497K 1 bcd-497k_050121.htm SUMMARY PROSPECTUS bcd-497k_050121

Summary Prospectus

May 1, 2021

Aberdeen Standard Investments ETFs

Aberdeen Standard Bloomberg All Commodity Longer Dated Strategy K-1 Free ETF (BCD)

Principal U.S. Listing Exchange: NYSE Arca

Before you invest, you may want to review the Fund’s complete Prospectus, which contains more information about the Fund and its risks. You can find the Fund’s complete Prospectus and other information about the Fund online at www.aberdeenstandardetfs.us. You can also get this information at no cost by calling 1-844-383-7289 or by sending a request to Aberdeen Standard Investments ETFs, c/o ALPS Distributors, Inc., 1290 Broadway, Suite 1000, Denver, Colorado 80203. The Fund’s complete Prospectus and Statement of Additional Information, both dated May 1, 2021, are incorporated by reference into this summary prospectus and may be obtained, free of charge, at the website, phone number or address noted above.

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Aberdeen Standard Investments ETFs

Aberdeen Standard Bloomberg All Commodity Longer Dated Strategy K-1 Free ETF

Investment Objective

The Aberdeen Standard Bloomberg All Commodity Longer Dated Strategy K-1 Free ETF (the “Fund”) seeks to provide total return through actively managed exposure to the Bloomberg Commodity Index 3 Month Forward Total ReturnSM (the “Index”).

Fees and Expenses of the Fund

The following table describes the fees and expenses you may pay if you buy, hold and sell shares of the Fund (“Shares”). You may pay other fees, such as brokerage commissions and other fees to financial intermediaries, which are not reflected in the table and example below.

Annual Fund Operating Expenses
(expenses that you pay each year as a percentage of the value of your investment)

Management Fees of the Fund and the Subsidiary

0.35%

Distribution and Service (12b-1) Fees

0.00%

Other Expenses

0.00%

Other Expenses of the Fund

0.00%

Other Expenses of the Subsidiary

0.00%

Total Annual Fund Operating Expenses

0.35%

Fee Waiver(1)

-0.06%

Total Annual Fund Operating Expenses After Fee Waiver

0.29%

  

(1) Aberdeen Standard Investments ETFs Advisors LLC (the “Advisor”) has contractually agreed to waive the management fees that it receives from the Fund in an amount equal to the management fee paid to the Advisor by the Subsidiary, as defined below. This undertaking will continue in effect for at least one year from the date of this Prospectus, and for so long as the Fund invests in the Subsidiary, and may be terminated only with the approval of the Fund’s Board of Trustees.

Example

The following example is intended to help you compare the cost of investing in 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 each year. Although your actual costs and returns may be higher or lower, based on these assumptions your costs would be:

1 Year

3 Years

5 Years

10 Years

$30

$106

$190

$437

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 cause the Fund to incur higher transaction costs and may result in higher taxes when Shares are held in a taxable account. These costs, which are not reflected in Annual Fund Operating Expenses or the example above, may affect the Fund’s performance. During the most recent fiscal year, the Fund’s portfolio turnover rate was 0% of the average value of its portfolio.

Principal Investment Strategies

The Fund is an actively managed exchange-traded fund (“ETF”) that is not required to track the Index or invest in all of the Index’s components. However, the Fund will generally seek to hold similar interests to those included in the Index and will seek exposure to many of the commodities included in the Index under the same futures rolling schedule as the Index. The Fund will also hold short-term fixed-income securities, which may be used as collateral for the Fund’s commodities futures holdings or to generate interest income and capital appreciation on the cash balances arising from its use of futures contracts (thereby providing a “total return” investment in the underlying commodities).

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Aberdeen Standard Investments ETFs

Aberdeen Standard Bloomberg All Commodity Longer Dated Strategy K-1 Free ETF

Under normal market conditions, the Fund intends to invest in exchange-traded commodity futures contracts through a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Fund organized under the laws of the Cayman Islands (the “Subsidiary”). As a means to provide investment returns that are highly correlated to those of the Index, the Subsidiary may also invest directly in commodity-linked instruments, including pooled investment vehicles (such as exchange-traded funds and other investment companies), swaps and exchange-traded options on futures contracts, to the extent permitted under the Investment Company Act of 1940, as amended (the “1940 Act”) and any applicable exemptive relief (collectively, “Commodities-Related Assets” and, together with exchange-traded commodities futures contracts, “Commodities Instruments”). The Fund may invest up to 25% of its total assets in the Subsidiary.

