Innovator Lists S&P 500 Defined Outcome ETFs; Seek to protect against losses of 9%, 15%, or 30%

Innovator Capital Management, LLC (Innovator) announced today the listing of the Innovator S&P 500 Defined Outcome ETFs – July Series on Cboe. The Innovator Defined Outcome ETFs seek to offer investors exposure to the S&P 500 Price Return Index (S&P 500) to a Cap, with downside protection levels (or “buffers”) of 9%, 15%, or 30% over an Outcome Period of approximately one year, at which point each ETF will reset. This is the first time investors will have access to structured outcomes through the ETF vehicle. The result is an efficient product suite that seeks the following benefits:

• Defined downside protection levels
• Exposures to S&P 500 upside performance
• Low cost, flexible, liquid, and transparent
• No credit risk
• Resets annually and can be held indefinitely

“No other ETFs in the market today seek to offer investors defined exposures to the S&P 500, where the downside protection level, upside growth potential, and outcome period can all be known, prior to investing,” said Bruce Bond, Chief Executive Officer of Innovator Capital Management. “Historically, the defined (or structured) outcome space has been dominated by bank and structured insurance products. Today, we are delivering outcome based investing in a way that is more accessible, liquid, transparent, and cost-effective than ever before.”

Innovator S&P 500 Defined Outcome ETFs

Each Innovator S&P 500 Defined Outcome ETF seeks to provide investors defined exposure to the S&P 500, where the downside protection level, upside growth potential to a Cap, and Outcome Period are all known, prior to investing. The Fund will invest substantially all of its assets in FLexible EXchange® (FLEX®) Options on the S&P 500. FLEX Options are customizable exchange-traded option contracts guaranteed for settlement by the Options Clearing Corporation.

The return profiles for the July Series of Innovator Defined Outcome ETFs are listed below:

JULY 2018 SERIES			Protection Level		Cap*	Outcome Period**
PJUL		Innovator S&P 500	15.00%		8.11% (gross)	10 months, 24 days
		Power Buffer ETF			7.40% (net of management fee)	8/8/18 - 6/30/19
UJUL		Innovator S&P 500	30.00%		8.77% (gross)	10 months, 24 days
		Ultra Buffer ETF	(-5% to -35%)		8.06% (net of management fee)	8/8/18 - 6/30/19
BJUL		Innovator S&P 500	9.00%		13.10 - 14.32%  (gross)	TBD
		Buffer ETF			12.31 - 13.53%  (net of management fee)
The Innovator S&P 500 Buffer ETF (BJUL) is not yet available for investment. The Cap Range for BJUL above is based on the highest and lowest Cap as illustrated by the Fund’s strategy over the past 10 trading days and is shown gross and net of the 0.79% management fee. The actual Cap for BJUL will be set at the beginning of the Outcome Period, and is dependent upon market conditions at that time. As a result, the Cap for BJUL may be higher or lower than the Cap Range.

* The Cap is shown in the table above gross and net of the 0.79% management fee. The Cap for each Fund is set at the beginning of the Outcome Period, and is dependent upon market conditions at that time. Upon Fund launch, Innovator will provide important Fund information related to the potential outcomes of an investment in a Fund (including the Cap) on a daily basis via its website (www.innovatoretfs.com). “Cap” refers to the maximum potential return, before fees and expenses, if held over the full Outcome Period. “Buffer” refers to the amount of downside protection, before fees and expenses, over the full Outcome Period. Outcome Period is the intended length of time over which the defined outcomes are sought.

** The initial Outcome Period for the Innovator Defined Outcome July Series ETFs is less than 12 months to allow the period to conclude on June 30, 2019, at which point the Funds will resume their respective anticipated 12-month Outcome Periods, each beginning on July 1st.

The Innovator S&P 500 Buffer ETF (BJUL) is not yet available for investment.

Webinar: Wednesday, August 15th, 2018

To continue the educational effort around the Innovator Defined Outcome ETFs, Innovator has scheduled a webinar on Wednesday, August 15th at 4:30 pm eastern time.

Innovator S&P 500 Buffer ETF (Cboe: BJUL): Designed to track the return of the S&P 500 (up to a predetermined Cap) while buffering investors against the first 9% of losses over the Outcome Period, before fees and expenses.

Innovator S&P 500 Power Buffer ETF (Cboe: PJUL): Designed to track the return of the S&P 500 (up to a predetermined Cap) while buffering investors against the first 15% of losses over the Outcome Period, before fees and expenses.

Innovator S&P 500 Ultra Buffer ETF (Cboe: UJUL): Designed to track the return of the S&P 500 (up to a predetermined Cap) while buffering investors against a decline of 30% of losses over the Outcome Period, from -5% to -35%, before fees and expenses. Investors are exposed to loss between 0% and 5% and over 35% over the Outcome Period, before fees and expenses.

