Summary Prospectus
March 1, 2011, as revised March 22, 2011
Class | CLASS I2 | ||||
& Ticker | Not Applicable |
This summary prospectus is designed to provide shareholders with key fund information in a clear and concise format. Before you invest, you may want to review the funds prospectus, which contains more information about the fund and its risks. You can find the funds prospectus and other information about the fund, including the funds statement of additional information and most recent reports to shareholders, online at http://www.transamericafunds.com/prospectus. You can also get this information at no cost by calling 866-414-6349 or by sending an e-mail request to orders@mysummaryprospectus.com, or from your financial professional. The funds prospectus and statement of additional information, dated March 1, 2011, as supplemented from time to time, and the independent registered public accounting firms report and financial statements in the funds annual report to shareholders, dated October 31, 2010, are incorporated by reference into this summary prospectus.
Investment Objective: Seeks maximum real return consistent with preservation of real capital and prudent investment management.
Fees and Expenses: This table describes the fees and expenses that you may pay if you buy and hold shares of the fund. There are no sales charges (load) or other transaction fees.
Annual Fund Operating Expenses (expenses that you pay each year as a percentage of the value of your investment) | |
Management fees | 0.66% |
Distribution and service (12b-1) fees | None |
Other expenses | 0.06% |
Total annual fund operating expenses | 0.72% |
Example: This Example is intended to help you compare the cost of investing in the fund with the cost of investing in other mutual funds. The Example assumes that you invest $10,000. 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 |
$74 | $230 | $401 | $894 |
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 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. During the most recent fiscal year, the portfolio turnover rate was 307% of the average value of the fund's portfolio.
Principal Investment Strategies: The fund's sub adviser, Pacific Investment Management Company LLC (PIMCO), invests, under normal circumstances, at least 80% of the fund's net assets in Treasury Inflation Protected Securities or TIPS of varying maturities. Inflation-indexed bonds are fixed-income securities that are structured to provide protection against inflation. The value of the bonds principal or the interest income paid on the bond is adjusted to track changes in an official inflation measure. The U.S. Treasury uses the Consumer Price Index for Urban Consumers as the inflation measure. Inflation-indexed bonds issued by a foreign government are generally adjusted to reflect a comparable inflation index, calculated by that government. Real return equals total return less the estimated cost of inflation, which is typically measured by the change in an official inflation measure. The average duration of the fund normally varies within three years (plus or minus) of the duration of the Barclays Capital Global Real U.S. Treasury Inflation Protected Securities Index, which as of December 31, 2010, was 3.96 years. Additional inflation protected investments may include inflation-indexed bonds issued by agencies of the U.S. government, government sponsored enterprises, non-U.S. governments, U.S. corporations and foreign companies. Other investments may include mortgage-related securities, including stripped mortgage-related securities; other fixed income securities, including corporate bonds and notes, asset-backed securities, money market instruments; and derivative instruments and forward commitments relating to the above securities.
PIMCO invests the fund's assets primarily in investment grade debt securities, but may invest up to 10% of the assets in high yield securities (junk bonds) rated B or higher by Moodys, Fitch, or S&P or, if unrated, determined by PIMCO to be of comparable quality. PIMCO may invest up to 30% of its assets in securities denominated in foreign currencies, and may invest beyond this limit in U.S. dollar denominated securities of foreign issuers. The fund may invest up to 15% of its total assets in securities and instruments that are economically tied to emerging markets countries. Foreign currency exposure (from non-U.S. dollar-denominated securities or currencies) normally will be limited to 20% of the fund's total assets. The fund may also invest up to 10% of its total assets in preferred stocks.
The fund may invest, without limitation, in derivative instruments, such as options, futures contracts or swaps, subject to applicable law and any other restrictions described in the fund's prospectus or SAI. The fund may lend its portfolio securities to brokers, dealers and other financial institutions to earn income. The fund may, without limitation, seek to obtain market exposure to the securities in which it primarily invests by entering into a series of purchase and sale contracts or by using other investment techniques (such as buy backs or dollar rolls).
The fund may invest its assets in cash, cash equivalent securities or short-term debt securities, repurchase agreements and money market instruments. Under adverse or unstable market, economic or political conditions, the fund may take temporary defensive positions in cash and short-term debt securities without limit.
This fund is non-diversified.
Principal Risks: Many factors affect the fund's performance. There is no assurance the fund will meet its investment objective. The value of your investment in the fund, as well as the amount of return you receive on your investment, may fluctuate significantly from day to day and over time. You may lose part or all of your investment in the fund or your investment may not perform as well as other similar investments. The following is a summary of certain risks (in alphabetical order) of investing in the fund. You may lose money if you invest in this fund.
