Innovator Lists New Accelerated ETFs™, Announces Upside Caps for July Series of Defined Outcome ETFs™

Latest Accelerated ETFs™ XDJL, XBJL, XTJL, QTJL list today, allowing investors to seek double or triple SPY or QQQ upside returns, to a cap

S&P 500 Buffer ETFs™ BJUL, PJUL and UJUL complete third Outcome Period, three year anniversary of Defined Outcome ETFs™ nears

Defined Outcome Bond ETFs™ TFJL and TBJL complete first outcome period, buffering losses in long-term U.S. Treasuries (TLT) as interest rates climbed since inception

International Equity Power Buffer ETFs™ IJUL (MSCI EAFE) and EJUL (MSCI EM) ready finish second annual outcome period while Nasdaq-100 Power Buffer ETF™ (NJUL) and Russell 2000 Power Buffer ETF™ (KJUL) reset for first time

CHICAGO, July 01, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Innovator Capital Management, LLC (Innovator), the Defined Outcome ETF™ pioneer, today announced the launch of the latest four funds in the Accelerated ETFs™ suite – XDJL, XBJL, XTJL, QTJL – listing on Cboe. Innovator also announced the upside caps and return profiles for the July series of the Equity Buffer ETFs™, Defined Outcome Bond ETFs™ and Accelerated ETFs™, which reset at the end of the month.

The Defined Outcome ETFs™ announcing new upside caps and/or refreshed buffers include:

• the Accelerated ETFs™, which welcome four new listings (XDJL, XBJL, XTJL, QTJL) to the Defined Outcome ETF™ family. The Accelerated ETFs™ are the world’s first ETFs to seek to offer a multiple of the upside return of a reference asset (SPY or QQQ), up to a cap, with approximately single exposure on the downside.
• the two quarterly outcome period Accelerated ETFs™ (XDSQ, XDQQ) that have reset for the first time.
• the S&P 500 Buffer ETFs™ (BJUL (S&P 500 Buffer ETF™ – July), PJUL (S&P 500 Power Buffer ETF™ – July) and UJUL (S&P 500 Ultra Buffer ETF™ – July)), which concluded their third outcome period at the end of the month;
• the International Equity Power Buffer ETFs™ (IJUL (Innovator MSCI EAFE Power Buffer ETF™ – July) and EJUL (Innovator MSCI Emerging Markets Power Buffer ETF™ – July)), which finished their second outcome period;
• the Domestic Equity Power Buffer ETFs™ (NJUL (Innovator Nasdaq-100 Power Buffer ETF™ – July) and KJUL (Innovator Russell 2000 Power Buffer ETF™ – July)), which completed their first outcome period;
  
  
• as well as the Defined Outcome Bond ETFs™ (TFJL (Innovator 20+ Year Treasury Bond 5 Floor ETF™ – July) and TBJL (Innovator 20+ Year Treasury Bond 9 Buffer ETF™ – July)), which are the first ETFs to provide buffered exposure to TLT (the iShares 20+ Year Treasury Bond ETF) with upside to a cap, and completed their first outcome period at the end of the month, successfully buffering against TLT losses since the ETFs’ inception in 2020. The Innovator 20+ Year Treasury Bond 5 Floor ETF™ – July (TFJL), is now operating on a quarterly outcome period allowing for more frequent resets and even potentially better risk management against downside in long-dated U.S. Treasuries via options on TLT.
  

Return profiles for the Innovator Buffer ETFs™ and Defined Outcome Bond ETFs™ – July series, as of 7/01/21

* The Caps above are shown gross of each fund’s management fee (.79% for all ETFs except IJUL (.85%) and EJUL (.89%)). The actual Cap for each Fund will be set at the beginning of the Outcome Period, and is dependent upon market conditions at that time. Periods of high market volatility could result in higher caps, and lower volatility could result in lower caps. As a result, the Cap set by each Fund may be higher or lower than the Cap Range. “Cap” refers to the maximum potential return, before fees and expenses and any shareholder transaction fees and any extraordinary expenses, if held over the full Outcome Period. “Buffer” refers to the amount of downside protection the fund seeks to provide, before fees and expenses, over the full Outcome Period. Outcome Period is the intended length of time over which the defined outcomes are sought. Upon fund launch, the Caps can be found on a daily basis via www.innovatoretfs.com.

