07/30/2021 | Press release | Distributed by Public on 07/30/2021 11:13

Filing by Investment Company (SEC Filing - 497K)

NORTHERN FUNDS International Equity Fund

Summary Prospectus | July 31, 2021		Shares Class: NOIGX

Before you invest, you may want to review the Fund's complete Prospectus, which contains more information about the Fund and its risks. You can find the Fund's complete Prospectus, reports to shareholders, and other information about the Fund online at northerntrust.com/prospectus. You can also get this information at no cost by calling 800-595-9111 or by sending an e-mail request to [email protected]. If you purchase shares of the Fund through a financial intermediary (such as a bank or a broker-dealer), the complete Prospectus and other information are also available from your financial intermediary. The Fund's complete Prospectus and Statement of Additional Information, both dated July 31, 2021, as supplemented, are incorporated by reference into this summary prospectus and may be obtained, free of charge, at the website, phone number or e-mail address noted above.

INVESTMENT OBJECTIVE

The Fund seeks to provide long-term capital appreciation. Any income received is incidental to this objective.

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 be required to pay commissions and/or other forms of compensation to a financial intermediary for transactions in Shares Class shares, which are not reflected in the tables or the examples below.

Shareholder Fees (fees paid directly from your investment)
Maximum Sales Charge (Load) Imposed on Purchases (as a percentage of offering price)			None
Redemption Fee (within 30 days of purchase) (as a percentage of amount redeemed, if applicable)			2.00%
Annual Fund Operating Expenses (expenses that you pay each year as a percentage of the value of your investment)
		Shares Class
Management Fees			0.48%
Other Expenses			0.27%
Transfer Agent Fees			0.04%
Other Operating Expenses			0.23%
Acquired Fund Fees and Expenses(1)			0.01%
Total Annual Fund Operating Expenses(1)			0.76%
Expense Reimbursement(2)			(0.23)%
Total Annual Fund Operating Expenses After Expense Reimbursement(1)(2)			0.53%

(1)	The Total Annual Fund Operating Expenses may not correlate to the ratio of expenses to average net assets as reported in the 'Financial Highlights' section of the Prospectus, which reflects the operating expenses of the Fund and does not include Acquired Fund Fees and Expenses.

(2)

Northern Trust Investments, Inc. ('NTI' or the 'Investment Adviser') has contractually agreed to reimburse a portion of the operating expenses of the Fund (other than certain excepted expenses, i.e., Acquired Fund Fees and Expenses, the compensation paid to each Independent Trustee of the Trust, expenses of third party consultants engaged by the Board of Trustees, membership dues paid to the Investment Company Institute and Mutual Fund Directors Forum, expenses in connection with the negotiation and renewal of the revolving credit facility, extraordinary expenses and interest) to the extent the 'Total Annual Fund Operating Expenses' exceed 0.50%. This contractual limitation may not be terminated before July 31, 2022 without the approval of the Board of Trustees.

EXAMPLE

The following 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 (taking into account the expense reimbursement arrangement for one year). 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
Shares Class			$54				$220				$400				$921

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 portfolio operating expenses or in the Example, affect the Fund's performance. During the most recent fiscal year, the Fund's portfolio turnover rate was 63.81% of the average value of its portfolio.

PRINCIPAL INVESTMENT STRATEGIES

In seeking long-term capital appreciation, the Fund will invest, under normal circumstances, at least 80% of its net assets in equity securities. The Fund will invest significantly (at least 40%) in the securities of companies that are located, headquartered, incorporated or otherwise organized outside of the United States. These companies generally have market capitalizations in excess of $1 billion.

The Fund's investment strategy attempts to create a portfolio with similar risk, style, capitalization and industry characteristics as the MSCI World^® ex USA Index with the potential to provide excess returns by allowing the Fund to hold a portion, but not all of the securities in the MSCI World ex USA Index. In managing the Fund, NTI attempts to achieve the Fund's objective by overweighting those stocks that it believes will outperform the MSCI World ex USA Index and underweighting (or excluding entirely) those stocks that it believes will underperform the MSCI World ex USA Index. The Fund seeks to accomplish this goal by employing a strategy that uses statistics and advanced econometric methods to evaluate

fundamental and quantifiable stock or firm characteristics (such as relative valuation, price momentum and earnings quality). The characteristics are combined to create a proprietary multifactor quantitative stock selection model that generates stock specific forecasts that are used along with controls intended to manage risk to determine security weightings.

