Dunham Funds

03/04/2026 | Press release | Distributed by Public on 03/04/2026 16:21

Summary Prospectus by Investment Company (Form 497K)

SUMMARY PROSPECTUS

March 1, 2026

Dunham Monthly Distribution Fund

Class A (DAMDX)

Class C (DCMDX)

Class N (DNMDX)

Before you invest, you may want to review the Fund's prospectus, which contains more information about the Fund and its risks. The Fund's prospectus and Statement of Additional Information, both dated March 1, 2026, are incorporated by reference into this Summary Prospectus. You can obtain these documents and other information about the Fund online at www.dunham.com/prospectus/MonthlyDistribution. You can also obtain these documents at no cost by completing a document request form on our web-site, www.dunham.com or by calling (toll free) (888) 338-6426 or by sending an email request to [email protected], or ask any financial advisor, bank or broker-dealer that offers shares of the Fund.

Investment Objective: The Fund seeks to provide positive returns in rising and falling market environments.

Fees and Expenses of the Fund: This table describes the fees and expenses that you may pay if you buy, hold, and sell shares of the Fund. You may pay other fees, such as brokerage commissions and other fees to financial intermediaries, which are not reflected in the tables and examples below. You may qualify for sales charge discounts on purchases of Class A shares if you and your family invest, or agree to invest in the future, at least $50,000 in the Fund. More information about these and other discounts is available from your financial intermediary and in How to Purchase Shares on page 117 of the Fund's Prospectus and in How to Buy and Sell Shares on page 89 of the Fund's Statement of Additional Information.

Shareholder Fees

(fees paid directly from your investment)

Class A Class C Class N

Maximum Sales Charge (Load) Imposed on Purchases

(as a % of offering price)

5.75% None None

Maximum Deferred Sales Charge (Load)

(as a % of the of the original purchase price for purchases of $1 million or more)

0.75% None None

Maximum Sales Charge (Load) Imposed

on Reinvested Dividends and other Distributions

None

None

None

Redemption Fee None None None
Exchange Fee None None None

Annual Fund Operating Expenses

(expenses that you pay each year as a

percentage of the value of your investment)

Management Fees(1) 1.08% 1.08% 1.08%
Distribution and/or Service (12b-1) Fees 0.25% 1.00% 0.00%
Other Expenses:
Dividend Expense on Securities Sold Short 0.75% 0.75% 0.75%
Remaining Other Expenses 0.18% 0.18% 0.18%
Acquired Fund Fees and Expenses(2) 0.02% 0.02% 0.02%
Total Annual Fund Operating Expenses 2.28% 3.03% 2.03%
(1) The Sub-Advisory Fee is a fulcrum fee with a base or fulcrum of 60 bps (0.60%) and can range from 0.22% to 0.98%, based on the Fund's performance relative to the S&P Merger Arbitrage Total Return Local Currency Index, the Fund's benchmark.
(2) Acquired Fund Fees and Expenses are the indirect costs of investing in other investment companies. The operating expenses in this fee table may not correlate to the expense ratio in the Fund's financial highlights because the financial statements include only the direct operating expenses incurred by the Fund, not the indirect costs of investing in other investment companies.

Example: This Example is intended to help you compare the cost of investing in the Fund with the cost of investing in other mutual funds.

The Example assumes that you invest $10,000 in the Fund 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 Fund's operating expenses remain the same. Although your actual costs may be higher or lower, based upon these assumptions your costs would be:

Class 1 Year 3 Years 5 Years 10 Years
Class A $793 $1,246 $1,725 $3,040
Class C $306 $936 $1,591 $3,346
Class N $206 $637 $1,093 $2,358

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 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 377% of the average value of its portfolio.

Principal Investment Strategies: The Sub-Adviser seeks to achieve attractive absolute returns by utilizing an event driven strategy across a diversified set of equities while actively managing risk to preserve capital, minimize volatility, and maintain liquidity. The Sub-Adviser generally seeks to accomplish this objective by investing in equities (including common stock, initial public offerings ("IPOs") and other new issues) and equity-related securities (including preferred stock, options, swaps, forwards and warrants) across a diversified range of industries. The Fund may also invest in foreign issuers through American Depositary Receipts and in cash and cash equivalents.

The Sub-Adviser invests in companies undergoing significant corporate events such as mergers and/or acquisitions ("M&A"), tender offers, Dutch auctions, recapitalizations, restructuring and divestitures. The majority of investments are expected to be connected to agreed-to merger and acquisition deals; however, the Fund may also pursue investment opportunities in a range of other event-driven situations including, without limitation, corporate buy-ins; hostile mergers; pre-bid acquisitions; corporate spin-offs; likely transactions; restructurings; and corporate litigation and regulatory events.

