Mar. 01, 2021
1290 SmartBeta Equity Fund
1290 SmartBeta Equity Fund – Class A (TNBAX), T (TNBCX), I (TNBIX) and R (TNBRX) Shares
Investment Objective:
Seeks to achieve long-term capital appreciation.
FEES AND EXPENSES OF THE FUND
The following table describes the fees and expenses that you may pay if you buy, hold, and sell shares of the Fund. 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. You may qualify for sales charge discounts if you and your family invest, or agree to invest in the future, at least $50,000 in 1290 Funds’ funds. More information about these and other discounts is available from your financial professional and in the “How Sales Charges are Calculated” and “Ways to Reduce or Eliminate Sales Charges” sections of the Fund’s Prospectus, and the “Purchase, Redemption and Pricing of Shares” section of the Fund’s statement of additional information.
Shareholder Fees (fees paid directly from your investment)
Annual Fund Operating Expenses (expenses that you pay each year as a percentage of thevalue of your investment)
Example
This 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 periods indicated, that your investment has a 5% return each year, that the Fund’s operating expenses remain the same and that the Expense Limitation Arrangement is not renewed. Although your actual costs may be higher or lower, based on these assumptions, whether you redeem or hold your shares, your costs would be:
PORTFOLIO TURNOVER
The Fund pays transaction costs, such as commissions, when it buys and sells securities (or “turns over” its portfolio). A higher portfolio turnover rate may indicate higher transaction costs and may result in higher taxes when 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. During the most recent fiscal year, the Fund’s portfolio turnover rate was 42% of the average value of its portfolio.
INVESTMENTS, RISKS, AND PERFORMANCE Principal Investment Strategy:
Under normal market conditions, the Fund invests at least 80% of its net assets, plus borrowings for investment purposes, in equity securities. The Fund invests primarily in equity securities of U.S. companies and foreign companies in developed markets.The Fund may invest in large-, mid- and small-capitalization companies and will be broadly diversified across companies and industries. Equity securities in which the Fund may invest include common stocks, preferred stocks, warrants, American Depositary Receipts and similar instruments. AXA Rosenberg Investment Management LLC (“Rosenberg Equities” or the “Sub-Adviser”) believes that investing in equity markets using a traditional indexing approach exposes an investor to general market risk, including concentration in the largest capitalization securities in the applicable index, volatility and unpredictable earnings that, over a market cycle, do not necessarily provide optimal returns. In the Sub-Adviser’s view, market return, or “beta,” can be achieved with less exposure to general market risk. The Sub-Adviser’s SmartBeta Equity strategy seeks to achieve, over a full market cycle, above-market returns with less volatility compared to the equity markets as a whole. Generally, a full market cycle consists of a period of increasing stock prices and strong performance (a bull market) followed by a period of weak performance and falling prices (a bear market), and a return to a bull market. The Sub-Adviser’s strategy differs from a traditional indexing approach under which a fund generally invests in all or a representative sample of the securities in the applicable index and weights those securities according to their market capitalization weightings. In constructing the Fund’s portfolio, the Sub-Adviser begins with a universe of global developed market equity securities. The Sub-Adviser then uses computer-aided quantitative analysis to identify securities for investment. This is accomplished through the application of proprietary filters that interact to analyze individual issuer data for such risk factors as lower earnings quality, higher price volatility, speculation and distress. Those securities that pass the filters are assigned a preliminary weighting in the Fund. The Sub-Adviser next applies a proprietary diversification methodology that is designed to produce a weighting scheme that reduces concentration risk by applying a greater level of diversification to the largest securities (by market capitalization) that progressively lessens with smaller capitalization companies. The Sub-Adviser also integrates Environmental, Social and Governance (“ESG”) considerations into its portfolio construction process based on the Sub-Adviser’s proprietary ESG framework and scoring that seeks to optimize the ESG portfolio while substantially retaining the desired risk/return thereof. In constructing the portfolio, the Sub-Adviser evaluates each company and considers various ESG factors, including a company’s environmental impact, carbon footprint and water intensity, and assesses the potential impact of corporate controversies. The Sub-Adviser may apply this investment selection process to invest in emerging market equity securities. The Sub-Adviser may sell a security for a variety of reasons, such as if its fundamentals no longer meet the Sub-Adviser’s criteria, to secure gains, limit losses, or redeploy assets into securities believed to offer superior investment opportunities. The Fund may also lend its portfolio securities to earn additional income.
Principal Risks:
An investment in the Fund is not a deposit of a bank and is not insured or guaranteed by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation or any other government agency. The value of your investment may fall, sometimes sharply, and you could lose money by investing in the Fund. There can be no assurance that the Fund will achieve its investment objective.The following risks can negatively affect the Fund’s performance. The most significant risks as of the date of this Prospectus are presented first, followed by additional principal risks in alphabetical order. Market Risk: The Fund is subject to the risk that the securities markets will move down, sometimes rapidly and unpredictably, based on overall economic conditions and other factors, which may negatively affect Fund performance. Securities markets also may experience long periods of decline in value. Changes in the financial condition of a single issuer can impact a market as a whole. Geo-political