“Innovator Defined Outcome ETFs can be used as a complement or replacement for equity, fixed income and alternative allocations in investor portfolios,” said John Southard, Innovator’s Chief Investment Officer. “The inherent flexibility of ETFs allow our defined outcome strategies to be used together or alongside other investments in a portfolio, making them an agile tool for risk management and participation in the upside potential of the S&P 500. Today’s listings make defined outcome strategies more easily accessible to all investors, providing new cost-effective safeguards to help effectively weather volatile markets.”

The Defined Outcome ETFs may be held indefinitely, with the applicable Fund’s 9%, 15% or 30% buffers remaining fixed and associated Caps resetting at the beginning of each Outcome Period (approximately annually). Innovator intends to issue a quarterly series of each Defined Outcome ETF to provide investors an opportunity to purchase shares as close to the beginning of their respective Outcome Periods as possible. Investors will also be able to purchase shares of a previously listed Defined Outcome ETF throughout the entire Outcome Period; and obtain a new set of defined outcome parameters, which will be disclosed through a web tool for each Fund developed by Innovator (see “Interim Period Shareholders” below).

What Is Defined Outcome Investing?

Defined outcome investing seeks to target a specific defined payoff profile, with an allowance for a specific defined level of risk, at a specific point in time in the future. This approach to investing has been available for decades, largely through certain bank and insurance products. The defined outcomes sought by the Innovator Defined Outcome ETFs are comparable to certain equity-linked investment strategies often used by other product structures like structured notes and structured annuities1—spaces with more than $1 trillion collectively in the U.S. alone. As large as the structured product space has become, it has historically been accessed by institutional and high net worth investors.

Innovator has set its sights on placing these defined outcome based solutions inside the benefit rich ETF structure, retaining many of the features that have contributed to the success of structured products (e.g., downside protection levels, defined outcome parameters), but with the added benefits of transparency, liquidity and lower costs afforded by the ETF product structure.

Knowing the return profile before investing can significantly reduce the uncertainty involved in buying equities, which typically are among the most volatile asset classes in many investors’ portfolios. Innovator Defined Outcome ETFs represent a new type of risk mitigation strategy providing effective portfolio tools to strike a balance between growth and protection in a systematic and disciplined manner.

Interim Period Shareholders

Unlike structured notes, which offer limited liquidity, Innovator Defined Outcome ETFs will trade throughout the day on an exchange, like a stock. As a result, investors purchasing shares of a Fund after its launch date will achieve a different payoff profile than those who entered the Fund on day one. Innovator recognizes this as a benefit of the Funds and intends to provide investors with a web-based tool that depicts detailed information about each Fund’s current share price in relation to its Cap, Outcome Period, and buffer. This will enable investors to know, in real-time throughout the trading day, their potential defined outcome profile before they invest, based on the current ETF price and the Outcome Period remaining.

“Innovator Defined Outcome ETFs will allow investors to seek a return profile on a point-to-point basis, before they invest, regardless of the day they invest,” Southard added. “We anticipate the web tool being a large part of the Defined Outcome ETF experience.”

Upon launch, Innovator’s web tool can be accessed at http://www.innovatoretfs.com/define. Investors considering purchasing shares after the Outcome Period has begun or selling shares prior to the end of the Outcome Period should visit the website to fully understand potential investment outcomes.

Financial advisors will also have the opportunity to sign up to receive a weekly pricing sheet that illustrates each ETF’s defined outcome parameters as of the close of the previous trading week.

ETF Construction

Each Fund will hold a portfolio of custom exchange-traded FLEX Options that have varying strike prices (the price at which the option purchaser may buy or sell the security, at the expiration date), and the same expiration date (approximately one year). The layering of these FLEX Options with varying strike prices provides the mechanism for producing a Fund’s desired outcome (i.e. Cap or buffer). Each Fund intends to roll options components annually, on the last business day of the month associated with each Fund.

The ETFs will be subadvised by Milliman Financial Risk Management LLC (Milliman FRM), a global leader in financial risk management. Milliman FRM was also instrumental in the design of the Cboe S&P 500 Target Outcome Indexes, which the Innovator Defined Outcome ETFs are benchmarked against.

Although each Fund seeks to achieve the defined outcomes stated in its investment objective, there is no guarantee that it will do so. The returns that the Funds seek to provide do not include the costs associated with purchasing shares of the Fund and certain expenses incurred by the Fund.

About Innovator Capital Management, LLC

Innovator Capital Management, LLC is an SEC registered investment advisor (RIA) based in Wheaton, IL. Formed in 2014, the firm is currently headed by ETF visionaries Bruce Bond and John Southard, founders of one of the largest ETF providers in the world. Innovation is our hallmark and acts as a guide to our company principles. Innovator is committed to helping investors better control their financial outcomes by providing investment opportunities they never considered or thought possible.

About Cboe Global Markets, Inc.

