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Transamerica High Quality Bond
Transamerica High Quality Bond
Investment Objective:
Seeks to provide a high risk-adjusted return while focusing on the preservation of capital.
Fees and Expenses:
This table describes the fees and expenses that you may pay if you buy and hold shares of the fund.
Shareholder Fees (fees paid directly from your investment)
Shareholder Fees - Transamerica High Quality Bond
R
R4
I3
Maximum sales charge (load) imposed on purchases (as a percentage of offering price) none none none
Maximum deferred sales charge (load) (as a percentage of purchase price or redemption proceeds, whichever is lower) none none none
Annual Fund Operating Expenses (expenses that you pay each year as a percentage of the value of your investment)
Annual Fund Operating Expenses - Transamerica High Quality Bond
R
R4
I3
Management fees 0.38% 0.38% 0.38%
Distribution and service (12b-1) fees 0.50% 0.25% none
Other expenses 0.06% 0.07% 0.07%
Total annual fund operating expenses 0.94% 0.70% 0.45%
Fee waiver and/or expense reimbursement [1] none 0.05% none
Total annual fund operating expenses after fee waiver and/or expense reimbursement 0.94% 0.65% 0.45%
[1] Contractual arrangements have been made with the fund’s investment manager, Transamerica Asset Management, Inc. (“TAM”), through March 1, 2021 to waive fees and/or reimburse fund expenses to the extent that total annual fund operating expenses exceed 1.00% for Class R shares, 0.65% for Class R4 shares and 0.55% for Class I3 shares, excluding, as applicable, acquired fund fees and expenses, interest, taxes, brokerage commissions, dividend and interest expenses on securities sold short, extraordinary expenses and other expenses not incurred in the ordinary course of the fund’s business. These arrangements cannot be terminated prior to March 1, 2021 without the Board of Trustees’ consent. TAM is permitted to recapture amounts waived and/or reimbursed to a class during any of the 36 months from the date on which TAM waived fees and/or reimbursed expenses for the class. A class may reimburse TAM only if such reimbursement does not cause, on any particular business day of the fund, the class’ total annual operating expenses (after the reimbursement is taken into account) to exceed the applicable limits described above or any other lower limit then in effect.
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 $10,000 in the fund for the time periods indicated and then redeem all shares at the end of those periods. The Example also assumes that your investment has a 5% return each year and that the fund’s operating expenses remain the same. Only the 1 year dollar amount shown below reflects TAM's agreement to waive fees and/or reimburse fund expenses. Although your actual costs may be higher or lower, based on these assumptions your costs would be:
Expense Example - Transamerica High Quality Bond - USD ($)
1 year
3 years
5 years
10 years
Class R 96 300 520 1,155
Class R4 66 219 385 866
Class I3 46 144 252 567
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 for the fund was 69% of the average value of its portfolio.
Principal Investment Strategies:
The fund normally invests primarily in high quality debt securities with short and intermediate maturities, such as corporate bonds and notes, commercial mortgage-backed securities, mortgage-backed and asset-backed securities, U.S. Treasury and government agency obligations, securities of foreign issuers (such as Yankee bonds) and repurchase agreements. Under normal circumstances, the fund invests at least 80% of its net assets (plus the amount of borrowings, if any, for investment purposes) in high quality bonds and other investments with similar economic characteristics.

The dollar-weighted average effective maturity of the fund generally does not exceed three years under normal circumstances. Individual securities held by the fund may have longer maturities. Short-term debt securities generally fluctuate less in price, and have lower yields, than longer-term securities of comparable quality. The fund’s duration generally is between one and three years. Duration is a way of measuring the fund’s overall sensitivity to interest rate fluctuations. The net asset value of a fund with a shorter duration will generally fluctuate less in response to interest rate changes than that of a fund with a longer duration.

The fund considers securities rated BBB- or better by Standard and Poor’s or Fitch or Baa3 or better by Moody’s (and securities that the fund’s sub-adviser believes are of comparable quality) to be high quality. Investments in higher quality instruments may result in a lower yield than would be available from investments in lower quality instruments.

