WisdomTree
Floating Rate Treasury Fund (formerly, WisdomTree Bloomberg Floating Rate Treasury Fund) –
USFR (NYSE Arca)
Summary Prospectus
– January 1, 2019
Before you invest in the Fund, as defined below, you may want
to review the Fund’s prospectus and statement of additional information (“SAI”), which contain more information about the Fund and the risks of investing in the Fund. The Fund’s current prospectus and SAI are incorporated by
reference into this summary prospectus. You can find the Fund’s prospectus and SAI, as well as other information about the Fund, online at www.wisdomtree.com/resource-library/prospectus-regulatory-reports. You may also obtain this information
at no charge by calling 1-866-909-9473 or by sending an e-mail request to getinfo@wisdomtree.com.
IMPORTANT NOTE: Beginning on January 1, 2021, as permitted by
regulations adopted by the Securities and Exchange Commission, paper copies of the WisdomTree Funds' annual and semi-annual shareholder reports will no longer be sent by mail, unless you specifically request paper copies of the reports. Instead,
annual and semi-annual shareholder reports will be available on the WisdomTree Funds' website (www.wisdomtree.com), and you will be notified by mail each time a report is posted and provided with a website link to access the report.
If you already elected to receive shareholder reports
electronically, you will not be affected by this change and you need not take any action. You may elect to receive shareholder reports and other communications from a Fund electronically anytime by contacting your financial intermediary (such as a
broker-dealer or bank).
Beginning on January 1, 2019,
you may elect to receive all future reports in paper free of charge. Please contact your financial intermediary to request to continue receiving paper copies of your shareholder reports. Your election to receive reports in paper will apply to all
funds held in your account.
Investment Objective
The WisdomTree Floating Rate Treasury Fund (the “Fund”) seeks to
track the price and yield performance, before fees and expenses, of an index that measures the performance of the market for floating rate public obligations of the U.S. Treasury.
Fees and Expenses of the Fund
The following table describes the fees and expenses you may pay if you buy
and hold shares of the Fund. The fees are expressed as a percentage of the Fund’s average net assets.
| Shareholder Fees (fees paid directly from your investment) | None |
| Annual Fund Operating Expenses (expenses that you pay each year as a percentage of the value of your investment) | |
| Management Fees | 0.15% 1 |
| Distribution and/or Service (12b-1) Fees | None |
| Other Expenses | 0.00% |
| Total Annual Fund Operating Expenses | 0.15% |
| 1 | Restated to reflect a permanent reduction in the Fund’s management fee effective June 29, 2018. |
Example
The following example is intended to help retail investors compare the cost
of investing in the Fund with the cost of investing in other funds. It illustrates the hypothetical expenses that such investors would incur over various periods if they were to invest $10,000 in the Fund for the time periods indicated and then
redeem all of the shares at the end of those periods. This example assumes that the Fund provides a return of 5% a year and that operating expenses remain the same. This example does not include the brokerage commissions that retail investors may
pay
WisdomTree
Trust Prospectus 1
to buy and sell shares of the Fund. Although your actual costs may be higher
or lower, based on these assumptions, your costs would be:
| 1 Year | 3 Years | 5 Years | 10 Years | |
| $ 15 | $ 48 | $ 85 | $ 192 |
Portfolio Turnover
The Fund pays transaction costs, such as commissions, when it buys and sells
securities (or “turns over” its portfolio). A higher portfolio turnover rate may indicate higher transaction costs and may result in higher taxes when Fund shares are held in a taxable account. These costs, which are not reflected in
annual fund operating expenses or in the example, affect the Fund’s performance. During the most recent fiscal year, the Fund’s portfolio turnover rate was 170% of the average value of its portfolio, excluding the value of portfolio
securities received or delivered as a result of in-kind creations or redemptions of the Fund’s capital shares.
Principal Investment Strategies of the Fund
The Fund employs a “passive management” – or indexing – investment approach designed to track the performance of the Bloomberg
U.S. Treasury Floating Rate Bond Index (the “Index”). The Fund generally uses a representative sampling strategy to achieve its investment objective, meaning it generally will invest in a sample of the securities in the Index whose risk,
return and other characteristics resemble the risk, return and other characteristics of the Index as a whole. Under normal circumstances, at least 80% of the Fund’s total assets (exclusive of collateral held from securities lending) will be
invested in the component securities of the Index and investments that have economic characteristics that are substantially identical to the economic characteristics of such component securities.