risks, including terrorism, tensions or open conflict between nations, or political or economic dysfunction within some nations that are major players on the world stage, may lead to instability in world economies and markets, may lead to increased market volatility, and may have adverse long-term effects. Events such as natural disasters, public health crises (such as epidemics and pandemics) and social unrest, and governments’ reactions to such events, could cause uncertainty in the markets and may adversely affect the performance of the global economy. Adverse market conditions may not have the same impact on all types of securities. In addition, markets and market participants are increasingly reliant on information data systems. Inaccurate data, software or other technology malfunctions, programming inaccuracies, unauthorized use or access, and similar circumstances may impair the performance of these systems and may have an adverse impact upon a single issuer, a group of issuers, or the market at large. Equity Risk: In general, the values of stocks and other equity securities fluctuate, and sometimes widely fluctuate, in response to changes in a company’s financial condition as well as general market, economic and political conditions and other factors. Large-Cap Company Risk: Larger more established companies may be unable to respond quickly to new competitive challenges such as changes in technology and consumer tastes, which may lead to a decline in their market price. Many larger companies also may not be able to attain the high growth rate of successful smaller companies, especially during extended periods of economic expansion. Mid-Cap and Small-Cap Company Risk: Mid-cap and small-cap companies carry additional risks because the operating histories of these companies tend to be more limited, their earnings and revenues less predictable (and some companies may be experiencing significant losses), and their share prices more volatile than those of larger, more established companies, all of which can negatively affect their value. In general, these risks are greater for small-cap companies than for mid-cap companies. Quantitative Investing Risk: The success of the Fund’s investment strategy depends largely on the effectiveness of the Fund’s quantitative model for screening securities for investment by the Fund. The portfolio of securities selected using quantitative analysis may underperform the market as a whole or a portfolio of securities selected using a different investment approach, such as fundamental analysis. The factors used in quantitative analysis and the weight placed on those factors may not be predictive of a security’s value. In addition, factors that affect a security’s value can change over time and these changes may not be reflected in the quantitative model. Data for some companies may be less available and/or less current than data for other companies. There may also be errors in the computer code for the quantitative model or in the model itself, or issues relating to the computer systems used to screen securities. The Fund’s securities selection can be adversely affected if it relies on erroneous or outdated data or flawed models or computer systems. As a result, the Fund may have a lower return than if it were managed using a fundamental analysis or an index-based strategy that did not incorporate quantitative analysis. Investment Strategy Risk: The market may reward certain investment characteristics for a period of time and not others. The returns for a specific investment characteristic may vary significantly relative to other characteristics and may increase or decrease significantly during different phases of a market cycle. A Fund comprised of stocks intended to reduce exposure to uncompensated risk may not necessarily be less sensitive to a change in the broad market price level and may not accurately estimate the risk/return outcome of stocks. Fund investments may exhibit higher volatility than expected or underperform the markets. The Fund’s strategy may result in the Fund underperforming the general securities markets, particularly during periods of strong positive market performance. Portfolio Management Risk: The Fund is subject to the risk that strategies used by an investment manager and its securities selections fail to produce the intended results. An investment manager’s judgments or decisions about the quality, relative yield or value of, or market trends affecting, a particular security or issuer, industry, sector, region or market segment, or about the economy or interest rates, may be incorrect or otherwise may not produce the intended results, which may result in losses to the Fund. In addition, many processes used in Fund management, including security selection, rely, in whole or in part, on the use of various technologies. The Fund may suffer losses if there are imperfections, errors or limitations in the quantitative, analytic or other tools, resources, information and data used, or the analyses employed or relied on, by an investment manager, or if such tools, resources, information or data are used incorrectly, fail to produce the desired results, or otherwise do not work as intended. There can be no assurance that the use of these technologies will result in effective investment decisions for the Fund. ESG Considerations Risk: Consideration of environmental, social and governance (“ESG”) factors in the investment process may limit the types and number of investment opportunities available to the Fund, and therefore carries the risk that, under certain market conditions, the Fund may underperform funds that do not consider ESG factors. The integration of ESG considerations may affect the Fund’s exposure to certain sectors or types of investments and may impact the Fund’s relative investment performance depending on whether such sectors or investments are in or out of favor in the market. Foreign Securities Risk: Investments in foreign securities, including depositary receipts, involve risks in addition to those associated with investments in U.S. securities. Foreign markets may be less liquid, more volatile and subject to less government supervision and regulation than U.S. markets, and it may take more time to clear and settle trades involving foreign securities, which could negatively impact the Fund’s investments and cause it to lose money. Security values also may be negatively affected by changes in the