Harbor Real Return Fund Institutional Class (HARRX)

Investment Philosophy

Principal Style Characteristics: Inflation-indexed fixed income securities

The Fund is non-diversified, which means that it may concentrate its assets in a smaller number of issuers than a diversified fund.

Inflation-indexed bonds are fixed income securities that are structured to provide protection against inflation. The value of the bond's principal or the interest income paid on the bond is adjusted to track changes in an official inflation measure. The U.S. Treasury uses the Consumer Price Index for Urban Consumers as the inflation measure for U.S. Treasury Inflation-Protected Securities ("TIPS"). Inflation-indexed bonds issued by foreign governments are generally adjusted to reflect a comparable inflation index, calculated by that government. "Real return" equals total return less the estimated cost of inflation, which is typically measured by the change in an official inflation measure.

The Fund may invest up to 30% of its total assets in securities denominated in foreign currencies, and may invest beyond this limit in U.S. dollar denominated securities of foreign issuers. Foreign currency exposure (from non-U.S. dollar denominated securities or currencies) normally will be limited to 20% of the Fund's total assets. The Fund also may invest up to 10% of its total assets in securities of issuers based in countries with developing (or "emerging market") economies.

Under normal market conditions, the Fund expects to invest at least 80% of its net assets, plus borrowings for investment purposes, in inflation-indexed bonds of varying maturities issued by the U.S. government, non-U.S. governments, their agencies or instrumentalities, and corporations. The Fund's 80% investment policy can be changed by the Fund upon 60 days' advance notice to shareholders. Assets not invested in inflation-indexed bonds may be invested in other types of fixed income securities.

The Fund may invest all of its assets in derivative instruments, such as options, futures contracts or swap agreements, or in mortgage- or asset-backed securities. The Fund may, without limitation, seek to obtain market exposure to the securities in which it invests by entering into a series of purchase and sale contracts or by using other investment techniques (such as buy-backs or dollar rolls). The Fund may engage in short selling, which is the sale by the Fund of a borrowed security. Because the Fund is obligated to replace the borrowed security, the Fund would benefit from the short sale if the price of the security declines before it is replaced.

Credit Quality. The Fund's average weighted portfolio quality is expected to be BBB or better. The Fund invests primarily in investment grade securities, but may invest up to 10% of its total assets in below investment grade domestic and foreign fixed income securities, commonly referred to as high-yield or junk bonds.

Duration. The average portfolio duration of this Fund normally varies within three years (plus or minus) of the duration of the Barclays Capital U.S. TIPS Index, which as of December 31, 2010 was 5.50 years.

Risks

There is no guarantee that the investment objective of the Fund will be achieved. An investment in the Fund is not a bank deposit and is not insured or guaranteed by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation or any other government agency. Fixed income securities fluctuate in price in response to various factors, including changes in interest rates, changes in market conditions and issuer-specific events, and the value of your investment in the Fund may go down. This means that you could lose money on your investment in the Fund or the Fund may not perform as well as other possible investments. Principal risks include:

Interest rate risk: As nominal interest rates rise, the value of fixed income securities held by the Fund are likely to decrease. Securities with longer durations tend to be more sensitive to changes in interest rates, and are usually more volatile than securities with shorter durations. For example, if the Fund's portfolio has an average duration of ten years, a 1% increase in interest rates would generally result in a 10% decrease in the Fund's value.

A nominal interest rate can be described as the sum of a real interest rate and an expected inflation rate. Inflation-indexed securities, including TIPS, decline in value when real interest rates rise. In certain interest rate environments, such as when real interest rates are rising faster than nominal interest rates, inflation-indexed securities may experience greater losses than other fixed income securities with similar durations.

Credit risk: The issuer of a security owned by the Fund or the counterparty to a derivative or other contractual instrument owned by the Fund could default on its obligation to pay principal and/or interest or its credit rating could be downgraded. This risk is higher for below investment-grade bonds.

Prepayment risk: When interest rates are declining, the issuer of a pass-through security, such as a mortgage-backed or an asset-backed security, may exercise its option to prepay principal earlier than scheduled, forcing the Fund to reinvest in lower yielding securities.

Selection risk: The Subadviser's judgment about the attractiveness, value and potential appreciation of a particular issuer's securities could be incorrect.

Derivatives risk: The value of derivative instruments held by the Fund may not change in the manner expected by the Subadviser, which could result in disproportionately large losses to the Fund.

Foreign securities risk: Prices of the Fund's foreign securities holdings may go down because of unfavorable changes in foreign currency exchange rates, foreign government actions, political instability or the more limited availability of accurate information about foreign issuers. Also, a decline in the value of foreign currencies relative to the U.S. dollar will reduce the unhedged value of securities denominated in those currencies. Foreign securities are sometimes less liquid and harder to value than securities of U.S. issuers. These risks are more significant for issuers in emerging market countries.

Non-diversification risk: Because the Fund is non-diversified and may invest a greater percentage of its assets in securities of a single issuer and may invest in a relatively small number of issuers it is more susceptible to risks associated with a single economic, political or regulatory occurrence than a more diversified portfolio. Some of those issuers may also present substantial credit or other risks.

Short sales risk: If the price of securities sold short increases, the Fund would be required to pay more to replace the borrowed securities than the Fund received on the sale of the securities. Because there is theoretically no limit to the amount of the increase in price of the borrowed securities, the Fund's risk of loss on a short sale is potentially unlimited.

Mortgage risk: Mortgage derivatives in the Fund's portfolio may have especially volatile prices because the embedded leverage can magnify the impact of the extension or contraction event on the underlying cash flow. There may be a greater risk that the Fund could lose money due to prepayment and extension risks because the Fund invests heavily at times in mortgage-related securities.