Return profiles for the Innovator Accelerated ETFs™ – July series, as of 7/01/21

Listing today, July 1^st, the four Innovator Accelerated ETFs™ operating on an annual outcome period from July 1, 2021 to June 30, 2022 are below with their return profiles, in addition to the two quarterly resetting products:

* The Caps above are shown gross of each fund’s .79% management fee. “Cap” refers to the maximum potential return, before fees and expenses and any shareholder transaction fees and any extraordinary expenses, if held over the full Outcome Period. “Buffer” refers to the amount of downside protection the fund seeks to provide, before fees and expenses, over the full Outcome Period. Outcome Period is the intended length of time over which the defined outcomes are sought. Upon fund launch, the Caps can be found on a daily basis via www.innovatoretfs.com.
Investors who purchase shares after the start of an outcome period may be exposed to enhanced risk.

The following Accelerated ETFs™ based on the Large-cap U.S. equity market through options on SPY (the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust) launched today:

• Innovator U.S. Equity Accelerated ETF™ – July (XDJL) seeks to provide investors with double the upside performance of SPY, to a cap, with approximately single exposure to SPY on the downside, over a one-year outcome period.
• Innovator U.S. Equity Accelerated 9 Buffer ETF™ – July (XBJL) seeks to provide investors with double the upside performance of SPY, to a cap, with approximately single exposure to SPY on the downside and a buffer against the first 9% of losses in SPY, over a one-year outcome period.
• Innovator U.S. Equity Accelerated Plus ETF™ – July (XTJL) seeks to provide investors with triple the upside performance of SPY, to a cap, with approximately single exposure to SPY on the downside, over a one-year outcome period.
  

Innovator is also listing the following Accelerated ETF™ based on Growth stocks through options on QQQ (the Invesco QQQ Trust):

• Innovator Growth-100 Accelerated Plus ETF™ – July (QTJL) seeks to provide investors with triple the upside performance of QQQ, to a cap, with approximately single exposure to QQQ on the downside, over a one-year outcome period.
  

The Accelerated ETFs™ are not like leveraged ETFs, which typically seek to provide a magnified exposure on both the upside and the downside on a daily basis and can compound risk with higher volatility when held long-term due to their frequent, often daily, rebalancing. Instead, the Accelerated ETFs™ seek to provide asymmetrical returns over either a typically annual or quarterly outcome period that are magnified on the upside only, to a cap. Innovator’s Accelerated ETFs™ will rebalance annually or quarterly, making the funds more suited for asset allocation and longer-term investors rather than tools for ultra-tactical trading. In the Accelerated ETFs™ case, it is important to note that investors must hold shares for an entire outcome period to achieve the enhanced returns that a fund seeks to provide.

While the Funds are designed to participate in the reference ETF (SPY or QQQ) losses on a one-to-one basis over the duration of the outcome period as a whole, a decrease in the value of the reference asset’s share price may cause a decrease in the Fund’s NAV while an outcome period is ongoing. Therefore an investor that purchases Shares after an outcome period has begun may be exposed to incremental downside risk if the reference asset has increased in value.

The shorter outcome period of the Quarterly outcome period ETFs (XDSQ, XDQQ) means they will follow the reference asset (SPY or QQQ) more closely, but have lower starting caps. Investors can use both outcome periods to tactically respond to changing market conditions should they wish to do so.

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.