exchange rates between the U.S. dollar and foreign currencies. Differences between U.S. and foreign legal, political and economic systems, regulatory regimes and market practices, as well as trade barriers and other protectionist trade policies (including those of the U.S.), governmental instability, or other political or economic actions, also may adversely impact security values. World markets, or those in a particular region, may all react in similar fashion to important economic, political or other developments. Events and evolving conditions in certain economies or markets may alter the risks associated with investments tied to countries or regions that historically were perceived as comparatively stable and make such investments riskier and more volatile. Regardless of where a company is organized or its stock is traded, its performance may be significantly affected by events in regions from which it derives its profits or in which it conducts significant operations. Currency Risk: Investments that are denominated in or that provide exposure to foreign currencies are subject to the risk that those currencies will decline in value relative to the U.S. dollar. Any such decline may erode or reverse any potential gains from an investment in securities denominated in foreign currency or may widen existing loss. In the case of hedging positions, there is the risk that the U.S. dollar will decline in value relative to the currency being hedged. Currency rates may fluctuate significantly over short periods of time. Emerging Markets Risk: Investments in emerging market countries are more susceptible to loss than investments in more developed foreign countries and may present market, credit, currency, liquidity, legal, political, technical and other risks different from, or greater than, the risks of investing in more developed foreign countries. Emerging market countries may be more likely to experience rapid and significant adverse developments in their political or economic structures, intervene in financial markets, restrict foreign investments, impose high withholding or other taxes on foreign investments, impose restrictive exchange control regulations, or nationalize or expropriate the assets of private companies, which may have negative impacts on transaction costs, market price, investment returns and the legal rights and remedies available to the Fund. In addition, the securities markets of emerging market countries generally are smaller, less liquid and more volatile than those of more developed foreign countries, and emerging market countries often have less uniformity in regulatory, accounting, auditing and financial reporting requirements or standards, which may impact the availability and quality of information about issuers, and less reliable clearance and settlement, registration and custodial procedures. Securities of issuers traded on foreign exchanges may be suspended. The likelihood of such suspensions may be higher for securities of issuers in emerging market countries than in countries with more developed markets. The risks associated with investments in emerging market countries often are significant, and vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction and company to company. Large Shareholder Risk: A significant percentage of the Fund’s shares may be owned or controlled by the Adviser and its affiliates, other Funds advised by the Adviser (including funds of funds), or other large shareholders. Accordingly, the Fund is subject to the potential for large-scale inflows and outflows as a result of purchases and redemptions of its shares by such shareholders. These inflows and outflows could negatively affect the Fund’s net asset value and performance. Sector Risk: From time to time, based on market or economic conditions, the Fund may have significant positions in one or more sectors of the market. To the extent the Fund invests more heavily in particular sectors, its performance will be especially sensitive to developments that significantly affect those sectors. Individual sectors may be more volatile, and may perform differently, than the broader market. The industries that constitute a sector may all react in the same way to economic, political or regulatory events. Securities Lending Risk: The Fund may lend its portfolio securities to seek income. There is a risk that a borrower may default on its obligations to return loaned securities. The Fund will be responsible for the risks associated with the investment of cash collateral and may lose money on its investment of cash collateral or may fail to earn sufficient income on its investment to meet obligations to the borrower. Securities lending may introduce leverage into the Fund. In addition, delays may occur in the recovery of loaned securities from borrowers, which could interfere with the Fund’s ability to vote proxies or to settle transactions.
Risk/Return Bar Chart and Table
The bar chart and table below provide some indication of the risks of investing in the Fund by showing changes in the Fund’s performance from year to year and by showing how the Fund’s average annual total returns for the past one-year, five-year and since inception periods through December 31, 2020, compared to the returns of a broad-based securities market index. Past performance (before and after taxes) is not an indication of future performance.Prior to January 1, 2018, the Fund did not integrate ESG filters into its portfolio construction process. The performance results shown in the bar chart do not reflect any sales charges or account fees, which would reduce the performance results. The performance of Class T shares for periods prior to March 1, 2017 has been adjusted to reflect the current sales charges applicable to Class T shares.
Calendar Year Annual Total Returns — Class I
Best quarter (% and time period)Worst quarter (% and time period)15.36% (2020 2nd Quarter)–18.34% (2020 1st Quarter)
Average Annual Total Returns
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, and the after-tax returns shown are not relevant to investors who hold their Fund shares through tax-deferred arrangements, such as 401(k) plans or individual retirement accounts (IRAs). After-tax returns are shown only for Class I shares. After-tax returns for other Classes may vary.
1290 SmartBeta Equity Fund \| Class A Shares
On shares purchased without an initial sales charge and redeemed within 12 months of purchase.

