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 a private investor residing in the Netherlands, the actual received interest, dividends or capital gains are not relevant for tax purposes. For Dutch tax-resident private investors, their holdings fall under Box 3. Investors pay annual tax on a fixed yield calculated based on the value of their assets as of 1 January. The return depends on the pro-rata allocation of assets to different categories, namely savings, debts or other assets. The holdings qualify as other assets for which the return rate is set at 6.04% (as of 1/1/2024; 6.17% as of 1/1/2023). The return rate is adjusted annually based on historical returns from previous years. The balance of the different asset categories is referred to as the return base. The effective return rate is then calculated by dividing the return by the return base. This effective return rate is applied to the savings and investments base to calculate the benefit from savings and investments. The savings and investments base is equal to the return base minus the tax-free amount. Investors pay income tax (36% in 2024; 32% in 2023) on this calculated benefit from savings and investments. The withheld Dutch dividend tax (15% as of 1/1/2024) is creditable against the income tax payable for investors residing in the Netherlands. Investors who are not subject to (exempt from) Dutch corporate tax (including Dutch pension funds) are not taxed on the result obtained. Dutch exempt entities can fully reclaim the 15% dividend tax withheld on dividends.Investors subject to Dutch corporate tax may be taxed on the result obtained from their investment in the fund, including dividend income and capital gains. Dutch corporate taxpayers can, in principle, credit the withheld dividend tax (15% as of 1/1/2024) against corporate tax and, under certain conditions, credit the excess in later years. For investors outside the Netherlands, their own national tax legislation applies to foreign investment funds. Shareholders who are not subject to tax in the Netherlands and reside in countries that have a double taxation treaty with the Netherlands may, depending on the treaty, reclaim (a portion of) the Dutch dividend tax from the Dutch tax authorities. A pension fund located in another EU member state or a country that has entered into an information exchange agreement with the Netherlands and is similar to a Dutch pension fund is also entitled to a refund of Dutch dividend tax. The above is based on current Dutch tax legislation.

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.The following sections display the ESG-metrics for this fund along with short descriptions. For more information please visit the sustainability-related disclosures.

Based on transaction prices, the fund's return was 0.83%. The fund aims to achieve long-term returns greater than equity markets with lower downside risk over the full investment cycle. The selected low-risk stocks are characterized by high dividend yields, attractive valuations, strong momentum and positive analyst revisions. This results in a diversified, low turnover portfolio of defensive stocks that aim to achieve stable equity returns and high income.

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.