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ING International Core Fund
ING International Core Fund
INVESTMENT OBJECTIVE
The Fund seeks long-term growth of capital.
FEES AND EXPENSES OF THE FUND
These tables describe the fees and expenses that you may pay if you buy and hold shares of the Fund.
Shareholder Fees ING International Core Fund
Maximum sales charge (load) as a % of offering price
Maximum deferred sales charge as a % of purchase or sales price, whichever is less
Class I
none none
Class W
none none
Annual Fund Operating Expenses
Expenses you pay each year as a % of the value of your investment
Annual Fund Operating Expenses ING International Core Fund
Class I
Class W
Management Fee 0.75% 0.75% [1]
Distribution and/or Shareholder Services (12b-1) Fees none none [1]
Administrative Services Fees 0.10% 0.10% [1]
Other Expenses 0.15% 0.15% [1]
Acquired Fund Fees and Expenses 0.01% 0.01% [1]
Total Annual Fund Operating Expenses [2] 1.01% 1.01% [1]
Waivers and Reimbursements [3] (0.05%) (0.05%) [1]
Total Annual Fund Operating Expenses after Waivers and Reimbursements 0.96% 0.96% [1]
[1] Based on Class I shares' expenses.
[2] Total Annual Fund Operating Expenses may be higher than the Fund's ratio of expenses to average net assets shown in the Fund's Financial Highlights, which reflects the operating expenses of the Fund and does not include Acquired Fund Fees and Expenses.
[3] The adviser is contractually obligated to limit expenses to 0.95% and 0.95% for Class I shares and Class W shares, respectively, through March 1, 2014; the obligation does not extend to interest, taxes, brokerage commissions, extraordinary expenses, and Acquired Fund Fees and Expenses. The obligation will automatically renew for one-year terms unless it is terminated by the Fund or the adviser upon written notice within 90 days of the end of the current term or upon termination of the advisory agreement and is subject to possible recoupment by the adviser within three years.
Expense Examples $
The Examples are intended to help you compare the cost of investing in shares of the Fund with the costs of investing in other mutual funds. The Examples assume that you invest $10,000 in the Fund for the time periods indicated. The Examples show costs if you sold (redeemed) your shares at the end of the period or continued to hold them. The Examples also assume that your investment had 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 ING International Core Fund (USD $)
1 Yr
3 Yrs
5 Yrs
10 Yrs
Class I
98 317 553 1,232
Class W
98 317 553 1,232
Expense Example, No Redemption ING International Core Fund (USD $)
1 Yr
3 Yrs
5 Yrs
10 Yrs
Class I
98 317 553 1,232
Class W
98 317 553 1,232
The Examples reflect applicable expense limitation agreements and/or waivers in effect, if any, for the one-year period and the first year of the three-, five-, and ten-year periods.
Portfolio Turnover % of average value of portfolio
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 transactions costs and may mean higher taxes if you are investing in a taxable account. These costs, which are not reflected in Annual Fund Operating Expenses or in the Expense Example, affect the Fund’s performance.

During the most recent fiscal year, the Fund’s portfolio turnover rate was 71% of the average value of its portfolio.
PRINCIPAL INVESTMENT STRATEGIES
Under normal market conditions, the Fund invests at least 65% of its total assets in equity securities of companies located in a number of different countries other than the United States. The Fund may invest in countries with emerging securities markets. The Fund may also invest in depositary receipts of foreign issuers. The Fund may invest up to 15% of its assets in real estate investment trusts.

The Fund may use derivatives, including futures, options, swaps, and forward contracts, typically for hedging purposes to reduce risk, such as interest rate risk, currency risk, and price risk.

The Fund may invest in other investment companies, including exchange-traded funds, to the extent permitted under the Investment Company Act of 1940, as amended, and the rules, regulations, and exemptive orders thereunder (“1940 Act”).

Thornburg Investment Management, Inc. (“Thornburg”) and Wellington Management Company, LLP (“Wellington Management”), (each a “Sub-Adviser” and collectively the “Sub-Advisers”) provide day-to-day management of the Fund. The Sub-Advisers act independently of each other and use their own methodology for selecting investments. ING Investments, LLC, the Fund’s investment adviser, determines the amount of Fund assets allocated to Thornburg and Wellington Management.

Each Sub-Adviser may sell securities for a variety of reasons, such as to secure gains, limit losses, or redeploy assets into opportunities believed to be more promising, among others.

The Fund may lend portfolio securities on a short-term or long-term basis, up to 331 / 3 % of its total assets.

Thornburg Investment Management, Inc.

Thornburg intends to invest on an opportunistic basis, where it believes there is intrinsic value. Thornburg typically invests in basic value stocks and stocks that, in Thornburg’s opinion, provide value in a broader or different context, including the stocks of companies with consistent earnings characteristics and those of emerging franchises when these issues are value priced.