Mar. 01, 2021

1290 SmartBeta Equity Fund

1290 SmartBeta Equity Fund – Class A (TNBAX), T (TNBCX), I (TNBIX) and R (TNBRX) Shares

Investment Objective:

Seeks to achieve long-term capital appreciation.

FEES AND EXPENSES OF THE FUND

The following table describes the fees and expenses that you may pay if you buy, hold, and sell shares of the Fund. 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. You may qualify for sales charge discounts if you and your family invest, or agree to invest in the future, at least $50,000 in 1290 Funds’ funds. More information about these and other discounts is available from your financial professional and in the “How Sales Charges are Calculated” and “Ways to Reduce or Eliminate Sales Charges” sections of the Fund’s Prospectus, and the “Purchase, Redemption and Pricing of Shares” section of the Fund’s statement of additional information.

Shareholder Fees (fees paid directly from your investment)

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

Example

This 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 periods indicated, that your investment has a 5% return each year, that the Fund’s operating expenses remain the same and that the Expense Limitation Arrangement is not renewed. Although your actual costs may be higher or lower, based on these assumptions, whether you redeem or hold your shares, your costs would be:

PORTFOLIO TURNOVER

The Fund pays transaction costs, such as commissions, when it buys and sells securities (or “turns over” its portfolio). A higher portfolio turnover rate may indicate higher transaction costs and may result in higher taxes when 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. During the most recent fiscal year, the Fund’s portfolio turnover rate was 42% of the average value of its portfolio.

