FPA in the News

FPA Queens Road Small Cap Value Fund’s (QRSVX) Steve Scruggs sat down with John Rotonti Jr. to discuss his portfolio management philosophy, what he looks for when investing in a business, the four pillar process, and much more.

Please click here for Standardized Performance for FPA Queens Road Small Cap Value Fund (“Fund”) and relevant indices. Please click here for the principal risks of investing in the Fund. You should consider the Fund's investment objectives, risks, and charges and expenses carefully before you invest. The Prospectus details the Fund's objective and policies, risks, and other matters of interest to the prospective investor. Please read this Prospectus carefully before investing. The Prospectus may be obtained by clicking here, by calling toll-free, 1-800-982-4372, or by contacting the Fund in writing. Comparison to indices are for illustrative purposes only. The Fund does not include outperformance of any index or benchmark in the investment objectives. The FPA Funds are distributed by UMB Distribution Services, LLC. UMB and FPA are not affiliated.

The statements contained in the podcast reflect the opinions and views of the portfolio manager as of the date interviewed, is subject to change without notice, and may be forward-looking and/or based on current expectations, projections, and/or information currently available. Such information may not be accurate over the long-term. These views may differ from other FPA portfolio managers and analysts of the firm as a whole and are not intended to be a forecast of future events, a guarantee of future results or investment advice.

Portfolio composition will change due to ongoing management of the Fund. References to individual investments or sectors should not be construed as a recommendation by the Fund, the portfolio managers, the Adviser, or the distributor to purchase or sell such investments or invest in such sectors, and any information provided is not a sufficient basis upon which to make an investment decision. It should not be assumed that future investments will be profitable or will equal the performance of the investment or sector examples discussed. The portfolio holdings as of March 31, 2024 may be obtained here.

Future events or results may vary significantly from those expressed and are subject to change at any time in response to changing circumstances and industry developments. The information and data mentioned has been prepared from sources believed reliable, but the accuracy and completeness of the information cannot be guaranteed and is not a complete summary or statement of all available data.

The information contained in the podcast is not complete, may change, and is subject to, and is qualified in its entirety by, the more complete disclosures, risk factors, and other information contained in the Fund’s Prospectus and Statement of Additional Information. The information is furnished as of the date discussed. No representation is made with respect to its completeness or timeliness. The information is not intended to be, nor shall it be construed as, investment advice or a recommendation of any kind.

The Fund primarily invests in equity securities (common stocks, preferred stocks and convertible securities) of small-capitalization U.S. companies, defined as those with market capitalization, at the time of purchase, that is no greater than the largest market capitalization of any company included in the Russell 2000 Index. Investing in small companies involves special risks including, but not limited to, the following: smaller companies typically have more risk and their company stock prices are more volatile than that of large companies; their securities may be less liquid and may be thinly traded which makes it more difficult to dispose of them at prevailing market prices; these companies may be more adversely affected by poor economic or market conditions; they may have limited product lines, limited access to financial resources, and may be dependent on a limited management group; and small cap stocks may fluctuate independently of large cap stocks. All investment decisions are made at the discretion of the Portfolio Manager, in accordance with the current Prospectus.

As of March 31, 2024 FPA assets under management (AUM) totaled approximately $26 billion and includes committed and uncalled capital. AUM includes assets managed by sub-adviser Bragg Financial Advisers, Inc.  The AUM attributable to this sub-adviser is estimated, unaudited, and are subject to revision.  FPA has not verified the accuracy of the sub-adviser AUM.

The FPA quarterly Fund Commentaries can be accessed at https://fpa.com/funds/overview/fpa-queens-road-small-cap-value-fund.

Effective November 1, 2020, as approved by the shareholders of each series of Bragg Capital Trust ("Bragg Trust"), including the Fund: (i) FPA became the investment adviser to the Fund;  (ii) Bragg Financial Advisors, Inc. ("BFA"), the former investment adviser to the Fund, transitioned to serving as the sub-adviser to the Fund pursuant to a subadvisory agreement by and among FPA, BFA and the Bragg Trust. BFA continues to be responsible for the day-to-day management of the Fund, subject to FPA's oversight; and (iii) each of the current Trustees of the Fund were elected by shareholders of the Bragg Trust to serve as the Board of Trustees of the Bragg Trust, replacing the previous Board of Trustees of the Bragg Trust in its entirety. No changes to the Fund's principal investment strategies were made in connection with these changes in management of the Fund, and Steve Scruggs, CFA, Senior Portfolio Manager for BFA, continues to serve as the portfolio manager for the Fund.

The Fund's Total Annual Operating Expenses before reimbursement is 0.96% (Investor Class), 0.90% (Advisor Class), and 0.79% (Institutional Class). The adviser has contractually agreed to waive its management fees and to make payments to limit Fund expenses, until July 27, 2024 so that the total annual operating expenses (excluding interest, taxes, brokerage fees and commissions payable by the Fund in connection with the purchase or sale of portfolio securities, fees and expenses of other funds in which the Fund invests, and extraordinary expenses, including litigation expenses not incurred in the Fund’s ordinary course of business) of the Fund do not exceed 1.04%, 0.99% and 0.89%, for Investor Class, Advisor Class, and Institutional Class shares, respectively. These fee waivers and expense reimbursements are subject to possible recoupment by the adviser from the Fund in future years (within the three years from the date when the amount is waived or reimbursed) if such recoupment can be achieved within the lesser of the foregoing expense limits or the then-current expense limits. The expense limit agreement may be terminated only by the Fund’s Board of Trustees, upon written notice to the adviser. Prior to November 1, 2020, the Fund had a unitized fee structure that limited annual operating expenses to 1.18%.