Thornburg primarily uses individual issuer and industry analysis to make investment decisions. Value, for purposes of Thornburg’s selection criteria, relates both to current measures and to projected measures. Among the specific factors considered by Thornburg in identifying undervalued securities for inclusion are:
  • price/earnings ratio
  • price/book value
  • price/cash flow ratio
  • debt/capital ratio
  • dividend yield
  • dividend history
  • security and consistency of revenue stream
  • enterprise value/EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization)
  • undervalued assets
  • relative earnings growth potential
  • industry growth potential
  • industry leadership
  • dividend growth potential
  • franchise value
  • potential for favorable developments
  • EBIT (earnings before interest and taxes)/interest expenses
Thornburg typically makes equity investments in the following three types of companies:

Basic Value companies are companies which, in Thornburg’s opinion, are financially sound companies with well established businesses whose stock is selling at low valuations relative to the companies’ net assets or potential earning power.

Consistent Earner companies are typically companies that are selling at valuations below historic norms. Stocks in this category sometimes sell at premium valuations and sometimes at discount valuations. Generally they have shown steady earnings growth, dividend growth, or both. There are no assurances that these trends will continue in the future.

Emerging Franchises are value-priced companies that, in Thornburg’s opinion, are in the process of establishing a leading position in a product, service, or market and which Thornburg expects will grow, or continue to grow, at an above average rate. Under normal conditions, the proportion invested in companies of this type will be less than the proportions invested in basic value or consistent earner companies.

Debt obligations will be considered for investment when Thornburg believes them to be more attractive than equity alternatives and may purchase debt obligations of any maturity and of any quality.

Wellington Management Company, LLP

Wellington Management conducts fundamental research on individual companies to identify securities for purchase or sale. Fundamental analysis of a company involves the assessment of such factors as its business environment, management quality, balance sheet, income statement, anticipated earnings, revenues and dividends, and other related measures and indicators of value. Wellington Management seeks to invest in companies with underappreciated assets, improving and/or sustainable return on capital, and/or stocks that it believes are mispriced by the market due to short-term issues. This proprietary research takes into account each company’s long-term history as well as Wellington Management’s analysts’ forward-looking estimates, and allows for a comparison of the intrinsic value of stocks on a global basis focusing on return on invested capital in conjunction with other valuation metrics. Portfolio construction is driven primarily by bottom-up stock selection, with region, country, and sector weightings being secondary factors.

Wellington Management’s emerging market exposure will generally not be greater than 10% above the emerging markets exposure of the MSCI All Country World ex U.S. Index. Emerging markets will be defined as countries that are included in the MSCI Emerging Markets IndexSM .
PRINCIPAL RISKS
You could lose money on an investment in the Fund. Any of the following risks, among others, could affect Fund performance or cause the Fund to lose money or to underperform market averages of other funds.

Call   During periods of falling interest rates, a bond issuer may “call” or repay its high-yielding bond before the bond’s maturity date. If forced to invest the unanticipated proceeds at lower interest rates, the Fund would experience a decline in income.

Company   The price of a given company’s stock could decline or underperform for many reasons including, among others, poor management, financial problems, or business challenges. If a company declares bankruptcy or becomes insolvent, its stock could become worthless.

Credit   Prices of bonds and other debt instruments can fall if the issuer’s actual or perceived financial health deteriorates, whether because of broad economic or issuer-specific reasons. In certain cases, the issuer could be late in paying interest or principal, or could fail to pay altogether.
Currency   To the extent that the Fund invests directly in foreign (non-U.S.) currencies or in securities denominated in, or that trade in, foreign (non-U.S.) currencies, it is subject to the risk that those (non-U.S.) currencies will decline in value relative to the U.S. dollar or, in the case of hedging positions, that the U.S. dollar will decline in value relative to the currency being hedged.

Derivative Instruments   Derivative instruments are subject to a number of risks, including the risk of changes in the market price of the underlying securities, credit risk with respect to the counterparty, risk of loss due to changes in interest rates and liquidity risk. The use of certain derivatives may also have a leveraging effect which may increase the volatility of the Fund and reduce its returns.

Foreign Investments/Developing and Emerging Markets Investing in foreign (non-U.S.) securities may result in the Fund experiencing more rapid and extreme changes in value than a fund that invests exclusively in securities of U.S. companies due to: smaller markets; differing reporting, accounting, and auditing standards; nationalization, expropriation, or confiscatory taxation; foreign currency fluctuations, currency blockage, or replacement; potential for default on sovereign debt; or political changes or diplomatic developments. Foreign investment risks may be greater in developing and emerging markets than in developed markets.

High-Yield Securities   Investments rated below investment-grade (or of similar quality if unrated) are known as “high-yield securities” or “junk bonds.” High-yield securities are subject to greater levels of credit and liquidity risks. High-yield securities are considered primarily speculative with respect to the issuer’s continuing ability to make principal and interest payments.

