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<b>TREASURY PORTFOLIO—SHARES </b>
<b>INVESTMENT OBJECTIVE </b>
The Portfolio seeks to maximize current income to the extent consistent with the preservation of capital and maintenance of liquidity by investing its net assets, under normal market conditions, exclusively in U.S. Treasury securities and related repurchase agreements and other securities that limit their investments to, or are backed by, U.S. Treasury securities.
<b>FEES AND EXPENSES OF THE PORTFOLIO </b>
This table describes the fees and expenses that you may pay if you buy and hold Shares of the Portfolio.
<b>Shareholder Fees </b>(fees paid directly from your investment)
<b>Annual Portfolio Operating Expenses </b>(expenses that you pay each year as<br/>a percentage of the value of your investment)
<b>EXAMPLE </b>
The following Example is intended to help you compare the cost of investing in Shares of the Portfolio with the cost of investing in other mutual funds. The Example assumes that you invest $10,000 in the Portfolio for the time periods indicated and then redeem all of your shares at the end of those periods. The Example also assumes that your investment has a 5% return each year and that the Portfolio’s operating expenses remain the same. Although your actual costs may be higher or lower, based on these assumptions your costs would be:
<b>PRINCIPAL INVESTMENT STRATEGIES </b>
The Portfolio seeks to achieve its objective by investing, under normal circumstances, its total assets exclusively in: <ul type="square"><li> Cash; </li></ul><ul type="square"><li> Short-term bills, notes, including floating rate notes, and other obligations issued or guaranteed by the U.S. Treasury (“Treasury Obligations”); and </li></ul><ul type="square"><li> Repurchase agreements collateralized fully by cash or Treasury Obligations. </li></ul>The Portfolio, under normal circumstances, will invest at least 80% of its net assets (plus the amount of any borrowings for investment purposes) in Treasury Obligations and repurchase agreements collateralized solely by Treasury Obligations. <br/><br/>The Portfolio operates as a “government money market fund” under Rule 2a-7 of the Investment Company Act of 1940, as amended. As a “government money market fund” under Rule 2a-7, the Portfolio (1) is permitted to use the amortized cost method of valuation to seek to maintain a stable net asset value (“NAV”) of $1.00 share price, and (2) is not required to impose a liquidity fee and/or a redemption gate on Portfolio redemptions that might apply to other types of money market funds should certain triggering events specified in Rule 2a-7 occur. <br/><br/>The Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) imposes strict requirements on the investment quality, maturity, diversification and liquidity of the Portfolio’s investments. Accordingly, the Portfolio’s investments must have a remaining maturity of no more than 397 days and must be high quality. The Portfolio’s investment adviser may consider, among other things, credit, interest rate and prepayment risks as well as general market conditions when deciding whether to buy or sell investments for the Portfolio.
<b>PRINCIPAL RISKS </b>
<b>CREDIT (OR DEFAULT) RISK</b> is the risk that the inability or unwillingness of an issuer or guarantor of a fixed-income security, or a counterparty to a repurchase or other transaction, to meet its principal and interest payments or other financial obligations will adversely affect the value of the Portfolio’s investments and its yield. Changes in the credit rating of a debt security held by the Portfolio could have a similar effect. <br/><br/><b>CYBERSECURITY RISK</b> is the risk of an unauthorized breach and access to Portfolio assets, customer data (including private shareholder information), or proprietary information, or the risk of an incident occurring that causes the Portfolio, the investment adviser, custodian, transfer agent, distributor and other service providers and financial intermediaries to suffer data breaches, data corruption or lose operational functionality. Successful cyber-attacks or other cyber-failures or events affecting the Portfolio or its service providers may adversely impact the Portfolio or its shareholders. <br/><br/><b>DEBT EXTENSION RISK</b> is the risk that an issuer will exercise its right to pay principal on an obligation held by the Portfolio (such as an asset-backed security) later than expected. This may happen during a period of rising interest rates. Under these circumstances, the value of the obligation will decrease and the Portfolio will suffer from the inability to invest in higher yielding securities. <br/><br/><b>INCOME RISK</b> is the risk that falling interest rates will cause the Portfolio’s income to decline. Income risk is generally higher for short-term debt securities. <br/><br/><b>INTEREST RATE RISK</b> is the risk that during periods of rising interest rates, the Portfolio’s yield (and the market value of its securities) will tend to be lower than prevailing market rates; in periods of falling interest rates, the Portfolio’s yield (and the market value of its securities) will tend to be higher. Securities with longer maturities tend to be more sensitive to changes in interest rates, causing them to be more volatile than securities with shorter maturities. Securities with shorter maturities tend to provide lower returns and be less volatile than securities with longer maturities. If interest rates rise, the Portfolio’s yield may not increase proportionately, and the maturities of income securities that have the ability to be prepaid or called by the issuer may be extended. The risks associated with changing interest rates may have unpredictable effects on the markets and the Portfolio’s investments. A general rise in interest rates may cause investors to move out of fixed income securities on a large scale, which could adversely affect the price and liquidity of fixed income securities and could also result in increased redemptions for the Portfolio. A low or declining interest rate environment may prevent the Portfolio from providing a positive yield or paying Portfolio expenses out of Portfolio assets and could lead to a decline in the Portfolio’s share price. Fluctuations in interest rates may also affect the liquidity of fixed income securities and instruments held by the Portfolio. <br/><br/><b>LARGE SHAREHOLDER TRANSACTIONS RISK</b> is the risk that the Portfolio may experience adverse effects when certain large shareholders purchase or redeem large amounts of shares of the Portfolio. Such large shareholder redemptions, which may occur rapidly and unexpectedly, may cause the Portfolio to sell its securities at times it would not otherwise do so, which may negatively impact its liquidity. Such sales may also accelerate the increase of taxable income to shareholders if these sales result in gains, and may also increase transaction costs. In addition, large redemptions could lead to an increase in the Portfolio’s expense ratio due to a smaller asset base. Large Portfolio share purchases may adversely affect the Portfolio’s performance to the extent that the Portfolio is delayed in investing or otherwise maintains a larger cash position than it ordinarily would. <br/><br/><b>MANAGEMENT RISK</b> is the risk that a strategy used by the Portfolio’s investment adviser may fail to produce the intended results or that imperfections, errors or limitations in the tools and data used by the investment adviser may cause unintended results. <br/><br/><b>MARKET RISK</b> is the risk that general market conditions, such as real or perceived adverse economic or political conditions, inflation, changes in interest rates, lack of liquidity in the bond markets or adverse investor sentiment could cause the value of your investment in the Portfolio, or its yield, to decline. The market value of the securities in which the Portfolio invests may go up or down in response to the prospects of particular sectors or governments and/or general economic conditions throughout the world due to increasingly interconnected global economies and financial markets. <br/><br/><b>PREPAYMENT (OR CALL) RISK</b> is the risk that prepayment of the underlying mortgages or other collateral of some fixed-income securities may result in a decreased rate of return and a decline in value of those securities. <br/><br/><b>STABLE NAV RISK</b> is the risk that the Portfolio will not be able to maintain a NAV per share of $1.00 at all times. A significant enough market disruption or drop in market prices of securities held by the Portfolio, especially at a time when the Portfolio needs to sell securities to meet shareholder redemption requests, could cause the value of the Portfolio’s shares to decrease to a price less than $1.00 per share. If the Portfolio fails to maintain a stable NAV (or if there is a perceived threat of such a failure), the Portfolio could be subject to increased redemption activity, which could adversely affect its NAV. <br/><br/><b>VARIABLE OR FLOATING RATE INSTRUMENTS RISK</b> is the risk that securities with variable or floating rates can be less sensitive to interest rate changes than securities with fixed interest rates, but may decline in value and negatively impact the Portfolio, particularly if changes in prevailing interest rates are more frequent or sudden than the rate changes for the variable or floating rate securities, which only occur periodically. Although variable and floating rate securities are less sensitive to interest rate risk than fixed-rate securities, they are subject to credit risk and default risk, which could impede their value. <br/><br/><b>You could lose money by investing in the Portfolio. Although the Portfolio seeks to preserve the value of your investment at $1.00 per share, the Portfolio cannot guarantee it will do so. An investment in the Portfolio is not a deposit of any bank and is not insured or guaranteed by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, any other government agency, or The Northern Trust Company, its affiliates, subsidiaries or any other bank. </b><br/><br/><b>The Portfolio’s sponsor has no legal obligation to provide financial support to the Portfolio, and you should not expect that the sponsor will provide financial support to the Portfolio at any time. </b>
<b>PORTFOLIO PERFORMANCE </b>
The bar chart and table that follow provide an indication of the risks of investing in the Portfolio by showing changes in the performance of the Portfolio’s Shares from year to year. <br/><br/>The Portfolio’s past performance is not necessarily an indication of how the Portfolio will perform in the future. <br/><br/>Updated performance information for the Portfolio is available and may be obtained on the Portfolio’s website at northerntrust.com/institutional or by calling 800-637-1380.
<b>CALENDAR YEAR TOTAL RETURN (SHARES)* </b>
* For the periods shown in the bar chart above, the highest quarterly return was 0.54% in the fourth quarter of 2018, and the lowest quarterly return was 0.00% in the second quarter of 2015.
<b>AVERAGE ANNUAL TOTAL RETURNS </b><br/>(For the periods ended December 31, 2018)
The 7-day yield for Shares of the Portfolio as of December 31, 2018: 2.34%. For the current 7-day yield call 800-637-1380 or visit northerntrust.com/institutional.
April 1, 2020
<b>You could lose money by investing in the Portfolio. </b>
<b>Although the Portfolio seeks to preserve the value of your investment at $1.00 per share, the Portfolio cannot guarantee it will do so.</b>
<b>An investment in the Portfolio is not a deposit of any bank and is not insured or guaranteed by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, any other government agency, or The Northern Trust Company, its affiliates, subsidiaries or any other bank. </b>
<b>The Portfolio’s sponsor has no legal obligation to provide financial support to the Portfolio, and you should not expect that the sponsor will provide financial support to the Portfolio at any time. </b>
The bar chart and table that follow provide an indication of the risks of investing in the Portfolio by showing changes in the performance of the Portfolio’s Shares from year to year.
The Portfolio’s past performance is not necessarily an indication of how the Portfolio will perform in the future.
northerntrust.com/institutional
800-637-1380
The 7-day yield for Shares of the Portfolio as of December 31, 2018
800-637-1380
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<b>TREASURY PORTFOLIO—SERVICE SHARES AND PREMIER SHARES </b>
<b>INVESTMENT OBJECTIVE </b>
The Portfolio seeks to maximize current income to the extent consistent with the preservation of capital and maintenance of liquidity by investing its net assets, under normal market conditions, exclusively in U.S. Treasury securities and related repurchase agreements and other securities that limit their investments to, or are backed by, U.S. Treasury securities.
<b>FEES AND EXPENSES OF THE PORTFOLIO </b>
This table describes the fees and expenses that you may pay if you buy and hold Service Shares and Premier Shares of the Portfolio.
<b>Shareholder Fees </b> (fees paid directly from your investment)
<b>Annual Portfolio Operating Expenses </b>(expenses that you pay each year as<br/>a percentage of the value of your investment)
<b>EXAMPLE </b>
The following Example is intended to help you compare the cost of investing in Service Shares and Premier Shares of the Portfolio with the cost of investing in other mutual funds. The Example assumes that you invest $10,000 in the Portfolio for the time periods indicated and then redeem all of your shares at the end of those periods. The Example also assumes that your investment has a 5% return each year and that the Portfolio’s operating expenses remain the same. Although your actual costs may be higher or lower, based on these assumptions your costs would be:
<b>PRINCIPAL INVESTMENT STRATEGIES </b>
The Portfolio seeks to achieve its objective by investing, under normal circumstances, its total assets exclusively in: <ul type="square"><li> Cash; </li></ul><ul type="square"><li> Short-term bills, notes, including floating rate notes, and other obligations issued or guaranteed by the U.S. Treasury (“Treasury Obligations”); and </li></ul><ul type="square"><li> Repurchase agreements collateralized fully by cash or Treasury Obligations.</li></ul>The Portfolio, under normal circumstances, will invest at least 80% of its net assets (plus the amount of any borrowings for investment purposes) in Treasury Obligations and repurchase agreements collateralized solely by Treasury Obligations. <br/><br/>The Portfolio operates as a “government money market fund” under Rule 2a-7 of the Investment Company Act of 1940, as amended. As a “government money market fund” under Rule 2a-7, the Portfolio (1) is permitted to use the amortized cost method of valuation to seek to maintain a stable net asset value (“NAV”) of $1.00 share price, and (2) is not required to impose a liquidity fee and/or a redemption gate on Portfolio redemptions that might apply to other types of money market funds should certain triggering events specified in Rule 2a-7 occur. <br/><br/>The Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) imposes strict requirements on the investment quality, maturity, diversification and liquidity of the Portfolio’s investments. Accordingly, the Portfolio’s investments must have a remaining maturity of no more than 397 days and must be high quality. The Portfolio’s investment adviser may consider, among other things, credit, interest rate and prepayment risks as well as general market conditions when deciding whether to buy or sell investments for the Portfolio.
<b>PRINCIPAL RISKS </b>
<b>CREDIT (OR DEFAULT) RISK</b> is the risk that the inability or unwillingness of an issuer or guarantor of a fixed-income security, or a counterparty to a repurchase or other transaction, to meet its principal and interest payments or other financial obligations will adversely affect the value of the Portfolio’s investments and its yield. Changes in the credit rating of a debt security held by the Portfolio could have a similar effect. <br/><br/><b>CYBERSECURITY RISK</b> is the risk of an unauthorized breach and access to Portfolio assets, customer data (including private shareholder information), or proprietary information, or the risk of an incident occurring that causes the Portfolio, the investment adviser, custodian, transfer agent, distributor and other service providers and financial intermediaries to suffer data breaches, data corruption or lose operational functionality. Successful cyber-attacks or other cyber-failures or events affecting the Portfolio or its service providers may adversely impact the Portfolio or its shareholders. <br/><br/><b>DEBT EXTENSION RISK</b> is the risk that an issuer will exercise its right to pay principal on an obligation held by the Portfolio (such as an asset-backed security) later than expected. This may happen during a period of rising interest rates. Under these circumstances, the value of the obligation will decrease and the Portfolio will suffer from the inability to invest in higher yielding securities. <br/><br/><b>INCOME RISK</b> is the risk that falling interest rates will cause the Portfolio’s income to decline. Income risk is generally higher for short-term debt securities. <br/><br/><b>INTEREST RATE RISK</b> is the risk that during periods of rising interest rates, the Portfolio’s yield (and the market value of its securities) will tend to be lower than prevailing market rates; in periods of falling interest rates, the Portfolio’s yield (and the market value of its securities) will tend to be higher. Securities with longer maturities tend to be more sensitive to changes in interest rates, causing them to be more volatile than securities with shorter maturities. Securities with shorter maturities tend to provide lower returns and be less volatile than securities with longer maturities. If interest rates rise, the Portfolio’s yield may not increase proportionately, and the maturities of income securities that have the ability to be prepaid or called by the issuer may be extended. The risks associated changing interest rates may have unpredictable effects on the markets and the Portfolio’s investments. A general rise in interest rates may cause investors to move out of fixed income securities on a large scale, which could adversely affect the price and liquidity of fixed income securities and could also result in increased redemptions for the Portfolio. A low or declining interest rate environment may prevent the Portfolio from providing a positive yield or paying Portfolio expenses out of Portfolio assets and could lead to a decline in the Portfolio’s share price. Fluctuations in interest rates may also affect the liquidity of fixed income securities and instruments held by the Portfolio. <br/><br/><b>LARGE SHAREHOLDER TRANSACTIONS RISK</b> is the risk that the Portfolio may experience adverse effects when certain large shareholders purchase or redeem large amounts of shares of the Portfolio. Such large shareholder redemptions, which may occur rapidly and unexpectedly, may cause the Portfolio to sell its securities at times it would not otherwise do so, which may negatively impact its liquidity. Such sales may also accelerate the increase of taxable income to shareholders if these sales result in gains, and may also increase transaction costs. In addition, large redemptions could lead to an increase in the Portfolio’s expense ratio due to a smaller asset base. Large Portfolio share purchases may adversely affect the Portfolio’s performance to the extent that the Portfolio is delayed in investing or otherwise maintains a larger cash position than it ordinarily would. <br/><br/><b>MANAGEMENT RISK</b> is the risk that a strategy used by the Portfolio’s investment adviser may fail to produce the intended results or that imperfections, errors or limitations in the tools and data used by the investment adviser may cause unintended results. <br/><br/><b>MARKET RISK</b> is the risk that general market conditions, such as real or perceived adverse economic or political conditions, inflation, changes in interest rates, lack of liquidity in the bond markets or adverse investor sentiment could cause the value of your investment in the Portfolio, or its yield, to decline. The market value of the securities in which the Portfolio invests may go up or down in response to the prospects of particular sectors or governments and/or general economic conditions throughout the world due to increasingly interconnected global economies and financial markets. <br/><br/><b>PREPAYMENT (OR CALL) RISK</b> is the risk that prepayment of the underlying mortgages or other collateral of some fixed-income securities may result in a decreased rate of return and a decline in value of those securities. <br/><br/><b>STABLE NAV RISK</b> is the risk that the Portfolio will not be able to maintain a NAV per share of $1.00 at all times. A significant enough market disruption or drop in market prices of securities held by the Portfolio, especially at a time when the Portfolio needs to sell securities to meet shareholder redemption requests, could cause the value of the Portfolio’s shares to decrease to a price less than $1.00 per share. If the Portfolio fails to maintain a stable NAV (or if there is a perceived threat of such a failure), the Portfolio could be subject to increased redemption activity, which could adversely affect its NAV. <br/><br/><b>VARIABLE OR FLOATING RATE INSTRUMENTS RISK</b> is the risk that securities with variable or floating rates can be less sensitive to interest rate changes than securities with fixed interest rates, but may decline in value and negatively impact the Portfolio, particularly if changes in prevailing interest rates are more frequent or sudden than the rate changes for the variable or floating rate securities, which only occur periodically. Although variable and floating rate securities are less sensitive to interest rate risk than fixed-rate securities, they are subject to credit risk and default risk, which could impede their value. <br/><br/><b>You could lose money by investing in the Portfolio. Although the Portfolio seeks to preserve the value of your investment at $1.00 per share, the Portfolio cannot guarantee it will do so. An investment in the Portfolio is not a deposit of any bank and is not insured or guaranteed by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, any other government agency, or The Northern Trust Company, its affiliates, subsidiaries or any other bank. </b><br/><br/><b>The Portfolio’s sponsor has no legal obligation to provide financial support to the Portfolio, and you should not expect that the sponsor will provide financial support to the Portfolio at any time. </b>
<b>PORTFOLIO PERFORMANCE </b>
The bar chart and table that follow provide an indication of the risks of investing in the Portfolio by showing the performance of the Portfolio’s Premier Shares from year to year. As of December 31, 2018 there were no Service Shares outstanding for the Portfolio. <br/><br/>The Portfolio’s past performance is not necessarily an indication of how the Portfolio will perform in the future. <br/><br/>Updated performance information for the Portfolio is available and may be obtained on the Portfolio’s website at northerntrust.com/institutional or by calling 800-637-1380.
<b>CALENDAR YEAR TOTAL RETURN (PREMIER SHARES)* </b>
* For the periods shown in the bar chart above, the highest quarterly return was 0.53% in the fourth quarter of 2018, and the lowest quarterly return was 0.10% in the first quarter of 2017.
<b>AVERAGE ANNUAL TOTAL RETURNS </b><br/>(For the periods ended December 31, 2018)
The 7-day yield for Premier Shares of the Portfolio as of December 31, 2018: 2.27%. For the current 7-day yield call 800-637-1380 or visit northerntrust.com/institutional.
April 1, 2020
<b>You could lose money by investing in the Portfolio. </b>
<b>Although the Portfolio seeks to preserve the value of your investment at $1.00 per share, the Portfolio cannot guarantee it will do so.</b>
<b>An investment in the Portfolio is not a deposit of any bank and is not insured or guaranteed by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, any other government agency, or The Northern Trust Company, its affiliates, subsidiaries or any other bank. </b>
<b>The Portfolio’s sponsor has no legal obligation to provide financial support to the Portfolio, and you should not expect that the sponsor will provide financial support to the Portfolio at any time. </b>
The bar chart and table that follow provide an indication of the risks of investing in the Portfolio by showing the performance of the Portfolio’s Premier Shares from year to year.
The Portfolio’s past performance is not necessarily an indication of how the Portfolio will perform in the future.
northerntrust.com/institutional
800-637-1380
The 7-day yield for Premier Shares of the Portfolio as of December 31, 2018
800-637-1380
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<b>TREASURY INSTRUMENTS PORTFOLIO—SHARES</b>
<b>INVESTMENT OBJECTIVE</b>
The Portfolio seeks to maximize current income to the extent consistent with the preservation of capital and maintenance of liquidity by investing its net assets, under normal conditions, exclusively in U.S. Treasury securities.
<b>FEES AND EXPENSES OF THE PORTFOLIO</b>
This table describes the fees and expenses that you may pay if you buy and hold Shares of the Portfolio.
<b>Shareholder Fees </b>(fees paid directly from your investment)
<b>Annual Portfolio Operating Expenses </b>(expenses that you pay each year as<br/>a percentage of the value of your investment)
<b>EXAMPLE </b>
The following Example is intended to help you compare the cost of investing in Shares of the Portfolio with the cost of investing in other mutual funds. The Example assumes that you invest $10,000 in the Portfolio for the time periods indicated and then redeem all of your shares at the end of those periods. The Example also assumes that your investment has a 5% return each year and that the Portfolio’s operating expenses remain the same. Although your actual costs may be higher or lower, based on these assumptions your costs would be:
<b>PRINCIPAL INVESTMENT STRATEGIES </b>
The Portfolio seeks to achieve its objective by investing, under normal circumstances, its total assets exclusively in:<ul type="square"><li> Cash; and</li></ul><ul type="square"><li> Short-term bills, notes and other obligations issued or guaranteed by the U.S. Treasury (“Treasury Obligations”).</li></ul>The Portfolio, under normal circumstances, will invest at least 80% of its net assets (plus the amount of any borrowings for investment purposes) in Treasury Obligations.<br/><br/>The Portfolio operates as a “government money market fund” under Rule 2a-7 of the Investment Company Act of 1940, as amended. As a “government money market fund” under Rule 2a-7, the Portfolio (1) is permitted to use the amortized cost method of valuation to seek to maintain a stable net asset value (“NAV”) of $1.00 share price, and (2) is not required to impose a liquidity fee and/or a redemption gate on Portfolio redemptions that might apply to other types of money market funds should certain triggering events specified in Rule 2a-7 occur.<br/><br/>The Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) imposes strict requirements on the investment quality, maturity, diversification and liquidity of the Portfolio’s investments. Accordingly, the Portfolio’s investments must have a remaining maturity of no more than 397 days and must be high quality. The Portfolio’s investment adviser may consider, among other things, credit and interest rate risks as well as general market conditions when deciding whether to buy or sell investments for the Portfolio.