The Index is designed to measure the performance of floating
rate public obligations of the U.S. Treasury (“Floating Rate Notes” or “FRNs”). Unlike fixed-rate U.S. Treasury bonds, FRNs have interest rates that adjust periodically. FRNs’ floating interest rates may be higher or
lower than the interest rates of fixed-rate bonds of comparable quality with similar maturities. The floating coupon rates of the FRNs included in the Index are initially expected to reset weekly according to the result of the most recent 13-week
T-bill auction, plus a spread, subject to a minimum net yield of zero percent. Because FRN floating coupon rates adjust weekly, the value of FRNs fluctuate much less than fixed-rate bonds in response to market interest rate movements. FRN values,
however, will decline if their floating coupon rates do not rise as much, or as quickly, as interest rates in general.
The Index is rules-based and market capitalization weighted
and comprised of FRNs with two-year maturities that have a minimum amount outstanding of one billion as of the monthly rebalancing date, which falls on the last business day of each month. FRNs eligible for inclusion in the Index must have an issue
date on or before the Index rebalancing date. The Index excludes fixed-rate securities, Treasury inflation-protected securities, convertible bonds and bonds with survivor put options. Both the FRNs and the FRNs’ coupon and principal payments
must be denominated in U.S. dollars. FRNs pay interest rates quarterly until maturity.
Principal Risks of Investing in the Fund
You can lose money on your investment in the Fund. The Fund is subject to the
risks described below. Some or all of these risks may adversely affect the Fund’s net asset value per share (“NAV”), trading price, yield, total return and/or ability to meet its objective. For more information about the risks of
investing in the Fund, see the sections in the Fund’s Prospectus titled “Additional Principal Risk Information About the Funds” and “Additional Non-Principal Risk Information.”
| ■ | Investment Risk. As with all investments, an investment in the Fund is subject to investment risk. Investors in the Fund could lose money, including the possible loss of the entire principal amount of an investment, over short or long periods of time. |
| ■ | Market Risk. The trading prices of securities and other instruments fluctuate in response to a variety of factors, such as economic, financial or political events that impact the entire market, market segments, or specific issuers. The Fund’s NAV and market price may fluctuate significantly in response to these and other factors. As a result, an investor could lose money over short or long periods of time. |
| ■ | Shares of the Fund May Trade at Prices Other Than NAV. As with all exchange-traded funds (“ETFs”), Fund shares may be bought and sold in the secondary market at market prices. The trading prices of the Fund’s shares |
| 2 WisdomTree Trust Prospectus |
| in the secondary market generally differ from the Fund’s daily NAV and there may be times when the market price of the shares is more than the NAV (premium) or less than the NAV (discount). This risk is heightened in times of market volatility or periods of steep market declines. |
| ■ | Cash Redemption Risk. The Fund generally redeems shares for cash or otherwise includes cash as part of its redemption proceeds. The Fund may be required to sell or unwind portfolio investments in order to obtain the cash needed to distribute redemption proceeds. This may cause the Fund to recognize a capital gain that it might not have recognized if it had made a redemption in-kind. As a result, the Fund may pay out higher annual capital gain distributions than if the in-kind redemption process was used. |
| ■ | Cyber Security Risk. The Fund and its service providers may be susceptible to operational and information security risks resulting from a breach in cyber security, including cyber-attacks. A breach in cyber security, intentional or unintentional, may adversely impact the Fund in many ways, including, but not limited to, disruption of the Fund’s operational capacity, loss of proprietary information, theft or corruption of data, denial-of-service attacks on websites or network resources, and the unauthorized release of confidential information. Cyber-attacks affecting the Fund’s third-party service providers, market makers, Authorized Participants, or the issuers of securities in which the Fund invests may subject the Fund to many of the same risks associated with direct cyber security breaches. |
| ■ | Floating Rate Notes Risk. Securities with 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 Fund’s NAV, particularly if changes in prevailing interest rates are more frequent or sudden than the rate changes for the Floating Rate Notes, which only occur periodically. This risk is also heightened because floating rate Treasury obligations are new issuances for which a deep and liquid market has not yet developed. |