At the end of each ETF’s outcome period, the ETF will simply rebalance and reset, providing investors with new upside caps and a fresh 9% Buffer in the case of XBJL, over the next outcome period. The Accelerated ETFs™ do not expire and can be long-term core equity holdings in a portfolio. The options-based ETFs are anticipated to be as tax-efficient as traditional equity ETFs, with no planned cap gains distributions to shareholders and investors being able to defer taxes until selling.

Investors in the Innovator Accelerated ETFs™ will not receive dividend yield from their holdings; the ETFs will be based on the price returns of the reference ETF (SPY or QQQ) over the length of the outcome period. The Innovator Accelerated ETFs™ will charge a 0.79% management fee.

The Accelerated ETFs™ will be constructed using Cboe FLEX Options, offering exposure to equity markets rather than investing in them directly. The FLEX Options forming the underlying positions of the first three Innovator Accelerated ETFs™ are based on SPY or QQQ (the reference asset).

The Accelerated ETFs™ provide defined returns over the entire Outcome Period, not on a daily basis. As a result, interim returns may lag the reference benchmark ETFs. This is due to the time-value nature of the underlying options held by the fund; as such, the Accelerated ETFs™ won’t maintain proportional betas of 1.0 to the reference ETF in instances of positive returns for the associated equity benchmark. Though they provide simultaneous multiple exposure to the upside of the benchmark, the Accelerated ETFs™ only seek to provide the positive performance of the reference ETF over the full Outcome Period, up to a cap, and 1:1 downside to the reference asset over the Outcome Period. In the interim, or intra-Outcome Period, investors can expect the Accelerated ETFs™ to exhibit lower beta than traditional passive index-tracking ETFs. An investor that purchases Shares after an Outcome Period has begun may be exposed to downside from that point forward if the reference asset has appreciated in value since the period began.

Starting with the January series, Innovator will be transitioning reference assets of the underlying options within its Defined Outcome Equity Buffer ETFs™ to achieve the stated outcomes with ETF-based, or fund-based, options rather than index-based options. Innovator’s Equity Buffer ETFs™ have traditionally used index-based options while the Defined Outcome Bond ETFs and Stacker ETFs™ have been constructed using fund-based options. This change is intended to streamline market making and increase the operational efficiencies of the tax-efficient Buffer ETFs™ and will not materially impact shareholders. The Buffer ETFs™ will continue to draw from the same deeply liquid options markets pools that underpin the strategies, the level of the upside caps achieved should be unaffected and no tax event will be triggered given the options can be transferred in-kind. “These operational changes are intended to harness the power and efficiencies of the ETF wrapper even further for the benefit of our Defined Outcome Buffer ETF™ investors,” said Bruce Bond, CEO of Innovator ETFs.

Innovator Defined Outcome ETFs - Benefits to Advisors

• Pioneer and creator of Defined Outcome ETFs™ with 70 ETFs and over $4.7 billion AUM across family¹
• Tax-efficient exposure² to five broad equity benchmarks (S&P 500, NASDAQ-100, Russell 2000, MSCI EAFE, MSCI EM), the 20+ Year U.S. Treasury Market and now including the Stacker ETFs, the world’s first ETFs to offer a “stacked” exposure to two or three benchmark equity index ETFs on the upside, to a cap, with downside exposure to the S&P 500 only, and the Accelerated ETFs™, the world’s first ETFs to seek to offer a multiple of the upside return of a reference asset, up to a cap, with approximately single exposure on the downside.
• Over 72 Defined Outcome ETFs™ from Innovator have reset and successfully completed their respective outcome periods³
• Monthly issuance on SPY or the S&P 500 with three buffer levels (9,15, or 30%)

Innovator's Defined Outcome ETFs™ are the subject of a patent application filed with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office.

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.

About Innovator Defined Outcome ETFs™
Defined Outcome ETFs™ are the world’s first ETFs that seek to provide investors with known ranges of future investment outcomes prior to investing. These outcome ranges include multiple and single upside exposure, to a cap, with defined levels of downside risk with buffers and floors over a set amount of time. The Innovator Defined Outcome ETFs™ cover a large spectrum of domestic and international equities and bonds. Innovator’s category-creating Defined Outcome ETF™ family includes Buffer ETFs™, Floor ETFs™, Stacker ETFs™ and Accelerated ETFs™.