<b>PRINCIPAL RISKS </b>
<b>CREDIT (OR DEFAULT) RISK</b> is the risk that the inability or unwillingness of an issuer or guarantor of a fixed-income security, or a counterparty to a transaction, to meet its principal and interest payments or other financial obligations will adversely affect the value of the Portfolio’s investments and its yield. Changes in the credit rating of a debt security held by the Portfolio could have a similar effect.<br/><br/><b>CYBERSECURITY RISK</b> is the risk of an unauthorized breach and access to Portfolio assets, customer data (including private shareholder information), or proprietary information, or the risk of an incident occurring that causes the Portfolio, the investment adviser, custodian, transfer agent, distributor and other service providers and financial intermediaries to suffer data breaches, data corruption or lose operational functionality. Successful cyber-attacks or other cyber-failures or events affecting the Portfolio or its service providers may adversely impact the Portfolio or its shareholders. <br/><br/><b>INCOME RISK</b> is the risk that falling interest rates will cause the Portfolio’s income to decline. Income risk is generally higher for short-term debt securities.<br/><br/><b>INTEREST RATE RISK</b> is the risk that during periods of rising interest rates, the Portfolio’s yield (and the market value of its securities) will tend to be lower than prevailing market rates; in periods of falling interest rates, the Portfolio’s yield (and the market value of its securities) will tend to be higher. Securities with longer maturities tend to be more sensitive to changes in interest rates, causing them to be more volatile than securities with shorter maturities. Securities with shorter maturities tend to provide lower returns and be less volatile than securities with longer maturities. If interest rates rise, the Portfolio’s yield may not increase proportionately, and the maturities of income securities that have the ability to be prepaid or called by the issuer may be extended. The risks associated with changing interest rates may have unpredictable effects on the markets and the Portfolio’s investments. A general rise in interest rates may cause investors to move out of fixed income securities on a large scale, which could adversely affect the price and liquidity of fixed income securities and could also result in increased redemptions for the Portfolio. A low or declining interest rate environment may prevent the Portfolio from providing a positive yield or paying Portfolio expenses out of Portfolio assets and could lead to a decline in the Portfolio’s share price. Fluctuations in interest rates may also affect the liquidity of fixed income securities and instruments held by the Portfolio.<br/><br/><b>LARGE SHAREHOLDER TRANSACTIONS RISK</b> is the risk that the Portfolio may experience adverse effects when certain large shareholders purchase or redeem large amounts of shares of the Portfolio. Such large shareholder redemptions, which may occur rapidly and unexpectedly, may cause the Portfolio to sell its securities at times it would not otherwise do so, which may negatively impact its liquidity. Such sales may also accelerate the increase of taxable income to shareholders if these sales result in gains, and may also increase transaction costs. In addition, large redemptions could lead to an increase in the Portfolio’s expense ratio due to a smaller asset base. Large Portfolio share purchases may adversely affect the Portfolio’s performance to the extent that the Portfolio is delayed in investing otherwise maintains a larger cash position than it ordinarily would.<br/><br/><b>MANAGEMENT RISK</b> is the risk that a strategy used by the Portfolio’s investment adviser may fail to produce the intended results or that imperfections, errors or limitations in the tools and data used by the investment adviser may cause unintended results.<br/><br/><b>MARKET RISK</b> is the risk that general market conditions, such as real or perceived adverse economic or political conditions, inflation, changes in interest rates, lack of liquidity in the bond markets or adverse investor sentiment could cause the value of your investment in the Portfolio, or its yield, to decline. The market value of the securities in which the Portfolio invests may go up or down in response to the prospects of particular sectors or governments and/or general economic conditions throughout the world due to increasingly interconnected global economies and financial markets.<br/><br/><b>STABLE NAV RISK</b> is the risk that the Portfolio will not be able to maintain a NAV per share of $1.00 at all times. A significant enough market disruption or drop in market prices of securities held by the Portfolio, especially at a time when the Portfolio needs to sell securities to meet shareholder redemption requests, could cause the value of the Portfolio’s shares to decrease to a price less than $1.00 per share. If the Portfolio fails to maintain a stable NAV (or if there is a perceived threat of such a failure), the Portfolio could be subject to increased redemption activity, which could adversely affect its NAV.<br/><br/><b>VARIABLE OR FLOATING RATE INSTRUMENTS RISK</b> is the risk that securities with variable or floating rates can be less sensitive to interest rate changes than securities with fixed interest rates, but may decline in value and negatively impact the Portfolio, particularly if changes in prevailing interest rates are more frequent or sudden than the rate changes for the variable or floating rate securities, which only occur periodically. Although variable and floating rate securities are less sensitive to interest rate risk than fixed-rate securities, they are subject to credit risk and default risk, which could impede their value.<br/><br/><b>You could lose money by investing in the Portfolio. Although the Portfolio seeks to preserve the value of your investment at $1.00 per share, the Portfolio cannot guarantee it will do so. An investment in the Portfolio is not a deposit of any bank and is not insured or guaranteed by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, any other government agency, or The Northern Trust Company, its affiliates, subsidiaries or any other bank. The Portfolio’s sponsor has no legal obligation to provide financial support to the Portfolio, and you should not expect that the sponsor will provide financial support to the Portfolio at any time.</b>
<b>PORTFOLIO PERFORMANCE </b>
The Portfolio is new and does not yet have a full calendar year of performance. After the Portfolio has been in operation for a full calendar year, total return information will be presented. Once available, the Portfolio’s performance information will be accessible on the Portfolio’s web site at northerntrust.com/institutional or by calling 800-637-1380, and will provide some indication of the risks of investing in the Portfolio.
“Other Expenses” are based on estimated amounts for the current fiscal year.
April 1, 2020
<b>You could lose money by investing in the Portfolio.</b>
<b>Although the Portfolio seeks to preserve the value of your investment at $1.00 per share, the Portfolio cannot guarantee it will do so.</b>
<b>An investment in the Portfolio is not a deposit of any bank and is not insured or guaranteed by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, any other government agency, or The Northern Trust Company, its affiliates, subsidiaries or any other bank.</b>
<b>The Portfolio’s sponsor has no legal obligation to provide financial support to the Portfolio, and you should not expect that the sponsor will provide financial support to the Portfolio at any time. </b>
The Portfolio is new and does not yet have a full calendar year of performance.
northerntrust.com/institutional
800-637-1380
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<b>TREASURY INSTRUMENTS PORTFOLIO—SERVICE SHARES AND PREMIER SHARES</b>
<b>INVESTMENT OBJECTIVE </b>
The Portfolio seeks to maximize current income to the extent consistent with the preservation of capital and maintenance of liquidity by investing its net assets, under normal conditions, exclusively in U.S. Treasury securities.
<b>FEES AND EXPENSES OF THE PORTFOLIO </b>
This table describes the fees and expenses that you may pay if you buy and hold Service Shares and Premier Shares of the Portfolio.
<b>Shareholder Fees</b> (fees paid directly from your investment)
<b>Annual Portfolio Operating Expenses </b>(expenses that you pay each year as<br/>a percentage of the value of your investment)
<b>EXAMPLE </b>
The following Example is intended to help you compare the cost of investing in Service Shares and Premier Shares of the Portfolio with the cost of investing in other mutual funds. The Example assumes that you invest $10,000 in the Portfolio for the time periods indicated and then redeem all of your shares at the end of those periods. The Example also assumes that your investment has a 5% return each year and that the Portfolio’s operating expenses remain the same. Although your actual costs may be higher or lower, based on these assumptions your costs would be:
<b>PRINCIPAL INVESTMENT STRATEGIES </b>
The Portfolio seeks to achieve its objective by investing, under normal circumstances, its total assets exclusively in:<ul type="square"><li> Cash; and</li></ul><ul type="square"><li> Short-term bills, notes and other obligations issued or guaranteed by the U.S. Treasury (“Treasury Obligations”). </li></ul>The Portfolio, under normal circumstances, will invest at least 80% of its net assets (plus the amount of any borrowings for investment purposes) in Treasury Obligations.<br/><br/>The Portfolio operates as a “government money market fund” under Rule 2a-7 of the Investment Company Act of 1940, as amended. As a “government money market fund” under Rule 2a-7, the Portfolio (1) is permitted to use the amortized cost method of valuation to seek to maintain a stable net asset value (“NAV”) of $1.00 share price, and (2) is not required to impose a liquidity fee and/or a redemption gate on Portfolio redemptions that might apply to other types of money market funds should certain triggering events specified in Rule 2a-7 occur.<br/><br/>The Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) imposes strict requirements on the investment quality, maturity, diversification and liquidity of the Portfolio’s investments. Accordingly, the Portfolio’s investments must have a remaining maturity of no more than 397 days and must be high quality. The Portfolio’s investment adviser may consider, among other things, credit and interest rate risks as well as general market conditions when deciding whether to buy or sell investments for the Portfolio.
<b>PRINCIPAL RISKS </b>
<b>CREDIT (OR DEFAULT) RISK</b> is the risk that the inability or unwillingness of an issuer or guarantor of a fixed-income security, or a counterparty to a transaction, to meet its principal and interest payments or other financial obligations will adversely affect the value of the Portfolio’s investments and its yield. Changes in the credit rating of a debt security held by the Portfolio could have a similar effect.<br/><br/><b>CYBERSECURITY RISK</b> is the risk of an unauthorized breach and access to Portfolio assets, customer data (including private shareholder information), or proprietary information, or the risk of an incident occurring that causes the Portfolio, the investment adviser, custodian, transfer agent, distributor and other service providers and financial intermediaries to suffer data breaches, data corruption or lose operational functionality. Successful cyber-attacks or other cyber-failures or events affecting the Portfolio or its service providers may adversely impact the Portfolio or its shareholders.<br/><br/><b>INCOME RISK</b> is the risk that falling interest rates will cause the Portfolio’s income to decline. Income risk is generally higher for short-term debt securities.<br/><br/><b>INTEREST RATE RISK</b> is the risk that during periods of rising interest rates, the Portfolio’s yield (and the market value of its securities) will tend to be lower than prevailing market rates; in periods of falling interest rates, the Portfolio’s yield (and the market value of its securities) will tend to be higher. Securities with longer maturities tend to be more sensitive to changes in interest rates, causing them to be more volatile than securities with shorter maturities. Securities with shorter maturities tend to provide lower returns and be less volatile than securities with longer maturities. If interest rates rise, the Portfolio’s yield may not increase proportionately, and the maturities of income securities that have the ability to be prepaid or called by the issuer may be extended. The risks associated with changing interest rates may have unpredictable effects on the markets and the Portfolio’s investments. A general rise in interest rates may cause investors to move out of fixed income securities on a large scale, which could adversely affect the price and liquidity of fixed income securities and could also result in increased redemptions for the Portfolio. A low or declining interest rate environment may prevent the Portfolio from providing a positive yield or paying Portfolio expenses out of Portfolio assets and could lead to a decline in the Portfolio’s share price. Fluctuations in interest rates may also affect the liquidity of fixed income securities and instruments held by the Portfolio.<br/><br/><b>LARGE SHAREHOLDER TRANSACTIONS RISK</b> is the risk that the Portfolio may experience adverse effects when certain large shareholders purchase or redeem large amounts of shares of the Portfolio. Such large shareholder redemptions, which may occur rapidly and unexpectedly, may cause the Portfolio to sell its securities at times it would not otherwise do so, which may negatively impact its liquidity. Such sales may also accelerate the increase of taxable income to shareholders if these sales result in gains, and may also increase transaction costs. In addition, large redemptions could lead to an increase in the Portfolio’s expense ratio due to a smaller asset base. Large Portfolio share purchases may adversely affect the Portfolio’s performance to the extent that the Portfolio is delayed in investing or otherwise maintains a larger cash position than it ordinarily would. Portfolio share purchases may adversely affect the Portfolio’s performance to the extent that the Portfolio is delayed in investing new cash and is required to maintain a larger cash position than it ordinarily would.<br/><br/><b>MANAGEMENT RISK</b> is the risk that a strategy used by the Portfolio’s investment adviser may fail to produce the intended results or that imperfections, errors or limitations in the tools and data used by the investment adviser may cause unintended results.<br/><br/><b>MARKET RISK</b> is the risk that general market conditions, such as real or perceived adverse economic or political conditions, inflation, changes in interest rates, lack of liquidity in the bond markets or adverse investor sentiment could cause the value of your investment in the Portfolio, or its yield, to decline. The market value of the securities in which the Portfolio invests may go up or down in response to the prospects of particular sectors or governments and/or general economic conditions throughout the world due to increasingly interconnected global economies and financial markets.<br/><br/><b>STABLE NAV RISK</b> is the risk that the Portfolio will not be able to maintain a NAV per share of $1.00 at all times. A significant enough market disruption or drop in market prices of securities held by the Portfolio, especially at a time when the Portfolio needs to sell securities to meet shareholder redemption requests, could cause the value of the Portfolio’s shares to decrease to a price less than $1.00 per share. If the Portfolio fails to maintain a stable NAV (or if there is a perceived threat of such a failure), the Portfolio could be subject to increased redemption activity, which could adversely affect its NAV.<br/><br/><b>VARIABLE OR FLOATING RATE INSTRUMENTS RISK</b> is the risk that securities with variable or floating rates can be less sensitive to interest rate changes than securities with fixed interest rates, but may decline in value and negatively impact the Portfolio, particularly if changes in prevailing interest rates are more frequent or sudden than the rate changes for the variable or floating rate securities, which only occur periodically. Although variable and floating rate securities are less sensitive to interest rate risk than fixed-rate securities, they are subject to credit risk and default risk, which could impede their value.<br/><br/><b>You could lose money by investing in the Portfolio. Although the Portfolio seeks to preserve the value of your investment at $1.00 per share, the Portfolio cannot guarantee it will do so. An investment in the Portfolio is not a deposit of any bank and is not insured or guaranteed by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, any other government agency, or The Northern Trust Company, its affiliates, subsidiaries or any other bank. The Portfolio’s sponsor has no legal obligation to provide financial support to the Portfolio, and you should not expect that the sponsor will provide financial support to the Portfolio at any time.</b>
<b>PORTFOLIO PERFORMANCE </b>
The Portfolio is new and does not yet have a full calendar year of performance. After the Portfolio has been in operation for a full calendar year, total return information will be presented. Once available, the Portfolio’s performance information will be accessible on the Portfolio’s web site at northerntrust.com/institutional or by calling 800-637-1380, and will provide some indication of the risks of investing in the Portfolio.
“Other Expenses” are based on estimated amounts for the current fiscal year.
April 1, 2020
<b>You could lose money by investing in the Portfolio.</b>
<b>Although the Portfolio seeks to preserve the value of your investment at $1.00 per share, the Portfolio cannot guarantee it will do so. </b>
<b>An investment in the Portfolio is not a deposit of any bank and is not insured or guaranteed by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, any other government agency, or The Northern Trust Company, its affiliates, subsidiaries or any other bank.</b>
<b>The Portfolio’s sponsor has no legal obligation to provide financial support to the Portfolio, and you should not expect that the sponsor will provide financial support to the Portfolio at any time.</b>
The Portfolio is new and does not yet have a full calendar year of performance.
northerntrust.com/institutional
800-637-1380
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<b>U.S. GOVERNMENT PORTFOLIO—SHARES</b>
<b>INVESTMENT OBJECTIVE</b>
The Portfolio seeks to maximize current income to the extent consistent with the preservation of capital and maintenance of liquidity by investing exclusively in high quality money market instruments.
<b>FEES AND EXPENSES OF THE PORTFOLIO</b>
This table describes the fees and expenses that you may pay if you buy and hold Shares of the Portfolio.
<b>Shareholder Fees </b>(fees paid directly from your investment)
<b>Annual Portfolio Operating Expenses </b>(expenses that you pay each year as<br/>a percentage of the value of your investment)
<b>EXAMPLE</b>
The following Example is intended to help you compare the cost of investing in Shares of the Portfolio with the cost of investing in other mutual funds. The Example assumes that you invest $10,000 in the Portfolio for the time periods indicated and then redeem all of your shares at the end of those periods. The Example also assumes that your investment has a 5% return each year and that the Portfolio’s operating expenses remain the same. Although your actual costs may be higher or lower, based on these assumptions your costs would be:
<b>PRINCIPAL INVESTMENT STRATEGIES</b>
The Portfolio seeks to achieve its objective by investing, under normal circumstances, substantially all (and at least 99.5%) of its total assets in cash, securities issued or guaranteed as to principal and interest by the U.S. government or by a person controlled or supervised by and acting as an instrumentality of the U.S. government pursuant to authority granted by the Congress of the United States or any certificate of deposit of any of the foregoing, and repurchase agreements that are fully collateralized by cash or such securities. The Portfolio, under normal circumstances, will invest at least 80% of its net assets (plus the amount of any borrowings for investment purposes) in U.S. government securities and repurchase agreements collateralized solely by U.S. government securities.<br/><br/>The Portfolio operates as a “government money market fund” under Rule 2a-7 of the Investment Company Act of 1940, as amended. As a “government money market fund” under Rule 2a-7, the Portfolio (1) is permitted to use the amortized cost method of valuation to seek to maintain a stable net asset value (“NAV”) of $1.00 share price, and (2) is not required to impose a liquidity fee and/or a redemption gate on Portfolio redemptions that might apply to other types of money market funds should certain triggering events specified in Rule 2a-7 occur.<br/><br/>The Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) imposes strict requirements on the investment quality, maturity, diversification and liquidity of the Portfolio’s investments. Accordingly, the Portfolio’s investments must have a remaining maturity of no more than 397 days and must be high quality. The Portfolio’s investment adviser may consider, among other things, credit, interest rate and prepayment risks as well as general market conditions when deciding whether to buy or sell investments for the Portfolio.
<b>PRINCIPAL RISKS</b>
<b>CREDIT (OR DEFAULT) RISK</b> is the risk that the inability or unwillingness of an issuer or guarantor of a fixed-income security, or a counterparty to a repurchase or other transaction, to meet its principal and interest payments or other financial obligations will adversely affect the value of the Portfolio’s investments and its yield. Changes in the credit rating of a debt security held by the Portfolio could have a similar effect.<br/><br/><b>CYBERSECURITY RISK</b> is the risk of an unauthorized breach and access to Portfolio assets, customer data (including private shareholder information), or proprietary information, or the risk of an incident occurring that causes the Portfolio, the investment adviser, custodian, transfer agent, distributor and other service providers and financial intermediaries to suffer data breaches, data corruption or lose operational functionality. Successful cyber-attacks or other cyber-failures or events affecting the Portfolio or its service providers may adversely impact the Portfolio or its shareholders.<br/><br/><b>DEBT EXTENSION RISK</b> is the risk that an issuer will exercise its right to pay principal on an obligation held by the Portfolio (such as an asset-backed security) later than expected. This may happen during a period of rising interest rates. Under these circumstances, the value of the obligation will decrease and the Portfolio will suffer from the inability to invest in higher yielding securities.<br/><br/><b>INCOME RISK</b> is the risk that falling interest rates will cause the Portfolio’s income to decline. Income risk is generally higher for short-term debt securities.<br/><br/><b>INTEREST RATE RISK</b> is the risk that during periods of rising interest rates, the Portfolio’s yield (and the market value of its securities) will tend to be lower than prevailing market rates; in periods of falling interest rates, the Portfolio’s yield (and the market value of its securities) will tend to be higher. Securities with longer maturities tend to be more sensitive to changes in interest rates, causing them to be more volatile than securities with shorter maturities. Securities with shorter maturities tend to provide lower returns and be less volatile than securities with longer maturities. If interest rates rise, the Portfolio’s yield may not increase proportionately, and the maturities of income securities that have the ability to be prepaid or called by the issuer may be extended. The risks associated with changing interest rates may have unpredictable effects on the markets and the Portfolio’s investments. A general rise in interest rates may cause investors to move out of fixed income securities on a large scale, which could adversely affect the price and liquidity of fixed income securities and could also result in increased redemptions for the Portfolio. A low or declining interest rate environment may prevent the Portfolio from providing a positive yield or paying Portfolio expenses out of Portfolio assets and could lead to a decline in the Portfolio’s share price. Fluctuations in interest rates may also affect the liquidity of fixed income securities and instruments held by the Portfolio.<br/><br/><b>LARGE SHAREHOLDER TRANSACTIONS RISK</b> is the risk that the Portfolio may experience adverse effects when certain large shareholders purchase or redeem large amounts of shares of the Portfolio. Such large shareholder redemptions, which may occur rapidly and unexpectedly, may cause the Portfolio to sell its securities at times it would not otherwise do so, which may negatively impact its liquidity. Such sales may also accelerate the increase of taxable income to shareholders if these sales result in gains, and may also increase transaction costs. In addition, large redemptions could lead to an increase in the Portfolio’s expense ratio due to a smaller asset base. Large Portfolio share purchases may adversely affect the Portfolio’s performance to the extent that the Portfolio is delayed in investing or otherwise maintains a larger cash position than it ordinarily would.<br/><br/><b>MANAGEMENT RISK</b> is the risk that a strategy used by the Portfolio’s investment adviser may fail to produce the intended results or that imperfections, errors or limitations in the tools and data used by the investment adviser may cause unintended results.<br/><br/><b>MARKET RISK</b> is the risk that general market conditions, such as real or perceived adverse economic or political conditions, inflation, changes in interest rates, lack of liquidity in the bond markets or adverse investor sentiment could cause the value of your investment in the Portfolio, or its yield, to decline. The market value of the securities in which the Portfolio invests may go up or down in response to the prospects of particular sectors or governments and/or general economic conditions throughout the world due to increasingly interconnected global economies and financial markets.<br/><br/><b>PREPAYMENT (OR CALL) RISK</b> is the risk that prepayment of the underlying mortgages or other collateral of some fixed-income securities may result in a decreased rate of return and a decline in value of those securities.<br/><br/><b>STABLE NAV RISK</b> is the risk that the Portfolio will not be able to maintain a NAV per share of $1.00 at all times. A significant enough market disruption or drop in market prices of securities held by the Portfolio, especially at a time when the Portfolio needs to sell securities to meet shareholder redemption requests, could cause the value of the Portfolio’s shares to decrease to a price less than $1.00 per share. If the Portfolio fails to maintain a stable NAV (or if there is a perceived threat of such a failure) the Portfolio could be subject to increased redemption activity, which could adversely affect its NAV.<br/><br/><b>U.S. GOVERNMENT SECURITIES RISK</b> is the risk that the U.S. government will not provide financial support to its agencies, instrumentalities or sponsored enterprises if it is not obligated to do so by law. Certain U.S. government securities purchased by the Portfolio are neither issued nor guaranteed by the U.S. Treasury and, therefore, may not be backed by the full faith and credit of the United States. It is possible that the issuers of such securities will not have the funds to meet their payment obligations in the future.<br/><br/><b>VARIABLE OR FLOATING RATE INSTRUMENTS RISK</b> is the risk that securities with variable or floating rates can be less sensitive to interest rate changes than securities with fixed interest rates, but may decline in value and negatively impact the Portfolio, particularly if changes in prevailing interest rates are more frequent or sudden than the rate changes for the variable or floating rate securities, which only occur periodically. Although variable and floating rate securities are less sensitive to interest rate risk than fixed-rate securities, they are subject to credit risk and default risk, which could impede their value.<br/><br/><b>You could lose money by investing in the Portfolio. Although the Portfolio seeks to preserve the value of your investment at $1.00 per share, the Portfolio cannot guarantee it will do so. An investment in the Portfolio is not a deposit of any bank and is not insured or guaranteed by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, any other government agency, or The Northern Trust Company, its affiliates, subsidiaries or any other bank. The Portfolio’s sponsor has no legal obligation to provide financial support to the Portfolio, and you should not expect that the sponsor will provide financial support to the Portfolio at any time.</b>
<b>PORTFOLIO PERFORMANCE</b>
The bar chart and table that follow provide an indication of the risks of investing in the Portfolio by showing changes in the performance of the Portfolio’s Shares from year to year.<br/><br/>The Portfolio’s past performance is not necessarily an indication of how the Portfolio will perform in the future.<br/><br/>Updated performance information for the Portfolio is available and may be obtained on the Portfolio’s website at northerntrust.com/institutional or by calling 800-637-1380.