The Fund may use derivatives such as stock index futures contracts to equitize cash and enhance portfolio liquidity. The team will normally sell a security that it believes is no longer attractive based upon the evaluation criteria described above.

From time to time the Fund may focus its investments (i.e., invest more than 15% of its total assets) in one or more particular countries or geographic regions.

NTI may engage in active trading, and will not consider portfolio turnover a limiting factor in making decisions for the Fund.

MSCI Inc. does not endorse any of the securities in the MSCI World ex USA Index. It is not a sponsor of the International Equity Fund and is not affiliated with the Fund in any way.

PRINCIPAL RISKS

As with any investment, you could lose all or part of your investment in the Fund, and the Fund's performance could trail that of other investments. The Fund is subject to certain risks, including the principal risks noted below, any of which may adversely affect the Fund's net asset value ('NAV'), total return and ability to meet its investment objective. Each risk noted below is considered a principal risk of investing in the Fund, regardless of the order in which it appears. The significance of each risk factor below may change over time and you should review each risk factor carefully.

MARKET RISK is the risk that the value of the Fund's investments may increase or decrease in response to expected, real or perceived economic, political or financial events in the U.S. or global markets. The frequency and magnitude of such changes in value cannot be predicted. Certain securities and other investments held by the Fund may experience increased volatility, illiquidity, or other potentially adverse effects in response to changing market conditions, inflation, changes in interest rates, lack of liquidity in the bond or equity markets, volatility in the equity markets, market disruptions caused by local or regional events such as war, acts of terrorism, the spread of infectious illness (including epidemics and pandemics) or other public health issues, recessions or other events or adverse investor sentiment or other political, regulatory, economic and social developments, and developments that impact specific economic sectors, industries or segments of the market. These risks may be magnified if certain events or developments adversely interrupt the global supply chain; in these and other circumstances, such risks might affect companies worldwide due to increasingly interconnected global economies and financial markets. Market risk includes the risk that a particular style of investing, such as growth or value, may underperform the market generally.

FOREIGN SECURITIES RISK is the risk that investing in foreign (non-U.S.) securities may result in the Fund experiencing more rapid and extreme changes in value than a fund that invests exclusively in securities of U.S. companies, due to less liquid markets and adverse economic, political, diplomatic, financial, and regulatory factors. Foreign governments may impose limitations on foreigners' ownership of interests in local issuers, restrictions on the ability to repatriate assets, and may also impose taxes. Any of these events could cause the value of the Fund's investments to decline. Foreign banks, agents and securities depositories that hold the Fund's foreign assets may be subject to little or no regulatory oversight over, or independent evaluation, of their operations. Additional costs associated with investments in foreign securities may include higher custodial fees than those applicable to domestic custodial arrangements and transaction costs of foreign currency conversions. Unless the Fund has hedged its foreign currency exposure, foreign securities risk also involves the risk of negative foreign currency rate fluctuations, which may cause the value of securities denominated in such foreign currency (or other instruments through which the Fund has exposure to foreign currencies) to decline in value. Currency exchange rates may fluctuate significantly over short periods of time. Currency hedging strategies, if used, are not always successful. For instance, forward foreign currency exchange contracts, if used by the Fund, could reduce performance if there are unanticipated changes in currency exchange rates.

INVESTMENT STYLE RISK is the risk that different investment styles (e.g., 'growth', 'value' or 'quantitative') tend to shift in and out of favor, depending on market and economic conditions as well as investor sentiment. The Fund may outperform or underperform other funds that invest in similar asset classes but employ a different investment style. The Fund may also employ a combination of styles that impacts its risk characteristics.