The Buffer ETFs™ seek to provide the upside performance of broadly recognized benchmarks (e.g., S&P 500, NASDAQ-100, Russell 2000, MSCI EAFE, and MSCI Emerging Markets, as well as the iShares 20+ Year Treasury Bond ETF (TLT)), or underlying ETFs based on those benchmarks, as applicable, to a cap, with built-in buffers, over an outcome period of one-year. The ETFs reset annually and can be held indefinitely.

Each Buffer ETF™ in Innovator’s Defined Outcome ETF™ suite seeks to provide a defined exposure to a broad market benchmark where the downside buffer level, upside growth potential to a cap, and Outcome Period are all known, prior to investing. In 2019, Innovator began expanding its suite of S&P 500 Buffer ETFs™ into a monthly series to provide investors more opportunities to purchase shares as close to the beginning of their respective Outcome Periods as possible.

The Innovator 20+ Year Treasury Bond 5 Floor ETF (TFJL) seeks to provide exposure to the upside performance of the iShares 20+ Year Treasury Bond ETF (TLT) to a cap and a floor against downside losses in excess of 5% over the outcome period.

Investors can purchase shares of a previously listed Defined Outcome ETF™ throughout the entire Outcome Period, obtaining a current set of defined outcome parameters, which are disclosed daily through a web tool available at: http://innovatoretfs.com/define.

Innovator is focused on delivering defined outcome-based solutions inside the benefit-rich ETF wrapper, retaining many of the features that have contributed to the success of structured products⁴ (e.g., downside buffer levels, upside participation, defined outcome parameters), but with the added benefits of transparency, liquidity, the elimination of credit risk and lower costs afforded by the ETF structure.***

Buffer ETFs seek to provide investors with potential market appreciation of a given reference asset, up to a cap, and a predetermined downside buffer, based on the price returns of the reference asset, over a 1 year outcome period.

About Innovator Capital Management, LLC
Awarded ETF.com's "ETF Issuer of the Year - 2019", Innovator Capital Management LLC (Innovator) 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. Bond and Southard reentered the asset management industry to bring to market first-of-their-kind investment opportunities, including the Defined Outcome ETFs™, products that they felt would change the investing landscape and bring more certainty to the financial planning process. Innovator’s category-creating Defined Outcome ETF™ family includes Buffer ETFs™, Floor ETFs, Stacker ETFs™ and the Accelerated ETFs™, the world’s first ETFs to seek to offer a multiple of the upside return of a reference asset, up to a cap, with approximately single exposure on the downside. Buffer ETFs™ and Floor ETFs™ seek to provide investors structured exposures to broad markets, where the upside growth potential, buffer or floor against the downside, and outcome period are all known, prior to investing. Stacker ETFs™ are the world’s first ETFs to offer a multiple or "stacked" exposure to two or three benchmark index ETFs (SPY, QQQ, IWM) to a cap, with only downside exposure to the SPY over a one year outcome period. Accelerated ETFs™ are the world’s first ETFs to seek to offer a multiple of the upside return of a reference asset, up to a cap, with approximately single exposure on the downside over an outcome period. Having launched the first Defined Outcome ETFs™ in 2018 -- the flagship Innovator S&P 500 Buffer ETF™ Suite – Innovator’s solutions allow advisors to construct diversified portfolios with known outcome ranges to aid in risk management and financial planning. Built on a foundation of innovation and driven by a commitment to help investors better control their financial outcomes, Innovator is leading the Defined Outcome ETF Revolution™. For additional information, visit www.innovatoretfs.com.

About Cboe Global Markets, Inc.
Cboe Global Markets (Cboe: 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 approximately $150 billion in global assets as of March 31, 2021. Milliman FRM is one of the largest and fastest-growing subadvisors of ETFs. For more information about Milliman FRM, visit www.Milliman.com/FRM.