<b>CALENDAR YEAR TOTAL RETURN (SHARES)*</b>
* For the periods shown in the bar chart above, the highest quarterly return was 0.51% in the fourth quarter of 2018, and the lowest quarterly return was 0.00% in the third quarter of 2015.
<b>AVERAGE ANNUAL TOTAL RETURNS </b><br/>(For the periods ended December 31, 2018)
The 7-day yield for Shares of the Portfolio as of December 31, 2018: 2.20%. For the current 7-day yield call 800-637-1380 or visit northerntrust.com/institutional.
April 1, 2020
<b>You could lose money by investing in the Portfolio.</b>
<b>Although the Portfolio seeks to preserve the value of your investment at $1.00 per share, the Portfolio cannot guarantee it will do so.</b>
<b>An investment in the Portfolio is not a deposit of any bank and is not insured or guaranteed by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, any other government agency, or The Northern Trust Company, its affiliates, subsidiaries or any other bank.</b>
<b>The Portfolio’s sponsor has no legal obligation to provide financial support to the Portfolio, and you should not expect that the sponsor will provide financial support to the Portfolio at any time.</b>
The bar chart and table that follow provide an indication of the risks of investing in the Portfolio by showing changes in the performance of the Portfolio’s Shares from year to year.
800-637-1380
northerntrust.com/institutional
The Portfolio’s past performance is not necessarily an indication of how the Portfolio will perform in the future.
The 7-day yield for Shares of the Portfolio as of December 31, 2018
800-637-1380
0
0.0023
0.0003
0.0002
0
0.0001
0.0026
-0.0001
0.0025
26
83
145
330
0.0007
0.0002
0.0002
0.0001
0.0001
0.0001
0.0001
0.0013
0.0068
0.0164
1985-10-29
0.0164
0.0049
0.0026
0.0334
highest quarterly return
0.0051
2018-12-31
lowest quarterly return
0
2015-09-30
0.022
<div style="display:none">~ http://www.northerninstitutionalfunds.com/role/ScheduleAnnualFundOperatingExpenses000053 column period compact * ~</div>
<div style="display:none">~ http://www.northerninstitutionalfunds.com/role/ScheduleAnnualTotalReturnsBarChart000056 column period compact * ~</div>
<div style="display:none">~ http://www.northerninstitutionalfunds.com/role/ScheduleExpenseExampleTransposed000054 column period compact * ~</div>
<div style="display:none">~ http://www.northerninstitutionalfunds.com/role/ScheduleAverageAnnualTotalReturnsTransposed000057 column period compact * ~</div>
<div style="display:none">~ http://www.northerninstitutionalfunds.com/role/ScheduleShareholderFees000052 column period compact * ~</div>
<b>U.S. GOVERNMENT PORTFOLIO—SERVICE SHARES AND PREMIER SHARES</b>
<b>INVESTMENT OBJECTIVE</b>
The Portfolio seeks to maximize current income to the extent consistent with the preservation of capital and maintenance of liquidity by investing exclusively in high quality money market instruments.
<b>FEES AND EXPENSES OF THE PORTFOLIO</b>
This table describes the fees and expenses that you may pay if you buy and hold Service Shares and Premier Shares of the Portfolio.
<b>Shareholder Fees </b>(fees paid directly from your investment)
<b>Annual Portfolio Operating Expenses </b>(expenses that you pay each year<br/>as a percentage of the value of your investment)
<b>EXAMPLE</b>
The following Example is intended to help you compare the cost of investing in Service Shares and Premier Shares of the Portfolio with the cost of investing in other mutual funds. The Example assumes that you invest $10,000 in the Portfolio for the time periods indicated and then redeem all of your shares at the end of those periods. The Example also assumes that your investment has a 5% return each year and that the Portfolio’s operating expenses remain the same. Although your actual costs may be higher or lower, based on these assumptions your costs would be:
<b>PRINCIPAL INVESTMENT STRATEGIES</b>
The Portfolio seeks to achieve its objective by investing, under normal circumstances, substantially all (and at least 99.5%) of its total assets in cash, securities issued or guaranteed as to principal and interest by the U.S. government or by a person controlled or supervised by and acting as an instrumentality of the U.S. government pursuant to authority granted by the Congress of the United States or any certificate of deposit of any of the foregoing, and repurchase agreements that are fully collateralized by cash or such securities. The Portfolio, under normal circumstances, will invest at least 80% of its net assets (plus the amount of any borrowings for investment purposes) in U.S. government securities and repurchase agreements collateralized solely by U.S. government securities.<br/><br/>The Portfolio operates as a “government money market fund” under Rule 2a-7 of the Investment Company Act of 1940, as amended. As a “government money market fund” under Rule 2a-7, the Portfolio (1) is permitted to use the amortized cost method of valuation to seek to maintain a stable net asset value (“NAV”) of $1.00 share price, and (2) is not required to impose a liquidity fee and/or a redemption gate on Portfolio redemptions that might apply to other types of money market funds should certain triggering events specified in Rule 2a-7 occur.<br/><br/>The Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) imposes strict requirements on the investment quality, maturity, diversification and liquidity of the Portfolio’s investments. Accordingly, the Portfolio’s investments must have a remaining maturity of no more than 397 days and must be high quality. The Portfolio’s investment adviser may consider, among other things, credit, interest rate and prepayment risks as well as general market conditions when deciding whether to buy or sell investments for the Portfolio.
<b>PRINCIPAL RISKS</b>
<b>CREDIT (OR DEFAULT) RISK</b> is the risk that the inability or unwillingness of an issuer or guarantor of a fixed-income security, or a counterparty to a repurchase or other transaction, to meet its principal and interest payments or other financial obligations will adversely affect the value of the Portfolio’s investments and its yield. Changes in the credit rating of a debt security held by the Portfolio could have a similar effect.<br/><br/><b>CYBERSECURITY RISK</b> is the risk of an unauthorized breach and access to Portfolio assets, customer data (including private shareholder information), or proprietary information, or the risk of an incident occurring that causes the Portfolio, the investment adviser, custodian, transfer agent, distributor and other service providers and financial intermediaries to suffer data breaches, data corruption or lose operational functionality. Successful cyber-attacks or other cyber-failures or events affecting the Portfolio or its service providers may adversely impact the Portfolio or its shareholders.<br/><br/><b>DEBT EXTENSION RISK</b> is the risk that an issuer will exercise its right to pay principal on an obligation held by the Portfolio (such as an asset-backed security) later than expected. This may happen during a period of rising interest rates. Under these circumstances, the value of the obligation will decrease and the Portfolio will suffer from the inability to invest in higher yielding securities.<br/><br/><b>INCOME RISK</b> is the risk that falling interest rates will cause the Portfolio’s income to decline. Income risk is generally higher for short-term debt securities.<br/><br/><b>INTEREST RATE RISK</b> is the risk that during periods of rising interest rates, the Portfolio’s yield (and the market value of its securities) will tend to be lower than prevailing market rates; in periods of falling interest rates, the Portfolio’s yield (and the market value of its securities) will tend to be higher. Securities with longer maturities tend to be more sensitive to changes in interest rates, causing them to be more volatile than securities with shorter maturities. Securities with shorter maturities tend to provide lower returns and be less volatile than securities with longer maturities. If interest rates rise, the Portfolio’s yield may not increase proportionately, and the maturities of income securities that have the ability to be prepaid or called by the issuer may be extended. The risks associated changing interest rates may have unpredictable effects on the markets and the Portfolio’s investments. A general rise in interest rates may cause investors to move out of fixed income securities on a large scale, which could adversely affect the price and liquidity of fixed income securities and could also result in increased redemptions for the Portfolio. A low or declining interest rate environment may prevent the Portfolio from providing a positive yield or paying Portfolio expenses out of Portfolio assets and could lead to a decline in the Portfolio’s share price. Fluctuations in interest rates may also affect the liquidity of fixed income securities and instruments held by the Portfolio.<br/><br/><b>LARGE SHAREHOLDER TRANSACTIONS RISK</b> is the risk that the Portfolio may experience adverse effects when certain large shareholders purchase or redeem large amounts of shares of the Portfolio. Such large shareholder redemptions, which may occur rapidly and unexpectedly, may cause the Portfolio to sell its securities at times it would not otherwise do so, which may negatively impact its liquidity. Such sales may also accelerate the increase of taxable income to shareholders if these sales result in gains, and may also increase transaction costs. In addition, large redemptions could lead to an increase in the Portfolio’s expense ratio due to a smaller asset base. Large Portfolio share purchases may adversely affect the Portfolio’s performance to the extent that the Portfolio is delayed in investing or otherwise maintains a larger cash position than it ordinarily would.<br/><br/><b>MANAGEMENT RISK</b> is the risk that a strategy used by the Portfolio’s investment adviser may fail to produce the intended results or that imperfections, errors or limitations in the tools and data used by the investment adviser may cause unintended results.<br/><br/><b>MARKET RISK</b> is the risk that general market conditions, such as real or perceived adverse economic or political conditions, inflation, changes in interest rates, lack of liquidity in the bond markets or adverse investor sentiment could cause the value of your investment in the Portfolio, or its yield, to decline. The market value of the securities in which the Portfolio invests may go up or down in response to the prospects of particular sectors or governments and/or general economic conditions throughout the world due to increasingly interconnected global economies and financial markets.<br/><br/><b>PREPAYMENT (OR CALL) RISK</b> is the risk that prepayment of the underlying mortgages or other collateral of some fixed-income securities may result in a decreased rate of return and a decline in value of those securities.<br/><br/><b>STABLE NAV RISK</b> is the risk that the Portfolio will not be able to maintain a NAV per share of $1.00 at all times. A significant enough market disruption or drop in market prices of securities held by the Portfolio, especially at a time when the Portfolio needs to sell securities to meet shareholder redemption requests, could cause the value of the Portfolio’s shares to decrease to a price less than $1.00 per share. If the Portfolio fails to maintain a stable NAV (or if there is a perceived threat of such a failure), the Portfolio could be subject to increased redemption activity, which could adversely affect its NAV.<br/><br/><b>U.S. GOVERNMENT SECURITIES RISK</b> is the risk that the U.S. government will not provide financial support to its agencies, instrumentalities or sponsored enterprises if it is not obligated to do so by law. Certain U.S. government securities purchased by the Portfolio are neither issued nor guaranteed by the U.S. Treasury and, therefore, may not be backed by the full faith and credit of the United States. It is possible that the issuers of such securities will not have the funds to meet their payment obligations in the future.<br/><br/><b>VARIABLE OR FLOATING RATE INSTRUMENTS RISK</b> is the risk that securities with variable or floating rates can be less sensitive to interest rate changes than securities with fixed interest rates, but may decline in value and negatively impact the Portfolio, particularly if changes in prevailing interest rates are more frequent or sudden than the rate changes for the variable or floating rate securities, which only occur periodically. Although variable and floating rate securities are less sensitive to interest rate risk than fixed-rate securities, they are subject to credit risk and default risk, which could impede their value.<br/><br/><b>You could lose money by investing in the Portfolio. Although the Portfolio seeks to preserve the value of your investment at $1.00 per share, the Portfolio cannot guarantee it will do so. An investment in the Portfolio is not a deposit of any bank and is not insured or guaranteed by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, any other government agency, or The Northern Trust Company, its affiliates, subsidiaries or any other bank. The Portfolio’s sponsor has no legal obligation to provide financial support to the Portfolio, and you should not expect that the sponsor will provide financial support to the Portfolio at any time.</b>
<b>PORTFOLIO PERFORMANCE</b>
The bar chart and table that follow provide an indication of the risks of investing in the Portfolio by showing changes in the performance of the Portfolio’s Service Shares from year to year. As of December 31, 2018 there were no Premier Shares outstanding for the Portfolio.<br/><br/>The Portfolio’s past performance is not necessarily an indication of how the Portfolio will perform in the future.<br/><br/>Updated performance information for the Portfolio is available and may be obtained on the Portfolio’s website at northerntrust.com/institutional or by calling 800-637-1380.
<b>CALENDAR YEAR TOTAL RETURN (SERVICE SHARES)*</b>
* For the periods shown in the bar chart above, the highest quarterly return was 0.51% in the fourth quarter of 2018, and the lowest quarterly return was 0.00% in the third quarter of 2015.
<b>AVERAGE ANNUAL TOTAL RETURNS</b><br/>(For the periods ended December 31, 2018)
The 7-day yield for Service Shares of the Portfolio as of December 31, 2018: 2.20%. For the current 7-day yield call 800-637-1380 or visit northerntrust.com/institutional.
April 1, 2020
<b>You could lose money by investing in the Portfolio.</b>
<b>Although the Portfolio seeks to preserve the value of your investment at $1.00 per share, the Portfolio cannot guarantee it will do so.</b>
<b>An investment in the Portfolio is not a deposit of any bank and is not insured or guaranteed by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, any other government agency, or The Northern Trust Company, its affiliates, subsidiaries or any other bank.</b>
<b>The Portfolio’s sponsor has no legal obligation to provide financial support to the Portfolio, and you should not expect that the sponsor will provide financial support to the Portfolio at any time.</b>
The bar chart and table that follow provide an indication of the risks of investing in the Portfolio by showing changes in the performance of the Portfolio’s Service Shares from year to year.
800-637-1380
northerntrust.com/institutional
The Portfolio’s past performance is not necessarily an indication of how the Portfolio will perform in the future.
The 7-day yield for Service Shares of the Portfolio as of December 31, 2018
800-637-1380
0
0
0.0023
0.0023
0.0028
0.0053
0.0002
0.0002
0.0025
0.005
0.0001
0.0001
0.0051
0.0076
-0.0001
-0.0001
0.005
0.0075
51
163
284
640
77
242
421
941
0.0003
0.0002
0.0002
0.0001
0.0001
0.0001
0.0001
0.0013
0.0068
0.0164
1999-04-01
0.0164
0.0049
0.0025
0.0158
“Other Expenses” are based on estimated amounts for the current fiscal year.
highest quarterly return
0.0051
2018-12-31
lowest quarterly return
0
2015-09-30
0.022
<div style="display:none">~ http://www.northerninstitutionalfunds.com/role/ScheduleAnnualFundOperatingExpenses000063 column period compact * ~</div>
<div style="display:none">~ http://www.northerninstitutionalfunds.com/role/ScheduleAnnualTotalReturnsBarChart000066 column period compact * ~</div>
<div style="display:none">~ http://www.northerninstitutionalfunds.com/role/ScheduleExpenseExampleTransposed000064 column period compact * ~</div>
<div style="display:none">~ http://www.northerninstitutionalfunds.com/role/ScheduleAverageAnnualTotalReturnsTransposed000067 column period compact * ~</div>
<div style="display:none">~ http://www.northerninstitutionalfunds.com/role/ScheduleShareholderFees000062 column period compact * ~</div>
<b>U.S. GOVERNMENT SELECT PORTFOLIO—SHARES</b>
<b>INVESTMENT OBJECTIVE</b>
The Portfolio seeks to maximize current income to the extent consistent with the preservation of capital and maintenance of liquidity by investing exclusively in high quality money market instruments.
<b>FEES AND EXPENSES OF THE PORTFOLIO</b>
This table describes the fees and expenses that you may pay if you buy and hold Shares of the Portfolio.
<b>Shareholder Fees </b>(fees paid directly from your investment)
<b>Annual Portfolio Operating Expenses </b>(expenses that you pay each year as<br/>a percentage of the value of your investment)
<b>EXAMPLE</b>
The following Example is intended to help you compare the cost of investing in Shares of the Portfolio with the cost of investing in other mutual funds. The Example assumes that you invest $10,000 in the Portfolio for the time periods indicated and then redeem all of your shares at the end of those periods. The Example also assumes that your investment has a 5% return each year and that the Portfolio’s operating expenses remain the same. Although your actual costs may be higher or lower, based on these assumptions your costs would be:
<b>PRINCIPAL INVESTMENT STRATEGIES</b>
The Portfolio seeks to achieve its objective by investing, under normal circumstances, substantially all (and at least 99.5%) of its total assets in cash, securities issued or guaranteed as to principal and interest by the U.S. government or by a person controlled or supervised by and acting as an instrumentality of the U.S. government pursuant to authority granted by the Congress of the United States or any certificate of deposit of any of the foregoing, and repurchase agreements that are fully collateralized by cash or such securities. Subject to the foregoing 99.5% investment strategy requirement, under normal circumstances, the Portfolio will seek to acquire only those U.S. government securities paying interest that generally is exempt from state income taxation. The Portfolio, under normal circumstances, will invest at least 80% of its net assets (plus the amount of any borrowings for investment purposes) in U.S. government securities and repurchase agreements collateralized solely by U.S. government securities.<br/><br/>The Portfolio operates as a “government money market fund” under Rule 2a-7 of the Investment Company Act of 1940, as amended. As a “government money market fund” under Rule 2a-7, the Portfolio (1) is permitted to use the amortized cost method of valuation to seek to maintain a stable net asset value (“NAV”) of $1.00 share price, and (2) is not required to impose a liquidity fee and/or a redemption gate on Portfolio redemptions that might apply to other types of money market funds should certain triggering events specified in Rule 2a-7 occur.<br/><br/>The Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) imposes strict requirements on the investment quality, maturity, diversification and liquidity of the Portfolio’s investments. Accordingly, the Portfolio’s investments must have a remaining maturity of no more than 397 days and must be high quality. The Portfolio’s investment adviser may consider, among other things, credit, interest rate and prepayment risks as well as general market conditions when deciding whether to buy or sell investments for the Portfolio.