| ■ | Index and Data Risk. The Fund is not “actively” managed and seeks to track the price and yield performance, before fees and expenses, of the Index. The Index provider has the right to make adjustments to the Index or to cease making the Index available without regard to the particular interests of the Fund or its shareholders. If the computers or other facilities of the Index provider, Index calculation agent, data providers and/or relevant stock exchange malfunction for any reason, calculation and dissemination of Index values may be delayed and trading in Fund shares may be suspended for a period of time. Errors in Index data, Index calculations and/or the construction of the Index may occur from time to time and may not be identified and/or corrected by the Index provider, Index calculation agent or other applicable party for a period of time or at all, which may have an adverse impact on the Fund and its shareholders. The potential risk of continuing error may be particularly heightened in the case of the Index, which is generally not used as a benchmark by other funds or managers. |
| ■ | Interest Rate Risk. Interest rate risk is the risk that fixed income securities will decline in value because of an increase in interest rates and changes to other factors, such as perception of an issuer’s creditworthiness. Funds with higher durations generally are subject to greater interest rate risk. For example, the price of a security with a ten-year duration would be expected to drop by approximately 10% in response to a 1% increase in interest rates. |
| ■ | Investment Style Risk. The Fund invests in the securities included in, or representative of, the Index regardless of their investment merit. The Fund does not attempt to outperform the Index or take defensive positions in declining markets. As a result, the Fund’s performance may be adversely affected by a general decline in the market segments relating to the Index. |
| ■ | Issuer Credit Risk. The financial condition of an issuer of a debt security or other instrument may cause such issuer to default, become unable to pay interest or principal due or otherwise fail to honor its obligations or cause such issuer to be perceived (whether by market participants, rating agencies, pricing services or otherwise) as being in such situations. The value of an investment in the Fund may change quickly and without warning in response to issuer defaults, changes in the credit ratings of the Fund’s portfolio investments and/or perceptions related thereto. |
| ■ | Issuer-Specific Risk. Issuer-specific events, including changes in the actual or perceived financial condition of an issuer, can have a negative impact on the value of the Fund. |
| ■ | Non-Correlation Risk. As with all index funds, the performance of the Fund and its Index may differ from each other for a variety of reasons. |
| ■ | Non-Diversification Risk. The Fund is considered to be non-diversified, which means that it may invest more of its assets in the securities of a single issuer or a smaller number of issuers than if it were a diversified fund. To the extent the Fund invests a significant percentage of its assets in a limited number of issuers, the Fund is subject to |
| WisdomTree Trust Prospectus 3 |
| the risks of investing in those few issuers, and may be more susceptible to a single adverse economic or regulatory occurrence. As a result, changes in the market value of a single security could cause greater fluctuations in the value of Fund shares than would occur in a diversified fund. |
| ■ | Portfolio Turnover Risk. The Fund’s investment strategy may result in a high portfolio turnover rate. Higher portfolio turnover may result in the Fund paying higher levels of transaction costs and the distribution of additional capital gains, which generate greater tax liabilities for shareholders. These factors may negatively affect the Fund’s performance. |
| ■ | Risk of Limited Issuance. The issuance of FRNs by the U.S. Treasury is relatively new and the amount of supply is limited. There is no guarantee or assurance that: (i) the Fund will be able to invest in a desired amount of FRNs, (ii) the Fund will be able to buy FRNs at a desirable price, (iii) FRNs will continue to be issued by the U.S. Treasury, or (iv) FRNs will be actively traded. Any or all of the foregoing, should they occur, would negatively impact the Fund. |
Fund Performance
Historical Fund performance, which varies over time, can provide an
indication of the risks of investing in the Fund. The bar chart that follows shows the annual total returns of the Fund for each full calendar year since the Fund commenced operations. The table that follows the bar chart shows the Fund’s
average annual total returns, both before and after taxes. This table also shows how the Fund’s performance compares to that of a relevant broad-based securities index. Index returns do not reflect deductions for fees, expenses or taxes. All
returns assume reinvestment of dividends and distributions. If WisdomTree Asset Management had not waived certain fees during certain periods, the Fund’s returns would have been lower. The Fund’s past performance (before and after taxes)
is not necessarily an indication of how the Fund will perform in the future. Updated performance information for the Fund is available online on the Fund’s website at www.wisdomtree.com.