The Sub-Adviser uses a probability assessment framework to consider and select event-driven investments. Investments are assessed across a number of dimensions, which may include strategic rationale, valuation, antitrust/regulatory issues, political, financing, contractual terms, company and/or industry stability, transaction type, acquirer issues and timing certainty.

The number of positions and their size will depend on each position's estimated risk adjusted expected return, and the nature of the event (e.g., the number of announced M&A deals, the size and breadth of an index reweight). The overall allocation of the Event-Driven portfolio will also be a function of the opportunity set for the strategy.

The Fund's distribution policy is to make twelve monthly distributions to shareholders. The level of monthly distributions (including any return of capital) is not fixed but is expected to be at or near the level of the prime interest rate ("Prime Rate"). Additionally, the Fund's distribution policy is not designed to generate, and is not expected to result in, distributions that equal a fixed percentage of the Fund's current net asset value per share. Shareholders receiving periodic payments from the Fund may be under the impression that they are receiving net profits. All or a portion of a distribution may consist of a return of capital, which would be a return of original shareholder investments in the Fund and not an income or capital gains distribution. Shareholders should not assume that the source of a distribution from the Fund is net profit. For more information about the Fund's distribution policy, please turn to the "Distribution Policy and Goals" section in the Fund's Prospectus. For disclosure regarding the extent to which the Fund's distribution policy resulted in distributions of capital (i.e., a return of capital), please refer to Form 19a-1 Notice available at: https://www.dunham.com/Investor/FundInfo/MonthlyDistribution#distribution.

The Fund may also engage in securities lending.

Principal Investment Risks: As with all mutual funds, there is the risk that you could lose money through your investment in the Fund. Although the Fund will strive to meet its investment objective, there is no assurance that it will do so. Many factors affect the Fund's net asset value and performance.

Merger and Event-Driven Risk - Investments in companies that are expected to be, or already are, the subject of a publicly announced merger, takeover, tender offer, leveraged buyout, spin-off, liquidation or other corporate reorganizations carry the risk that the proposed or expected corporate event may not be completed or may be completed on less favorable terms than originally expected.

Short Selling Risk - If the price of the security sold short increases between the time of the short sale and the time the Fund covers its short position, the Fund will incur a loss which may be unlimited. Also, the Fund is required to deposit collateral in connection with such short sales and may have to pay a fee to borrow particular securities.

Derivatives Risk - Derivatives or other similar instruments (referred to collectively as "derivatives"), such as futures, forwards, options, swaps, structured securities and other instruments, are financial contracts whose value depends on, or is derived from, the value of an underlying asset, reference rate or index. Derivatives may involve costs and risks that are different from, or possibly greater than, the costs and risks associated with investing directly in securities and other traditional investments. Derivatives prices can be volatile, may correlate imperfectly with price of the applicable underlying asset, reference rate or index and may move in unexpected ways, especially in unusual market conditions, such as markets with high volatility or large market declines. Some derivatives are particularly sensitive to changes in interest rates. Other risks include liquidity risk which refers to the potential inability to terminate or sell derivative positions and for derivatives to create margin delivery or settlement payment obligations for the Fund. Further, losses could result if the counterparty to a transaction does not perform as promised. Derivatives that involve a small initial investment relative to the risk assumed may be considered to be "leveraged," which can magnify or otherwise increase investment losses. In addition, the use of derivatives for non-hedging purposes (that is, to seek to increase total return) is considered a speculative practice and may present an even greater risk of loss than when used for hedging purposes. Derivatives are also subject to operational and legal risks.

Leveraging Risk - Using derivatives can create leverage, which can magnify the Fund's potential for gain or loss and, therefore, amplify the effects of market volatility on the Fund's share price. The use of leverage, such as borrowing money to purchase securities, engaging in reverse repurchase agreements, lending portfolio securities and engaging in forward commitment transactions, will magnify the Fund's gains or losses.

Options Risk - The Fund may use options to enhance return and or mitigate risk. However, options can fall rapidly in response to developments in specific companies or industries and the Fund's investments may be negatively impacted by unexpected market conditions.

Forward Contract Risk - Forward contracts involve a number of the same characteristics and risks as futures contracts but there also are several differences. Forward contracts are not market traded, and are not necessarily marked to market on a daily basis. They settle only at the pre-determined settlement date. This can result in deviations between forward prices and futures prices, especially in circumstances where interest rates and futures prices are positively correlated. Second, in the absence of exchange trading and involvement of clearing houses, there are no standardized terms for forward contracts. Accordingly, the parties are free to establish such settlement times and underlying amounts of a security or currency as desirable, which may vary from the standardized provisions available through any futures contract. Finally, forward contracts, as two party obligations for which there is no secondary market, involve counterparty credit risk not present with futures.