<b>PRINCIPAL RISKS</b>
<b>CREDIT (OR DEFAULT) RISK </b>is the risk that the inability or unwillingness of an issuer or guarantor of a fixed-income security, or a counterparty to a repurchase or other transaction, to meet its principal and interest payments or other financial obligations will adversely affect the value of the Portfolio’s investments and its yield. Changes in the credit rating of a debt security held by the Portfolio could have a similar effect.<br/><br/><b>CYBERSECURITY RISK</b> is the risk of an unauthorized breach and access to Portfolio assets, customer data (including private shareholder information), or proprietary information, or the risk of an incident occurring that causes the Portfolio, the investment adviser, custodian, transfer agent, distributor and other service providers and financial intermediaries to suffer data breaches, data corruption or lose operational functionality. Successful cyber-attacks or other cyber-failures or events affecting the Portfolio or its service providers may adversely impact the Portfolio or its shareholders.<br/><br/><b>DEBT EXTENSION RISK</b> is the risk that an issuer will exercise its right to pay principal on an obligation held by the Portfolio (such as an asset-backed security) later than expected. This may happen during a period of rising interest rates. Under these circumstances, the value of the obligation will decrease and the Portfolio will suffer from the inability to invest in higher yielding securities.<br/><br/><b>INCOME RISK</b> is the risk that falling interest rates will cause the Portfolio’s income to decline. Income risk is generally higher for short-term debt securities.<br/><br/><b>INTEREST RATE RISK</b> is the risk that during periods of rising interest rates, the Portfolio’s yield (and the market value of its securities) will tend to be lower than prevailing market rates; in periods of falling interest rates, the Portfolio’s yield (and the market value of its securities) will tend to be higher. Securities with longer maturities tend to be more sensitive to changes in interest rates, causing them to be more volatile than securities with shorter maturities. Securities with shorter maturities tend to provide lower returns and be less volatile than securities with longer maturities. If interest rates rise, the Portfolio’s yield may not increase proportionately, and the maturities of income securities that have the ability to be prepaid or called by the issuer may be extended. The risks associated with changing interest rates may have unpredictable effects on the markets and the Portfolio’s investments. A general rise in interest rates may cause investors to move out of fixed income securities on a large scale, which could adversely affect the price and liquidity of fixed income securities and could also result in increased redemptions for the Portfolio. A low or declining interest rate environment may prevent the Portfolio from providing a positive yield or paying Portfolio expenses out of Portfolio assets and could lead to a decline in the Portfolio’s share price. Fluctuations in interest rates may also affect the liquidity of fixed income securities and instruments held by the Portfolio.<br/><br/><b>LARGE SHAREHOLDER TRANSACTIONS RISK</b> is the risk that the Portfolio may experience adverse effects when certain large shareholders purchase or redeem large amounts of shares of the Portfolio. Such large shareholder redemptions , which may occur rapidly and unexpectedly, may cause the Portfolio to sell its securities at times it would not otherwise do so, which may negatively impact its liquidity. Such sales may also accelerate the increase of taxable income to shareholders if these sales result in gains, and may also increase transaction costs. In addition, large redemptions could lead to an increase in the Portfolio’s expense ratio due to a smaller asset base. Large Portfolio share purchases may adversely affect the Portfolio’s performance to the extent that the Portfolio is delayed in investing or otherwise maintains a larger cash position than it ordinarily would.<br/><br/><b>MANAGEMENT RISK</b> is the risk that a strategy used by the Portfolio’s investment adviser may fail to produce the intended results or that imperfections, errors or limitations in the tools and data used by the investment adviser may cause unintended results.<br/><br/><b>MARKET RISK </b>is the risk that general market conditions, such as real or perceived adverse economic or political conditions, inflation, changes in interest rates, lack of liquidity in the bond markets or adverse investor sentiment could cause the value of your investment in the Portfolio, or its yield, to decline. The market value of the securities in which the Portfolio invests may go up or down in response to the prospects of particular sectors or governments and/or general economic conditions throughout the world due to increasingly interconnected global economies and financial markets.<br/><br/><b>PREPAYMENT (OR CALL) RISK</b> is the risk that prepayment of the underlying mortgages or other collateral of some fixed-income securities may result in a decreased rate of return and a decline in value of those securities.<br/><br/><b>STABLE NAV RISK </b>is the risk that the Portfolio will not be able to maintain a NAV per share of $1.00 at all times. A significant enough market disruption or drop in market prices of securities held by the Portfolio, especially at a time when the Portfolio needs to sell securities to meet shareholder redemption requests, could cause the value of the Portfolio’s shares to decrease to a price less than $1.00 per share. If the Portfolio fails to maintain a stable NAV (or if there is a perceived threat of such a failure), the Portfolio could be subject to increased redemption activity, which could adversely affect its NAV.<br/><br/><b>U.S. GOVERNMENT SECURITIES RISK</b> is the risk that the U.S. government will not provide financial support to its agencies, instrumentalities or sponsored enterprises if it is not obligated to do so by law. Certain U.S. government securities purchased by the Portfolio are neither issued nor guaranteed by the U.S. Treasury and, therefore, may not be backed by the full faith and credit of the United States. It is possible that the issuers of such securities will not have the funds to meet their payment obligations in the future.<br/><br/><b>VARIABLE OR FLOATING RATE INSTRUMENTS RISK</b> is the risk that securities with variable or floating rates can be less sensitive to interest rate changes than securities with fixed interest rates, but may decline in value and negatively impact the Portfolio, particularly if changes in prevailing interest rates are more frequent or sudden than the rate changes for the variable or floating rate securities, which only occur periodically. Although variable and floating rate securities are less sensitive to interest rate risk than fixed-rate securities, they are subject to credit risk and default risk, which could impede their value.<br/><br/><b>You could lose money by investing in the Portfolio. Although the Portfolio seeks to preserve the value of your investment at $1.00 per share, the Portfolio cannot guarantee it will do so. An investment in the Portfolio is not a deposit of any bank and is not insured or guaranteed by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, any other government agency, or The Northern Trust Company, its affiliates, subsidiaries or any other bank. The Portfolio’s sponsor has no legal obligation to provide financial support to the Portfolio, and you should not expect that the sponsor will provide financial support to the Portfolio at any time.</b>
<b>PORTFOLIO PERFORMANCE</b>
The bar chart and table that follow provide an indication of the risks of investing in the Portfolio by showing changes in the performance of the Portfolio’s Shares from year to year.<br/><br/>The Portfolio’s past performance is not necessarily an indication of how the Portfolio will perform in the future.<br/><br/>Updated performance information for the Portfolio is available and may be obtained on the Portfolio’s website at northerntrust.com/institutional or by calling 800-637-1380.
<b>CALENDAR YEAR TOTAL RETURN (SHARES)*</b>
* For the periods shown in the bar chart above, the highest quarterly return was 0.52% in the fourth quarter of 2018, and the lowest quarterly return was 0.00% in the third quarter of 2015.
<b>AVERAGE ANNUAL TOTAL RETURNS</b><br/>(For the periods ended December 31, 2018)
The 7-day yield for Shares of the Portfolio as of December 31, 2018: 2.25%. For the current 7-day yield call 800-637-1380 or visit northerntrust.com/institutional.
April 1, 2020
<b>You could lose money by investing in the Portfolio.</b>
<b>Although the Portfolio seeks to preserve the value of your investment at $1.00 per share, the Portfolio cannot guarantee it will do so.</b>
<b>An investment in the Portfolio is not a deposit of any bank and is not insured or guaranteed by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, any other government agency, or The Northern Trust Company, its affiliates, subsidiaries or any other bank.</b>
<b>The Portfolio’s sponsor has no legal obligation to provide financial support to the Portfolio, and you should not expect that the sponsor will provide financial support to the Portfolio at any time.</b>
The bar chart and table that follow provide an indication of the risks of investing in the Portfolio by showing changes in the performance of the Portfolio’s Shares from year to year.
The Portfolio’s past performance is not necessarily an indication of how the Portfolio will perform in the future.
northerntrust.com/institutional
800-637-1380
The 7-day yield for Shares of the Portfolio as of December 31, 2018
800-637-1380
0
0.0018
0.0003
0.0002
0
0.0001
0.0021
-0.0001
0.002
20
67
117
267
0.0014
0.0003
0.0001
0.0001
0.0001
0.0001
0.0002
0.0023
0.0073
0.0168
1990-11-07
0.0168
0.0053
0.0028
0.0269
highest quarterly return
0.0052
2018-12-31
lowest quarterly return
0
2015-09-30
0.0225
<div style="display:none">~ http://www.northerninstitutionalfunds.com/role/ScheduleAnnualFundOperatingExpenses000073 column period compact * ~</div>
<div style="display:none">~ http://www.northerninstitutionalfunds.com/role/ScheduleAnnualTotalReturnsBarChart000076 column period compact * ~</div>
<div style="display:none">~ http://www.northerninstitutionalfunds.com/role/ScheduleExpenseExampleTransposed000074 column period compact * ~</div>
<div style="display:none">~ http://www.northerninstitutionalfunds.com/role/ScheduleAverageAnnualTotalReturnsTransposed000077 column period compact * ~</div>
<div style="display:none">~ http://www.northerninstitutionalfunds.com/role/ScheduleShareholderFees000072 column period compact * ~</div>
<b>U.S. GOVERNMENT SELECT PORTFOLIO—SERVICE SHARES AND PREMIER SHARES</b>
<b>INVESTMENT OBJECTIVE</b>
The Portfolio seeks to maximize current income to the extent consistent with the preservation of capital and maintenance of liquidity by investing exclusively in high quality money market instruments.
<b>FEES AND EXPENSES OF THE PORTFOLIO</b>
This table describes the fees and expenses that you may pay if you buy and hold Service Shares and Premier Shares of the Portfolio.
<b>Shareholder Fees </b>(fees paid directly from your investment)
<b>Annual Portfolio Operating Expenses </b>(expenses that you pay each year<br/>as a percentage of the value of your investment)
<b>EXAMPLE</b>
The following Example is intended to help you compare the cost of investing in the Service Shares and Premier Shares of the Portfolio with the cost of investing in other mutual funds. The Example assumes that you invest $10,000 in the Portfolio for the time periods indicated and then redeem all of your shares at the end of those periods. The Example also assumes that your investment has a 5% return each year and that the Portfolio’s operating expenses remain the same. Although your actual costs may be higher or lower, based on these assumptions your costs would be:
<b>PRINCIPAL INVESTMENT STRATEGIES</b>
The Portfolio seeks to achieve its objective by investing, under normal circumstances, substantially all (and at least 99.5%) of its total assets in cash, securities issued or guaranteed as to principal and interest by the U.S. government or by a person controlled or supervised by and acting as an instrumentality of the U.S. government pursuant to authority granted by the Congress of the United States or any certificate of deposit of any of the foregoing, and repurchase agreements that are fully collateralized by cash or such securities. Subject to the foregoing 99.5% investment strategy requirement, under normal circumstances, the Portfolio will seek to acquire only those U.S. government securities paying interest that generally is exempt from state income taxation. The Portfolio, under normal circumstances, will invest at least 80% of its net assets (plus the amount of any borrowings for investment purposes) in U.S. government securities and repurchase agreements collateralized solely by U.S. government securities.<br/><br/>The Portfolio operates as a “government money market fund” under Rule 2a-7 of the Investment Company Act of 1940, as amended. As a “government money market fund” under Rule 2a-7, the Portfolio (1) is permitted to use the amortized cost method of valuation to seek to maintain a stable net asset value (“NAV”) of $1.00 share price, and (2) is not required to impose a liquidity fee and/or a redemption gate on Portfolio redemptions that might apply to other types of money market funds should certain triggering events specified in Rule 2a-7 occur.<br/><br/>The Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) imposes strict requirements on the investment quality, maturity, diversification and liquidity of the Portfolio’s investments. Accordingly, the Portfolio’s investments must have a remaining maturity of no more than 397 days and must be high quality. The Portfolio’s investment adviser may consider, among other things, credit, interest rate and prepayment risks as well as general market conditions when deciding whether to buy or sell investments for the Portfolio.
<b>PRINCIPAL RISKS</b>
<b>CREDIT (OR DEFAULT) RISK</b> is the risk that the inability or unwillingness of an issuer or guarantor of a fixed-income security, or a counterparty to a repurchase or other transaction, to meet its principal and interest payments or other financial obligations will adversely affect the value of the Portfolio’s investments and its yield. Changes in the credit rating of a debt security held by the Portfolio could have a similar effect.<br/><br/><b>CYBERSECURITY RISK</b> is the risk of an unauthorized breach and access to Portfolio assets, customer data (including private shareholder information), or proprietary information, or the risk of an incident occurring that causes the Portfolio, the investment adviser, custodian, transfer agent, distributor and other service providers and financial intermediaries to suffer data breaches, data corruption or lose operational functionality. Successful cyber-attacks or other cyber-failures or events affecting the Portfolio or its service providers may adversely impact the Portfolio or its shareholders.<br/><br/><b>DEBT EXTENSION RISK</b> is the risk that an issuer will exercise its right to pay principal on an obligation held by the Portfolio (such as an asset-backed security) later than expected. This may happen during a period of rising interest rates. Under these circumstances, the value of the obligation will decrease and the Portfolio will suffer from the inability to invest in higher yielding securities.<br/><br/><b>INCOME RISK</b> is the risk that falling interest rates will cause the Portfolio’s income to decline. Income risk is generally higher for short-term debt securities.<br/><br/><b>INTEREST RATE RISK</b> is the risk that during periods of rising interest rates, the Portfolio’s yield (and the market value of its securities) will tend to be lower than prevailing market rates; in periods of falling interest rates, the Portfolio’s yield (and the market value of its securities) will tend to be higher. Securities with longer maturities tend to be more sensitive to changes in interest rates, causing them to be more volatile than securities with shorter maturities. Securities with shorter maturities tend to provide lower returns and be less volatile than securities with longer maturities. If interest rates rise, the Portfolio’s yield may not increase proportionately, and the maturities of income securities that have the ability to be prepaid or called by the issuer may be extended. The risks associated with hanging interest rates may have unpredictable effects on the markets and the Portfolio’s investments. A general rise in interest rates may cause investors to move out of fixed income securities on a large scale, which could adversely affect the price and liquidity of fixed income securities and could also result in increased redemptions for the Portfolio. A low or declining interest rate environment may prevent the Portfolio from providing a positive yield or paying Portfolio expenses out of Portfolio assets and could lead to a decline in the Portfolio’s share price. Fluctuations in interest rates may also affect the liquidity of fixed income securities and instruments held by the Portfolio.<br/><br/><b>LARGE SHAREHOLDER TRANSACTIONS RISK</b> is the risk that the Portfolio may experience adverse effects when certain large shareholders purchase or redeem large amounts of shares of the Portfolio. Such large shareholder redemptions , which may occur rapidly and unexpectedly, may cause the Portfolio to sell its securities at times it would not otherwise do so, which may negatively impact its liquidity. Such sales may also accelerate the increase of taxable income to shareholders if these sales result in gains, and may also increase transaction costs. In addition, large redemptions could lead to an increase in the Portfolio’s expense ratio due to a smaller asset base. Large Portfolio share purchases may adversely affect the Portfolio’s performance to the extent that the Portfolio is delayed in investing or otherwise maintains a larger cash position than it ordinarily would.<br/><br/><b>MANAGEMENT RISK</b> is the risk that a strategy used by the Portfolio’s investment adviser may fail to produce the intended results or that imperfections, errors or limitations in the tools and data used by the investment adviser may cause unintended results.<br/><br/><b>MARKET RISK</b> is the risk that general market conditions, such as real or perceived adverse economic or political conditions, inflation, changes in interest rates, lack of liquidity in the bond markets or adverse investor sentiment could cause the value of your investment in the Portfolio, or its yield, to decline. The market value of the securities in which the Portfolio invests may go up or down in response to the prospects of particular sectors or governments and/or general economic conditions throughout the world due to increasingly interconnected global economies and financial markets.<br/><br/><b>PREPAYMENT (OR CALL) RISK</b> is the risk that prepayment of the underlying mortgages or other collateral of some fixed-income securities may result in a decreased rate of return and a decline in value of those securities.<br/><br/><b>STABLE NAV RISK</b> is the risk that the Portfolio will not be able to maintain a NAV per share of $1.00 at all times. A significant enough market disruption or drop in market prices of securities held by the Portfolio, especially at a time when the Portfolio needs to sell securities to meet shareholder redemption requests, could cause the value of the Portfolio’s shares to decrease to a price less than $1.00 per share. If the Portfolio fails to maintain a stable NAV (or if there is a perceived threat of such a failure), the Portfolio could be subject to increased redemption activity, which could adversely affect its NAV.<br/><br/><b>U.S. GOVERNMENT SECURITIES RISK</b> is the risk that the U.S. government will not provide financial support to its agencies, instrumentalities or sponsored enterprises if it is not obligated to do so by law. Certain U.S. government securities purchased by the Portfolio are neither issued nor guaranteed by the U.S. Treasury and, therefore, may not be backed by the full faith and credit of the United States. It is possible that the issuers of such securities will not have the funds to meet their payment obligations in the future.<br/><br/><b>VARIABLE OR FLOATING RATE INSTRUMENTS RISK</b> is the risk that securities with variable or floating rates can be less sensitive to interest rate changes than securities with fixed interest rates, but may decline in value and negatively impact the Portfolio, particularly if changes in prevailing interest rates are more frequent or sudden than the rate changes for the variable or floating rate securities, which only occur periodically. Although variable and floating rate securities are less sensitive to interest rate risk than fixed-rate securities, they are subject to credit risk and default risk, which could impede their value.<br/><br/><b>You could lose money by investing in the Portfolio. Although the Portfolio seeks to preserve the value of your investment at $1.00 per share, the Portfolio cannot guarantee it will do so. An investment in the Portfolio is not a deposit of any bank and is not insured or guaranteed by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, any other government agency, or The Northern Trust Company, its affiliates, subsidiaries or any other bank. The Portfolio’s sponsor has no legal obligation to provide financial support to the Portfolio, and you should not expect that the sponsor will provide financial support to the Portfolio at any time.</b>
<b>PORTFOLIO PERFORMANCE</b>
The bar chart and table that follow provide an indication of the risks of investing in the Portfolio by showing changes in the performance of the Portfolio’s Service Shares from year to year. As of December 31, 2018 there were no Premier Shares outstanding for the Portfolio.<br/><br/>The Portfolio’s past performance is not necessarily an indication of how the Portfolio will perform in the future.<br/><br/>Updated performance information for the Portfolio is available and may be obtained on the Portfolio’s website at northerntrust.com/institutional or by calling 800-637-1380.
<b>CALENDAR YEAR TOTAL RETURN (SERVICE SHARES)*</b>
* For the periods shown in the bar chart above, the highest quarterly return was 0.52% in the fourth quarter of 2018, and the lowest quarterly return was 0.00% in the third quarter of 2015.
<b>AVERAGE ANNUAL TOTAL RETURNS</b><br/>(For the periods ended December 31, 2018)
The 7-day yield for Service Shares of the Portfolio as of December 31, 2018: 2.25%. For the current 7-day yield call 800-637-1380 or visit northerntrust.com/institutional.
April 1, 2020
<b>You could lose money by investing in the Portfolio.</b>
<b>Although the Portfolio seeks to preserve the value of your investment at $1.00 per share, the Portfolio cannot guarantee it will do so.</b>
<b>An investment in the Portfolio is not a deposit of any bank and is not insured or guaranteed by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, any other government agency, or The Northern Trust Company, its affiliates, subsidiaries or any other bank.</b>
<b>The Portfolio’s sponsor has no legal obligation to provide financial support to the Portfolio, and you should not expect that the sponsor will provide financial support to the Portfolio at any time.</b>
The bar chart and table that follow provide an indication of the risks of investing in the Portfolio by showing changes in the performance of the Portfolio’s Service Shares from year to year.
The Portfolio’s past performance is not necessarily an indication of how the Portfolio will perform in the future.
northerntrust.com/institutional
800-637-1380
The 7-day yield for Service Shares of the Portfolio as of December 31, 2018
800-637-1380
0
0
0.0018
0.0018
0.0028
0.0053
0.0002
0.0002
0.0025
0.005
0.0001
0.0001
0.0046
0.0071
-0.0001
-0.0001
0.0045
0.007
46
147
257
578
72
226
394
882
0.0003
0.0002
0.0001
0.0001
0.0001
0.0001
0.0002
0.0023
0.0072
0.0168
1999-05-28
0.0168
0.0053
0.0027
0.0161
“Other Expenses” are based on estimated amounts for the current fiscal year.
highest quarterly return
0.0052
2018-12-31
lowest quarterly return
0
2015-09-30
0.0225
<div style="display:none">~ http://www.northerninstitutionalfunds.com/role/ScheduleAnnualFundOperatingExpenses000083 column period compact * ~</div>
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<b>MUNICIPAL PORTFOLIO—SHARES </b>
<b>INVESTMENT OBJECTIVE </b>
The Portfolio seeks to provide, to the extent consistent with the preservation of capital, a high level of income exempt from regular federal income tax by investing primarily in municipal instruments. This objective may be changed without shareholder approval.
<b>FEES AND EXPENSES OF THE PORTFOLIO </b>
This table describes the fees and expenses that you may pay if you buy and hold Shares of the Portfolio.
<b>Shareholder Fees </b>(fees paid directly from your investment)
<b>Annual Portfolio Operating Expenses </b>(expenses that you pay each year as<br/>a percentage of the value of your investment)
<b>EXAMPLE </b>
The following Example is intended to help you compare the cost of investing in Shares of the Portfolio with the cost of investing in other mutual funds. The Example assumes that you invest $10,000 in the Portfolio for the time periods indicated and then redeem all of your shares at the end of those periods. The Example also assumes that your investment has a 5% return each year and that the Portfolio’s operating expenses remain the same. Although your actual costs may be higher or lower, based on these assumptions your costs would be:
<b>PRINCIPAL INVESTMENT STRATEGIES </b>
The Portfolio seeks to achieve its objective by investing primarily in high-quality short-term municipal instruments, the interest on which is exempt from regular federal income tax. The high level of income sought by the Portfolio is relative to yields currently available in the tax-exempt marketplace. Municipal instruments may include: <ul type="square"><li> Fixed, variable and floating rate notes and similar debt instruments; </li></ul><ul type="square"><li> Asset-backed securities that are considered municipal instruments (such as trust certificates backed by municipal bonds); </li></ul><ul type="square"><li> Tax-exempt commercial paper; </li></ul><ul type="square"><li> Municipal bonds, notes, paper or other instruments; and </li></ul><ul type="square"><li> Municipal bonds and notes that are guaranteed as to principal and interest or backed by the U.S. government or by its agencies, instrumentalities or sponsored enterprises. </li></ul>Except in extraordinary circumstances, at least 80% of the Portfolio’s net assets will be invested in debt instruments that pay interest that is exempt from regular federal income tax. Alternative minimum tax (“AMT”) obligations, which pay interest that may be treated as an item of tax preference to shareholders under the federal AMT, will be deemed eligible investments for the purposes of determining whether the portfolio meets this policy. To the extent that the Portfolio invests in AMT obligations, a significant portion of the Portfolio’s dividends may be subject to federal income tax for shareholders subject to AMT. The Portfolio is not limited in the amount of its assets that may be invested in AMT obligations. <br/><br/>The Portfolio operates as an “institutional money market fund” under Rule 2a-7 of the Investment Company Act of 1940, as amended. As an “institutional money market fund” under Rule 2a-7, the Portfolio is (1) required to sell and redeem its shares at its net asset value (“NAV”) rounded to the fourth decimal place (e.g., $1.0000) reflecting market-based values of the Portfolio’s holdings, and (2) the Board of Trustees (the “Board”) will be permitted to impose a “liquidity fee” on redemptions from the Portfolio (up to 2%) or temporarily restrict redemptions from the Portfolio for up to 10 business days during a 90-day period, as described in more detail under “Purchase and Sales of Portfolio Shares.” <br/><br/>The Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) imposes strict requirements on the investment quality, maturity, diversification and liquidity of the Portfolio’s investments. Accordingly, the Portfolio’s investments must have a remaining maturity of no more than 397 days and must be high quality. The Portfolio’s investment adviser may consider, among other things, credit, interest rate and prepayment risks as well as general market conditions when deciding whether to buy or sell investments for the Portfolio.