A market cycle is defined as a period that contains a decline of at least 20% from the previous market peak over at least a two-month period and a rebound to establish a new peak above the previous one by the Russell 2000 Value Index. The portfolio manager considers a full market cycle to typically be a period of five years or more. The drawdown periods discussed reflect Russell 2000 Value Index drawdowns of 20% or greater during each market cycle since inception of the Fund (i.e., 6/28/2002-10/9/2002, 6/4/2007-3/9/2009, 6/23/2015-2/11/2016, 8/22/2018-3/23/2020, 11/8/2021-10/27/2023).

The Russell 2000 Value Index is a subset of the Russell 2000 Index, which tracks the stocks of small domestic companies, based on total market capitalization. The Russell 2000 Value Index represents those stocks of the Russell 2000 with lower price-to-book ratios and lower relative forecasted growth rates. A total return index computes the index value based on capital gains plus cash payments such as dividends and interest. You cannot invest directly in these indexes.

Any comparisons herein of the investment performance of the Fund to the Russell 2000 Value Index are qualified as follows: (i) the volatility of such index may be materially different from that of the referenced fund; (ii) such index may employ different investment guidelines and criteria than the referenced fund and, therefore, holdings in such fund may differ significantly from holdings of the securities that comprise such index; and (iii) the performance of such index may not necessarily have been selected to represent an appropriate index to compare to the performance of the referenced fund, but rather, is disclosed to allow for comparison of the referenced fund’s performance (or the performance of the assets held by such fund) to that of a well-known index. Indexes should not be relied upon as a fully accurate measure of comparison. No representation is made as to the risk profile of any index relative to the risk profile of the referenced fund.

Morningstar Ratings and Definitions

Morningstar data referenced in the podcast is as of March 31, 2024. The Fund’s peer group is the Morningstar Small Value Category (“Category”). This Category consists of portfolios that invest in small U.S. companies with valuations and growth rates below other small-cap peers. Stocks in the bottom 10% of the capitalization of the U.S. equity market are defined as small cap. Value is defined based on low valuations (low price ratios and high dividend yields) and slow growth (low growth rates for earnings, sales, book value, and cash flow). Morningstar rating™ is based upon a Morningstar risk-adjusted return. The Fund received a rating of three stars for the 3-year, and five stars for the 5-Year and 10-Year categories, and the Fund earned a Morningstar Category rank of 48%, 30%, and 24% in the 3-Year, 5-Year, and 10-Year categories, respectively. As of 3/31/24, there were 498 funds overall in the category; there were 457 funds reporting in the 3-Year category; 426 in the 5-Year category, and 335 in the 10-Year category. The average fee in the category is 0.95% and the average fee in the Fee Level Comparison Group is 0.95%. The Fee Level Comparison Group is Small Cap Institutional. The total expense ratio for the Funds Institutional and Investor class shares is 0.79% and 0.96%, respectively.

In relation to the Morningstar Medalist Rating^TM, the Analyst-Driven % data point displays the weighted percentage of a vehicle’s pillar ratings assigned directly or indirectly by analysts. The Data Coverage % data point is a summary metric describing the level of data completeness used to generate the overall rating.

The Morningstar Medalist Rating^TM is the summary expression of Morningstar’s forward-looking analysis of investment strategies as offered via specific vehicles using a rating scale of Gold, Silver, Bronze, Neutral, and Negative. The Medalist Ratings indicate which investments Morningstar believes are likely to outperform a relevant index or peer group average on a risk-adjusted basis over time. Investment products are evaluated on three key pillars (People, Parent, and Process) which, when coupled with a fee assessment, forms the basis for Morningstar’s conviction in those products’ investment merits and determines the Medalist Rating they’re assigned. Pillar ratings take the form of Low, Below Average, Average, Above Average, and High. Pillars may be evaluated via an analyst’s qualitative assessment (either directly to a vehicle the analyst covers or indirectly when the pillar ratings of a covered vehicle are mapped to a related uncovered vehicle) or using algorithmic techniques. Vehicles are sorted by their expected performance into rating groups defined by their Morningstar Category and their active or passive status. When analysts directly cover a vehicle, they assign the three pillar ratings based on their qualitative assessment, subject to the oversight of the Analyst Rating Committee, and monitor and reevaluate them at least every 14 months. When the vehicles are covered either indirectly by analysts or by algorithm, the ratings are assigned monthly. For more detailed information about these ratings, including their methodology, please go to global.morningstar.com/managerdisclosures/.

The Morningstar Medalist Ratings^TM are not statements of fact, nor are they credit or risk ratings. The Morningstar Medalist Rating (i) should not be used as the sole basis in evaluating an investment product, (ii) involves unknown risks and uncertainties which may cause expectations not to occur or to differ significantly from what was expected, (iii) are not guaranteed to be based on complete or accurate assumptions or models when determined algorithmically, (iv) involve the risk that the return target will not be met due to such things as unforeseen changes in management, technology, economic development, interest rate development, operating and/or material costs, competitive pressure, supervisory law, exchange rate, tax rates, exchange rate changes, and/or changes in political and social conditions, and (v) should not be considered an offer or solicitation to buy or sell the investment product. A change in the fundamental factors underlying the Morningstar Medalist Rating can mean that the rating is subsequently no longer accurate.

©2024 Morningstar, Inc. All Rights Reserved. The information contained herein: (1) is proprietary to Morningstar and/or its content providers; (2) may not be copied or distributed; and (3) is not warranted by Morningstar to be accurate, complete or timely. Neither Morningstar nor its content providers are responsible for any damages or losses arising from any use of this information. Past performance is no guarantee of future results.

Past performance is no guarantee, nor is it indicative, of future results.