FUND DESCRIPTION: iShares MSCI EAFE ETF, formerly iShares MSCI EAFE Index Fund, is an exchange-traded index fund or Index ETF which is a separate investment portfolio of the iShares Trust, an open-end investment management company. INVESTMENT OBJECTIVE: The iShares MSCI EAFE ETF seeks investment results that correspond generally to the price and yield performance, before fees and expenses, of the MSCI EAFE Index. INDEX DESCRIPTION: The MSCI EAFE Index includes stocks from Europe, Australasia and the Far East and, as of June 30, 2012, consisted of the following 22 developed market country indexes or regions: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. Components primarily include consumer staples, financial and industrials companies. The components of the Underlying Index, and the degree to which these components represent certain industries, may change over time. FUND STRATEGY: A passive or indexing approach is used to try to achieve the Fund’s investment objective. Unlike many investment companies, the Fund does not try to beat the index it tracks and does not seek temporary defensive positions when markets decline or appear overvalued. Indexing may eliminate the chance that the Fund will substantially outperform the Index but also may reduce some of the risks of active management, such as poor security selection. Indexing seeks to achieve lower costs and better after-tax performance by keeping portfolio turnover low in comparison to actively managed investment companies. The Advisor, BFA, uses a representative sampling indexing strategy to manage the Fund. Representative sampling is an indexing strategy that involves investing in a representative sample of securities that collectively has an investment profile similar to the Index. The securities selected are expected to have, in the aggregate, investment characteristics (based on factors such as market capitalization and industry weightings), fundamental characteristics (such as return variability and yield) and liquidity measures similar to those of the Index. The Fund may or may not hold all of the securities in the Index. The Fund generally invests at least 90% of its assets in securities of the Index and in depositary receipts representing securities of the Index. The Fund may invest the remainder of its assets in certain futures, options and swap contracts, cash and cash equivalents, including money market funds advised by BFA or its affiliates, as well as in securities not included in the Index, but which BFA believes will help the Fund track the Index. FUND MANAGEMENT: BlackRock Fund Advisors (BFA) serves as the investment adviser to the Fund.
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