<b>PRINCIPAL RISKS </b>
<b>CREDIT (OR DEFAULT) RISK</b> is the risk that the inability or unwillingness of an issuer or guarantor of a fixed-income security, or a counterparty to a repurchase or other transaction, to meet its principal and interest payments or other financial obligations will adversely affect the value of the Portfolio’s investments and its yield. Changes in the credit rating of a debt security held by the Portfolio could have a similar effect. <br/><br/><b>CYBERSECURITY RISK</b> is the risk of an unauthorized breach and access to Portfolio assets, customer data (including private shareholder information), or proprietary information, or the risk of an incident occurring that causes the Portfolio, the investment adviser, custodian, transfer agent, distributor and other service providers and financial intermediaries to suffer data breaches, data corruption or lose operational functionality. Successful cyber-attacks or other cyber-failures or events affecting the Portfolio or its service providers may adversely impact the Portfolio or its shareholders. <br/><br/><b>DEBT EXTENSION RISK</b> is the risk that an issuer will exercise its right to pay principal on an obligation held by the Portfolio (such as an asset-backed security) later than expected. This may happen during a period of rising interest rates. Under these circumstances, the value of the obligation will decrease and the Portfolio will suffer from the inability to invest in higher yielding securities. <br/><br/><b>FLOATING NAV RISK</b> is the risk that because the share price of the Portfolio will fluctuate, when you sell your shares they may be worth more or less than what you originally paid for them. <br/><br/><b>GEOGRAPHIC AND SECTOR RISK</b> is the risk that if the Portfolio invests a significant portion of its total assets in certain issuers within the same state, geographic region or economic sector, an adverse economic, business or political development affecting that state, region or sector may affect the value of the Portfolio’s investments more than if its investments were not so concentrated in such geographic region or economic sector. <br/><br/><b>GUARANTOR (OR CREDIT ENHANCEMENT) RISK</b> is the risk that changes in credit quality of a U.S. or foreign bank, insurance company or other financial institution or such entity’s failure to fulfill its obligations could cause the Portfolio’s investments to decline in value. Adverse developments in the banking or bond insurance industries also may negatively affect the Portfolio. <br/><br/><b>INCOME RISK</b> is the risk that falling interest rates will cause the Portfolio’s income to decline. Income risk is generally higher for short-term debt securities. <br/><br/><b>INTEREST RATE RISK</b> is the risk that during periods of rising interest rates, the Portfolio’s yield (and the market value of its securities) will tend to be lower than prevailing market rates; in periods of falling interest rates, the Portfolio’s yield (and the market value of its securities) will tend to be higher. Securities with longer maturities tend to be more sensitive to changes in interest rates, causing them to be more volatile than securities with shorter maturities. Securities with shorter maturities tend to provide lower returns and be less volatile than securities with longer maturities. If interest rates rise, the Portfolio’s yield may not increase proportionately, and the maturities of income securities that have the ability to be prepaid or called by the issuer may be extended. The risks associated with changing interest rates may have unpredictable effects on the markets and the Portfolio’s investments. A general rise in interest rates may cause investors to move out of fixed income securities on a large scale, which could adversely affect the price and liquidity of fixed income securities and could also result in increased redemptions for the Portfolio. A low or declining interest rate environment may prevent the Portfolio from providing a positive yield or paying Portfolio expenses out of Portfolio assets and could lead to a decline in the Portfolio’s share price. Fluctuations in interest rates may also affect the liquidity of fixed income securities and instruments held by the Portfolio. <br/><br/><b>LARGE SHAREHOLDER TRANSACTIONS RISK</b> is the risk that the Portfolio may experience adverse effects when certain large shareholders purchase or redeem large amounts of shares of the Portfolio. Such large shareholder redemptions , which may occur rapidly and unexpectedly, may cause the Portfolio to sell its securities at times it would not otherwise do so, which may negatively impact its liquidity. Such sales may also accelerate the increase of taxable income to shareholders if these sales result in gains, and may also increase transaction costs. In addition, large redemptions could lead to an increase in the Portfolio’s expense ratio due to a smaller asset base. Large Portfolio share purchases may adversely affect the Portfolio’s performance to the extent that the Portfolio is delayed in investing or otherwise maintains a larger cash position than it ordinarily would. <br/><br/><b>LIQUIDITY FEE AND REDEMPTION GATE RISK</b> is the risk that the Portfolio may impose a “liquidity fee” (up to 2%) or “redemption gate” that temporarily restricts your ability to sell shares for up to 10 business days if the Portfolio’s liquidity falls below required minimums because of market conditions or other factors. <br/><br/><b>LIQUIDITY RISK</b> is the risk that the Portfolio will not be able to pay redemption proceeds in a timely manner because of unusual market conditions, an unusually high volume of redemption requests, legal restrictions impairing its ability to sell particular securities at an advantageous market price or other reasons. Certain portfolio securities may be less liquid than others, which may make them difficult or impossible to sell at the time and the price that the Portfolio would like and the Portfolio may have to lower the price, sell other securities instead or forgo an investment opportunity. In addition, less liquid securities may be more difficult to value and markets may become less liquid when there are fewer interested buyers or sellers or when dealers are unwilling or unable to make a market for certain securities. Recently, dealers have generally been less willing to make markets for fixed income securities. All of these risks may increase during periods of market turmoil and could have a negative effect on the Portfolio’s performance. <br/><br/><b>MANAGEMENT RISK</b> is the risk that a strategy used by the Portfolio’s investment adviser may fail to produce the intended results or that imperfections, errors or limitations in the tools and data used by the investment adviser may cause unintended results. <br/><br/><b>MARKET RISK</b> is the risk that general market conditions, such as real or perceived adverse economic or political conditions, inflation, changes in interest rates, lack of liquidity in the bond markets or adverse investor sentiment could cause the value of your investment in the Portfolio, or its yield, to decline. The market value of the securities in which the Portfolio invests may go up or down in response to the prospects of particular sectors or governments and/or general economic conditions throughout the world due to increasingly interconnected global economies and financial markets. <br/><br/><b>MUNICIPAL MARKET VOLATILITY RISK</b> is the risk that the Portfolio may be adversely affected by the volatile municipal market. The increased presence of nontraditional participants (such as proprietary trading desks of investment banks and hedge funds) or the absence of traditional participants (such as individuals, insurance companies, banks and life insurance companies) in the municipal markets may lead to greater volatility in the markets because non-traditional participants may trade more frequently or in greater volume. The municipal market can be significantly affected by adverse tax, legislative, or political changes and the financial condition of the issuers of municipal securities. In recent years an increasing number of municipal issuers have defaulted on obligations, been downgraded or commenced insolvency proceedings. Municipalities continue to experience difficulties in the current economic and political environment. <br/><br/><b>MUNICIPAL SECURITIES RISK</b> is the risk that municipal securities may be subject to credit/default risk, interest rate risk and certain additional risks. The Portfolio may be more sensitive to adverse economic, business or political developments if it invests more than 25% of its assets in the debt securities of similar projects (such as those relating to education, health care, housing, transportation, and utilities), industrial development bonds, or in particular types of municipal securities (such as general obligation bonds, private activity bonds and moral obligation bonds). Municipal securities may be fully or partially backed or enhanced by the taxing authority of a local government, by the current or anticipated revenues from a specific project or specific assets, or by the credit of, or liquidity enhancement provided by, a private issuer. Special factors, such as legislative changes, and state and local economic and business developments, may adversely affect the yield and/or value of the Portfolio’s investments in municipal securities. The secondary market for municipal obligations also tends to be less well-developed and less liquid than many other securities markets, which may limit the Fund’s ability to sell its municipal obligations at attractive prices. <br/><br/><b>PREPAYMENT (OR CALL) RISK</b> is the risk that prepayment of the underlying mortgages or other collateral of some fixed-income securities may result in a decreased rate of return and a decline in value of those securities. <br/><br/><b>TAX RISK</b> is the risk that future legislative or administrative changes, court decisions or noncompliant conduct by issuers may materially affect the value of municipal instruments, the ability of the Portfolio to pay tax-exempt dividends, or may otherwise prevent the Portfolio from realizing the full current benefit of the tax-exempt status of such securities. Any such change could affect the value of an investment in the Portfolio. <br/><br/><b>VARIABLE OR FLOATING RATE INSTRUMENTS RISK</b> is the risk that securities with variable or floating rates can be less sensitive to interest rate changes than securities with fixed interest rates, but may decline in value and negatively impact the Portfolio, particularly if changes in prevailing interest rates are more frequent or sudden than the rate changes for the variable or floating rate securities, which only occur periodically. Although variable and floating rate securities are less sensitive to interest rate risk than fixed-rate securities, they are subject to credit risk and default risk, which could impede their value. <br/><br/><b>You could lose money by investing in the Portfolio. Because the share price of the Portfolio will fluctuate, when you sell your shares they may be worth more or less than what you originally paid for them. The Portfolio may impose a fee upon sale of your shares or may temporarily suspend your ability to sell shares if the Portfolio’s liquidity falls below required minimums because of market conditions or other factors. An investment in the Portfolio is not a deposit of any bank and is</b> <b>not insured or guaranteed by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, any other government agency, or The Northern Trust Company, its affiliates, subsidiaries or any other bank. The Portfolio’s sponsor has no legal obligation to provide</b> <b>financial support to the Portfolio, and you should not expect that the sponsor will provide financial support to the Portfolio at any time.</b>
<b>PORTFOLIO PERFORMANCE </b>
The bar chart and table that follow provide an indication of the risks of investing in the Portfolio by showing changes in the performance of the Portfolio’s Shares from year to year. <br/><br/>The Portfolio’s past performance is not necessarily an indication of how the Portfolio will perform in the future. <br/><br/>Updated performance information for the Portfolio is available and may be obtained on the Portfolio’s website at northerntrust.com/institutional or by calling 800-637-1380.
<b>CALENDAR YEAR TOTAL RETURN (SHARES)* </b>
* For the periods shown in the bar chart above, the highest quarterly return was 0.38% in the fourth quarter of 2018, and the lowest quarterly return was 0.00% in the third quarter of 2015.
<b>AVERAGE ANNUAL TOTAL RETURNS </b><br/>(For the periods ended December 31, 2018)
The 7-day yield for Shares of the Portfolio as of December 31, 2018: 1.53%. For the current 7-day yield call 800-637-1380 or visit northerntrust.com/institutional.
April 1, 2020
<b>You could lose money by investing in the Portfolio.</b>
<b>Because the share price of the Portfolio will fluctuate, when you sell your shares they may be worth more or less than what you originally paid for them.</b>
<b>The Portfolio may impose a fee upon sale of your shares or may temporarily suspend your ability to sell shares if the Portfolio’s liquidity falls below required minimums because of market conditions or other factors.</b>
<b>An investment in the Portfolio is not a deposit of any bank and is not insured or guaranteed by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, any other government agency, or The Northern Trust Company, its affiliates, subsidiaries or any other bank.</b>
<b>The Portfolio’s sponsor has no legal obligation to provide financial support to the Portfolio, and you should not expect that the sponsor will provide financial support to the Portfolio at any time.</b>
The bar chart and table that follow provide an indication of the risks of investing in the Portfolio by showing changes in the performance of the Portfolio’s Shares from year to year.
800-637-1380
northerntrust.com/institutional
The Portfolio’s past performance is not necessarily an indication of how the Portfolio will perform in the future.
The 7-day yield for Shares of the Portfolio as of December 31, 2018
800-637-1380
0
0.0018
0.0007
0.0002
0
0.0005
0.0025
-0.0004
0.0021
22
76
137
314
0.0042
0.0011
0.0004
0.0002
0.0002
0.0001
0.0002
0.0028
0.0063
0.0123
1999-12-01
0.0123
0.0043
0.0028
0.0127
highest quarterly return
0.0038
2018-12-31
lowest quarterly return
0
2015-09-30
0.0153
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<div style="display:none">~ http://www.northerninstitutionalfunds.com/role/ScheduleShareholderFees000092 column period compact * ~</div>
<b>MUNICIPAL PORTFOLIO—SERVICE SHARES AND PREMIER SHARES </b>
<b>INVESTMENT OBJECTIVE </b>
The Portfolio seeks to provide, to the extent consistent with the preservation of capital, a high level of income exempt from regular federal income tax by investing primarily in municipal instruments. This objective may be changed without shareholder approval.
<b>FEES AND EXPENSES OF THE PORTFOLIO </b>
This table describes the fees and expenses that you may pay if you buy and hold Service Shares and Premier Shares of the Portfolio.
<b>Shareholder Fees </b>(fees paid directly from your investment)
<b>Annual Portfolio Operating Expenses </b>(expenses that you pay each year<br/>as a percentage of the value of your investment)
<b>EXAMPLE </b>
The following Example is intended to help you compare the cost of investing in Service Shares and Premier Shares of the Portfolio with the cost of investing in other mutual funds. The Example assumes that you invest $10,000 in the Portfolio for the time periods indicated and then redeem all of your shares at the end of those periods. The Example also assumes that your investment has a 5% return each year and that the Portfolio’s operating expenses remain the same. Although your actual costs may be higher or lower, based on these assumptions your costs would be:
<b>PRINCIPAL INVESTMENT STRATEGIES </b>
The Portfolio seeks to achieve its objective by investing primarily in high-quality short-term municipal instruments, the interest on which is exempt from regular federal income tax. The high level of income sought by the Portfolio is relative to yields currently available in the tax-exempt marketplace. Municipal instruments may include: <ul type="square"><li> Fixed, variable and floating rate notes and similar debt instruments; </li></ul><ul type="square"><li> Asset-backed securities that are considered municipal instruments (such as trust certificates backed by municipal bonds); </li></ul><ul type="square"><li> Tax-exempt commercial paper; </li></ul><ul type="square"><li> Municipal bonds, notes, paper or other instruments; and </li></ul><ul type="square"><li> Municipal bonds and notes that are guaranteed as to principal and interest or backed by the U.S. government or by its agencies, instrumentalities or sponsored enterprises. </li></ul>Except in extraordinary circumstances, at least 80% of the Portfolio’s net assets will be invested in debt instruments that pay interest that is exempt from regular federal income tax. Alternative minimum tax (“AMT”) obligations, which pay interest that may be treated as an item of tax preference to shareholders under the federal AMT, will be deemed eligible investments for the purposes of determining whether the portfolio meets this policy. To the extent that the Portfolio invests in AMT obligations, a significant portion of the Portfolio’s dividends may be subject to federal income tax for shareholders subject to AMT. The Portfolio is not limited in the amount of its assets that may be invested in AMT obligations. <br/><br/>The Portfolio operates as an “institutional money market fund” under Rule 2a-7 of the Investment Company Act of 1940, as amended. As an “institutional money market fund” under Rule 2a-7, the Portfolio is (1) required to sell and redeem its shares at its net asset value (“NAV”) rounded to the fourth decimal place (e.g., $1.0000) reflecting market-based values of the Portfolio’s holdings, and (2) the Board of Trustees (the “Board”) will be permitted to impose a “liquidity fee” on redemptions from the Portfolio (up to 2%) or temporarily restrict redemptions from the Portfolio for up to 10 business days during a 90-day period, as described in more detail under “Purchase and Sales of Portfolio Shares.” <br/><br/>The Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) imposes strict requirements on the investment quality, maturity, diversification and liquidity of the Portfolio’s investments. Accordingly, the Portfolio’s investments must have a remaining maturity of no more than 397 days and must be high quality. The Portfolio’s investment adviser may consider, among other things, credit, interest rate and prepayment risks as well as general market conditions when deciding whether to buy or sell investments for the Portfolio.
<b>PRINCIPAL RISKS </b>
<b>CREDIT (OR DEFAULT) RISK</b> is the risk that the inability or unwillingness of an issuer or guarantor of a fixed-income security, or a counterparty to a repurchase or other transaction, to meet its principal and interest payments or other financial obligations will adversely affect the value of the Portfolio’s investments and its yield. Changes in the credit rating of a debt security held by the Portfolio could have a similar effect. <br/><br/><b>CYBERSECURITY RISK</b> is the risk of an unauthorized breach and access to Portfolio assets, customer data (including private shareholder information), or proprietary information, or the risk of an incident occurring that causes the Portfolio, the investment adviser, custodian, transfer agent, distributor and other service providers and financial intermediaries to suffer data breaches, data corruption or lose operational functionality. Successful cyber-attacks or other cyber-failures or events affecting the Portfolio or its service providers may adversely impact the Portfolio or its shareholders. <br/><br/><b>DEBT EXTENSION RISK</b> is the risk that an issuer will exercise its right to pay principal on an obligation held by the Portfolio (such as an asset-backed security) later than expected. This may happen during a period of rising interest rates. Under these circumstances, the value of the obligation will decrease and the Portfolio will suffer from the inability to invest in higher yielding securities. <br/><br/><b>FLOATING NAV RISK</b> is the risk that because the share price of the Portfolio will fluctuate, when you sell your shares they may be worth more or less than what you originally paid for them. <br/><br/><b>GEOGRAPHIC AND SECTOR RISK</b> is the risk that if the Portfolio invests a significant portion of its total assets in certain issuers within the same state, geographic region or economic sector, an adverse economic, business or political development affecting that state, region or sector may affect the value of the Portfolio’s investments more than if its investments were not so concentrated in such geographic region or economic sector. <br/><br/><b>GUARANTOR (OR CREDIT ENHANCEMENT) RISK</b> is the risk that changes in credit quality of a U.S. or foreign bank, insurance company or other financial institution or such entity’s failure to fulfill its obligations could cause the Portfolio’s investments to decline in value. Adverse developments in the banking or bond insurance industries also may negatively affect the Portfolio. <br/><br/><b>INCOME RISK</b> is the risk that falling interest rates will cause the Portfolio’s income to decline. Income risk is generally higher for short-term debt securities. <br/><br/><b>INTEREST RATE RISK</b> is the risk that during periods of rising interest rates, the Portfolio’s yield (and the market value of its securities) will tend to be lower than prevailing market rates; in periods of falling interest rates, the Portfolio’s yield (and the market value of its securities) will tend to be higher. Securities with longer maturities tend to be more sensitive to changes in interest rates, causing them to be more volatile than securities with shorter maturities. Securities with shorter maturities tend to provide lower returns and be less volatile than securities with longer maturities. If interest rates rise, the Portfolio’s yield may not increase proportionately, and the maturities of income securities that have the ability to be prepaid or called by the issuer may be extended. The risks associated with changing interest rates may have unpredictable effects on the markets and the Portfolio’s investments. A general rise in interest rates may cause investors to move out of fixed income securities on a large scale, which could adversely affect the price and liquidity of fixed income securities and could also result in increased redemptions for the Portfolio. A low or declining interest rate environment may prevent the Portfolio from providing a positive yield or paying Portfolio expenses out of Portfolio assets and could lead to a decline in the Portfolio’s share price. Fluctuations in interest rates may also affect the liquidity of fixed income securities and instruments held by the Portfolio. <br/><br/><b>LARGE SHAREHOLDER TRANSACTIONS RISK</b> is the risk that the Portfolio may experience adverse effects when certain large shareholders purchase or redeem large amounts of shares of the Portfolio. Such large shareholder redemptions , which may occur rapidly and unexpectedly, may cause the Portfolio to sell its securities at times it would not otherwise do so, which may negatively impact its liquidity. Such sales may also accelerate the increase of taxable income to shareholders if these sales result in gains, and may also increase transaction costs. In addition, large redemptions could lead to an increase in the Portfolio’s expense ratio due to a smaller asset base. Large Portfolio share purchases may adversely affect the Portfolio’s performance to the extent that the Portfolio is delayed in investing or otherwise maintains a larger cash position than it ordinarily would. <br/><br/><b>LIQUIDITY FEE AND REDEMPTION GATE RISK</b> is the risk that the Portfolio may impose a “liquidity fee” (up to 2%) or “redemption gate” that temporarily restricts your ability to sell shares for up to 10 business days if the Portfolio’s liquidity falls below required minimums because of market conditions or other factors. <br/><br/><b>LIQUIDITY RISK</b> is the risk that the Portfolio will not be able to pay redemption proceeds in a timely manner because of unusual market conditions, an unusually high volume of redemption requests, legal restrictions impairing its ability to sell particular securities at an advantageous market price or other reasons. Certain portfolio securities may be less liquid than others, which may make them difficult or impossible to sell at the time and the price that the Portfolio would like and the Portfolio may have to lower the price, sell other securities instead or forgo an investment opportunity. In addition, less liquid securities may be more difficult to value and markets may become less liquid when there are fewer interested buyers or sellers or when dealers are unwilling or unable to make a market for certain securities. Recently, dealers have generally been less willing to make markets for fixed income securities. All of these risks may increase during periods of market turmoil and could have a negative effect on the Portfolio’s performance. <br/><br/><b>MANAGEMENT RISK</b> is the risk that a strategy used by the Portfolio’s investment adviser may fail to produce the intended results or that imperfections, errors or limitations in the tools and data used by the investment adviser may cause unintended results. <br/><br/><b>MARKET RISK</b> is the risk that general market conditions, such as real or perceived adverse economic or political conditions, inflation, changes in interest rates, lack of liquidity in the bond markets or adverse investor sentiment could cause the value of your investment in the Portfolio, or its yield, to decline. The market value of the securities in which the Portfolio invests may go up or down in response to the prospects of particular sectors or governments and/or general economic conditions throughout the world due to increasingly interconnected global economies and financial markets. <br/><br/><b>MUNICIPAL MARKET VOLATILITY RISK</b> is the risk that the Portfolio may be adversely affected by the volatile municipal market. The increased presence of nontraditional participants (such as proprietary trading desks of investment banks and hedge funds) or the absence of traditional participants (such as individuals, insurance companies, banks and life insurance companies) in the municipal markets may lead to greater volatility in the markets because non-traditional participants may trade more frequently or in greater volume. The municipal market can be significantly affected by adverse tax, legislative, or political changes and the financial condition of the issuers of municipal securities. In recent years an increasing number of municipal issuers have defaulted on obligations, been downgraded or commenced insolvency proceedings. Municipalities continue to experience difficulties in the current economic and political environment. <br/><br/><b>MUNICIPAL SECURITIES RISK</b> is the risk that municipal securities may be subject to credit/default risk, interest rate risk and certain additional risks. The Portfolio may be more sensitive to adverse economic, business or political developments if it invests more than 25% of its assets in the debt securities of similar projects (such as those relating to education, health care, housing, transportation, and utilities), industrial development bonds, or in particular types of municipal securities (such as general obligation bonds, private activity bonds and moral obligation bonds). Municipal securities may be fully or partially backed or enhanced by the taxing authority of a local government, by the current or anticipated revenues from a specific project or specific assets, or by the credit of, or liquidity enhancement provided by, a private issuer. Special factors, such as legislative changes, and state and local economic and business developments, may adversely affect the yield and/or value of the Portfolio’s investments in municipal securities. The secondary market for municipal obligations also tends to be less well-developed and less liquid than many other securities markets, which may limit the Fund’s ability to sell its municipal obligations at attractive prices. <br/><br/><b>PREPAYMENT (OR CALL) RISK</b> is the risk that prepayment of the underlying mortgages or other collateral of some fixed-income securities may result in a decreased rate of return and a decline in value of those securities. <br/><br/><b>TAX RISK</b> is the risk that future legislative or administrative changes, court decisions or noncompliant conduct by issuers may materially affect the value of municipal instruments, the ability of the Portfolio to pay tax-exempt dividends, or may otherwise prevent the Portfolio from realizing the full current benefit of the tax-exempt status of such securities. Any such change could affect the value of an investment in the Portfolio. <br/><br/><b>VARIABLE OR FLOATING RATE INSTRUMENTS RISK</b> is the risk that securities with variable or floating rates can be less sensitive to interest rate changes than securities with fixed interest rates, but may decline in value and negatively impact the Portfolio, particularly if changes in prevailing interest rates are more frequent or sudden than the rate changes for the variable or floating rate securities, which only occur periodically. Although variable and floating rate securities are less sensitive to interest rate risk than fixed-rate securities, they are subject to credit risk and default risk, which could impede their value. <br/><br/><b>You could lose money by investing in the Portfolio. Because the share price of the Portfolio will fluctuate, when you sell your shares they may be worth more or less than what you</b> <b>originally paid for them. The Portfolio may impose a fee upon sale of your shares or may temporarily suspend your ability to sell shares if the Portfolio’s liquidity falls below required minimums because of market conditions or other factors. An investment in the Portfolio is not a deposit of any bank and is not insured or guaranteed by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, any other government agency, or The Northern Trust Company, its affiliates, subsidiaries or any other bank. The Portfolio’s sponsor has no legal obligation to provide financial support to the Portfolio, and you should not expect that the sponsor will provide financial support to the Portfolio at any time.</b>
<b>PORTFOLIO PERFORMANCE </b>
The bar chart and table that follow provide an indication of the risks of investing in the Portfolio by showing changes in the performance of the Portfolio’s Service Shares from year to year. As of December 31, 2018 there were no Premier Shares outstanding for the Portfolio. <br/><br/>The Portfolio’s past performance is not necessarily an indication of how the Portfolio will perform in the future. <br/><br/>Updated performance information for the Portfolio is available and may be obtained on the Portfolio’s website at northerntrust.com/institutional or by calling 800-637-1380.