The remainder of the Fund’s assets that are not invested in the Subsidiary (i.e., at least 75% of the Fund’s total assets) will principally be invested in: (1) short-term investment grade fixed-income securities that include U.S. government securities and money market instruments; and (2) cash and other cash equivalents. The Fund will exercise its discretion to use such instruments to most efficiently utilize the cash balances arising from the use of futures contracts and generate a total return for investors.

As noted previously, the Fund will not invest directly in commodity futures contracts but, instead, expects to gain exposure to these investments exclusively by investing in the Subsidiary. The Fund’s investment in the Subsidiary is intended to enable the Fund to gain exposure to relevant commodity markets within the limits of current federal income tax laws applicable to a RIC such as the Fund, which limit the ability of RICs to invest directly in commodity futures contracts. The Subsidiary and the Fund have the same investment objective. However, the Subsidiary may invest without limitation in the Commodities Instruments. Except as otherwise noted, for the purposes of this Prospectus, references to the Fund’s investments include the Fund’s indirect investments through the Subsidiary.

The Advisor and Sub-Advisor will use their discretion to determine the percentage of the Fund’s assets allocated to the Commodities Instruments held by the Subsidiary that will be invested in exchange-traded commodity futures contracts or Commodities-Related Assets. In this regard, under normal market conditions, the Subsidiary is expected to invest in futures contracts in proportional weights and allocations that are similar to the Index. The Fund does not seek leveraged returns. However, the Fund’s use of instruments to collateralize the Subsidiary’s investments in Commodity Instruments has a leveraging effect and is designed to provide a total return.

The Index is a widely followed commodity index which is calculated and published by Bloomberg L.P. and/or Bloomberg Finance L.P. and/or an affiliate of them (together, “Bloomberg”). The Index has been published since 1998 with simulated historical performance calculated back to 1991 and tracks movements in the price of a rolling position in a basket of commodity futures with a maturity between 4 and 6 months. The Fund is called “Longer Dated” because it is designed to provide total return exposure to the Bloomberg Commodity Index 3 Month Forward Total ReturnSM, which tracks commodity futures with a longer maturity than that of the Bloomberg Commodity IndexSM.

At present, there are 27 commodity futures eligible for inclusion in the Index but 4 of those commodities (cocoa, lead, platinum and tin) are currently not included in the Index. With the exception of certain metals contracts (aluminum, lead, tin, nickel and zinc) that trade on the London Metals Exchange (“LME”) and the contracts for Brent crude oil and low sulphur gas oil, each of the Commodities is the subject of at least one futures contract that trades on a U.S. exchange. The Index uses a consistent, systematic process to represent the commodity markets using both liquidity data and U.S. dollar-weighted production data in determining the weightings of included commodities. Liquidity data is the relative amount of trading activity for a particular commodity and U.S. dollar-weighted production data takes the figures for production in the overall commodities market for all commodities in the Index and weights them in the Index in the same proportion in U.S. dollar terms. The value of the Index is computed on the basis of hypothetical investments in the basket of commodities that make up the Index. The Index invests significantly in, and therefore the Fund has significant exposure to, the agriculture, energy and industrial/precious metals sectors.

The Fund is classified as “non-diversified” under the 1940 Act.

Summary of Principal Risks of Investing in the Fund

As with any investment, there is a risk that you could lose all or a portion of your investment in the Fund. The Fund’s principal risks are summarized below. The following is a list of the principal risks of investing in the Fund (in alphabetical order after the first seven risks). Some or all of these risks may adversely affect the Fund’s net asset value per share (“NAV”), trading price, total return and/or ability to meet its objective. For more information about the risks of investing in the Fund, see the sections in the Fund’s Prospectus titled “Additional Principal Risk Information about the Funds” and “Additional Non-Principal Risk Information about the Funds.”

Market Risk. The prices of the assets in which the Fund invests may decline for a number of reasons, including in response to economic developments and perceptions about the creditworthiness of individual issuers.

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Aberdeen Standard Investments ETFs

Aberdeen Standard Bloomberg All Commodity Longer Dated Strategy K-1 Free ETF

Commodity Price Risk. The NAV of the Fund will be affected by movements in commodity prices generally and by the way in which those prices and other factors affect the prices of the commodity futures contracts. Commodity prices generally may fluctuate widely and may be affected by numerous factors.