The portfolio managers of the fund use a “bottom-up” analysis, focusing on the relative value of individual securities. They also analyze the yield curve under multiple market conditions in making maturity and duration decisions for portfolio securities. The managers of the fund then attempt to select securities that will enable the fund to maintain a stable share price and at the same time to achieve a high level of income. The managers use the same bottom-up approach when deciding which securities to sell. Securities are sold when the fund needs cash to meet redemptions, or when the managers believe that better opportunities exist or that particular securities no longer fit within the overall strategy for achieving the fund’s goal.
Principal Risks:
Risk is inherent in all investing. Many factors and risks affect the fund's performance, including those described below. The value of your investment in the fund, as well as the amount of return you receive on your investment, may fluctuate significantly 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 description of principal risks (in alphabetical order after certain key risks) of investing in the fund. An investment in the fund is not a bank deposit and is not insured or guaranteed by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation or any other government agency. You may lose money if you invest in this fund.

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 overall economic trends or events, government actions or interventions, market disruptions caused by trade disputes or other factors, political factors or adverse investor sentiment. The market prices of securities also may go down due to events or conditions that affect particular sectors, industries or issuers. Adverse market conditions may be prolonged and may not have the same impact on all types of securities. If the market prices of the securities owned by the fund fall, the value of your investment will go down. The fund may experience a substantial or complete loss on any individual security.

Economies and financial markets throughout the world are increasingly interconnected. Economic, financial or political events, trading and tariff arrangements, terrorism, technology and data interruptions, natural disasters and other circumstances in one country or region could be highly disruptive to, and have profound impacts on, global economies or markets. During periods of market disruption, the fund's exposure to the risks described elsewhere in this summary will likely increase. As a result, whether or not the fund invests in securities of issuers located in or with significant exposure to the countries directly affected, the value and liquidity of the fund's investments may be negatively affected.

Mortgage-Related and Asset-Backed Securities – The value of mortgage-related and asset-backed securities will be influenced by factors affecting the housing market and the assets underlying such securities. As a result, during periods of declining asset values, difficult or frozen credit markets, swings in interest rates, or deteriorating economic conditions, mortgage-related and asset-backed securities may decline in value, face valuation difficulties, become more volatile and/or become illiquid, which could negatively impact the fund. 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. 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. 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. Mortgage-backed and asset-backed securities are subject to prepayment or call and extension risks. Some of these securities may receive little or no collateral protection from the underlying assets. The risk of default is generally higher in the case of mortgage-backed investments that include so-called “sub-prime” mortgages. The structure of some of these securities may be complex and there may be less information available than for other types of debt securities. Upon the occurrence of certain triggering events or defaults, the fund may become the holder of underlying assets at a time when those assets may be difficult to sell or may be sold only at a loss.

Interest Rate – Interest rates in the U.S. and certain foreign markets have been low relative to historic levels. The fund faces a risk that interest rates may rise. The value of fixed income securities generally goes down when interest rates rise, and therefore the value of your investment in the fund may also go down. Debt securities have varying levels of sensitivity to changes in interest rates. A rise in rates tends to have a greater impact on the prices of longer term or duration securities. A significant or rapid rise in rates may result in losses. Changes in interest rates may affect the liquidity and value of the fund’s investments. A general rise in interest rates may cause investors to move out of fixed income securities on a large scale, which could adversely affect the price and liquidity of fixed income securities and could also result in increased redemptions from the fund. If the fund holds variable or floating rate securities, a decrease in interest rates will adversely affect the income received from such securities and the value of the fund’s shares.

Credit – If an issuer or other obligor (such as a party providing insurance or other credit enhancement) of a security held by the fund or a counterparty to a financial contract with the fund is unable or unwilling to meet its financial obligations or is downgraded, or is perceived to be less creditworthy, or if the value of any underlying assets declines, the value of your investment will typically decline. A decline may be significant, particularly in certain market environments. In addition, the fund may incur costs and may be hindered or delayed in enforcing its rights against an issuer, obligor or counterparty. The degree of credit risk of a security or financial contract depends upon, among other things, the financial condition of the issuer and the terms of the security or contract.

U.S. Government and 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 U.S. government 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 issuer’s 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. A security backed by the “full faith and credit” of the U.S. government is guaranteed only as to its stated interest rate and face value at maturity, not its current market price.

