Robeco US Conservative High Dividend Equities EUR G

Pim van Vliet is Head of Conservative Equities and Chief Quant Strategist. As Head of Conservative Equities, he is responsible for a wide range of global, regional, and sustainable low-volatility strategies. He specializes in low-volatility investing, asset pricing, and quantitative finance. He is the author of numerous academic research papers including publications in the Journal of Banking and Finance, Management Science, and the Journal of Portfolio Management. Pim is a guest lecturer at several universities, author of an investment book and speaker at international seminars. He became Portfolio Manager in 2010. Pim joined Robeco in 2005 as a Researcher with responsibility for asset allocation research. Pim holds a PhD and a Master's cum laude in Financial and Business Economics from Erasmus University Rotterdam. Arlette van Ditshuizen is Portfolio Manager Quantitative Equities and Co-Head Quant Equity Portfolio Management. She has been portfolio manager since 2007. She focuses on managing the wide range of regional and global Conservative Equities strategies, Robeco’s Low-volatility strategy. Arlette’s areas of expertise are portfolio construction and risk management. She chairs Robeco’s Equity Risk Management and Quant Portfolio Management Committees. Previously, she was Risk Manager within Robeco for two years and held a position as Portfolio Manager and Head of Derivatives Structures with Robeco for six years. Arlette started her career as a researcher at Robeco in 1997. She holds a Master's in Econometrics from Erasmus University Rotterdam. Maarten Polfliet is Portfolio Manager Quantitative Equities. He focuses on managing the wide range of regional and global Conservative Equities strategies, Robeco’s Low-volatility strategy. Maarten specializes in portfolio construction and investment style analyses. Until 2014, Maarten was a Quant Client Portfolio Manager at Robeco. From 2002, he was Equity Portfolio Manager at Bank Insinger de Beaufort, until he joined Robeco in 2005. He started his career as a Portfolio Manager for private and institutional clients at SNS Bank Nederland in 1999. He has a Master’s in Financial Economics from Tilburg University and a Master’s in Financial Analysis from the University of Amsterdam. Jan Sytze Mosselaar is Portfolio Manager Quantitative Equities. He focuses on managing the wide range of regional and global Conservative Equities strategies, Robeco’s Low-volatility strategy, and the factor investing portfolios, such as Value-, Momentum-, Quality- and Multi-Factor portfolios. Jan Sytze is the author of ‘A Concise Financial History of Europe’, published by Robeco. He started his career in 2004 at Robeco and worked for ten years as a multi-asset portfolio manager, responsible for multi-asset funds, quant allocation funds and fiduciary pension mandates. He holds a Master’s in Business Economics with a specialization in Finance & Investments from the University of Groningen. He is a CFA® charterholder. Arnoud Klep is Portfolio Manager Quantitative Equities. He focuses on managing the wide range of regional and global Conservative Equities strategies, Robeco’s Low-volatility strategy. Arnoud specializes in portfolio construction and sustainability integration within quantitative equities. Previously, Arnoud was Head of Structured Investments with Robeco, managing various quantitative investment strategies. He started his career in the Robeco Quantitative Research department in 2001. Arnoud holds a Master’s in Econometrics from Tilburg University.

The fund is established in the Netherlands. The fund is managed as a 'naamloze vennootschap' (public limited company). The fund has the status of 'fiscal investment institution' in the sense of article 28 of the Dutch Corporate-Income Tax Act 1969, and, as such, is taxed at a corporate-income tax rate of 0%.The fund is obliged to pay out the realized current income in the form of dividend within 8 months after the end of the financial year. From 1 January 2007 the fund withholds Dutch dividend tax at a rate of 15% from these dividend payments. The fund can in principle use the Dutch treaty network to partially recover any withholding tax on its income.

For private investors residing in the Netherlands real interest and dividend income or capital gains received on their investments are not relevant for tax purposes. Participating units held by private investors who are taxpayers in the Netherlands belong in Box 3. If and insofar as an investor's net assets exceed the net wealth exemption limit, said investor is liable from 1 January to pay 1.2% annually on the balance of his or her net assets. Investors residing in the Netherlands may offset the Dutch dividend tax withheld (15% as at 1 January 2007) against their income-tax payment. Investors who are not subject to (exempt from) Dutch corporate-income tax (e.g. pension funds) are not taxed on the achieved result. Dutch tax-exempt bodies may seek a full refund on the 15% dividend tax withheld on dividends (25% prior to 1 January 2007). Interest income is exempt from tax withheld at source. Investors who are subject to Dutch corporate-income tax can be taxed for the result achieved on their investment in the fund. Dutch bodies that are subject to corporate-income tax are obligated to declare interest and dividend income in their tax return. In principle, Dutch bodies that are subject to corporate-income tax may offset the 15% dividend tax withheld on dividends (25% prior to 1 January 2007) against the corporate-income tax and seek a refund of the excess amount. Investors residing outside the Netherlands are subject to their respective national tax regime applying to foreign investment funds. Shareholders who do not pay tax in the Netherlands and who are resident in countries that have a tax treaty with the Netherlands to prevent double taxation, may seek a refund for part of the Dutch dividend tax from the Dutch tax authorities, depending on the treaty. As of 1 January 2007, a pension fund having its registered office in another EU member state is also entitled to a dividend-tax refund in the Netherlands. The above is based on the current fiscal legislation and regulation.

The fund systematically incorporates sustainability in the investment process via exclusions, ESG integration, ESG and environmental footprint targets, engagement and voting. The fund does not invest in stocks issued by companies that are in breach of international norms or where its activities have been deemed detrimental to society following Robeco's exclusion policy. Financially material ESG factors are integrated in the portfolio construction to ensure the ESG score of the portfolio is better than that of the index. In addition, the environmental footprints of the fund are made lower than that of the benchmark by restricting the GHG emissions, water use and waste generation. With these portfolio construction rules, stocks issued by companies with better ESG scores or environmental footprints are more likely to be included in the portfolio while stocks issued by companies with worse ESG scores or environmental footprints are more likely to be divested from the portfolio. In addition, where a stock issuer is flagged for breaching international standards in the ongoing monitoring, the issuer will become subject to engagement. Lastly, the fund makes use of shareholder rights and applies proxy voting in accordance with Robeco's proxy voting policy.

Based on transaction prices, the fund's return was -0.73%. The conservative equities that the fund typically selects as part of its investment strategy underperformed the market last month.

The Robeco US Conservative High Dividend Equities Fund invests in low volatility stocks with lower expected downside risk and good upside potential. The more stable stocks tend to be overlooked by investors, though they offer relatively high returns given their risk profile. We expect the fund to do particularly well during down markets and volatile market conditions. In a very bullish environment, the fund could lag the overall market, yet still deliver good absolute returns. In the long term, we expect stable equity returns and high income with considerably lower downside risk.