are not backed by the full faith and credit of the U.S. government. Similar to other issuers, changes to the financial condition or credit rating of the U.S. government or U.S. government agencies and authorities may cause the value of the Fund's investments to decline.
Valuation Risk. The sale price the Fund could receive for a security or other asset may differ from the Fund's valuation of the security or other asset, particularly for securities or other 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 other assets in the Fund's portfolio may change on days when shareholders will not be able to purchase or sell the Fund's shares.
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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.
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 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 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-INC-0316
Investment Company Act file No.: 811-22649