Cboe Global Markets, Inc. (Cboe: CBOE | Nasdaq: CBOE) is one of the world’s largest exchange-holding companies, offering cutting-edge trading and investment solutions to investors around the world. For more information, visit www.cboe.com.

About Milliman Financial Risk Management LLC

Milliman Financial Risk Management LLC (Milliman FRM) is a global leader in financial risk management to the retirement industry, providing investment advisory, hedging, and consulting services on over $149 billion in global assets as of June 30, 2018. For more information about Milliman FRM, visit www.Milliman.com/FRM.

Media ContactBill Conboy+1 (303) [e-mail]

Please note this press release reflects a change in the buffer and cap levels associated with the Innovator S&P 500 Buffer ETF. This update reflects a 9% buffer, as opposed to 10%, which was stated in an earlier press release issued 8/3/18.

The Funds have characteristics unlike many other traditional investment products and may not be suitable for all investors. For more information regarding whether an investment in the Fund is right for you, please see “Investor Suitability” in the prospectus.

Investing involves risks. The Funds face numerous market trading risks, including active markets risk, authorized participation concentration risk, buffered loss risk, Cap change risk, capped upside return risk, correlation risk, FLEX Option counterparty risk, cyber security risk, fluctuation of net asset value risk, investment objective risk, limitations of intraday indicative value risk, liquidity risk, management risk, market maker risk, market risk, non-diversification risk, operation risk, options risk, Outcome Period risk, tax risk, trading issues risk, upside participation risk and valuation risk. Unlike mutual funds, the Funds may trade at a premium or discount to their net asset value. ETFs are bought and sold at market price and not individually redeemed from the Fund. Brokerage commissions will reduce returns.

The outcomes that a Fund seeks to provide may only be realized if you are holding shares on the first day of the Outcome Period and continue to hold them on the last day of the Outcome Period, approximately one year. If you purchase shares after the Outcome Period has begun or sell shares prior to the Outcome Period’s conclusion, you may experience very different investment returns from those that a Fund seeks to provide.

These Funds are designed to provide point-to-point exposure to the price return of the S&P 500 via a basket of FLEX Options. As a result, the ETFs are not expected to move directly in line with the S&P 500 during the interim period.

1 Structured notes and structured annuities are financial instruments designed and created to afford investors exposure to an underlying asset through a derivative contract. It is important to note that these ETFs are not structured notes or structured annuities.

Investors are subject to an upside return Cap that represents the maximum percentage return an investor can achieve from an investment in the Fund for the Outcome Period. Therefore, even though a Fund’s returns are based upon the S&P 500, if the Fund experiences returns for the Outcome Period in excess of the Cap, you will not experience those excess gains but will remain vulnerable to significant downside risks. Regardless of the performance of the S&P 500, the Cap is the maximum return an investor can achieve from an investment in the Fund for the Outcome Period. The Cap will change from year-to-year based upon prevailing market conditions at the beginning of the Outcome Period. The Cap, and the Fund’s position relative to it, should be considered before investing in the Fund.

Similarly, the buffer that the Funds seek to provide is only operative against the percentage (i.e. 9%, 15% and 30%) of S&P 500 losses for the applicable Fund’s Outcome Period. If an investor is considering purchasing shares during the Outcome Period, and the Fund has already decreased in value by an amount equal to or greater than its buffer, an investor purchasing shares at that price will have increased gains available prior to reaching the Cap but may not benefit from the buffer that the Fund seeks to offer for the remainder of the Outcome Period. Conversely, if an investor is considering purchasing Shares during the Outcome Period, and the Fund has already increased in value, then a shareholder may experience losses prior to gaining the protection offered by the buffer. After the S&P 500 has decreased in value by more than a Fund’s buffer during an Outcome Period, the Fund will experience any subsequent losses on a one-to-one basis. There is no guarantee that a Fund will be successful in its attempt to provide buffered returns. The Funds shares will be listed for trading on the Cboe. The Funds will not terminate after the conclusion of an Outcome Period. After the conclusion of an Outcome Period, another will begin.

Each Fund’s investment objectives, risks, charges and expenses should be considered before investing. The prospectus contains this and other important information, and may be obtained at www.innovatoretfs.com or 800.208.5212. Read it carefully before investing.

Cboe Global Markets, Inc., and its affiliates do not recommend or make any representation as to possible Benefits from any securities, futures or investments, or third-party products or services. Cboe Global Markets, Inc., is not affiliated with S&P DJI, Milliman, or Innovator Capital Management. Investors should undertake their own due diligence regarding their securities, futures and investment practices.

Cboe Global Markets, Inc., and its affiliates make no warranty, expressed or implied, including, without limitation, any warranties as of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, accuracy, completeness or timeliness, or as to the results to be obtained by recipients of the products.

Innovator ETFs are distributed by Foreside Fund Services, LLC.

Copyright © 2018 Innovator Capital Management, LLC.

800.208.5212