Commodity Sector Risks. The daily performance of the spot price of certain commodities has a direct impact on Fund performance. To the extent the Fund has significant exposure to a particular commodity sector, the Fund may be more susceptible to loss due to adverse occurrences affecting that sector, including a decline in the price of commodities in such sector.

Agricultural Sector Investment Risk. The daily performance of the spot price of certain agricultural commodities has a direct impact on Fund performance. Investments in the agriculture sector may be highly volatile and the market values of such commodities can change quickly and unpredictably due to a number of factors, such as the supply of, and demand for, each commodity, the strength of the domestic and global economy, legislative or regulatory developments relating to food safety, as well as other significant events, including public health, political, legal, financial, accounting and tax matters that are beyond the Fund’s control. In addition, increased competition caused by economic recession, labor difficulties and changing consumer tastes and spending can impact the demand for agricultural products and, in turn, the value of such investments.

Energy Sector Investment Risk. The daily performance of the spot price of certain energy-related commodities has a direct impact on Fund performance. Energy commodities’ market values are significantly impacted by a number of factors, such as the supply of, and demand for, each commodity, the strength of the domestic and global economy, significant world events, capital expenditures on exploration and production, energy conservation efforts, government regulation and subsidization and technological advances. Investments in the energy sector may be cyclical and/or highly volatile and subject to swift price fluctuations. In addition, significant declines in the price of oil may contribute to significant market volatility, which may adversely affect the Fund’s performance.

Metals Sector Investment Risk. The daily performance of the spot price of certain industrial and precious metals has a direct impact on Fund performance. Investments in metals may be highly volatile and the market values of such commodities can change quickly and unpredictably due to a number of factors, such as the supply of, and demand for, each metal, the strength of the domestic and global economy, international monetary policy, environmental or labor costs, as well as other significant events, including public health, political, legal, financial, accounting and tax matters that are beyond the Fund’s control. The United States or foreign governments may pass laws or regulations limiting metal investments for strategic or other policy reasons. Further, the principal supplies of metal industries may be concentrated in a small number of countries and regions.

Fixed-Income Securities and Money Market Instruments. A decline in an issuer’s credit rating or a rise in interest rates could cause the value of a fixed-income security or money market instrument to decrease. Interest rate risk is generally lower for shorter-term investments and higher for longer-term investments. The Fund may be subject to a heightened risk of rising interest rates due to the current historically low interest rate environment and the likely impact on market conditions of any potential government fiscal policy initiatives that respond to these low rates. In addition, the Fund’s income may decline due to falling interest rates or other factors.

Futures, Options and Options on Futures Contracts. Through its holdings of derivative instruments including futures, options and options on futures contracts, the Fund may be exposed to (i) losses from margin deposits in the case of bankruptcy of the relevant broker, and (ii) a risk that the relevant position cannot be closed out when required at its fundamental value.

Roll Yield. During situations where the cost of any futures contracts for delivery on dates further in the future is higher than those for delivery closer in time, the value of the Fund holding such contracts will decrease over time unless the spot price of that contract increases by the same rate as the rate of the variation in the price of the futures contract. The rate of variation could be quite significant and last for an indeterminate period of time, reducing the value of the Fund.

Active Fund Management. The Fund is an ETF that seeks to provide total return through actively managed exposure to the Index. The Fund actively manages commodity and commodity-linked futures and other financial instruments and is not designed to track the Index. The Advisor and Sub-Advisor will determine the investments of the Fund and the Subsidiary on a discretionary basis, but there can be no guarantee that the Fund will meet its investment objective.

Authorized Participants. The Fund has entered into Authorized Participant (“AP”) agreements with only a limited number of institutions. Should these APs cease to act as such or, for any reason, be unable to create or redeem Shares and new APs are not appointed in their place, Shares may trade at a discount to the Fund’s NAV and possibly face delisting.

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Aberdeen Standard Investments ETFs

Aberdeen Standard Bloomberg All Commodity Longer Dated Strategy K-1 Free ETF

Cash Redemption Risk. The Fund expects to effect its creations and redemptions primarily for cash due to the nature of its investments. Paying redemption proceeds in cash rather than through in-kind delivery of portfolio securities may require the Fund to dispose of or sell portfolio investments to obtain the cash needed to distribute redemption proceeds at an inopportune time. This may cause the Fund to recognize investment income and/or capital gain that it might not have recognized if it had made a redemption in-kind. As a result, the Fund may be less tax efficient and may have to pay out higher annual distributions than if the Fund used the in-kind redemption process.