<b>CALENDAR YEAR TOTAL RETURN (SERVICE SHARES)* </b>
* For the periods shown in the bar chart above, the highest quarterly return was 0.38% in the fourth quarter of 2018, and the lowest quarterly return was 0.00% in the third quarter of 2015.
<b>AVERAGE ANNUAL TOTAL RETURNS </b><br/>(For the periods ended December 31, 2018)
The 7-day yield for Service Shares of the Portfolio as of December 31, 2018: 1.53%. For the current 7-day yield call 800-637-1380 or visit northerntrust.com/institutional.
April 1, 2020
<b>You could lose money by investing in the Portfolio.</b>
<b>Because the share price of the Portfolio will fluctuate, when you sell your shares they may be worth more or less than what you originally paid for them.</b>
<b>The Portfolio may impose a fee upon sale of your shares or may temporarily suspend your ability to sell shares if the Portfolio’s liquidity falls below required minimums because of market conditions or other factors.</b>
<b>An investment in the Portfolio is not a deposit of any bank and is not insured or guaranteed by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, any other government agency, or The Northern Trust Company, its affiliates, subsidiaries or any other bank.</b>
<b>The Portfolio’s sponsor has no legal obligation to provide financial support to the Portfolio, and you should not expect that the sponsor will provide financial support to the Portfolio at any time.</b>
The bar chart and table that follow provide an indication of the risks of investing in the Portfolio by showing changes in the performance of the Portfolio’s Service Shares from year to year.
800-637-1380
northerntrust.com/institutional
The Portfolio’s past performance is not necessarily an indication of how the Portfolio will perform in the future.
800-637-1380
The 7-day yield for Service Shares of the Portfolio as of December 31, 2018
0
0
0.0018
0.0018
0.0032
0.0057
0.0002
0.0002
0.0025
0.005
0.0005
0.0005
0.005
0.0075
-0.0004
-0.0004
0.0046
0.0071
47
156
276
624
73
236
413
927
0.0019
0.0002
0.0002
0.0002
0.0002
0.0001
0.0002
0.0028
0.0063
0.0123
2000-02-11
0.0123
0.0043
0.0024
0.011
“Other Expenses” are based on estimated amounts for the current fiscal year.
highest quarterly return
0.0038
2018-12-31
lowest quarterly return
0
2015-09-30
0.0153
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<b>PRIME OBLIGATIONS PORTFOLIO—SHARES </b>
<b>INVESTMENT OBJECTIVE </b>
The Portfolio seeks to maximize current income to the extent consistent with the preservation of capital and maintenance of liquidity by investing exclusively in high quality money market instruments.
<b>FEES AND EXPENSES OF THE PORTFOLIO </b>
This table describes the fees and expenses that you may pay if you buy and hold Shares of the Portfolio.
<b>Shareholder Fees </b>(fees paid directly from your investment)
<b>Annual Portfolio Operating Expenses </b>(expenses that you pay each year as<br/>a percentage of the value of your investment)
<b>EXAMPLE </b>
The following Example is intended to help you compare the cost of investing in Shares of the Portfolio with the cost of investing in other mutual funds. The Example assumes that you invest $10,000 in the Portfolio for the time periods indicated and then redeem all of your shares at the end of those periods. The Example also assumes that your investment has a 5% return each year and that the Portfolio’s operating expenses remain the same. Although your actual costs may be higher or lower, based on these assumptions your costs would be:
<b>PRINCIPAL INVESTMENT STRATEGIES </b>
The Portfolio seeks to achieve its objective by investing in a broad range of high-quality, U.S. dollar-denominated government, bank and commercial obligations that are available in the money markets, including: <ul type="square"><li> Obligations of U.S. banks (including obligations of foreign branches of such banks); </li></ul><ul type="square"><li> Obligations of foreign commercial banks; </li></ul><ul type="square"><li> Commercial paper and other obligations issued or guaranteed by U.S. and foreign corporations and other issuers; </li></ul><ul type="square"><li> Corporate bonds, notes, paper and other instruments that are of high quality; </li></ul><ul type="square"><li> Asset-backed securities and asset-backed commercial paper; </li></ul><ul type="square"><li> Securities issued or guaranteed as to principal and interest by the U.S. government or by its agencies, instrumentalities or sponsored enterprises and custodial receipts with respect thereto; </li></ul><ul type="square"><li> Securities issued or guaranteed by one or more foreign governments or political subdivisions, agencies or instrumentalities; </li></ul><ul type="square"><li> Repurchase agreements; and </li></ul><ul type="square"><li> Municipal securities issued or guaranteed by state or local governmental bodies. </li></ul>Under normal market conditions, the Portfolio will invest at least 25% of its total assets in securities issued by companies in the financial services group of industries. Companies in the financial services group of industries include but are not limited to U.S. and non-U.S. companies involved in banking, mortgage, consumer or specialized finance, investment banking, securities brokerage, asset management and custody, insurance, financial investment, real estate and mortgage finance and financial conglomerates, and related asset-backed securities. The Portfolio may, however, for temporary defensive purposes, invest less than 25% of its total assets in the financial services industry if warranted due to adverse economic conditions or if investing less than 25% of its total assets in the financial services industry appears to be in the best interest of shareholders. <br/><br/>The Portfolio operates as an “institutional money market fund” under Rule 2a-7 of the Investment Company Act of 1940, as amended. As an “institutional money market fund” under Rule 2a-7, the Portfolio is (1) required to sell and redeem its shares at its net asset value (“NAV”) rounded to the fourth decimal place (e.g., $1.0000) reflecting market-based values of the Portfolio’s holdings, and (2) the Board of Trustees (the “Board”) will be permitted to impose a “liquidity fee” on redemptions from the Portfolio (up to 2%) or temporarily restrict redemptions from the Portfolio for up to 10 business days during a 90-day period, as described in more detail under “Purchase and Sales of Portfolio Shares.” <br/><br/>The Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) imposes strict requirements on the investment quality, maturity, diversification and liquidity of the Portfolio’s investments. Accordingly, the Portfolio’s investments must have a remaining maturity of no more than 397 days and must be high quality. The Portfolio’s investment adviser may consider, among other things, credit, interest rate and prepayment risks as well as general market conditions when deciding whether to buy or sell investments for the Portfolio.
<b>PRINCIPAL RISKS </b>
<b>ASSET-BACKED SECURITIES RISK.</b> Asset-backed securities represent interests in pools of assets such as mortgages, automobile loans, credit card receivables and other financial assets. Asset-backed securities are subject to credit, interest rate, prepayment, extension, valuation and liquidity risk. These securities, in most cases, are not backed by the full faith and credit of the U.S. government and are subject to the risk of default on the underlying asset or loan, particularly during periods of economic downturn. Small movements in interest rates (both increases and decreases) may quickly and significantly reduce the value of certain asset-backed securities. <br/><br/><b>COMMERCIAL PAPER RISK.</b> Investments in commercial paper are subject to the risk that the issuer cannot issue enough new commercial paper to satisfy its obligations with respect to its outstanding commercial paper, also known as rollover risk. Commercial paper is also susceptible to changes in the issuer’s financial condition or credit quality. In addition, under certain circumstances commercial paper may become illiquid or may suffer from reduced liquidity. Commercial paper is generally unsecured, which increases the credit risk associated with this type of investment. <br/><br/><b>CREDIT (OR DEFAULT) RISK</b> is the risk that the inability or unwillingness of an issuer or guarantor of a fixed-income security, or a counterparty to a repurchase or other transaction, to meet its principal and interest payments or other financial obligations will adversely affect the value of the Portfolio’s investments and its yield. Changes in the credit rating of a debt security held by the Portfolio could have a similar effect. <br/><br/><b>CURRENCY RISK</b> is the risk that foreign currencies, securities that trade in or receive revenue in foreign currencies, or derivatives that provide exposure to foreign currencies will fluctuate in value relative to the U.S. dollar, adversely affecting the value of the Fund’s investments and its returns. Because the Portfolio’s NAV is determined on the basis of U.S. dollars, you may lose money if the local currency of a foreign market depreciates against the U.S. dollar, even if the market value of the Portfolio’s holdings appreciates. In addition, fluctuations in the exchange values of currencies could affect the economy or particular business operations of companies in a geographic region in which the Portfolio invests, causing an adverse impact on the Portfolio’s investments in the affected region. <br/><br/><b>CYBERSECURITY RISK</b> is the risk of an unauthorized breach and access to Portfolio assets, customer data (including private shareholder information), or proprietary information, or the risk of an incident occurring that causes the Portfolio, the investment adviser, custodian, transfer agent, distributor and other service providers and financial intermediaries to suffer data breaches, data corruption or lose operational functionality. Successful cyber-attacks or other cyber-failures or events affecting the Portfolio or its service providers may adversely impact the Portfolio or its shareholders. <br/><br/><b>DEBT EXTENSION RISK</b> is the risk that an issuer will exercise its right to pay principal on an obligation held by the Portfolio (such as an asset-backed security) later than expected. This may happen during a period of rising interest rates. Under these circumstances, the value of the obligation will decrease and the Portfolio will suffer from the inability to invest in higher yielding securities. <br/><br/><b>FINANCIAL SERVICES INDUSTRY RISK</b> is the risk that, because the Portfolio will invest under normal market conditions at least 25% of its total assets in the financial services industry, the Portfolio will be subject to greater risk of loss by economic, business, political or other developments which generally affect this industry. Changes in government regulation and interest rates and economic downturns can have a significant negative effect on issuers in the financial services sector, including the price of their securities or their ability to meet their payment obligations. <br/><br/><b>FLOATING NAV RISK</b> is the risk that because the share price of the Portfolio will fluctuate, when you sell your shares they may be worth more or less than what you originally paid for them. <br/><br/><b>FOREIGN SECURITIES RISK</b> is the risk that a foreign security, even if it is a U.S. dollar-denominated foreign security, could lose value as a result of political, financial and economic events in foreign countries, more or less stringent foreign securities regulations and accounting and disclosure standards or other factors. In addition, the Portfolio will be subject to the risk that an issuer of foreign sovereign debt or the government authorities that control the repayment of the debt may be unable or unwilling to repay the principal or interest when due. <br/><br/><b>GUARANTOR (OR CREDIT ENHANCEMENT) RISK</b> is the risk that changes in credit quality of a U.S. or foreign bank, insurance company or other financial institution or such entity’s failure to fulfill its obligations could cause the Portfolio’s investments to decline in value. Adverse developments in the banking or bond insurance industries also may negatively affect the Portfolio. <br/><br/><b>INCOME RISK</b> is the risk that falling interest rates will cause the Portfolio’s income to decline. Income risk is generally higher for short-term debt securities. <br/><br/><b>INTEREST RATE RISK</b> is the risk that during periods of rising interest rates, the Portfolio’s yield (and the market value of its securities) will tend to be lower than prevailing market rates; in periods of falling interest rates, the Portfolio’s yield (and the market value of its securities) will tend to be higher. Securities with longer maturities tend to be more sensitive to changes in interest rates, causing them to be more volatile than securities with shorter maturities. Securities with shorter maturities tend to provide lower returns and be less volatile than securities with longer maturities. If interest rates rise, the Portfolio’s yield may not increase proportionately, and the maturities of income securities that have the ability to be prepaid or called by the issuer may be extended. The risks associated with changing interest rates may have unpredictable effects on the markets and the Portfolio’s investments. A general rise in interest rates may cause investors to move out of fixed income securities on a large scale, which could adversely affect the price and liquidity of fixed income securities and could also result in increased redemptions for the Portfolio. A low or declining interest rate environment may prevent the Portfolio from providing a positive yield or paying Portfolio expenses out of Portfolio assets and could lead to a decline in the Portfolio’s share price. Fluctuations in interest rates may also affect the liquidity of fixed income securities and instruments held by the Portfolio. <br/><br/><b>LARGE SHAREHOLDER TRANSACTIONS RISK</b> is the risk that the Portfolio may experience adverse effects when certain large shareholders purchase or redeem large amounts of shares of the Portfolio. Such large shareholder redemptions , which may occur rapidly and unexpectedly, may cause the Portfolio to sell its securities at times it would not otherwise do so, which may negatively impact its liquidity. Such sales may also accelerate the increase of taxable income to shareholders if these sales result in gains, and may also increase transaction costs. In addition, large redemptions could lead to an increase in the Portfolio’s expense ratio due to a smaller asset base. Large Portfolio share purchases may adversely affect the Portfolio’s performance to the extent that the Portfolio is delayed in investing or otherwise maintains a larger cash position than it ordinarily would. <br/><br/><b>LIQUIDITY FEE AND REDEMPTION GATE RISK</b> is the risk that the Portfolio may impose a “liquidity fee” (up to 2%) or “redemption gate” that temporarily restricts your ability to sell shares for up to 10 business days if the Portfolio’s liquidity falls below required minimums because of market conditions or other factors. <br/><br/><b>LIQUIDITY RISK</b> is the risk that the Portfolio will not be able to pay redemption proceeds in a timely manner because of unusual market conditions, an unusually high volume of redemption requests, legal restrictions impairing its ability to sell particular securities at an advantageous market price or other reasons. Certain portfolio securities may be less liquid than others, which may make them difficult or impossible to sell at the time and the price that the Portfolio would like and the Portfolio may have to lower the price, sell other securities instead or forgo an investment opportunity. In addition, less liquid securities may be more difficult to value and markets may become less liquid when there are fewer interested buyers or sellers or when dealers are unwilling or unable to make a market for certain securities. Recently, dealers have generally been less willing to make markets for fixed income securities. All of these risks may increase during periods of market turmoil and could have a negative effect on the Portfolio’s performance. <br/><br/><b>MANAGEMENT RISK</b> is the risk that a strategy used by the Portfolio’s investment adviser may fail to produce the intended results or that imperfections, errors or limitations in the tools and data used by the investment adviser may cause unintended results. <br/><br/><b>MARKET RISK</b> is the risk that general market conditions, such as real or perceived adverse economic or political conditions, inflation, changes in interest rates, lack of liquidity in the bond markets or adverse investor sentiment could cause the value of your investment in the Portfolio, or its yield, to decline. The market value of the securities in which the Portfolio invests may go up or down in response to the prospects of particular sectors or governments and/or general economic conditions throughout the world due to increasingly interconnected global economies and financial markets. <br/><br/><b>PREPAYMENT (OR CALL) RISK</b> is the risk that prepayment of the underlying mortgages or other collateral of some fixed-income securities may result in a decreased rate of return and a decline in value of those securities. <br/><br/><b>U.S. GOVERNMENT SECURITIES RISK</b> is the risk that the U.S. government will not provide financial support to its agencies, instrumentalities or sponsored enterprises if it is not obligated to do so by law. Certain U.S. government securities purchased by the Portfolio are neither issued nor guaranteed by the U.S. Treasury and, therefore, may not be backed by the full faith and credit of the United States. It is possible that the issuers of such securities will not have the funds to meet their payment obligations in the future. <br/><br/><b>VARIABLE OR FLOATING RATE INSTRUMENTS RISK</b> is the risk that securities with variable or floating rates can be less sensitive to interest rate changes than securities with fixed interest rates, but may decline in value and negatively impact the Portfolio, particularly if changes in prevailing interest rates are more frequent or sudden than the rate changes for the variable or floating rate securities, which only occur periodically. Although variable and floating rate securities are less sensitive to interest rate risk than fixed-rate securities, they are subject to credit risk and default risk, which could impede their value. <br/><br/><b>You could lose money by investing in the Portfolio. Because the share price of the Portfolio will fluctuate, when you sell your shares they may be worth more or less than what you originally paid for them. The Portfolio may impose a fee upon sale of your shares or may temporarily suspend your ability to sell shares if the Portfolio’s liquidity falls below required minimums because of market conditions or other factors. An investment in the Portfolio is not a deposit of any bank and is not insured or guaranteed by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, any other government agency, or The Northern Trust Company, its affiliates, subsidiaries or any other bank. The Portfolio’s sponsor has no legal obligation to provide financial support to the Portfolio, and you should not expect that the sponsor will provide financial support to the Portfolio at any time.</b>
<b>PORTFOLIO PERFORMANCE </b>
The bar chart and table that follow provide an indication of the risks of investing in the Portfolio by showing changes in the performance of the Portfolio’s Shares from year to year. <br/><br/>The Portfolio’s past performance is not necessarily an indication of how the Portfolio will perform in the future. <br/><br/>Updated performance information for the Portfolio is available and may be obtained on the Portfolio’s website at northerntrust.com/institutional or by calling 800-637-1380.
<b>CALENDAR YEAR TOTAL RETURN (SHARES)* </b>
* For the periods shown in the bar chart above, the highest quarterly return was 0.58% in the fourth quarter of 2018, and the lowest quarterly return was 0.00% in the first quarter of 2014.
<b>AVERAGE ANNUAL TOTAL RETURNS </b><br/>(For the periods ended December 31, 2018)
The 7-day yield for Shares of the Portfolio as of December 31, 2018: 2.47%. For the current 7-day yield call 800-637-1380 or visit northerntrust.com/institutional.
April 1, 2020
<b>You could lose money by investing in the Portfolio. </b>
<b>The Portfolio’s sponsor has no legal obligation to provide financial support to the Portfolio, and you should not expect that the sponsor will provide financial support to the Portfolio at any time.</b>
<b>An investment in the Portfolio is not a deposit of any bank and is not insured or guaranteed by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, any other government agency, or The Northern Trust Company, its affiliates, subsidiaries or any other bank.</b>
<b>The Portfolio may impose a fee upon sale of your shares or may temporarily suspend your ability to sell shares if the Portfolio’s liquidity falls below required minimums because of market conditions or other factors.</b>
<b>Because the share price of the Portfolio will fluctuate, when you sell your shares they may be worth more or less than what you originally paid for them.</b>
The bar chart and table that follow provide an indication of the risks of investing in the Portfolio by showing changes in the performance of the Portfolio’s Shares from year to year.
800-637-1380
northerntrust.com/institutional
The Portfolio’s past performance is not necessarily an indication of how the Portfolio will perform in the future.
The 7-day yield for Shares of the Portfolio as of December 31, 2018
800-637-1380
0
0.0013
0.0004
0.0002
0
0.0002
0.0017
-0.0002
0.0015
15
53
94
215
0.0039
0.0015
0.0008
0.0008
0.0005
0.0002
0.0007
0.0049
0.0104
0.0199
2003-08-21
0.0199
0.0072
0.0043
0.0138
highest quarterly return
0.0058
2018-12-31
lowest quarterly return
0
2014-03-31
0.0247
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<b>PRIME OBLIGATIONS PORTFOLIO—SERVICE SHARES AND PREMIER SHARES </b>
<b>INVESTMENT OBJECTIVE </b>
The Portfolio seeks to maximize current income to the extent consistent with the preservation of capital and maintenance of liquidity by investing exclusively in high quality money market instruments.
<b>FEES AND EXPENSES OF THE PORTFOLIO </b>
This table describes the fees and expenses that you may pay if you buy and hold Service Shares and Premier Shares of the Portfolio.