INVESTMENTS, RISKS, AND PERFORMANCE Principal Investment Strategy:

Under normal market conditions, the Fund invests at least 80% of its net assets, plus borrowings for investment purposes, in equity securities. The Fund invests primarily in equity securities of U.S. companies and foreign companies in developed markets.The Fund may invest in large-, mid- and small-capitalization companies and will be broadly diversified across companies and industries. Equity securities in which the Fund may invest include common stocks, preferred stocks, warrants, American Depositary Receipts and similar instruments. AXA Rosenberg Investment Management LLC (“Rosenberg Equities” or the “Sub-Adviser”) believes that investing in equity markets using a traditional indexing approach exposes an investor to general market risk, including concentration in the largest capitalization securities in the applicable index, volatility and unpredictable earnings that, over a market cycle, do not necessarily provide optimal returns. In the Sub-Adviser’s view, market return, or “beta,” can be achieved with less exposure to general market risk. The Sub-Adviser’s SmartBeta Equity strategy seeks to achieve, over a full market cycle, above-market returns with less volatility compared to the equity markets as a whole. Generally, a full market cycle consists of a period of increasing stock prices and strong performance (a bull market) followed by a period of weak performance and falling prices (a bear market), and a return to a bull market. The Sub-Adviser’s strategy differs from a traditional indexing approach under which a fund generally invests in all or a representative sample of the securities in the applicable index and weights those securities according to their market capitalization weightings. In constructing the Fund’s portfolio, the Sub-Adviser begins with a universe of global developed market equity securities. The Sub-Adviser then uses computer-aided quantitative analysis to identify securities for investment. This is accomplished through the application of proprietary filters that interact to analyze individual issuer data for such risk factors as lower earnings quality, higher price volatility, speculation and distress. Those securities that pass the filters are assigned a preliminary weighting in the Fund. The Sub-Adviser next applies a proprietary diversification methodology that is designed to produce a weighting scheme that reduces concentration risk by applying a greater level of diversification to the largest securities (by market capitalization) that progressively lessens with smaller capitalization companies. The Sub-Adviser also integrates Environmental, Social and Governance (“ESG”) considerations into its portfolio construction process based on the Sub-Adviser’s proprietary ESG framework and scoring that seeks to optimize the ESG portfolio while substantially retaining the desired risk/return thereof. In constructing the portfolio, the Sub-Adviser evaluates each company and considers various ESG factors, including a company’s environmental impact, carbon footprint and water intensity, and assesses the potential impact of corporate controversies. The Sub-Adviser may apply this investment selection process to invest in emerging market equity securities. The Sub-Adviser may sell a security for a variety of reasons, such as if its fundamentals no longer meet the Sub-Adviser’s criteria, to secure gains, limit losses, or redeploy assets into securities believed to offer superior investment opportunities. The Fund may also lend its portfolio securities to earn additional income.

Principal Risks:

An investment in the Fund is not a deposit of a bank and is not insured or guaranteed by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation or any other government agency. The value of your investment may fall, sometimes sharply, and you could lose money by investing in the Fund. There can be no assurance that the Fund will achieve its investment objective.The following risks can negatively affect the Fund’s performance. The most significant risks as of the date of this Prospectus are presented first, followed by additional principal risks in alphabetical order. Market Risk: The Fund is subject to the risk that the securities markets will move down, sometimes rapidly and unpredictably, based on overall economic conditions and other factors, which may negatively affect Fund performance. Securities markets also may experience long periods of decline in value. Changes in the financial condition of a single issuer can impact a market as a whole. Geo-political risks, including terrorism, tensions or open conflict between nations, or political or economic dysfunction within some nations that are major players on the world stage, may lead to instability in world economies and markets, may lead to increased market volatility, and may have adverse long-term effects. Events such as natural disasters, public health crises (such as epidemics and pandemics) and social unrest, and governments’ reactions to such events, could cause uncertainty in the markets and may adversely affect the performance of the global economy. Adverse market conditions may not have the same impact on all types of securities. In addition, markets and market participants are increasingly reliant on information data systems. Inaccurate data, software or other technology malfunctions, programming inaccuracies, unauthorized use or access, and similar circumstances may impair the performance of these systems and may have an adverse impact upon a single issuer, a group of issuers, or the market at large. Equity Risk: In general, the values of stocks and other equity securities fluctuate, and sometimes widely fluctuate, in response to changes in a company’s financial condition as well as general market, economic and political conditions and other factors. Large-Cap Company Risk: Larger more established companies may be unable to respond quickly to new competitive challenges such as changes in technology and consumer tastes, which may lead to a decline in their market price. Many larger companies also may not be able to attain the high growth rate of successful smaller companies, especially during extended periods of economic expansion. Mid-Cap and Small-Cap Company Risk: Mid-cap and small-cap companies carry additional risks because the operating histories of these companies tend to be more limited, their earnings and revenues less predictable (and some companies may be experiencing significant losses), and their share prices more volatile than those of larger, more established companies, all of which can negatively affect their value. In general, these risks are greater for small-cap companies than for mid-cap companies. Quantitative Investing Risk: The success of the Fund’s investment strategy depends largely on the effectiveness of the Fund’s quantitative model for screening securities for investment by the Fund. The portfolio of securities selected using quantitative analysis may underperform the market as a whole or a portfolio of securities selected using a different investment approach, such as fundamental analysis. The factors used in quantitative analysis and the weight placed on those factors may not be predictive of a security’s value. In addition, factors that affect a security’s value can change over time and these changes may not be reflected in the quantitative model. Data for some companies may be less available and/or less current than data for other companies. There may also be errors in the computer code for the quantitative model or in the model itself, or issues relating to the computer systems used to screen securities. The Fund’s securities selection can be adversely affected if it relies on erroneous or outdated data or flawed models or computer systems. As a result, the Fund may have a lower return than if it were managed using a fundamental analysis or an index-based strategy that did not incorporate quantitative analysis. Investment Strategy Risk: The market may reward certain investment characteristics for a period of time and not others. The returns for a specific investment characteristic may vary significantly relative to other characteristics and may increase or decrease significantly during different phases of a market cycle. A Fund comprised of stocks intended to reduce exposure to uncompensated risk may not necessarily be less sensitive to a change in the broad market price level and may not accurately estimate the risk/return outcome of stocks. Fund investments may exhibit higher volatility than expected or underperform the markets. The Fund’s strategy may result in the Fund underperforming the general securities markets, particularly during periods of strong positive market performance. Portfolio Management Risk: The Fund is subject to the risk that strategies used by an investment manager and its securities selections fail to produce the intended results. An investment manager’s judgments or decisions about the quality, relative yield or value of, or market trends affecting, a particular security or issuer, industry, sector, region or market segment, or about the economy or interest rates, may be incorrect or otherwise may not produce the intended results, which may result in losses to the Fund. In addition, many processes used in Fund management, including security selection, rely, in whole or in part, on the use of various technologies. The Fund may suffer losses if there are imperfections, errors or limitations in the quantitative, analytic or other tools, resources, information and data used, or the analyses employed or relied on, by an investment manager, or if such tools, resources, information or data are used incorrectly, fail to produce the desired results, or otherwise do not work as intended. There can be no assurance that the use of these technologies will result in effective investment decisions for the Fund. ESG Considerations Risk: Consideration of environmental, social and governance (“ESG”) factors in the investment process may limit the types and number of investment opportunities available to the Fund, and therefore carries the risk that, under certain market conditions, the Fund may underperform funds that do not consider ESG factors. The integration of ESG considerations may affect the Fund’s exposure to certain sectors or types of investments and may impact the Fund’s relative investment performance depending on whether such sectors or investments are in or out of favor in the market. Foreign Securities Risk: Investments in