Media Contact
Paul Damon
+1 (802) 999-5526
paul@keramas.net

Fund shareholders are subject to an upside return cap (the "Cap") that represents the maximum percentage return an investor can achieve from an investment in the funds' for the Outcome Period, before fees and expenses. If the Outcome Period has begun and the Fund has increased in value to a level near to the Cap, an investor purchasing at that price has little or no ability to achieve gains but remains vulnerable to downside risks. Additionally, the Cap may rise or fall from one Outcome Period to the next. The Cap, and the Fund's position relative to it, should be considered before investing in the Fund. The Funds' website, www.innovatoretfs.com, provides important Fund information as well as information relating to the potential outcomes of an investment in a Fund on a daily basis.

The Defined Outcome Funds that include a buffer objective only seek to provide shareholders that hold shares for the entire Outcome Period with their respective buffer level against reference asset losses during the Outcome Period. You will bear all reference asset losses exceeding 9, 15 or 30%. Depending upon market conditions at the time of purchase, a shareholder that purchases shares after the Outcome Period has begun may also lose their entire investment. For instance, if the Outcome Period has begun and the Fund has decreased in value beyond the pre-determined buffer, an investor purchasing shares at that price may not benefit from the buffer. Similarly, if the Outcome Period has begun and the Fund has increased in value, an investor purchasing shares at that price may not benefit from the buffer until the Fund's value has decreased to its value at the commencement of the Outcome Period.

Interim Period Shareholders

Unlike structured notes, which offer limited liquidity, Innovator Defined Outcome ETFs™ trade throughout the day on an exchange, like a stock. As a result, investors purchasing shares of a Fund after its launch date may achieve a different payoff profile than those who entered the Fund on day one. Innovator recognizes this as a benefit of the Funds and provides a web-based tool that allows investors to know, in real-time throughout the trading day, their potential defined outcome return profile before they invest, based on the current ETF price and the Outcome Period remaining. Innovator’s web tool can be accessed at http://www.innovatoretfs.com/define.

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.

In the event an Outcome Period has begun and the underlying asset's share price has increased in value, such an increase will be reflected in the value of the Fund’s purchased call option on the underlying assets. Accordingly, in the event that the underlying asset's share price were to subsequently decrease in value, that decrease would also be reflected in the value of that option, and therefore the Fund’s NAV.  An investor that purchases Fund Shares after the underlying assets have increased in value during an Outcome Period may be negatively affected by future decreases during the remainder of the Outcome Period

Investing involves risks. Loss of principal is possible. 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, liquidity risk, management risk, market maker risk, market risk, non-diversification risk, operation risk, options risk, trading issues risk, upside participation risk and valuation risk. For a detailed list of fund risks see the prospectus.

Market Disruptions Resulting from COVID-19. The outbreak of COVID-19 has negatively affected the worldwide economy, individual countries, individual companies and the market in general. The future impact of COVID-19 is currently unknown, and it may exacerbate other risks that apply to the Fund.

FLEX Options Risk The Fund will utilize FLEX Options issued and guaranteed for settlement by the Options Clearing Corporation (OCC). In the unlikely event that the OCC becomes insolvent or is otherwise unable to meet its settlement obligations, the Fund could suffer significant losses. Additionally, FLEX Options may be less liquid than standard options. In a less liquid market for the FLEX Options, the Fund may have difficulty closing out certain FLEX Options positions at desired times and prices. The values of FLEX Options do not increase or decrease at the same rate as the reference asset and may vary due to factors other than the price of reference asset.

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

Investors purchasing shares after an outcome period has begun may experience very different results than these funds' investment objectives. Initial outcome periods are approximately 1-year beginning on the funds' inception dates. Following the initial outcome period, each subsequent outcome period will begin on the first day of the month the fund was incepted. After the conclusion of an outcome period, another will begin.