Foreign Investing Risk - Investments in foreign countries are subject to currency risk and country-specific risks such as political, diplomatic, regional conflicts, terrorism, war, social and economic instability, and policies that have the effect of decreasing the value of foreign securities. Foreign countries may be subject to different trading settlement practices, less government supervision, less publicly available information, limited trading markets and greater volatility than U.S. investments.

Natural Disaster/Epidemic Risk - Natural or environmental disasters, such as earthquakes, fires, floods, hurricanes, tsunamis, and other severe weather-related phenomena generally, and widespread disease and illness, including pandemics and epidemics (such as the novel coronavirus), have been and can be highly disruptive to economies and markets.

Liquidity Risk - Some securities may have few market-makers and low trading volume, which tend to increase transaction costs and may make it impossible for the Fund to dispose of a security position at all or at a price which represents current or fair market value.

Portfolio Turnover Risk - A higher portfolio turnover will result in higher transactional and brokerage costs and may result in higher taxes when Fund shares are held in a taxable account.

Money Market/Short-Term Securities Risk - To the extent the Fund holds cash or invests in money market or short-term securities, the Fund may be less likely to achieve its investment objective. In addition, it is possible that the Fund's investments in these instruments could lose money.

Small and Medium Capitalization Risk - The Fund's investments in smaller and medium-sized companies carry more risks than investments in larger companies. Companies with small and medium size market capitalization often have narrower markets, fewer products or services to offer and more limited managerial and financial resources than do larger, more established companies. Investing in lesser-known, small and medium capitalization companies involves greater risk of volatility of the Fund's net asset value than is customarily associated with larger, more established companies. Often smaller and medium capitalization companies and the industries in which they are focused are still evolving and, while this may offer better growth potential than larger, more established companies, it also may make them more sensitive to changing market conditions.

IPO Risk - The Fund invests in IPOs at the time of the initial offering and in post-IPO trading. The stocks of such companies are unseasoned equities lacking a trading history, a track record of reporting to investors and widely available research coverage. IPOs are thus often subject to extreme price volatility and speculative trading. These stocks may have above-average price appreciation in connection with the initial public offering prior to inclusion in the Fund. The price of stocks included in the Fund may not continue to appreciate. In addition, IPOs share similar illiquidity risks of private equity and venture capital. The free float shares held by the public in an IPO are typically a small percentage of the market capitalization. The ownership of many IPOs often include large holdings by venture capital and private equity investors who seek to sell their shares in the public market in the months following an IPO when shares restricted by lock-up are released, causing greater volatility and possible downward pressure during the time that locked-up shares are released.

Distribution Policy Risk - The Fund's distribution policy is not designed to generate, and is not expected to result in, distributions that equal a fixed percentage of the Fund's current net asset value per share. Shareholders receiving periodic payments from the Fund may be under the impression that they are receiving net profits. However, all or a portion of a distribution may consist of a return of capital (i.e., from your original investment). Shareholders should not assume that the source of a distribution from the Fund is net profit. Shareholders should note that return of capital will reduce the tax basis of their shares and potentially increase the taxable gain, if any, upon disposition of their shares.

Stock Market Risk - Stock markets can be volatile. In other words, the prices of stocks can fall rapidly in response to developments affecting a specific company or industry, or to changing economic, political or market conditions. The Fund's investments may decline in value if the stock markets perform poorly.

Active Management Risk - The Fund is subject to management risk because it is an actively managed investment portfolio. The Sub-Adviser will apply its investment techniques and risk analyses in making investment decisions for the Fund, but there is no guarantee that its decisions will produce the intended result. The successful use of hedging and risk management techniques may be adversely affected by imperfect correlation between movements in the price of the hedging vehicles and the securities being hedged.

Securities Lending Risk - The risk of securities lending is that the financial institution that borrows securities from the Fund could go bankrupt or otherwise default on its commitment under the securities lending agreement and the Fund might not be able to recover the loaned securities or their value.

Performance: The following bar chart and table below provide some indication of the risks of investing in the Fund by showing changes in the performance of Class N Shares of the Fund from year to year and by showing how the Fund's average annual returns compare with those of a broad measure of market performance. The sales charge is reflected in the average annual total return table. Past performance (before and after taxes) does not necessarily indicate how a Fund will perform in the future. Updated performance information is available at no cost by visiting www.dunham.com or by calling toll free (888) 3DUNHAM (338-6426).

Class N Shares Annual Total Return for Years Ended December 31

During the periods shown in the bar chart, the highest return for a quarter was 3.17% (quarter ended September 30, 2023) and the lowest return for a quarter was -4.30% (quarter ended March 31, 2020).