foreign securities, including depositary receipts, involve risks in addition to those associated with investments in U.S. securities. Foreign markets may be less liquid, more volatile and subject to less government supervision and regulation than U.S. markets, and it may take more time to clear and settle trades involving foreign securities, which could negatively impact the Fund’s investments and cause it to lose money. Security values also may be negatively affected by changes in the exchange rates between the U.S. dollar and foreign currencies. Differences between U.S. and foreign legal, political and economic systems, regulatory regimes and market practices, as well as trade barriers and other protectionist trade policies (including those of the U.S.), governmental instability, or other political or economic actions, also may adversely impact security values. World markets, or those in a particular region, may all react in similar fashion to important economic, political or other developments. Events and evolving conditions in certain economies or markets may alter the risks associated with investments tied to countries or regions that historically were perceived as comparatively stable and make such investments riskier and more volatile. Regardless of where a company is organized or its stock is traded, its performance may be significantly affected by events in regions from which it derives its profits or in which it conducts significant operations. Currency Risk: Investments that are denominated in or that provide exposure to foreign currencies are subject to the risk that those currencies will decline in value relative to the U.S. dollar. Any such decline may erode or reverse any potential gains from an investment in securities denominated in foreign currency or may widen existing loss. In the case of hedging positions, there is the risk that the U.S. dollar will decline in value relative to the currency being hedged. Currency rates may fluctuate significantly over short periods of time. Emerging Markets Risk: Investments in emerging market countries are more susceptible to loss than investments in more developed foreign countries and may present market, credit, currency, liquidity, legal, political, technical and other risks different from, or greater than, the risks of investing in more developed foreign countries. Emerging market countries may be more likely to experience rapid and significant adverse developments in their political or economic structures, intervene in financial markets, restrict foreign investments, impose high withholding or other taxes on foreign investments, impose restrictive exchange control regulations, or nationalize or expropriate the assets of private companies, which may have negative impacts on transaction costs, market price, investment returns and the legal rights and remedies available to the Fund. In addition, the securities markets of emerging market countries generally are smaller, less liquid and more volatile than those of more developed foreign countries, and emerging market countries often have less uniformity in regulatory, accounting, auditing and financial reporting requirements or standards, which may impact the availability and quality of information about issuers, and less reliable clearance and settlement, registration and custodial procedures. Securities of issuers traded on foreign exchanges may be suspended. The likelihood of such suspensions may be higher for securities of issuers in emerging market countries than in countries with more developed markets. The risks associated with investments in emerging market countries often are significant, and vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction and company to company. Large Shareholder Risk: A significant percentage of the Fund’s shares may be owned or controlled by the Adviser and its affiliates, other Funds advised by the Adviser (including funds of funds), or other large shareholders. Accordingly, the Fund is subject to the potential for large-scale inflows and outflows as a result of purchases and redemptions of its shares by such shareholders. These inflows and outflows could negatively affect the Fund’s net asset value and performance. Sector Risk: From time to time, based on market or economic conditions, the Fund may have significant positions in one or more sectors of the market. To the extent the Fund invests more heavily in particular sectors, its performance will be especially sensitive to developments that significantly affect those sectors. Individual sectors may be more volatile, and may perform differently, than the broader market. The industries that constitute a sector may all react in the same way to economic, political or regulatory events. Securities Lending Risk: The Fund may lend its portfolio securities to seek income. There is a risk that a borrower may default on its obligations to return loaned securities. The Fund will be responsible for the risks associated with the investment of cash collateral and may lose money on its investment of cash collateral or may fail to earn sufficient income on its investment to meet obligations to the borrower. Securities lending may introduce leverage into the Fund. In addition, delays may occur in the recovery of loaned securities from borrowers, which could interfere with the Fund’s ability to vote proxies or to settle transactions.

Risk/Return Bar Chart and Table

The bar chart and table below provide some indication of the risks of investing in the Fund by showing changes in the Fund’s performance from year to year and by showing how the Fund’s average annual total returns for the past one-year, five-year and since inception periods through December 31, 2020, compared to the returns of a broad-based securities market index. Past performance (before and after taxes) is not an indication of future performance.Prior to January 1, 2018, the Fund did not integrate ESG filters into its portfolio construction process. The performance results shown in the bar chart do not reflect any sales charges or account fees, which would reduce the performance results. The performance of Class T shares for periods prior to March 1, 2017 has been adjusted to reflect the current sales charges applicable to Class T shares.

Calendar Year Annual Total Returns — Class I

Best quarter (% and time period)Worst quarter (% and time period)15.36% (2020 2nd Quarter)–18.34% (2020 1st Quarter)

Average Annual Total Returns

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, and the after-tax returns shown are not relevant to investors who hold their Fund shares through tax-deferred arrangements, such as 401(k) plans or individual retirement accounts (IRAs). After-tax returns are shown only for Class I shares. After-tax returns for other Classes may vary.

1290 SmartBeta Equity Fund | Class A Shares

On shares purchased without an initial sales charge and redeemed within 12 months of purchase.