Nasdaq® is a registered trademark of Nasdaq, Inc. (which with its affiliates is referred to as the "Corporations") and is licensed for use by Innovator Capital Management, LLC. The Product(s) have not been passed on by the Corporations as to their legality or suitability. The Product(s) are not issued, endorsed, sold, or promoted by the Corporations.

THE CORPORATIONS MAKE NO WARRANTIES AND BEAR NO LIABILITY WITH RESPECT TO THE PRODUCT(S).

The Innovator Russell 2000 Power Buffer ETF™ (the “Fund”) has been developed solely by Innovator Capital Management, LLC. The “Fund” is not in any way connected to or sponsored, endorsed, sold or promoted by the London Stock Exchange Group plc and its group undertakings (collectively, the “LSE Group”). FTSE Russell is a trading name of certain of the LSE Group companies. All rights in the Russell 2000 Index (the “Index”) vest in the relevant LSE Group company, which owns the Index. “FTSE®” “Russell®”, and “FTSE Russell®” are trade marks of the relevant LSE Group company and are used by any other LSE Group company under license.

The Index is calculated by or on behalf of FTSE International Limited or its affiliate, agent or partner. The LSE Group does not accept any liability whatsoever to any person arising out of (a) the use of, reliance on or any error in the Index or (b) investment in or operation of the Fund. The LSE Group makes no claim, prediction, warranty or representation either as to the results to be obtained from the Fund or the suitability of the Index for the purpose to which it is being put by Innovator Capital Management, LLC.

The ETFs referred to herein is not sponsored, endorsed, or promoted by MSCI Inc. or based upon the MSCI EAFE and MSCI Emerging Markets Indexes. MSCI Inc. bears no liability with respect to the ETFs.

MSCI, MSCI EAFE, and MSCI Emerging Markets are trademarks or service marks of MSCI Inc. or its affiliates (“Marks”) and are used hereto subject to license from MSCI. All goodwill and use of Marks inures to the benefit of MSCI and its affiliates. No other use of the Marks is permitted without a license from MSCI.

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.

* ETF.com’s editorial team chose the finalists and then the ETF.com Awards Selection Committee, an independent panel comprised of fifteen of the ETF industry’s leading analysts, consultants and investors, decided the winners.

** The shortlists and winners are comprised of individuals and firms who have submitted entries or been nominated via the online submission process, as well as through recommendations from leading market participants. Judges will judge the ETF categories and will use the submitted application material, as well as any uploaded supplemental information, to determine which firm, individual or product they believe to be the most suitable and deserving winners for each category.

*** ETFs use creation units, which allow for the purchase and sale of assets in the fund collectively. Consequently, ETFs usually generate fewer capital gain distributions overall, which can make them somewhat more tax-efficient than mutual funds. Defined Outcome ETFs are not backed by the faith and credit of an issuing institution, so they are not exposed to credit risk.

Innovator ETFs^TM, Defined Outcome ETF^TM, Buffer ETF^TM, Stacker ETF^TM, Accelerated ETFs™, Enhanced ETF^TM, Define Your Future^TM, Leading the Defined Outcome ETF Revolution^TM and other service marks and trademarks related to these marks are the exclusive property of Innovator Capital Management, LLC.

The Funds' investment objectives, risks, charges and expenses should be considered before investing. The prospectus contains this and other important information, and it may be obtained at innovatoretfs.com. Read it carefully before investing.

Innovator ETFs are distributed by Foreside Fund Services, LLC.

Copyright © 2021 Innovator Capital Management, LLC.

800.208.5212        

¹ AUM in all Innovator Defined Outcome ETFs as of 6.30.2021.
² ETFs use creation units, which allow for the purchase and sale of assets in the fund collectively. Consequently, ETFs usually generate fewer capital gain distributions overall, which can make them somewhat more tax-efficient than mutual funds.
³ As of 7.01.2021
⁴ 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.