· Cash Management and Defensive Investing Money market instruments or short-term debt securities held by the fund for cash management or defensive investing purposes can fluctuate in value. Like other fixed income securities, they are subject to risk, including market, interest rate and credit risk. If the fund holds cash uninvested, the fund will not earn income on the cash and the fund's yield will go down. If a significant amount of the fund's assets are used for cash management or defensive investing purposes, it will be more difficult for the fund to achieve its objective.
· CPIU Measurement The CPIU is a measurement of changes in the cost of living, made up of components such as housing, food, transportation and energy. There can be no assurance that the CPIU will accurately measure the real rate of inflation in the prices of goods and services.
· Credit If an issuer or guarantor of a security held by the fund or a counterparty to a financial contract with the fund defaults or is downgraded, or if the value of the assets underlying a security declines, the value of your investment will decline. Junk bonds have a higher risk of default and are considered speculative. A default or downgrade will have a greater impact on subordinated securities.
· Currency When the fund invests in securities denominated in foreign currencies, the fund may incur currency conversion costs and may be affected favorably or unfavorably by changes in the rates of exchange between those currencies and the U.S. dollar. Currency exchange rates can be volatile and are affected by, among other factors, the general economics of a country, the actions of the U.S. and foreign governments or control banks, the imposition of currency controls, and speculation.
· Currency Hedging The fund may hedge its currency risk using currency futures, forwards or options. However, these instruments may not always work as intended, and a fund may be worse off than if it had not used a hedging instrument.
· Derivatives Using derivatives can increase fund losses and reduce opportunities for gains when market prices, interest rates or the derivative instruments themselves behave in a way not anticipated by the fund. Using derivatives also can have a leveraging effect and increase fund volatility. Derivatives may be difficult to sell, unwind or value, and the counterparty may default on its obligations to the fund. The fund's investments in derivative instruments may involve a small investment relative to the amount of investment exposure assumed and may result in losses exceeding the amounts invested in those instruments. Recent legislation calls for new regulation of the derivatives markets. The extent and impact of the regulation are not yet fully known and may not be for some time. New regulation of derivatives may make them more costly, may limit their availability, or may otherwise adversely affect their value or performance.
· Emerging Markets Investing in the securities of issuers located in or principally doing business in emerging markets are subject to foreign securities risks. These risks are greater for investments in emerging markets. Emerging market countries tend to have economic, political and legal systems that are less fully developed and are less stable than those of more advanced countries. Low trading volumes may result in a lack of liquidity and in extreme price volatility.
· Fixed-Income Securities The market prices of fixed-income securities may go up or down, sometimes rapidly or unpredictably due to general market conditions, such as real or perceived adverse economic or political conditions, inflation, changes in interest rates, lack of liquidity in the bond markets or adverse investor sentiment. When market prices fall, the value of your investment will go down. A rise in rates tends to have a greater impact on the prices of longer term or duration securities.
If interest rates rise, repayments of fixed-income securities may occur more slowly than anticipated by the market. This may drive the prices of these securities down because their interest rates are lower than the current interest rate and they remain outstanding longer. This is sometimes referred to as extension risk.
Many issuers have a right to prepay their securities. If interest rates fall, an issuer may exercise this right. If this happens, the fund will be forced to reinvest prepayment proceeds at a time when yields on securities available in the market are lower than the yield on the prepaid security. This is sometimes referred to as prepayment or call risk.
· Foreign Securities Foreign securities are subject to a number of additional risks, including nationalization or expropriation of assets, imposition of currency controls or restrictions, confiscatory taxation, political or financial instability and other adverse economic or political developments. Lack of information and less market regulation also may affect the value of these securities.
· High-Yield Debt Securities High-yield debt securities, or junk bonds, are securities that are rated below investment grade (that is, securities rated below Baa/BBB) or, if unrated, are considered by the sub-adviser to be of equivalent quality. Changes in interest rates, the markets perception of the issuers and the creditworthiness of the issuers may significantly affect the value of these bonds. Junk bonds have a higher risk of default, tend to be less liquid and may be more difficult to value.
· Increase in Expenses Your actual costs of investing in the fund may be higher than the expenses shown in Annual Fund Operating Expenses for a variety of reasons. For example, expense ratios may be higher than those shown if average net assets decrease. Net assets are more likely to decrease and fund expense ratios are more likely to increase when markets are volatile.