<b>Shareholder Fees </b>(fees paid directly from your investment)
<b>Annual Portfolio Operating Expenses </b>(expenses that you pay each year<br/>as a percentage of the value of your investment)
<b>EXAMPLE </b>
The following Example is intended to help you compare the cost of investing in Service Shares and Premier Shares of the Portfolio with the cost of investing in other mutual funds. The Example assumes that you invest $10,000 in the Portfolio for the time periods indicated and then redeem all of your shares at the end of those periods. The Example also assumes that your investment has a 5% return each year and that the Portfolio’s operating expenses remain the same. Although your actual costs may be higher or lower, based on these assumptions your costs would be:
<b>PRINCIPAL INVESTMENT STRATEGIES </b>
The Portfolio seeks to achieve its objective by investing in a broad range of high-quality, U.S. dollar-denominated government, bank and commercial obligations that are available in the money markets, including: <ul type="square"><li> Obligations of U.S. banks (including obligations of foreign branches of such banks); </li></ul><ul type="square"><li> Obligations of foreign commercial banks; </li></ul><ul type="square"><li> Commercial paper and other obligations issued or guaranteed by U.S. and foreign corporations and other issuers; </li></ul><ul type="square"><li> Corporate bonds, notes, paper and other instruments that are of high quality; </li></ul><ul type="square"><li> Asset-backed securities and asset-backed commercial paper; </li></ul><ul type="square"><li> Securities issued or guaranteed as to principal and interest by the U.S. government or by its agencies, instrumentalities or sponsored enterprises and custodial receipts with respect thereto; </li></ul><ul type="square"><li> Securities issued or guaranteed by one or more foreign governments or political subdivisions, agencies or instrumentalities; </li></ul><ul type="square"><li> Repurchase agreements; and </li></ul><ul type="square"><li> Municipal securities issued or guaranteed by state or local governmental bodies. </li></ul>Under normal market conditions, the Portfolio will invest at least 25% of its total assets in securities issued by companies in the financial services group of industries. Companies in the financial services group of industries include but are not limited to U.S. and non-U.S. companies involved in banking, mortgage, consumer or specialized finance, investment banking, securities brokerage, asset management and custody, insurance, financial investment, real estate and mortgage finance and financial conglomerates, and related asset-backed securities. The Portfolio may, however, for temporary defensive purposes, invest less than 25% of its total assets in the financial services industry if warranted due to adverse economic conditions or if investing less than 25% of its total assets in the financial services industry appears to be in the best interest of shareholders. <br/><br/>The Portfolio operates as an “institutional money market fund” under Rule 2a-7 of the Investment Company Act of 1940, as amended. As an “institutional money market fund” under Rule 2a-7, the Portfolio is (1) required to sell and redeem its shares at its net asset value (“NAV”) rounded to the fourth decimal place (e.g., $1.0000) reflecting market-based values of the Portfolio’s holdings, and (2) the Board of Trustees (the “Board”) will be permitted to impose a “liquidity fee” on redemptions from the Portfolio (up to 2%) or temporarily restrict redemptions from the Portfolio for up to 10 business days during a 90-day period, as described in more detail under “Purchase and Sales of Portfolio Shares.” <br/><br/>The Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) imposes strict requirements on the investment quality, maturity, diversification and liquidity of the Portfolio’s investments. <br/><br/>Accordingly, the Portfolio’s investments must have a remaining maturity of no more than 397 days and must be high quality. The Portfolio’s investment adviser may consider, among other things, credit, interest rate and prepayment risks as well as general market conditions when deciding whether to buy or sell investments for the Portfolio.
<b>PRINCIPAL RISKS </b>
<b>ASSET-BACKED SECURITIES RISK. </b>Asset-backed securities represent interests in pools of assets such as mortgages, automobile loans, credit card receivables and other financial assets. Asset-backed securities are subject to credit, interest rate, prepayment, extension, valuation and liquidity risk. These securities, in most cases, are not backed by the full faith and credit of the U.S. government and are subject to the risk of default on the underlying asset or loan, particularly during periods of economic downturn. Small movements in interest rates (both increases and decreases) may quickly and significantly reduce the value of certain asset-backed securities. <br/><br/><b>COMMERCIAL PAPER RISK.</b> Investments in commercial paper are subject to the risk that the issuer cannot issue enough new commercial paper to satisfy its obligations with respect to its outstanding commercial paper, also known as rollover risk. Commercial paper is also susceptible to changes in the issuer’s financial condition or credit quality. In addition, under certain circumstances commercial paper may become illiquid or may suffer from reduced liquidity. Commercial paper is generally unsecured, which increases the credit risk associated with this type of investment. <br/><br/><b>CREDIT (OR DEFAULT) RISK</b> is the risk that the inability or unwillingness of an issuer or guarantor of a fixed-income security, or a counterparty to a repurchase or other transaction, to meet its principal and interest payments or other financial obligations will adversely affect the value of the Portfolio’s investments and its yield. Changes in the credit rating of a debt security held by the Portfolio could have a similar effect. <br/><br/><b>CURRENCY RISK</b> is the risk that foreign currencies, securities that trade in or receive revenue in foreign currencies, or derivatives that provide exposure to foreign currencies will fluctuate in value relative to the U.S. dollar, adversely affecting the value of the Fund’s investments and its returns. Because the Portfolio’s NAV is determined on the basis of U.S. dollars, you may lose money if the local currency of a foreign market depreciates against the U.S. dollar, even if the market value of the Portfolio’s holdings appreciates. In addition, fluctuations in the exchange values of currencies could affect the economy or particular business operations of companies in a geographic region in which the Portfolio invests, causing an adverse impact on the Portfolio’s investments in the affected region. <br/><br/><b>CYBERSECURITY RISK</b> is the risk of an unauthorized breach and access to Portfolio assets, customer data (including private shareholder information), or proprietary information, or the risk of an incident occurring that causes the Portfolio, the investment adviser, custodian, transfer agent, distributor and other service providers and financial intermediaries to suffer data breaches, data corruption or lose operational functionality. Successful cyber-attacks or other cyber-failures or events affecting the Portfolio or its service providers may adversely impact the Portfolio or its shareholders. <br/><br/><b>DEBT EXTENSION RISK</b> is the risk that an issuer will exercise its right to pay principal on an obligation held by the Portfolio (such as an asset-backed security) later than expected. This may happen during a period of rising interest rates. Under these circumstances, the value of the obligation will decrease and the Portfolio will suffer from the inability to invest in higher yielding securities. <br/><br/><b>FINANCIAL SERVICES INDUSTRY RISK</b> is the risk that, because the Portfolio will invest under normal market conditions at least 25% of its total assets in the financial services industry, the Portfolio will be subject to greater risk of loss by economic, business, political or other developments which generally affect this industry. Changes in government regulation and interest rates and economic downturns can have a significant negative effect on issuers in the financial services sector, including the price of their securities or their ability to meet their payment obligations. <br/><br/><b>FLOATING NAV RISK</b> is the risk that because the share price of the Portfolio will fluctuate, when you sell your shares they may be worth more or less than what you originally paid for them. <br/><br/><b>FOREIGN SECURITIES RISK</b> is the risk that a foreign security, even if it is a U.S. dollar-denominated foreign security, could lose value as a result of political, financial and economic events in foreign countries, more or less stringent foreign securities regulations and accounting and disclosure standards or other factors. In addition, the Portfolio will be subject to the risk that an issuer of foreign sovereign debt or the government authorities that control the repayment of the debt may be unable or unwilling to repay the principal or interest when due. <br/><br/><b>GUARANTOR (OR CREDIT ENHANCEMENT) RISK</b> is the risk that changes in credit quality of a U.S. or foreign bank, insurance company or other financial institution or such entity’s failure to fulfill its obligations could cause the Portfolio’s investments to decline in value. Adverse developments in the banking or bond insurance industries also may negatively affect the Portfolio. <br/><br/><b>INCOME RISK</b> is the risk that falling interest rates will cause the Portfolio’s income to decline. Income risk is generally higher for short-term debt securities. <br/><br/><b>INTEREST RATE RISK</b> is the risk that during periods of rising interest rates, the Portfolio’s yield (and the market value of its securities) will tend to be lower than prevailing market rates; in periods of falling interest rates, the Portfolio’s yield (and the market value of its securities) will tend to be higher. Securities with longer maturities tend to be more sensitive to changes in interest rates, causing them to be more volatile than securities with shorter maturities. Securities with shorter maturities tend to provide lower returns and be less volatile than securities with longer maturities. If interest rates rise, the Portfolio’s yield may not increase proportionately, and the maturities of income securities that have the ability to be prepaid or called by the issuer may be extended. The risks associated with changing interest rates may have unpredictable effects on the markets and the Portfolio’s investments. A general rise in interest rates may cause investors to move out of fixed income securities on a large scale, which could adversely affect the price and liquidity of fixed income securities and could also result in increased redemptions for the Portfolio. A low or declining interest rate environment may prevent the Portfolio from providing a positive yield or paying Portfolio expenses out of Portfolio assets and could lead to a decline in the Portfolio’s share price. Fluctuations in interest rates may also affect the liquidity of fixed income securities and instruments held by the Portfolio. <br/><br/><b>LARGE SHAREHOLDER TRANSACTIONS RISK</b> is the risk that the Portfolio may experience adverse effects when certain large shareholders purchase or redeem large amounts of shares of the Portfolio. Such large shareholder redemptions, which may occur rapidly and unexpectedly, may cause the Portfolio to sell its securities at times it would not otherwise do so, which may negatively impact its liquidity. Such sales may also accelerate the increase of taxable income to shareholders if these sales result in gains, and may also increase transaction costs. In addition, large redemptions could lead to an increase in the Portfolio’s expense ratio due to a smaller asset base. Large Portfolio share purchases may adversely affect the Portfolio’s performance to the extent that the Portfolio is delayed in investing or otherwise maintains a larger cash position than it ordinarily would. <br/><br/><b>LIQUIDITY FEE AND REDEMPTION GATE RISK</b> is the risk that the Portfolio may impose a “liquidity fee” (up to 2%) or “redemption gate” that temporarily restricts your ability to sell shares for up to 10 business days if the Portfolio’s liquidity falls below required minimums because of market conditions or other factors. <br/><br/><b>LIQUIDITY RISK </b>is the risk that the Portfolio will not be able to pay redemption proceeds in a timely manner because of unusual market conditions, an unusually high volume of redemption requests, legal restrictions impairing its ability to sell particular securities at an advantageous market price or other reasons. Certain portfolio securities may be less liquid than others, which may make them difficult or impossible to sell at the time and the price that the Portfolio would like and the Portfolio may have to lower the price, sell other securities instead or forgo an investment opportunity. In addition, less liquid securities may be more difficult to value and markets may become less liquid when there are fewer interested buyers or sellers or when dealers are unwilling or unable to make a market for certain securities. Recently, dealers have generally been less willing to make markets for fixed income securities. All of these risks may increase during periods of market turmoil and could have a negative effect on the Portfolio’s performance. <br/><br/><b>MANAGEMENT RISK</b> is the risk that a strategy used by the Portfolio’s investment adviser may fail to produce the intended results or that imperfections, errors or limitations in the tools and data used by the investment adviser may cause unintended results. <br/><br/><b>MARKET RISK</b> is the risk that general market conditions, such as real or perceived adverse economic or political conditions, inflation, changes in interest rates, lack of liquidity in the bond markets or adverse investor sentiment could cause the value of your investment in the Portfolio, or its yield, to decline. The market value of the securities in which the Portfolio invests may go up or down in response to the prospects of particular sectors or governments and/or general economic conditions throughout the world due to increasingly interconnected global economies and financial markets. <br/><br/><b>PREPAYMENT (OR CALL) RISK</b> is the risk that prepayment of the underlying mortgages or other collateral of some fixed-income securities may result in a decreased rate of return and a decline in value of those securities. <br/><br/><b>U.S. GOVERNMENT SECURITIES RISK</b> is the risk that the U.S. government will not provide financial support to its agencies, instrumentalities or sponsored enterprises if it is not obligated to do so by law. Certain U.S. government securities purchased by the Portfolio are neither issued nor guaranteed by the U.S. Treasury and, therefore, may not be backed by the full faith and credit of the United States. It is possible that the issuers of such securities will not have the funds to meet their payment obligations in the future. <br/><br/><b>VARIABLE OR FLOATING RATE INSTRUMENTS RISK</b> is the risk that securities with variable or floating rates can be less sensitive to interest rate changes than securities with fixed interest rates, but may decline in value and negatively impact the Portfolio, particularly if changes in prevailing interest rates are more frequent or sudden than the rate changes for the variable or floating rate securities, which only occur periodically. Although variable and floating rate securities are less sensitive to interest rate risk than fixed-rate securities, they are subject to credit risk and default risk, which could impede their value. <br/><br/><b>You could lose money by investing in the Portfolio. Because the share price of the Portfolio will fluctuate, when you sell your shares they may be worth more or less than what you originally paid for them. The Portfolio may impose a fee upon sale of your shares or may temporarily suspend your ability to sell shares if the Portfolio’s liquidity falls below required minimums because of market conditions or other factors. An investment in the Portfolio is not a deposit of any bank and is not insured or guaranteed by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, any other government agency, or The Northern</b> <b>Trust Company, its affiliates, subsidiaries or any other bank. The Portfolio’s sponsor has no legal obligation to provide financial support to the Portfolio, and you should not expect that the sponsor will provide financial support to the Portfolio at any time.</b>
<b>PORTFOLIO PERFORMANCE </b>
The bar chart and table that follow provide an indication of the risks of investing in the Portfolio by showing changes in the performance of the Portfolio from year to year. As of December 31, 2018 there were no Premier Shares outstanding for the Portfolio. <br/><br/>The Portfolio’s past performance is not necessarily an indication of how the Portfolio will perform in the future. <br/><br/>Updated performance information for the Portfolio is available and may be obtained on the Portfolio’s website at northerntrust.com/institutional or by calling 800-637-1380.
<b>CALENDAR YEAR TOTAL RETURN (SERVICE SHARES)*<sup>†</sup> </b>
* For the periods shown in the bar chart above, the highest quarterly return was 0.58% in the fourth quarter of 2018, and the lowest quarterly return was 0.00% in the first quarter of 2014.<br/><br/><sup>†</sup> The total return from January 1, 2017 through February 23, 2017 reflects the performance of the Portfolio’s Service Shares. As of February 24, 2017, there were no Service Shares outstanding. Performance information from that date through May 3, 2018 reflects that of the Portfolio’s Shares class. As of May 4, 2018, there were Service Shares outstanding for the Portfolio. Performance information from that date through December 31, 2018 reflects that of the Portfolio’s Service Shares class. As of December 31, 2018 there were no Premier Shares outstanding for the Portfolio. Service Shares and Premier Shares would have similar annual returns when compared with Shares because each class is invested in the same portfolio of securities. The annual return of the Shares class would differ from those of Service Shares and Premier Shares only to the extent that the classes do not have the same expenses.
<b>AVERAGE ANNUAL TOTAL RETURNS</b><br/>(For the periods ended December 31, 2018)
The 7-day yield for Shares of the Portfolio as of December 31, 2018: 2.47%. For the current 7-day yield call 800-637-1380 or visit northerntrust.com/institutional.
April 1, 2020
<b>You could lose money by investing in the Portfolio. </b>
<b>Because the share price of the Portfolio will fluctuate, when you sell your shares they may be worth more or less than what you originally paid for them.</b>
<b>The Portfolio may impose a fee upon sale of your shares or may temporarily suspend your ability to sell shares if the Portfolio’s liquidity falls below required minimums because of market conditions or other factors.</b>
<b>An investment in the Portfolio is not a deposit of any bank and is not insured or guaranteed by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, any other government agency, or The Northern</b> <b>Trust Company, its affiliates, subsidiaries or any other bank.</b>
<b>The Portfolio’s sponsor has no legal obligation to provide financial support to the Portfolio, and you should not expect that the sponsor will provide financial support to the Portfolio at any time.</b>
The bar chart and table that follow provide an indication of the risks of investing in the Portfolio by showing changes in the performance of the Portfolio from year to year.
800-637-1380
northerntrust.com/institutional
The Portfolio’s past performance is not necessarily an indication of how the Portfolio will perform in the future.
The 7-day yield for Shares of the Portfolio as of December 31, 2018
800-637-1380
0
0
0.0013
0.0013
0.0029
0.0054
0.0002
0.0002
0.0025
0.005
0.0002
0.0002
0.0042
0.0067
-0.0002
-0.0002
0.004
0.0065
41
133
233
528
66
212
371
833
0.0017
0.0002
0.0002
0.0007
0.0005
0.0002
0.0007
0.0049
0.0104
0.0199
2003-09-02
0.0199
0.0072
0.0039
0.0126
“Other Expenses” have been estimated for the current fiscal year.
highest quarterly return
0.0058
2018-12-31
lowest quarterly return
0
2014-03-31
0.0247
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<b>PRIME OBLIGATIONS PORTFOLIO</b>
<b>INVESTMENT OBJECTIVE </b>
The Portfolio seeks to maximize current income to the extent consistent with the preservation of capital and maintenance of liquidity by investing exclusively in high quality money market instruments.
<b>FEES AND EXPENSES OF THE PORTFOLIO </b>
This table describes the fees and expenses that you may pay if you buy and hold Williams Capital Shares of the Portfolio.
<b>Shareholder Fees</b> (fees paid directly from your investment)
<b>Annual Portfolio Operating Expenses </b>(expenses that you pay each year as<br/>a percentage of the value of your investment)
<b>EXAMPLE </b>
The following Example is intended to help you compare the cost of investing in Williams Capital Shares of the Portfolio with the cost of investing in other mutual funds. The Example assumes that you invest $10,000 in the Portfolio for the time periods indicated and then redeem all of your shares at the end of those periods. The Example also assumes that your investment has a 5% return each year and that the Portfolio’s operating expenses remain the same. Although your actual costs may be higher or lower, based on these assumptions your costs would be:
<b>PRINCIPAL INVESTMENT STRATEGIES </b>
The Portfolio seeks to achieve its objective by investing in a broad range of high-quality, U.S. dollar-denominated government, bank and commercial obligations that are available in the money markets, including:<ul type="square"><li> Obligations of U.S. banks (including obligations of foreign branches of such banks);</li></ul><ul type="square"><li> Obligations of foreign commercial banks;</li></ul><ul type="square"><li> Commercial paper and other obligations issued or guaranteed by U.S. and foreign corporations and other issuers;</li></ul><ul type="square"><li> Corporate bonds, notes, paper and other instruments that are of high quality;</li></ul><ul type="square"><li> Asset-backed securities and asset-backed commercial paper;</li></ul><ul type="square"><li> Securities issued or guaranteed as to principal and interest by the U.S. government or by its agencies, instrumentalities or sponsored enterprises and custodial receipts with respect thereto;</li></ul><ul type="square"><li> Securities issued or guaranteed by one or more foreign governments or political subdivisions, agencies or instrumentalities;</li></ul><ul type="square"><li> Repurchase agreements; and</li></ul><ul type="square"><li> Municipal securities issued or guaranteed by state or local governmental bodies.</li></ul>Under normal market conditions, the Portfolio will invest at least 25% of its total assets in securities issued by companies in the financial services group of industries. Companies in the financial services group of industries include but are not limited to U.S. and non-U.S. companies involved in banking, mortgage, consumer or specialized finance, investment banking, securities brokerage, asset management and custody, insurance, financial investment, real estate and mortgage finance and financial conglomerates, and related asset-backed securities. The Portfolio may, however, for temporary defensive purposes, invest less than 25% of its total assets in the financial services industry if warranted due to adverse economic conditions or if investing less than 25% of its total assets in the financial services industry appears to be in the best interest of shareholders.<br/><br/>The Portfolio operates as an “institutional money market fund” under Rule 2a-7 of the Investment Company Act of 1940, as amended. As an “institutional money market fund” under Rule 2a-7, the Portfolio is (1) required to sell and redeem its shares at its net asset value (“NAV”) rounded to the fourth decimal place (e.g., $1.0000) reflecting market-based values of the Portfolio’s holdings, and (2) the Board of Trustees (the “Board”) will be permitted to impose a “liquidity fee” on redemptions from the Portfolio (up to 2%) or temporarily restrict redemptions from the Portfolio for up to 10 business days during a 90-day period, as described in more detail under “Purchase and Sales of Portfolio Shares.”<br/><br/>The Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) imposes strict requirements on the investment quality, maturity, diversification and liquidity of the Portfolio’s investments. Accordingly, the Portfolio’s investments must have a remaining maturity of no more than 397 days and must be high quality. The Portfolio’s investment adviser may consider, among other things, credit, interest rate and prepayment risks as well as general market conditions when deciding whether to buy or sell investments for the Portfolio.
