TCW Growth Equities Fund

TCW Growth Equities Fund

Investment Objective

The Fund's investment objective is to seek to provide long-term capital appreciation. 

Fees and Expenses of the Fund

This table describes the fees and expenses you may pay if you buy and hold shares of the Fund. 

Shareholder Fees (Fees paid directly from your investment)

Shareholder Fees - TCW Growth Equities Fund (USD $)	Class I	Class N
Shareholder Fees (Fees paid directly from your investment)	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 - TCW Growth Equities Fund		Class I	Class N
Management fees		1.00%	1.00%
Distribution and/or service (12b-1) fees		none	0.25%
Other expenses		0.20%	0.48%
Total annual fund operating expenses		1.20%	1.73%
Fee Waiver [and/or Expense Reimbursement]	[1]	none	0.53%
Net Expenses	[1]	1.20%	1.20%

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.

This example assumes that you invest $10,000 in the Fund for the time periods indicated and then redeem all your shares at the end of those periods. The example also assumes that your investment has a 5% return each year and that the Fund's operating expenses remain the same. Although your actual costs may be higher or lower, based on these assumptions, your costs would be:

Expense Example - TCW Growth Equities Fund (USD $)	1 Year	3 Years	5 Years	10 Years
Class I	122	381	660	1,455
Class N	122	493	889	1,997

Portfolio Turnover

The Fund pays transaction costs 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 Fund's portfolio turnover rate was 50.74% of the average value of its portfolio. 

Principal Investment Strategies

Under normal circumstances, the Fund invests (except when maintaining a temporary defensive position) at least 80% of the value of its net assets in equity securities issued by companies with market capitalizations, at the time of acquisition, within the capitalization range of the companies comprising the Russell MidCap^® Growth Index. As of December 31, 2011, the market capitalization of companies included in the Russell MidCap^® Growth Index was between $117 million and $20.5 billion. If the Fund changes this investment policy, it will notify shareholders in writing at least 60 days in advance of the change. Equity securities include common and preferred stock, securities convertible into common or preferred stock such as convertible preferred stock, bonds and debentures; rights or warrants to purchase common or preferred stock; and other securities with equity characteristics.

The Fund invests primarily in issuers which are characterized as "growth" companies according to criteria established by the portfolio manager. Within these parameters, the Fund may invest in securities of foreign companies listed on a U.S. exchange, American Depository Receipts (ADRs) or American Depository Shares (ADS).

In managing the Fund's investments, the portfolio manager uses a "bottom up" approach to identify securities for investment. First, quantitative and qualitative criteria are used to screen companies. Companies that make it through this screening process are then subjected to fundamental analysis which generally looks for one or more of the following factors:

• a record of consistent earnings growth or the potential to grow earnings

• an ability to earn an attractive return on equity

• a large and growing market share

• a strong balance sheet

• significant ownership by management and a strong management team

Portfolio securities may be sold when the company fails to meet expectations, there is deterioration of underlying fundamentals, the portfolio manager concludes that the intermediate and long-term prospects for the company are poor, the portfolio manager determines to take advantage of a better investment opportunity, the individual security has reached its sell target or if an individual security weighting or sector weighting is too large.

Principal Risks

Since the Fund holds securities with fluctuating market prices, the value of the Fund's shares will vary as its portfolio securities increase or decrease in value. Therefore, the value of your investment in the Fund could go down as well as up. You can lose money by investing in the Fund.

The principal risks affecting the Fund that can cause a decline in value are:

• equity risk: the risk that stocks and other equity securities generally fluctuate in value more than bonds and may decline in value over short or extended periods based on changes in a company's financial condition and in overall market, economic and political conditions.

• price volatility risk: the risk that the value of the Fund's investment portfolio will change as the prices of its investments go up or down.

• small and mid-capitalization company risk: the risk that the stock performance of small and mid-capitalization companies can be more volatile than the stock performance of large capitalization companies and they face a greater risk of business failure which increases the risk of loss to the Fund.

• liquidity risk: the risk that there may be no willing buyer of the Fund's portfolio securities and the Fund may have to sell those securities at a lower price or may not be able to sell the securities at all, each of which would have a negative effect on performance.

• market risk: the risk that returns from the securities in which the Fund invests will underperform returns from the general securities markets or other types of securities.

• securities selection risk: the risk that the securities held by the Fund will underperform other funds investing in the same asset class or benchmarks that are representative of the asset class because of the portfolio manager's choice of securities.

• portfolio management risk: the risk that an investment strategy may fail to produce the intended results.

• issuer risk: the risk that the value of a security may decline for reasons directly related to the issuer such as management performance, financial leverage and reduced demand for the issuer's goods or services.

• investment style risk: the risk that the particular style or set of styles that the investment advisor primarily uses may be out of favor or may not produce the best results over short or longer time periods and may increase the volatility of the Fund's share price.

• foreign investing risk: the risk that Fund share prices will fluctuate with market conditions, currencies and the economic and political climates where investments are made.

• globalization risk: the risk that the growing inter-relationship of all global economies and financial markets has increased the effect of conditions in one country or region on issuers of securities in a different country or region.

Please see "Principal Risks and Risk Definitions" for a more detailed description of the risks of investing in the Fund.

Your 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 entity or person.

Investment Results

The bar chart below shows how the Fund's investment results have varied from year to year and the table below shows how the Fund's average annual returns for various periods compare with a broad measure of market performance. This information provides some indication of the risks of investing in the Fund by showing changes in the Fund's performance from year to year. The bar chart shows performance of the Fund's Class I shares. Class N performance would be lower than Class I performance because of the lower expenses paid by the Class I shares. Past results (before and after taxes) are not predictive of future results. Updated information on the Fund's investment results can be obtained by visiting tcwfunds.com.

Calendar Year Total Returns

For Class I Shares

Highest/Lowest quarterly results during this period were:

Highest	20.82%	(quarter ended 6/30/2009)
Lowest	-26.36%	(quarter ended 12/31/2008)

Average Annual Total Returns

(For the period ended December 31, 2011)

Average Annual Total Returns - TCW Growth Equities Fund		1 Year	5 Years	Since Inception	Inception Date
Class I		(6.73%)	3.66%	5.44%	Mar. 01, 2004
Class I - After taxes on distributions		(7.29%)	3.17%	5.13%	Mar. 01, 2004
Class I - After taxes on distributions and sale of fund shares		(3.62%)	3.06%	4.69%	Mar. 01, 2004
Class N		(6.75%)	3.58%	5.40%	Mar. 01, 2004
Russell MidCap Growth Index	[1]	(1.65%)	2.44%	5.65%

After-tax returns are calculated using the highest individual federal income tax rates in effect each year and do not reflect the impact of state and local taxes. Your actual after-tax returns depend on your individual tax situation and likely will differ from the results shown above, and after-tax returns shown are not relevant if you hold your Fund shares through a tax-deferred arrangement, such as a 401(k) plan or individual retirement account (IRA).

[1] The Fund's investment advisor has agreed to waive fees and/or reimburse expenses to limit the Fund's total annual operating expenses (excluding interest and acquired fund fees and expenses, if any) to 1.20% of average daily net assets. This contractual fee waiver/expense reimbursement is for the period March 1, 2012 through February 28, 2013. At the conclusion of this period, the Fund's investment advisor, in its sole discretion, may extend, terminate or otherwise modify the contractual fee waiver/expense reimbursement.

[1] The Russell MidCap® Growth Index measures the performance of those companies in the Russell MidCap® Index with higher price-to-book ratios and higher forecasted growth values.