Dunham Monthly Distribution Fund

AVERAGE ANNUAL TOTAL RETURN

For the periods ended December 31, 2025* 1 Year 5 Years 10 Years
Class N Shares
return before taxes 8.18% 3.80% 3.29%
return after taxes on distributions 5.01% 2.65% 2.27%
return after taxes on distributions and sale of Fund shares 4.78% 2.52% 2.21%
Class C Shares
return before taxes 7.11% 2.77% 2.26%
Class A Shares
return before taxes 1.70% 2.33% 2.42%
S&P 500 Total Return Index (reflects no deduction for fees, expenses, or taxes) 17.88% 14.42% 14.82%
S&P Merger Arbitrage Total Return Local Currency Index** (reflects no deduction for fees, expenses, or taxes) 12.72% 5.55% 4.26%

Credit Suisse Merger Arbitrage Liquid Index**

(reflects no deduction for fees, expenses, or taxes)

12.53% 6.06% 4.63%

Morningstar Event Driven Category

(return before taxes)**

10.22% 5.37% 5.89%
* On April 1, 2021, the Fund's principal investment strategy was materially changed. Therefore, the Fund's performance prior to that date may have been different had the current principal investment strategy been in place.
** In prior prospectuses, the Fund compared its performance against the Credit Suisse Merger Arbitrage Liquid Index. The Fund's Adviser believes the S&P Merger Arbitrage Total Return Local Currency Index is a more appropriate and accurate index against which to compare the Fund's investment strategies and, therefore, the S&P Merger Arbitrage Total Return Local Currency Index replaces the Credit Suisse Merger Arbitrage Liquid Index as the Fund's primary benchmark.
*** The Morningstar Event Driven Category is generally representative of mutual funds that primarily employ strategies that seek to profit from corporate actions, such as mergers and acquisitions. Mutual funds in this category typically focus on equity securities but can invest across the capital structure. However, they typically have low to moderate equity market sensitivity since company-specific developments tend to drive security prices.

After-tax returns are estimated and are based on 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 an individual investor's tax situation and are likely to differ from those shown. If you own shares of the Fund in a tax-deferred account, such as an individual retirement account or a 401(k) plan, this information is not applicable to your investment, because such accounts are only subject to taxes upon distribution. After tax returns for Class C and Class A shares, which are not shown, will vary from those of Class N shares.

Investment Adviser: Dunham & Associates Investment Counsel, Inc. (the "Adviser").

Sub-Adviser: Grantham, Mayo, Van Otterloo & Co. LLC ("GMO" or the "Sub-Adviser").

Sub-Adviser Portfolio Managers: The portfolio managers on the event driven team who are primarily responsible for the day-to-day management of the Fund are Doug Francis and Cole Weppner. Mr. Francis joined GMO in December 2009 and Mr. Weppner joined GMO in 2017. Mr. Francis began managing the Fund in 2021. Mr. Weppner began managing the Fund in 2025.

Purchase and Sale of Fund Shares

You may purchase and redeem shares of a Fund on any day that the New York Stock Exchange is open for trading. For Class A shares and Class C shares, the initial minimum investment amount in a Fund for regular accounts is $5,000, and for tax-deferred accounts and certain tax efficient accounts is $2,000. The minimum subsequent investment is $100. For Class N shares, the minimum initial investment per Fund is $100,000 for taxable accounts and $50,000 for tax-deferred accounts. There is no minimum subsequent investment amount for Class N shares.

Purchases and redemptions may be made by mailing an application or redemption request to the addresses indicated below, by calling toll free (888) 3DUNHAM (338-6426) or by visiting the Fund's website www.dunham.com. You also may purchase and redeem shares through a financial intermediary.

via Regular Mail via Overnight Mail
Dunham Funds Dunham Funds
c/o Gemini Fund Services, LLC c/o Gemini Fund Services, LLC
P.O. Box 46707 225 Pictoria Dr, Suite 450
Cincinnati, OH 45246 Cincinnati, OH 45246

Tax Information

Dividends and capital gain distributions you receive from a Fund, whether you reinvest your distributions in additional Fund shares or receive them in cash, are taxable to you at either ordinary income or capital gains tax rates unless you are investing through a tax-deferred plan such as an IRA or 401(k) plan. However, these dividend and capital gain distributions may be taxable upon their eventual withdrawal from tax-deferred plans.

Financial Intermediary Compensation

If you purchase a Fund through a broker-dealer or other financial intermediary (such as a bank), the Fund and its related companies may pay the intermediary for the sale of Fund shares and related services. These payments may create a conflict of interest by influencing the broker-dealer or other intermediary and your salesperson to recommend the Fund over another investment. Ask your salesperson or visit your financial intermediary's website for more information.

Dunham Funds published this content on March 04, 2026, and is solely responsible for the information contained herein. Distributed via EDGAR on March 04, 2026 at 22:21 UTC. If you believe the information included in the content is inaccurate or outdated and requires editing or removal, please contact us at [email protected]