Fixed-Income Securities – Fixed-income securities are subject to risks including credit risk, interest rate risk, counterparty risk, prepayment risk, extension risk, valuation risk, and liquidity risk. The value of fixed-income securities may go up or down, sometimes rapidly and unpredictably, due to general market conditions, such as real or perceived adverse economic or political conditions, tariffs and trade disruptions, inflation, changes in interest rates, lack of liquidity in the bond markets or adverse investor sentiment. In addition, the value of a fixed-income security may decline if the issuer or other obligor of the security fails to pay principal and/or interest, otherwise defaults or has its credit rating downgraded or is perceived to be less creditworthy, or the credit quality or value of any underlying assets declines. If the value of fixed-income securities owned by the fund falls, the value of your investment will go down. The prices of fixed-income securities will generally go down when interest rates rise. Interest rates in the U.S. and certain foreign markets have been low relative to historic levels, so the fund faces a risk that interest rates may rise. A rise in rates tends to have a greater impact on the prices of longer term or duration securities.

Liquidity – The fund may make investments that are illiquid or that become illiquid after purchase. Illiquid investments can be difficult to value, may trade at a discount from comparable, more liquid investments, and may be subject to wide fluctuations in value. As a general matter, a reduction in the willingness or ability of dealers and other institutional investors to make markets in fixed income securities may result in even less liquidity in certain markets. If the fund is forced to sell an illiquid investment to meet redemption requests or other cash needs, the fund may be forced to sell at a loss. The fund may not receive its proceeds from the sale of less liquid or illiquid securities for an extended period (for example, several weeks or even longer), and such sale may involve additional costs. Liquidity of particular investments, or even an entire market segment, can deteriorate rapidly, particularly during times of market turmoil, and those investments may be difficult or impossible for the fund to sell. This may prevent the fund from limiting losses.

Counterparty – The fund will be subject to the risk that the counterparties to derivatives, repurchase agreements and other financial contracts entered into by the fund or held by special purpose or structured vehicles in which the fund invests will not fulfill their contractual obligations. Adverse changes to counterparties (including derivatives exchanges and clearinghouses) may cause the value of financial contracts to go down. If a counterparty becomes bankrupt or otherwise fails to perform its obligations, the value of your investment in the fund may decline. In addition, the fund may incur costs and may be hindered or delayed in enforcing its rights against a counterparty.

Extension – When interest rates rise, repayments of fixed income securities, particularly asset- and mortgage-backed securities, may occur more slowly than anticipated, extending the effective duration of these fixed income securities at below market interest rates and causing their market prices to decline more than they would have declined due to the rise in interest rates alone. This may cause the fund's share price to be more volatile or go down.

Prepayment or Call – Many issuers have a right to prepay their fixed income securities. Issuers may be more likely to prepay their securities if interest rates fall. If this happens, the fund will not benefit from the rise in the market price of the securities that normally accompanies a decline in interest rates and will be forced to reinvest prepayment proceeds at a time when yields on securities available in the market are lower than the yield on prepaid securities. The fund may also lose any premium it paid on prepaid securities.

Management – The value of your investment may go down if the investment manager’s or sub-adviser's judgments and decisions are incorrect or otherwise do not produce the desired results. You may also suffer losses if there are imperfections, errors or limitations in the quantitative, analytic or other tools, resources, information and data used, investment techniques applied, or the analyses employed or relied on, by the investment manager or sub-adviser, if such tools, resources, information or data are used incorrectly or otherwise do not work as intended, or if the investment manager’s or sub-adviser's investment style is out of favor or otherwise fails to produce the desired results. The fund’s investment strategies may not work as intended or otherwise fail to produce the desired results. Any of these things could cause the fund to lose value or its results to lag relevant benchmarks or other funds with similar objectives.

Active Trading – The fund may purchase and sell securities without regard to the length of time held. Active trading may have a negative impact on performance by increasing transaction costs and may generate greater amounts of net short-term capital gains, which, for shareholders holding shares in taxable accounts, would generally be subject to tax at ordinary income tax rates upon distribution. During periods of market volatility, active trading may be more pronounced.

