Dividend Growth Portfolio Series 23

The Trust consists of a portfolio of dividend-paying equity securities that have historically increased their dividends. The Sponsor believes that dividends are often a good indicator of a corporation’s current financial condition and furthermore, may signal management’s belief in a profitable future for the corporation. The U.S.- traded common stocks held by the Trust may include the common stocks of U.S. and non-U.S. companies. The Trust may also invest in real estate investment trusts.

The Sponsor selects U.S.-traded companies that it believes should be core holdings of a dividend-paying portfolio. To select the portfolio the Sponsor follows a disciplined process which includes both quantitative screening and qualitative analysis.

The Sponsor begins with a universe of all dividend paying companies currently traded in the United States as of the date of the security selection. The Sponsor then reduces the universe to approximately 100 companies by performing quantitative screening, which may be primarily based on, but not limited to, the following factors:

• Dividend Growth. The Sponsor favors companies with a history of growing its annual dividend.
• Above Average Yields. The Sponsor favors companies with current yields above the market median yield.
• Avoiding Value Traps. In the higher yielding segment of the market, the Sponsor is cognizant of ‘value traps’ – those companies currently paying dividends while their fundamentals and competitiveness are declining. In an attempt to avoid those, the Sponsor may screen out the worst ranking companies within each sector based on recent profitability, sales growth, and valuation.

From this universe of approximately 100 companies, the Sponsor identifies companies for inclusion in the portfolio through a qualitative analysis based on factors such as, but not limited to:

• Cash-flow Adequacy. The Sponsor favors companies with recent earnings and operating cash-flow significantly higher than the dividends paid as of the company’s most recent financial reporting period.
• Balance Sheet. The Sponsor favors companies that possess overall financial strength and exhibit balance sheet improvements relative to their peers and the marketplace.
• Valuation. The Sponsor favors companies whose valuations appear to be attractive based on measures such as price-to-earnings, price-to-book and price-to-cash flow.
• Industry Leadership. The Sponsor favors companies that possess a strong competitive position among their domestic and global peers.
• Growth. The Sponsor favors companies with a history of (and prospects for) above average growth of dividends, sales and earnings.
• Profitability. The Sponsor favors companies with a history of consistent and high profitability as measured by return-on-assets, return-on equity, gross margin and net margin.

As with all investments, you may lose some or all of your investment in the Trust. No assurance can be given that the Trust’s investment objective will be achieved. The Trust also might not perform as well as you expect. This can happen for reasons such as these:

• Securities prices can be volatile. The value of your investment may fall over time. Market value fluctuates in response to various factors. These can include stock market movements, purchases or sales of securities by the Trust, government policies, litigation, and changes in interest rates, inflation, the financial condition of the securities’ issuer or even perceptions of the issuer. Changes in legal, political, regulatory, tax and economic conditions may cause fluctuations in markets and securities prices, which could negatively impact the value of the Trust. Additionally, events such war, terrorism, natural and environmental disasters and the spread of infectious illnesses or other public health emergencies may adversely affect the economy, various markets and issuers. An outbreak of a novel form of coronavirus disease (“COVID-19”) was first detected in December 2019 and rapidly spread around the globe leading the World Health Organization to declare the COVID-19 outbreak a pandemic in March 2020 and resulting in major disruptions to economies and markets around the world. The complete economic impacts of COVID-19 are not yet fully known. The COVID-19 pandemic, or any future public health crisis, is impossible to predict and could result in adverse market conditions which may negatively impact the performance of the trust and the trust's ability to achieve its investment objectives. Units of the Trust are not deposits of any bank and are not insured or guaranteed by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation or any other government agency.
• Share prices or dividend rates on the securities in the Trust may decline during the life of the Trust. There is no guarantee share prices of the securities in the Trust will not decline and that the issuers of the securities will declare dividends in the future and, if declared, whether they will remain at current levels or increase over time.
• The Trust invests in securities issued by mid-capitalization companies. These securities customarily involve more investment risk than securities of large-capitalization companies. Mid-capitalization companies may have limited product lines, markets or financial resources and may be more vulnerable to adverse general market or economic developments.
• The Trust may be susceptible to potential risks through breaches in cybersecurity. A breach in cybersecurity refers to both intentional and unintentional events that may cause the Trust to lose proprietary information, suffer data corruption or lose operational capacity. Such events could cause the Sponsor of the Trust to incur regulatory penalties, reputational damage, additional compliance costs associated with corrective measures and/or financial loss. In addition, cybersecurity breaches of the Trust’s third-party service providers, or issuers in which the Trust invests, can also subject the Trust to many of the same risks associated with direct cybersecurity breaches.
• The Trust is subject to risks arising from various operational factors and their service providers. Operational factors include, but not limited to, human error, processing and communication errors, errors of the Trust’s service providers, counterparties or other third-parties, failed or inadequate processes and technology or systems failures. Additionally, the Trust may be subject to the risk that a service provider may not be willing or able to perform their duties as required or contemplated by their agreements with the Trust. Although the Trust seeks to reduce these operational risks through controls and procedures, there is no way to completely protect against such risks.
• Inflation may lead to a decrease in the value of assets or income from investments.
• The Sponsor does not actively manage the portfolio. The Trust will generally hold, and may, when creating additional units, continue to buy, the same securities even though a security’s outlook, market value or yield may have changed.

See “Investment Risks” in Part A of the prospectus and “Risk Factors” in Part B of the prospectus for additional information.