The Fund’s
year-to-date total return as of September 30, 2018 was 1.33%.
Best and Worst Quarter Returns (for the periods reflected in
the bar chart above)
| Return | Quarter/Year | |
| Highest Return | 0.31% | 4Q/2017 |
| Lowest Return | (0.08)% | 3Q/2015 |
After-tax returns are calculated
using the highest historical individual federal marginal income tax rates and do not reflect the impact of state and local taxes. Actual after-tax returns depend on your tax situation and may differ from those shown and are not relevant if you hold
your shares through tax-deferred arrangements, such as 401(k) plans or individual retirement accounts. In some cases, the return after taxes may exceed the return before taxes due to an assumed tax benefit from any losses on a sale of Fund shares at
the end of the measurement period.
Average Annual Total
Returns for the periods ending December 31, 2017
| WisdomTree Floating Rate Treasury Fund | 1 Year | Since
Inception February 4, 2014 |
| Return Before Taxes Based on NAV | 1.03% | 0.38% |
| Return After Taxes on Distributions | 0.58% | 0.23% |
| Return After Taxes on Distributions and Sale of Fund Shares | 0.58% | 0.22% |
| 4 WisdomTree Trust Prospectus |
| WisdomTree Floating Rate Treasury Fund | 1 Year | Since
Inception February 4, 2014 |
| Bloomberg US Treasury Floating Rate Bond Index (Reflects no deduction for fees, expenses or taxes) | 1.23% | 0.54% |
Management
Investment Adviser and Sub-Adviser
WisdomTree Asset Management, Inc. (“WisdomTree Asset Management”
or the “Adviser”) serves as investment adviser to the Fund. Mellon Investments Corporation (the “Sub-Adviser”) serves as sub-adviser to the Fund.
Portfolio Managers
The Fund is managed by the Sub-Adviser's Fixed Income Portfolio Management
team. The individual members of the team jointly and primarily responsible for the day-to-day management of the Fund’s portfolio are described below.
Paul Benson, CFA, CAIA, Managing Director, Head of Fixed
Income Portfolio Management, has been a portfolio manager of the Fund since October 2015.
Stephanie Shu, CFA, Director, Senior Portfolio Manager, Fixed
Income, has been a member of the portfolio management team for the Fund since inception and a portfolio manager of the Fund since October 2015.
Buying and Selling Fund Shares
The Fund is an ETF. This means that shares of the Fund are listed on a
national securities exchange, such as NYSE Arca, and trade at market prices. Most investors will buy and sell shares of the Fund through brokers. Because Fund shares trade at market prices rather than NAV, shares may trade at a price greater than
NAV (premium) or less than NAV (discount).
The Fund
issues and redeems shares at NAV only in large blocks of shares (“Creation Units”), which only certain institutions or large investors (typically market makers or other broker-dealers) may purchase or redeem. Currently, Creation Units
generally consist of 25,000 shares, though this may change from time to time. Creation Units are not expected to consist of less than 25,000 shares. The Fund issues and redeems Creation Units in exchange for a portfolio of securities and/or U.S.
cash.
Tax Information
The Fund intends to make distributions that may be taxed as ordinary income
or capital gains.
Payments to Broker-Dealers and Other
Financial Intermediaries
If you purchase shares of the Fund through a
broker-dealer or other financial intermediary (such as a bank) (an “Intermediary”), WisdomTree Asset Management or its affiliates may pay Intermediaries for certain activities related to the Fund, including participation in activities
that are designed to make Intermediaries more knowledgeable about exchange traded products, including the Fund, or for other activities, such as marketing, educational training or other initiatives related to the sale or promotion of Fund shares.
These payments may create a conflict of interest by influencing the Intermediary and your salesperson to recommend the Fund over another investment. Any such arrangements do not result in increased Fund expenses. Ask your salesperson or visit the
Intermediary’s website for more information.
| WisdomTree Trust Prospectus 5 |
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WIS-USFR -SUM-0119