Commodity Pool Regulatory Risk. The Fund is deemed to be a commodity pool due to its investment exposure to commodity futures contracts and is subject to regulation under the Commodity Exchange Act (“CEA”) and Commodity Futures Trading Commission (“CFTC”) rules as well as the regulatory scheme applicable to registered investment companies. The Advisor is registered as a commodity pool operator (“CPO”) and the Sub-Advisor is registered as a commodity trading advisor (“CTA”). Registration as a CPO and CTA imposes additional compliance obligations on the Advisor, the Sub-Advisor, and the Fund related to additional laws, regulations, and enforcement policies, which could increase compliance costs and may affect the operations and financial performance of the Fund. These requirements are also subject to change at any time.

Cybersecurity Risk. Cybersecurity incidents may allow an unauthorized party to gain access to Fund assets, customer data (including private shareholder information), or proprietary information, or cause the Fund, the Advisor and/or its service providers (including, but not limited to, Fund accountants, custodians, sub-custodians, transfer agents and financial intermediaries) to suffer data breaches, data corruption or lose operational functionality.

Investment Company Securities. To the extent the Fund or its Subsidiary invests in securities of other investment companies, including exchange-traded funds, the Fund will bear a proportionate share of the fees and expenses paid by such other investment company, including advisory and administrative fees.

Investment Risk. An investor may lose the value of their entire investment or part of their investment in Shares.

Leverage Risk. To the extent the Fund is exposed directly or indirectly to leverage (through investments in commodities futures contracts) the value of the Fund may be more volatile than if no leverage were present.

Liquidity. Generally, only APs may redeem Shares. Investors other than APs wishing to realize their Shares will generally need to rely on secondary trading in the public trading market. There can be no assurance as to the price at which, or volume in which, it may at any time be possible to realize Shares in the public trading market. Although the Shares are listed for trading on NYSE Arca, there can be no assurance that an active trading market for such shares will develop or be maintained.

Non-Diversification Risk. As a “non-diversified” fund, the Fund may hold a smaller number of portfolio securities than many other funds. To the extent the Fund invests in a relatively small number of issuers, a decline in the market value of a particular security held by the Fund may affect its value more than if it invested in a larger number of issuers. The value of Shares may be more volatile than the values of shares of more diversified funds. However, the Fund intends to satisfy the asset diversification requirements for classification as a RIC under Subchapter M of the Code.

Shares May Trade at Prices Other than NAV. Although it is expected that the market price of the Shares will approximate the Fund’s NAV when purchased and sold in the secondary market, the Fund faces numerous market trading risks, including the potential lack of an active market for Shares, disruptions in the securities markets in which the Fund invests, periods of high market volatility and disruptions in the creation/redemption process. Any of these may lead to times when the market price of the Shares is more than the NAV intra-day (premium) or less than the NAV intra-day (discount).

Subsidiary Investment Risk. Changes in the laws of the United States and/or the Cayman Islands, under which the Fund and the Subsidiary are organized, respectively, could result in the inability of the Subsidiary to operate as intended and could negatively affect the Fund and its shareholders.

Swap Agreements. Swaps can involve greater risks than a direct investment in an underlying asset and these may increase or decrease the overall volatility of the Fund’s investment and its share price. As with other transactions, the Fund will bear the risk that the counterparty will default, which could cause losses to the Fund.

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Aberdeen Standard Investments ETFs

Aberdeen Standard Bloomberg All Commodity Longer Dated Strategy K-1 Free ETF

Tax Risk. In order to qualify for the favorable U.S. federal income tax treatment accorded to a RIC under Subchapter M of the Code, the Fund must, among other requirements, derive at least 90% of its gross income in each taxable year from certain categories of income (“qualifying income”) and must satisfy certain asset diversification requirements. Certain of the Fund’s commodity-related investments, if made directly, will not generate income that is qualifying income. The Fund intends to hold such commodity-related investments indirectly, through the Subsidiary. The Fund’s investment in the Subsidiary is expected to provide the Fund with exposure to the commodities markets within the limitations of the federal tax requirements of Subchapter M of the Code for qualification as a RIC. The Advisor and/or Sub-Advisor will carefully monitor the Fund’s investment in the Subsidiary to ensure that no more than 25% of the Fund’s assets are invested in the Subsidiary to ensure compliance with the Fund’s asset diversification test for qualification as a RIC under Subchapter M of the Code. If the Fund was to fail to meet the qualifying income test or the asset diversification test and fail to qualify as a RIC, it would be taxed in the same manner as an ordinary corporation, and distributions to its shareholders would not be deductible by the Fund in computing its taxable income. The failure by the Fund to qualify as a RIC would have significant negative tax consequences to Fund shareholders and would affect a shareholder’s return on its investment in such Fund. Under certain circumstances, the Fund may be able to cure a failure to meet the qualifying income test or the asset diversification test if such failure was due to reasonable cause and not willful neglect, but in order to do so the Fund may incur significant fund-level taxes, which would effectively reduce (and could eliminate) the Fund’s returns.