· Interest Rate Fixed-income securities have varying levels of sensitivity to changes in interest rates. In general, the price of a fixed-income security tends to fall when interest rates rise and can rise when interest rates fall. A change in interest rates will not have the same impact on all fixed-income securities. Generally, the longer the maturity or duration of a fixed-income security, the greater the impact of a rise in interest rates on the securitys value. In addition, different interest rate measures (such as short- and long-term interest rates and U.S. and foreign interest rates), or interest rates on different types of securities or securities of different issuers, may not necessarily change in the same amount or in the same direction. When interest rates go down, the income received by the fund, and the funds yield, may decline.
· Leveraging The value of your investment may be more volatile if the fund borrows or uses derivatives that have a leveraging effect on the fund. Other risks also will be compounded. This is because leverage generally magnifies the effect of a change in the value of an asset and creates a risk of loss of value on a larger pool of assets than the fund would otherwise have had. The fund also may have to sell assets at inopportune times to satisfy its obligations.
· Liquidity Some securities held by the fund may be difficult to sell, or illiquid, particularly during times of market turmoil. Illiquid securities may also be difficult to value. If the fund is forced to sell an illiquid asset to meet redemption requests or other cash needs, the fund may be forced to sell at a loss.
· Market The market prices of the fund's securities may go up or down, sometimes rapidly or unpredictably, due to general market conditions, such as real or perceived adverse economic or political conditions, inflation, changes in interest rates or currency rates, lack of liquidity in the markets or adverse investor sentiment. Market prices of securities also may go down due to events or conditions that affect particular sectors or issuers. When market prices fall, the value of your investment will go down. The fund may experience a substantial or complete loss on any individual security. The recent financial crisis has caused a significant decline in the value and liquidity of many securities. In response to the financial crisis, the U.S. and other governments and the Federal Reserve and certain foreign central banks have taken steps to support financial markets. The withdrawal of this support could negatively affect the value and liquidity of certain securities. In addition, legislation recently enacted in the U.S. calls for changes in many aspects of financial regulation. The impact of the legislation on the markets, and the practical implications for market participants, may not be fully known for some time.
· Mortgage-Related and Asset-Backed Securities Mortgage-backed securities may be issued by private issuers, by government-sponsored entities such as Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac or by agencies of the U.S. government, such as Ginnie Mae. Mortgage-backed securities represent direct or indirect participations in, or are collateralized by and payable from, mortgage loans secured by real property. Unlike mortgage-related securities issued or guaranteed by agencies of the U.S.
government or government-sponsored entities, mortgage-related securities issued by private issuers do not have a government or government-sponsored entity guarantee (but may have other credit enhancement), and may, and frequently do, have less favorable collateral, credit risk or other underwriting characteristics. Mortgage-backed securities are also particularly susceptible to prepayment and extension risks. Asset-backed securities represent participations in, or are secured by and payable from, assets such as installment sales or loan contracts, leases, credit card receivables and other categories of receivables. Certain asset-backed securities present a heightened level of risk because, in the event of default, the liquidation value of the underlying assets may be inadequate to pay any unpaid principal or interest. The value of mortgage-backed and asset-backed securities may be affected by changes in credit quality or value of the mortgage loans or other assets that support the securities.
· Non-Diversification The fund is classified as non-diversified, which means it may invest in a larger percentage of its assets in one issuer than a diversified fund. To the extent the fund invests its assets in fewer issuers, the fund will be more susceptible to negative events affecting those issuers.
· Portfolio Selection The sub-advisers judgment about a particular security or issuer, or about the economy or a particular sector, region or market segment, or about an investment strategy, may prove to be incorrect.
· Portfolio Turnover The fund's investment strategy may result in a high portfolio turnover rate. High portfolio turnover would result in a correspondingly greater brokerage commission expenses and may result in the distribution to shareholders of additional capital gains for tax purposes. These factors may negatively affect the fund's performance.
· Preferred Stock Preferred stocks right to dividends and liquidation proceeds is junior to the rights of a companys debt securities. The value of preferred stock may be subject to factors that affect fixed income and equity securities, including changes in interest rates and in a companys creditworthiness. Shareholders of preferred stock may suffer a loss of value if dividends are not paid and have limited voting rights.
· Prepayment or Call Many issuers have a right to prepay their securities. If interest rates fall, an issuer may exercise this right. If this happens, the fund will be forced to reinvest prepayment proceeds at a time when yields on securities available in the market are lower than the yield on the prepaid security. The fund also may lose any premium it paid on the security.
· Repurchase Agreements If the other party to a repurchase agreement defaults on its obligation, the fund may suffer delays and incur costs or lose money in exercising its rights under the agreement. If the seller fails to repurchase the security and the market value declines, the fund could lose money. If the seller becomes insolvent and subject to liquidation or reorganization under applicable bankruptcy or other laws, the fund's ability to dispose of the underlying securities may be restricted.