Currency – The value of investments in securities denominated in foreign currencies increases or decreases as the rates of exchange between those currencies and the U.S. dollar change. U.S. dollar-denominated securities of foreign issuers may also be affected by currency risk, as the revenue earned by issuers of these securities may also be impacted by changes in the issuer’s local currency. Currency conversion costs and currency fluctuations could reduce or eliminate investment gains or add to investment losses. Currency exchange rates can be volatile and may fluctuate significantly over short periods of time, and are affected by factors such as general economic conditions, the actions of the U.S. and foreign governments or central banks, the imposition of currency controls, and speculation. A fund may be unable or may choose not to hedge its foreign currency exposure.

Foreign Investments – Investing in securities of foreign issuers or issuers with significant exposure to foreign markets involves additional risks. Foreign markets can be less liquid, less regulated, less transparent and more volatile than U.S. markets. The value of the fund’s foreign investments may decline because of factors affecting the particular issuer as well as foreign markets and issuers generally, such as unfavorable or unsuccessful government actions, reduction of government or central bank support, tariffs and trade disruptions, political or financial instability, social unrest or other adverse economic or political developments. Lack of information and weaker legal systems and accounting standards also may affect the value of these securities. Foreign investments may have lower liquidity and be more difficult to value than investments in U.S. issuers.

Repurchase Agreements – In a repurchase agreement, the fund purchases securities from a broker-dealer or a bank, called the counterparty, upon the agreement of the counterparty to repurchase the securities from the fund at a later date, and at a specified price, which is typically higher than the purchase price paid by the fund. The securities purchased serve as the fund's collateral for the obligation of the counterparty to repurchase the securities. If the counterparty does not repurchase the securities, the fund is entitled to sell the securities, but the fund may not be able to sell them for the price at which they were purchased, thus causing a loss. If the counterparty becomes insolvent, there is some risk that the fund will not have a right to the securities, or the immediate right to sell the securities.

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, that are priced based upon valuations provided by third-party pricing services that use matrix or evaluated pricing systems, or that are valued using a fair value methodology. Investors who purchase or redeem fund shares on days when the fund is holding fair-valued securities may receive fewer or more shares or lower or higher redemption proceeds than they would have received if the fund had not fair-valued securities or had used a different valuation methodology. The fund's ability to value its investments may be impacted by technological issues and/or errors by pricing services or other third party service providers.
Performance:
The bar chart and the table below provide some indication of the risks of investing in the fund. The bar chart shows how the fund’s performance has varied from year to year. The table shows how the fund’s average annual total returns for different periods compare to the returns of a broad measure of market performance.

The fund acquired the assets and assumed the liabilities of three Transamerica Partners funds, including Transamerica Partners Institutional High Quality Bond (the “predecessor fund”), on April 21, 2017, and the predecessor fund was the accounting and performance survivor of the reorganizations. This means that the predecessor fund's financial and performance history became the financial and performance history of the fund. In the reorganization of the predecessor fund, former shareholders of the predecessor fund received Class R4 shares of the fund. The performance of Class R4 shares includes the performance of the predecessor fund prior to the reorganizations, and has not been restated to reflect the annual operating expenses of Class R4 shares.

Absent any applicable fee waivers and/or expense limitations, performance would have been lower.

In the “10 Years or Since Inception” column of the table, returns are shown for ten years or since inception of the share class, whichever is less. Index returns are for ten years.

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.transamerica.com/individual/products/mutual-funds/performance/ or by calling 1-888-233-4339.
Annual Total Returns (calendar years ended December 31) - Class R4
Bar Chart
  Quarter Ended Return
Best Quarter: 3/31/2019 1.65%
Worst Quarter: 6/30/2013 -0.53%
Average Annual Total Returns (periods ended December 31, 2019)
Average Annual Total Returns - Transamerica High Quality Bond
1 Year
5 Years
10 Years
Since Inception
Inception Date
Class R4 4.67% 1.67% 1.74% Sep. 11, 2000
Class R4 | Return after taxes on distributions 3.42% 0.76% 0.87% Sep. 11, 2000
Class R4 | Return after taxes on distributions and sale of fund shares 2.75% 0.87% 0.97% Sep. 11, 2000
Class R 4.34% 1.96% Apr. 21, 2017
Class I3 4.87% 2.44% Apr. 21, 2017
ICE BofAML U.S. Corporate & Government 1-3 Years Index (reflects no deduction for fees, expenses or taxes) 4.07% 1.69% 1.58%  
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. Actual after-tax returns may depend on the investor’s individual tax situation and may differ from those shown. 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.