Fund Performance

The bar chart and table that follow show how the Fund has performed on a calendar year basis and provides some indication of the risks of investing in the Fund by showing the variability of the Fund’s return based on net assets and comparing the Fund’s performance to the Index and to the Bloomberg Commodity Index Total ReturnSM, a broad measure of market performance. Past performance (before and after taxes) does not necessarily indicate how the Fund will perform in the future. Updated performance information is available at www.aberdeenstandardetfs.us.

Annual Returns as of December 31

For the period shown in the bar chart above:

Best Quarter

September 30, 2020

10.35%

Worst Quarter

March 31, 2020

-19.93%

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Aberdeen Standard Investments ETFs

Aberdeen Standard Bloomberg All Commodity Longer Dated Strategy K-1 Free ETF

Average Annual Total Returns
(for the periods ended December 31, 2020)

One Year

Since Inception
of Fund

Inception Date
of Fund

Before Taxes

4.29%

1.41%

March 30, 2017

After Taxes on Distributions

3.74%

0.93%

=

After Taxes on Distributions and Sale of Shares

2.54%

0.87%

=

Bloomberg Commodity Index 3 Month Forward Total ReturnSM
(reflects no deduction for fees, expenses or taxes)

3.48%

1.82%

=

Bloomberg Commodity Index Total ReturnSM
(reflects no deduction for fees, expenses or taxes)

-3.12%

-0.97%

=

Average annual total returns are shown on a before- and after-tax basis for the Fund. After-tax returns are calculated using the historical highest individual federal marginal income tax rates and do not reflect the impact of state and local taxes. Actual after-tax returns depend on an investor’s tax situation and may differ from those shown. After-tax returns shown are not relevant to investors who hold shares through tax-deferred arrangements, such as 401(k) plans or individual retirement accounts (“IRAs”). After-tax returns may exceed the return before taxes due to an assumed tax benefit from realizing a capital loss on a sale of shares.

Management

Investment Advisor and Sub-Advisor

Aberdeen Standard Investments ETFs Advisors LLC serves as the investment advisor to the Fund and the Subsidiary.

Vident Investment Advisory, LLC serves as the sub-advisor to the Fund and the Subsidiary.

Portfolio Managers

Employee

Length of Service

Title

Austin Wen, CFA

Since October 2018

Co-Portfolio Manager

Rafael Zayas, CFA

Since June 2020

Co-Portfolio Manager

Buying and Selling Shares

The Fund is an ETF. Individual Shares may only be purchased and sold in the secondary market through a broker-dealer. Shares are listed for trading on a national securities exchange, such as the NYSE Arca. The price of Shares is based on market price, and because ETF Shares trade at market prices rather than NAV, shares may trade at a price greater than NAV (premium) or less than NAV (discount). An investor may incur costs attributable to the difference between the highest price a buyer is willing to pay to purchase shares of the Fund (bid) and the lowest price a seller is willing to accept for shares of the Fund (ask) when buying or selling shares in the secondary market (“the bid-ask spread”). Recent information, including information about the Fund’s NAV, market price, premiums and discounts, and bid-ask spreads, is included on the Fund’s website at www.aberdeenstandardetfs.us.

Tax Information

The Fund intends to make distributions that may be taxed as ordinary income or capital gains.

Payments to Broker-Dealers and Other Financial Intermediaries

If you purchase Shares through a broker-dealer or other financial intermediary (such as a bank) (an “Intermediary”), the Advisor or its affiliates may pay Intermediaries for certain activities related to the Fund, including participation in activities that are designed to make Intermediaries more knowledgeable about exchange-traded products, including the Fund, or for other activities, such as marketing, educational training or other initiatives related to the sale or promotion of Shares. These payments may create a conflict of interest by influencing the Intermediary and your salesperson to recommend the Fund over another investment. Any such arrangements do not result in increased Fund expenses. Ask your salesperson or visit the Intermediary’s website for more information.