· Rule 144A and Privately Placed Securities Rule 144A permits certain qualified institutional buyers, such as the fund, to trade in privately placed securities that have not been registered for sale to the public. Rule 144A and other privately placed securities may be deemed illiquid, and the fund might be unable to dispose of such securities promptly or at reasonable prices.
· Sovereign Debt Sovereign debt instruments are subject to the risk that the governmental entity may delay or fail to pay interest or repay principal on its sovereign debt. If a governmental entity defaults, it may ask for more time in which to pay or for further loans. There may be no established legal process for collecting sovereign debt that a government does not pay, nor are there bankruptcy proceedings through which all or part of the sovereign debt that a governmental entity has not repaid may be collected.
· Stocks Stocks may be volatile their prices may go up and down dramatically over the shorter term. These price movements may result from factors affecting individual companies, industries, the securities market as a whole or the over-all economy.
· U.S. Government Agency Obligations Government agency obligations have different levels of credit support and, therefore, different degrees of credit risk. Securities issued by agencies and instrumentalities of the U.S. government that are supported by the full faith and credit of the United States generally present a lesser degree of credit risk than securities issued by agencies and instrumentalities sponsored by the U.S. government that are supported only by the issuers right to borrow from the U.S. Treasury and securities issued by agencies and instrumentalities sponsored by the U.S. government that are supported only by the credit of the issuing agencies.
· Valuation The sales price the fund could receive for any particular portfolio investment may differ from the fund's valuation of the investment, particularly for securities that trade in thin or volatile markets or that are valued using a fair value methodology.
Performance: The bar chart and the table below provide some indication of the risks of investing in the fund by showing you how the funds performance has varied from year to year, and how the funds Class I2 average annual total returns for different periods compare to the returns of a broad measure of market performance. The table shows average annual total returns for Class I2 shares of the fund. Absent any limitation of the funds expenses, total returns would be lower. As with all mutual funds, past performance (before and after taxes) is not a prediction of future results. Updated performance information is available on our website at www.transamericafunds.com or by calling 1-888-233-4339.
Annual Total Returns (calendar years ended December 31)
Quarter Ended | Return | |
Best Quarter: | 3/31/2008 | 5.65% |
Worst Quarter: | 9/30/2008 | -5.16% |
Average Annual Total Returns (periods ended December 31, 2010)1
1 Year | 5 Years | 10 Years or Inception* | |
Class I2 (commenced operations on November 8, 2004) | |||
Return before taxes | 7.27% | 5.76% | 5.38% |
Return after taxes on distributions2 | 5.56% | 4.16% | 3.70% |
Return after taxes on distributions and sale of fund shares2 | 5.36% | 4.04% | 3.65% |
Barclays Capital Global Real U.S. Treasury Inflation Protected Securities Index (reflects no deduction for fees, expenses or taxes) | 6.30% | 5.33% | 5.04% |
1 Actual returns may depend on the investors individual tax situation. After-tax returns may not be relevant if the investment is made through a tax-exempt or tax-deferred account, such as a 401(k) plan.
2 The after-tax returns are calculated using the historic highest individual federal marginal income tax rates and do not reflect the impact of state and local taxes.
* Fund and Index returns are for past 10 years or since inception, whichever is less.
Management:
Investment Adviser: Sub-Adviser:
Transamerica Asset Management, Inc. Pacific Investment Management Company LLC
Portfolio Manager:
Mihir Worah, Portfolio Manager since 2008
Purchase and Sale of Fund Shares: Class I2 shares of the fund are currently primarily offered for investment in certain funds of funds (also referred to as strategic asset allocation funds). Class I2 shares of the fund are also made available to other investors, including institutional investors such as foreign insurers, domestic insurance companies and their separate accounts, and unaffiliated funds, high net worth individuals, and eligible retirement plans whose recordkeepers or financial service firm intermediaries have entered into agreements with Transamerica Funds or its agents. Investors who received Class I2 shares in connection with the reorganization of a Transamerica Premier Fund into a Transamerica Fund may continue to invest in Class I2 shares of that Transamerica Fund, but may not open new accounts. You buy and redeem shares at the funds next-determined net asset value (NAV) after receipt of your request in good order.
Tax Information: Fund distributions may be taxable as ordinary income or capital gains, except when your investment is in an IRA, 401(k) or other tax-advantaged investment plan.
Payments to Broker-Dealers and Other Financial Intermediaries: If you purchase the fund through a broker-dealer or other financial intermediary, the fund and/or its affiliates may pay the intermediary for the sale of fund shares and related services. 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 intermediarys website for more information.
MSPAI20311PRRT-A
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