Interest Rate   With bonds and other fixed rate debt instruments, a rise in interest rates generally causes values to fall; conversely, values generally rise as interest rates fall. The higher the credit quality of the instrument, and the longer its maturity or duration, the more sensitive it is likely to be to interest rate risk. In the case of inverse securities, the interest rate generally will decrease when the market rate of interest to which the inverse security is indexed decreases.

Liquidity   If a security is illiquid, the Fund might be unable to sell the security at a time when the Fund’s manager might wish to sell, and the security could have the effect of decreasing the overall level of the Fund’s liquidity. Further, the lack of an established secondary market may make it more difficult to value illiquid securities, which could vary from the amount the Fund could realize upon disposition. The Fund may make investments that become less liquid in response to market developments or adverse investor perception. The Fund could lose money if it cannot sell a security at the time and price that would be most beneficial to the Fund.

Market   Stock prices may be volatile and are affected by the real or perceived impacts of such factors as economic conditions and political events. The stock market tends to be cyclical, with periods when stock prices generally rise and periods when stock prices generally decline. Any given stock market segment may remain out of favor with investors for a short or long period of time, and stocks as an asset class may underperform bonds or other asset classes during some periods. From time to time, the stock market may not favor the value-oriented securities in which the Fund invests. Rather, the market could favor growth-oriented securities or may not favor equities at all.

Market Capitalization   Stocks fall into three broad market capitalization categories - large, mid, and small. Investing primarily in one category carries the risk that, due to current market conditions, that category may be out of favor with investors. If valuations of large-capitalization companies appear to be greatly out of proportion to the valuations of mid- or small-capitalization companies, investors may migrate to the stocks of mid- and small-sized companies causing the Fund that invests in these companies to increase in value more rapidly than a fund that invests in larger, fully-valued companies. Investing in mid- and small-capitalization companies may be subject to special risks associated with narrower product lines, more limited financial resources, smaller management groups, and a more limited trading market for their stocks as compared with larger companies. As a result, stocks of mid- and small-capitalization companies may decline significantly in market downturns.

Other Investment Companies   The main risk of investing in other investment companies, including exchange-traded funds, is the risk that the value of the securities underlying an investment company might decrease. Because the Fund may invest in other investment companies, you will pay a proportionate share of the expenses of those other investment companies (including management fees, administration fees, and custodial fees) in addition to the expenses of the Fund.

Real Estate Companies and Real Estate Investment Trusts (“REITs”)   Investing in real estate companies and REITs may subject the Fund to risks similar to those associated with the direct ownership of real estate, including losses from casualty or condemnation, changes in local and general economic conditions, supply and demand, interest rates, zoning laws, regulatory limitations on rents, property taxes, and operating expenses in addition to terrorist attacks, war, or other acts that destroy real property.

Securities Lending   Securities lending involves two primary risks: “investment risk” and “borrower default risk.” Investment risk is the risk that the Fund will lose money from the investment of the cash collateral received from the borrower. Borrower default risk is the risk that the Fund will lose money due to the failure of a borrower to return a borrowed security in a timely manner.

An investment in the Fund is not a bank deposit and is not insured or guaranteed by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the Federal Reserve Board or any other government agency.
PERFORMANCE INFORMATION
The following information is intended to help you understand the risks of investing in the Fund. The following bar chart shows the Fund’s performance for the first full calendar year of operations and the table compares the Fund’s performance to the performance of a broad-based securities market index/indices for the same period. The Fund’s performance information reflects applicable fee waivers and/or expense limitations in effect during the period presented. Absent such fee waivers/expense limitations, if any, performance would have been lower. The bar chart shows the performance of the Fund’s Class I shares. The Fund’s past performance (before and after taxes) is no guarantee of future results. For the most recent performance figures, go to www.INGFunds.com/literature or call 1-800-992-0180.

Because Class W shares of the Fund did not have a full calendar year of operations as of December 31, 2012, no performance information for Class W shares is provided below.
Calendar Year Total Returns Class I
(as of December 31 of each year)
Bar Chart
Best quarter: 1st 2012, 12.62% and Worst quarter: 2nd 2012, (6.19)%
Average Annual Total Returns%
(for the periods ended December 31, 2012)
Average Annual Total Returns ING International Core Fund
1 Yr
5 Yrs
10 Yrs
since inception
Inception Date
Class I
18.44%       (0.27%) Feb. 08, 2011
Class I After tax on distributions
18.31%       (0.35%)  
Class I After tax on distributions with sale
12.41%       (0.14%)  
MSCI EAFE® Index
[1] 17.32%       (1.21%)  
MSCI ACW Index℠ Ex-U.S.
16.83%       (1.40%)  
[1] The index returns include the reinvestment of dividends and distributions net of withholding taxes, but do not reflect fees, brokerage commissions, or other expenses.