Fund Description: FlexShares Global Quality Real Estate Index Fund is an exchange-traded index fund or Index ETF which is a separate investment portfolio of the FlexShares Trust, an open-end investment management company. INVESTMENT OBJECTIVE: The FlexShares Global Quality Real Estate Index Fund seeks investment results that correspond generally to the price and yield performance, before fees and expenses, of the Northern Trust Global Quality Real Estate Index. INDEX DESCRIPTION: The Northern Trust Global Quality Real Estate Index is designed to measure the performance of companies that exhibit certain quality, valuation and momentum characteristics within a universe of publicly-traded equity securities of U.S. and non-U.S. real estate investment trusts (REITs) and real estate companies. Eligible securities are selected for inclusion in the Index to maximize fundamental or quality factors, such as strength in profitability, management expertise, cash flow and other factors, as well as value and momentum factors, as determined by NTI (Index Provider). The Index is governed by published, objective rules for security selection, exclusion, rebalancing and adjustments for corporate actions. The Index is reconstituted on a quarterly basis. 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. A Representative sampling” is used by investing in a representative sample of securities that collectively has an investment profile similar to the Index. 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 that are included in the Index. Funds that employ a representative sampling strategy may incur tracking error to a greater extent than a fund that seeks to replicate an index. Replication is an indexing strategy in which a fund invests in substantially all of the securities in its index in approximately the same proportions as in the index. The Fund generally will invest under normal circumstances at least 80% of its total assets in the securities of the Index and in American Depositary Receipts and Global Depositary Receipts (collectively Depositary Receipts) based on the securities in its Index. The Fund may also invest up to 20% of its assets in cash and cash equivalents, including shares of money market funds, futures contracts, options on futures contracts, forward currency contracts, options and swaps, as well as securities not included in the Index. FUND MANAGEMENT: Northern Trust Investments, Inc., an indirect subsidiary of Northern Trust Corporation, serves as the Investment Adviser of the Fund.