<b>PRINCIPAL RISKS </b>
<b>ASSET-BACKED SECURITIES RISK.</b> Asset-backed securities represent interests in pools of assets such as mortgages, automobile loans, credit card receivables and other financial assets. Asset-backed securities are subject to credit, interest rate, prepayment, extension, valuation and liquidity risk. These securities, in most cases, are not backed by the full faith and credit of the U.S. government and are subject to the risk of default on the underlying asset or loan, particularly during periods of economic downturn. Small movements in interest rates (both increases and decreases) may quickly and significantly reduce the value of certain asset-backed securities.<br/><br/><b>COMMERCIAL PAPER RISK.</b> Investments in commercial paper are subject to the risk that the issuer cannot issue enough new commercial paper to satisfy its obligations with respect to its outstanding commercial paper, also known as rollover risk. Commercial paper is also susceptible to changes in the issuer’s financial condition or credit quality. In addition, under certain circumstances commercial paper may become illiquid or may suffer from reduced liquidity. Commercial paper is generally unsecured, which increases the credit risk associated with this type of investment.<br/><br/><b>CREDIT (OR DEFAULT) RISK</b> is the risk that the inability or unwillingness of an issuer or guarantor of a fixed-income security, or a counterparty to a repurchase or other transaction, to meet its principal and interest payments or other financial obligations will adversely affect the value of the Portfolio’s investments and its yield. Changes in the credit rating of a debt security held by the Portfolio could have a similar effect.<br/><br/><b>CURRENCY RISK</b> is the risk that foreign currencies, securities that trade in or receive revenue in foreign currencies, or derivatives that provide exposure to foreign currencies will fluctuate in value relative to the U.S. dollar, adversely affecting the value of the Fund’s investments and its returns. Because the Portfolio’s NAV is determined on the basis of U.S. dollars, you may lose money if the local currency of a foreign market depreciates against the U.S. dollar, even if the market value of the Portfolio’s holdings appreciates. In addition, fluctuations in the exchange values of currencies could affect the economy or particular business operations of companies in a geographic region in which the Portfolio invests, causing an adverse impact on the Portfolio’s investments in the affected region.<br/><br/><b>CYBERSECURITY RISK</b> is the risk of an unauthorized breach and access to Portfolio assets, customer data (including private shareholder information), or proprietary information, or the risk of an incident occurring that causes the Portfolio, the investment adviser, custodian, transfer agent, distributor and other service providers and financial intermediaries to suffer data breaches, data corruption or lose operational functionality. Successful cyber-attacks or other cyber-failures or events affecting the Portfolio or its service providers may adversely impact the Portfolio or its shareholders.<br/><br/><b>DEBT EXTENSION RISK</b> is the risk that an issuer will exercise its right to pay principal on an obligation held by the Portfolio (such as an asset-backed security) later than expected. This may happen during a period of rising interest rates. Under these circumstances, the value of the obligation will decrease and the Portfolio will suffer from the inability to invest in higher yielding securities.<br/><br/><b>FINANCIAL SERVICES INDUSTRY RISK</b> is the risk that, because the Portfolio will invest under normal market conditions at least 25% of its total assets in the financial services industry, the Portfolio will be subject to greater risk of loss by economic, business, political or other developments which generally affect this industry. Changes in government regulation and interest rates and economic downturns can have a significant negative effect on issuers in the financial services sector, including the price of their securities or their ability to meet their payment obligations.<br/><br/><b>FLOATING NAV RISK</b> is the risk that because the share price of the Portfolio will fluctuate, when you sell your shares they may be worth more or less than what you originally paid for them.<br/><br/><b>FOREIGN SECURITIES RISK</b> is the risk that a foreign security, even if it is a U.S. dollar-denominated foreign security, could lose value as a result of political, financial and economic events in foreign countries, more or less stringent foreign securities regulations and accounting and disclosure standards or other factors. In addition, the Portfolio will be subject to the risk that an issuer of foreign sovereign debt or the government authorities that control the repayment of the debt may be unable or unwilling to repay the principal or interest when due.<br/><br/><b>GUARANTOR (OR CREDIT ENHANCEMENT) RISK</b> is the risk that changes in credit quality of a U.S. or foreign bank, insurance company or other financial institution or such entity’s failure to fulfill its obligations could cause the Portfolio’s investments to decline in value. Adverse developments in the banking or bond insurance industries also may negatively affect the Portfolio.<br/><br/><b>INCOME RISK</b> is the risk that falling interest rates will cause the Portfolio’s income to decline. Income risk is generally higher for short-term debt securities.<br/><br/><b>INTEREST RATE RISK</b> is the risk that during periods of rising interest rates, the Portfolio’s yield (and the market value of its securities) will tend to be lower than prevailing market rates; in periods of falling interest rates, the Portfolio’s yield (and the market value of its securities) will tend to be higher. Securities with longer maturities tend to be more sensitive to changes in interest rates, causing them to be more volatile than securities with shorter maturities. Securities with shorter maturities tend to provide lower returns and be less volatile than securities with longer maturities. If interest rates rise, the Portfolio’s yield may not increase proportionately, and the maturities of income securities that have the ability to be prepaid or called by the issuer may be extended. The risks associated with changing interest rates may have unpredictable effects on the markets and the Portfolio’s investments. A general rise in interest rates may cause investors to move out of fixed income securities on a large scale, which could adversely affect the price and liquidity of fixed income securities and could also result in increased redemptions for the Portfolio. A low or declining interest rate environment may prevent the Portfolio from providing a positive yield or paying Portfolio expenses out of Portfolio assets and could lead to a decline in the Portfolio’s share price. Fluctuations in interest rates may also affect the liquidity of fixed income securities and instruments held by the Portfolio.<br/><br/><b>LARGE SHAREHOLDER TRANSACTIONS RISK</b> is the risk that the Portfolio may experience adverse effects when certain large shareholders purchase or redeem large amounts of shares of the Portfolio. Such large shareholder redemptions, which may occur rapidly and unexpectedly, may cause the Portfolio to sell its securities at times it would not otherwise do so, which may negatively impact its liquidity. Such sales may also accelerate the increase of taxable income to shareholders if these sales result in gains, and may also increase transaction costs. In addition, large redemptions could lead to an increase in the Portfolio’s expense ratio due to a smaller asset base. Large Portfolio share purchases may adversely affect the Portfolio’s performance to the extent that the Portfolio is delayed in investing or otherwise maintains a larger cash position than it ordinarily would.<br/><br/><b>LIQUIDITY FEE AND REDEMPTION GATE RISK</b> is the risk that the Portfolio may impose a “liquidity fee” (up to 2%) or “redemption gate” that temporarily restricts your ability to sell shares for up to 10 business days if the Portfolio’s liquidity falls below required minimums because of market conditions or other factors.<br/><br/><b>LIQUIDITY RISK</b> is the risk that the Portfolio will not be able to pay redemption proceeds in a timely manner because of unusual market conditions, an unusually high volume of redemption requests, legal restrictions impairing its ability to sell particular securities at an advantageous market price or other reasons. Certain portfolio securities may be less liquid than others, which may make them difficult or impossible to sell at the time and the price that the Portfolio would like and the Portfolio may have to lower the price, sell other securities instead or forgo an investment opportunity. In addition, less liquid securities may be more difficult to value and markets may become less liquid when there are fewer interested buyers or sellers or when dealers are unwilling or unable to make a market for certain securities. Recently, dealers have generally been less willing to make markets for fixed income securities. All of these risks may increase during periods of market turmoil and could have a negative effect on the Portfolio’s performance.<br/><br/><b>MANAGEMENT RISK</b> is the risk that a strategy used by the Portfolio’s investment adviser may fail to produce the intended results or that imperfections, errors or limitations in the tools and data used by the investment adviser may cause unintended results.<br/><br/><b>MARKET RISK</b> is the risk that general market conditions, such as real or perceived adverse economic or political conditions, inflation, changes in interest rates, lack of liquidity in the bond markets or adverse investor sentiment could cause the value of your investment in the Portfolio, or its yield, to decline. The market value of securities in which the Portfolio invests may go up or down in response to the prospects of particular sectors or governments and/or general economic conditions throughout the world due to increasingly interconnected global economies and financial markets.<br/><br/><b>PREPAYMENT (OR CALL) RISK</b> is the risk that prepayment of the underlying mortgages or other collateral of some fixed-income securities may result in a decreased rate of return and a decline in value of those securities.<br/><br/><b>U.S. GOVERNMENT SECURITIES RISK</b> is the risk that the U.S. government will not provide financial support to its agencies, instrumentalities or sponsored enterprises if it is not obligated to do so by law. Certain U.S. government securities purchased by the Portfolio are neither issued nor guaranteed by the U.S. Treasury and, therefore, may not be backed by the full faith and credit of the United States. It is possible that the issuers of such securities will not have the funds to meet their payment obligations in the future.<br/><br/><b>VARIABLE OR FLOATING RATE INSTRUMENTS RISK</b> is the risk that securities with variable or floating rates can be less sensitive to interest rate changes than securities with fixed interest rates, but may decline in value and negatively impact the Portfolio, particularly if changes in prevailing interest rates are more frequent or sudden than the rate changes for the variable or floating rate securities, which only occur periodically. Although variable and floating rate securities are less sensitive to interest rate risk than fixed-rate securities, they are subject to credit risk and default risk, which could impede their value.<br/><br/><b>You could lose money by investing in the Portfolio. Because the share price of the Portfolio will fluctuate, when you sell your shares they may be worth more or less than what you originally paid for them. The Portfolio may impose a fee upon sale of your shares or may temporarily suspend your ability to sell shares if the Portfolio’s liquidity falls below required minimums because of market conditions or other factors. An investment in the Portfolio is not a deposit of any bank and is not insured or guaranteed by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, any other government agency, or The Northern Trust Company, its affiliates, subsidiaries or any other bank. The Portfolio’s sponsor has no legal obligation to provide financial support to the Portfolio, and you should not expect that the sponsor will provide financial support to the Portfolio at any time.</b>
<b>PORTFOLIO PERFORMANCE</b>
Williams Capital Shares of the Portfolio had not commenced operations as of December 31, 2018 and, therefore, no performance information for Williams Capital Shares is included in this Prospectus. The bar chart and table that follow provide an indication of the risks of investing in the Portfolio by showing changes in the performance from year to year of Shares, another class of shares of the Portfolio that is offered in a separate prospectus.<br/><br/>The Portfolio’s past performance is not necessarily an indication of how the Portfolio will perform in the future.<br/><br/>Updated performance information for the Portfolio is available and may be obtained on the Portfolio’s website at northerntrust.com/institutional or by calling 800-637-1380.
<b>CALENDAR YEAR TOTAL RETURN (SHARES)*<sup>†</sup></b>
* For the periods shown in the bar chart above, the highest quarterly return was 0.58% in the fourth quarter of 2018, and the lowest quarterly return was 0.00% in the first quarter of 2014.<br/><br/><sup>†</sup> The returns in the bar chart and table above are for Shares, another class of shares of the Portfolio that is offered in a separate prospectus. Williams Capital Shares would have substantially similar annual returns because Williams Capital Shares are invested in the same portfolio of securities and the annual returns would differ only to the extent that the classes have different expenses.
<b>AVERAGE ANNUAL TOTAL RETURNS</b><br/>(For the periods ended December 31, 2018)
The 7-day yield for Shares of the Portfolio as of December 31, 2018: 2.47%. For the current 7-day yield call 800-637-1380 or visit northerntrust.com/institutional.
“Other Expenses” have been estimated for the current fiscal year.
April 1, 2020
<b>You could lose money by investing in the Portfolio.</b>
<b>Because the share price of the Portfolio will fluctuate, when you sell your shares they may be worth more or less than what you originally paid for them.</b>
<b>The Portfolio may impose a fee upon sale of your shares or may temporarily suspend your ability to sell shares if the Portfolio’s liquidity falls below required minimums because of market conditions or other factors.</b>
<b>An investment in the Portfolio is not a deposit of any bank and is not insured or guaranteed by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, any other government agency, or The Northern Trust Company, its affiliates, subsidiaries or any other bank.</b>
<b>The Portfolio’s sponsor has no legal obligation to provide financial support to the Portfolio, and you should not expect that the sponsor will provide financial support to the Portfolio at any time.</b>
Williams Capital Shares of the Portfolio had not commenced operations as of December 31, 2018 and, therefore, no performance information for Williams Capital Shares is included in this Prospectus.
The bar chart and table that follow provide an indication of the risks of investing in the Portfolio by showing changes in the performance from year to year of Shares, another class of shares of the Portfolio that is offered in a separate prospectus.
The Portfolio’s past performance is not necessarily an indication of how the Portfolio will perform in the future.
northerntrust.com/institutional
800-637-1380
The returns in the bar chart and table above are for Shares, another class of shares of the Portfolio that is offered in a separate prospectus. Williams Capital Shares would have substantially similar annual returns because Williams Capital Shares are invested in the same portfolio of securities and the annual returns would differ only to the extent that the classes have different expenses.
The 7-day yield for Shares of the Portfolio as of December 31, 2018
800-637-1380
0
0.0013
0.0004
0.0002
0
0.0002
0.0017
-0.0002
0.0015
15
53
94
215
0.0039
0.0015
0.0008
0.0008
0.0005
0.0002
0.0007
0.0049
0.0104
0.0199
2003-08-21
0.0199
0.0072
0.0043
0.0138
highest quarterly return
0.0058
2018-12-31
lowest quarterly return
0
2014-03-31
0.0247
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<b>U.S. GOVERNMENT SELECT PORTFOLIO </b>
<b>INVESTMENT OBJECTIVE </b>
The Portfolio seeks to maximize current income to the extent consistent with the preservation of capital and maintenance of liquidity by investing exclusively in high quality money market instruments.
<b>FEES AND EXPENSES OF THE PORTFOLIO </b>
This table describes the fees and expenses that you may pay if you buy and hold Williams Capital Shares of the Portfolio.
<b>Shareholder Fees </b> (fees paid directly from your investment)
<b>Annual Portfolio Operating Expenses </b>(expenses that you pay each year as<br/>a percentage of the value of your investment)
<b>EXAMPLE </b>
The following Example is intended to help you compare the cost of investing in Williams Capital Shares of the Portfolio with the cost of investing in other mutual funds. The Example assumes that you invest $10,000 in the Portfolio for the time periods indicated and then redeem all of your shares at the end of those periods. The Example also assumes that your investment has a 5% return each year and that the Portfolio’s operating expenses remain the same. Although your actual costs may be higher or lower, based on these assumptions your costs would be:
<b>PRINCIPAL INVESTMENT STRATEGIES </b>
The Portfolio seeks to achieve its objective by investing, under normal circumstances, substantially all (and at least 99.5%) of its total assets in cash, securities issued or guaranteed as to principal and interest by the U.S. government or by a person controlled or supervised by and acting as an instrumentality of the U.S. government pursuant to authority granted by the Congress of the United States or any certificate of deposit of any of the foregoing, and repurchase agreements that are fully collateralized by cash or such securities. Subject to the foregoing 99.5% investment strategy requirement, under normal circumstances, the Portfolio will seek to acquire only those U.S. government securities paying interest that generally is exempt from state income taxation. The Portfolio, under normal circumstances, will invest at least 80% of its net assets (plus the amount of any borrowings for investment purposes) in U.S. government securities and repurchase agreements collateralized solely by U.S. government securities. <br/><br/>The Portfolio operates as a “government money market fund” under Rule 2a-7 of the Investment Company Act of 1940, as amended. As a “government money market fund” under Rule 2a-7, the Portfolio (1) is permitted to use the amortized cost method of valuation to seek to maintain a stable net asset value (“NAV”) of $1.00 share price, and (2) is not required to impose a liquidity fee and/or a redemption gate on Portfolio redemptions that might apply to other types of money market funds should certain triggering events specified in Rule 2a-7 occur. <br/><br/>The Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) imposes strict requirements on the investment quality, maturity, diversification and liquidity of the Portfolio’s investments. Accordingly, the Portfolio’s investments must have a remaining maturity of no more than 397 days and must be high quality. The Portfolio’s investment adviser may consider, among other things, credit, interest rate and prepayment risks as well as general market conditions when deciding whether to buy or sell investments for the Portfolio.
<b>PRINCIPAL RISKS </b>
<b>CREDIT (OR DEFAULT) RISK</b> is the risk that the inability or unwillingness of an issuer or guarantor of a fixed-income security, or a counterparty to a repurchase or other transaction, to meet its principal and interest payments or other financial obligations will adversely affect the value of the Portfolio’s investments and its yield. Changes in the credit rating of a debt security held by the Portfolio could have a similar effect. <br/><br/><b>CYBERSECURITY RISK</b> is the risk of an unauthorized breach and access to Portfolio assets, customer data (including private shareholder information), or proprietary information, or the risk of an incident occurring that causes the Portfolio, the investment adviser, custodian, transfer agent, distributor and other service providers and financial intermediaries to suffer data breaches, data corruption or lose operational functionality. Successful cyber-attacks or other cyber-failures or events affecting the Portfolio or its service providers may adversely impact the Portfolio or its shareholders. <br/><br/><b>DEBT EXTENSION RISK</b> is the risk that an issuer will exercise its right to pay principal on an obligation held by the Portfolio (such as an asset-backed security) later than expected. This may happen during a period of rising interest rates. Under these circumstances, the value of the obligation will decrease and the Portfolio will suffer from the inability to invest in higher yielding securities. <br/><br/><b>INCOME RISK</b> is the risk that falling interest rates will cause the Portfolio’s income to decline. Income risk is generally higher for short-term debt securities. <br/><br/><b>INTEREST RATE RISK</b> is the risk that during periods of rising interest rates, the Portfolio’s yield (and the market value of its securities) will tend to be lower than prevailing market rates; in periods of falling interest rates, the Portfolio’s yield (and the market value of its securities) will tend to be higher. Securities with longer maturities tend to be more sensitive to changes in interest rates, causing them to be more volatile than securities with shorter maturities. Securities with shorter maturities tend to provide lower returns and be less volatile than securities with longer maturities. If interest rates rise, the Portfolio’s yield may not increase proportionately, and the maturities of income securities that have the ability to be prepaid or called by the issuer may be extended. The risks associated with changing interest rates may have unpredictable effects on the markets and the Portfolio’s investments. A general rise in interest rates may cause investors to move out of fixed income securities on a large scale, which could adversely affect the price and liquidity of fixed income securities and could also result in increased redemptions for the Portfolio. A low or declining interest rate environment may prevent the Portfolio from providing a positive yield or paying Portfolio expenses out of Portfolio assets and could lead to a decline in the Portfolio’s share price. Fluctuations in interest rates may also affect the liquidity of fixed income securities and instruments held by the Portfolio. <br/><br/><b>LARGE SHAREHOLDER TRANSACTIONS RISK</b> is the risk that the Portfolio may experience adverse effects when certain large shareholders purchase or redeem large amounts of shares of the Portfolio. Such large shareholder redemptions, which may occur rapidly and unexpectedly, may cause the Portfolio to sell its securities at times it would not otherwise do so, which may negatively impact its liquidity. Such sales may also accelerate the increase of taxable income to shareholders if these sales result in gains, and may also increase transaction costs. In addition, large redemptions could lead to an increase in the Portfolio’s expense ratio due to a smaller asset base. Large Portfolio share purchases may adversely affect the Portfolio’s performance to the extent that the Portfolio is delayed in investing or otherwise maintains a larger cash position than it ordinarily would. <br/><br/><b>MANAGEMENT RISK</b> is the risk that a strategy used by the Portfolio’s investment adviser may fail to produce the intended results or that imperfections, errors or limitations in the tools and data used by the investment adviser may cause unintended results. <br/><br/><b>MARKET RISK</b> is the risk that general market conditions, such as real or perceived adverse economic or political conditions, inflation, changes in interest rates, lack of liquidity in the bond markets or adverse investor sentiment could cause the value of your investment in the Portfolio, or its yield, to decline. The market value of securities in which the Portfolio invests may go up or down in response to the prospects of particular sectors or governments and/or general economic conditions throughout the world due to increasingly interconnected global economies and financial markets. <br/><br/><b>PREPAYMENT (OR CALL) RISK</b> is the risk that prepayment of the underlying mortgages or other collateral of some fixed-income securities may result in a decreased rate of return and a decline in value of those securities. <br/><br/><b>STABLE NAV RISK</b> is the risk that the Portfolio will not be able to maintain an NAV per share of $1.00 at all times. A significant enough market disruption or drop in market prices of securities held by the Portfolio, especially at a time when the Portfolio needs to sell securities to meet shareholder redemption requests, could cause the value of the Portfolio’s shares to decrease to a price less than $1.00 per share. If the Portfolio fails to maintain a stable NAV (or if there is a perceived threat of such a failure), the Portfolio could be subject to increased redemption activity, which could adversely affect its NAV. <br/><br/><b>U.S. GOVERNMENT SECURITIES RISK</b> is the risk that the U.S. government will not provide financial support to its agencies, instrumentalities or sponsored enterprises if it is not obligated to do so by law. Certain U.S. government securities purchased by the Portfolio are neither issued nor guaranteed by the U.S. Treasury and, therefore, may not be backed by the full faith and credit of the United States. It is possible that the issuers of such securities will not have the funds to meet their payment obligations in the future. <br/><br/><b>VARIABLE OR FLOATING RATE INSTRUMENTS RISK</b> is the risk that securities with variable or floating rates can be less sensitive to interest rate changes than securities with fixed interest rates, but may decline in value and negatively impact the Portfolio, particularly if changes in prevailing interest rates are more frequent or sudden than the rate changes for the variable or floating rate securities, which only occur periodically. Although variable and floating rate securities are less sensitive to interest rate risk than fixed-rate securities, they are subject to credit risk and default risk, which could impede their value. <br/><br/><b>You could lose money by investing in the Portfolio. Although the Portfolio seeks to preserve the value of your investment at $1.00 per share, the Portfolio cannot guarantee it will do so. An investment in the Portfolio is not a deposit of any bank and is not insured or guaranteed by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, any other government agency, or The Northern Trust Company, its affiliates, subsidiaries or any other bank. The Portfolio’s sponsor has no legal obligation to provide financial support to the Portfolio, and you should not expect that the sponsor will provide financial support to the Portfolio at any time. </b>
<b>PORTFOLIO PERFORMANCE </b>
The bar chart and table that follow provide an indication of the risks of investing in the Portfolio by showing the performance of the Portfolio for a one year period and since inception. <br/><br/>The Portfolio’s past performance is not necessarily an indication of how the Portfolio will perform in the future. <br/><br/>Updated performance information for the Portfolio is available and may be obtained on the Portfolio’s website at northerntrust.com/institutional or by calling 800-637-1380.
<b>CALENDAR YEAR TOTAL RETURN (WILLIAMS CAPITAL SHARES)* </b>
* For the periods shown in the bar chart above, the highest quarterly return was 0.52% in the fourth quarter of 2018, and the lowest quarterly return was 0.00% in the third quarter of 2015.
<b>AVERAGE ANNUAL TOTAL RETURNS </b><br/>(For the periods ended December 31, 2018)
The 7-day yield for Williams Capital Shares of the Portfolio as of December 31, 2018: 2.25%. For the current 7-day yield call 800-637-1380 or visit northerntrust.com/institutional.
April 1, 2020
<b>You could lose money by investing in the Portfolio. </b>
<b>Although the Portfolio seeks to preserve the value of your investment at $1.00 per share, the Portfolio cannot guarantee it will do so. </b>
<b>An investment in the Portfolio is not a deposit of any bank and is not insured or guaranteed by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, any other government agency, or The Northern Trust Company, its affiliates, subsidiaries or any other bank. </b>
<b>The Portfolio’s sponsor has no legal obligation to provide financial support to the Portfolio, and you should not expect that the sponsor will provide financial support to the Portfolio at any time. </b>
The bar chart and table that follow provide an indication of the risks of investing in the Portfolio by showing the performance of the Portfolio for a one year period and since inception.
The Portfolio’s past performance is not necessarily an indication of how the Portfolio will perform in the future.
northerntrust.com/institutional
800-637-1380
800-637-1380
The 7-day yield for Williams Capital Shares of the Portfolio as of December 31, 2018
0
0.0018
0.0003
0.0002
0
0.0001
0.0021
-0.0001
0.002
20
67
117
267
0.0002
0.0023
0.0073
0.0168
2014-09-15
0.0168
0.0061
highest quarterly return
0.0052
2018-12-31
lowest quarterly return
0
2015-09-30
0.0225
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