∎

QUANTITATIVE INVESTING RISK is the risk that the value of securities or other investments selected using quantitative analysis can perform differently from the market as a whole or from their expected performance and the Fund may realize a loss. This may be as a result of the factors used in building a multifactor quantitative model, the weights placed on each factor, the accuracy of historical data utilized, and changing sources of market returns. Whenever a model is used, there is also a risk that the model will not work as planned.

MANAGEMENT RISK is the risk that a strategy used by the Fund's investment adviser may fail to produce the intended results or that imperfections, errors or limitations in the tools and data used by the investment adviser may cause unintended results.

GEOGRAPHIC RISK is the risk that if the Fund invests a significant portion of its total assets in certain issuers within the same country or geographic region, an adverse economic, business or political development affecting that country or region may affect the value of the Fund's investments more, and the Fund's investments may be more volatile, than if its investments were not so concentrated in such country or region.

∎

JAPAN INVESTMENT RISKis the risk of investing in securities of Japanese issuers. The Japanese economy may be subject to considerable degrees of economic, political and social instability, which could negatively impact Japanese issuers. In recent times, Japan's economic growth rate has remained low, and it may remain low in the future. In addition, Japan is subject to the risk of natural disasters, such as earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, typhoons and tsunamis, which could negatively affect the securities of Japanese companies held by the Fund.

SECTOR RISK is the risk that companies in similar businesses may be similarly affected by particular economic or market events, which may, in certain circumstances, cause the value of securities of all companies in a particular sector of the market to decrease.

∎

FINANCIAL SECTOR RISK is the risk that the financial sector can be significantly affected by changes in interest rates, government regulation, the rate of corporate and consumer debt defaulted, price competition, and the availability and cost of capital, among other factors.

∎

INDUSTRIALS SECTOR RISK is the risk that industrials companies may be significantly affected by, among other things, worldwide economic growth, supply and demand for specific products and services, rapid technological developments, international political and economic developments, environmental issues, and tax and governmental regulatory policies.

DERIVATIVES RISK is the risk that derivatives may pose risks in addition to and greater than those associated with investing directly in securities, currencies and other instruments, may be illiquid or less liquid, more volatile, more difficult to value and leveraged so that small changes in the value of the underlying instrument may produce disproportionate losses to the Fund. Derivatives are also subject to counterparty risk, which is the risk that the other party to the transaction will not perform its contractual obligations. The use of derivatives is a highly specialized activity that involves investment techniques and risks different from those associated with investments in more traditional securities and instruments.

∎

FUTURES CONTRACTS RISK is the risk that there will be imperfect correlation between the change in market value of the Fund's securities and the price of futures contracts, which may result in the strategy not working as intended; the possible inability of the Fund to sell or close out a futures contract at the desired time or price; losses due to unanticipated market movements, which potentially are unlimited; and the possible inability of the Fund's investment adviser to correctly predict the direction of securities' prices, interest rates, currency exchange rates and other economic factors, which may make the Fund's returns more volatile or increase the risk of loss.

VALUATION RISK is the risk that the sale price the Fund could receive for a portfolio security may differ from the Fund's valuation of the security, particularly for securities that trade in low volume or volatile markets or that are valued using a fair value methodology. Fair valuation of the Fund's investments involves subjective judgment. In addition, the value of the securities in the Fund's portfolio may change on days when shareholders will not be able to purchase or sell the Fund's shares.

As with any mutual fund, it is possible to lose money on an investment in the Fund. An investment in the Fund is not a deposit of any bank and is not insured or guaranteed by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, any other government agency, or The Northern Trust Company, its affiliates, subsidiaries or any other bank.

FUND PERFORMANCE

The bar chart and table that follow provide an indication of the risks of investing in the Fund by showing (A) changes in the performance of the Fund from year to year, and (B) how the average annual total returns of the Fund compare to those of a broad-based securities market index.

On January 1, 2017, the Fund changed its principal investment strategy from a fundamental actively managed strategy to a quantitative actively managed strategy. The performance shown prior to that date represents performance of the Fund's prior fundamental actively managed strategy.

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 and may be obtained on the Fund's website at northerntrust.com/funds or by calling 800-595-9111.

CALENDAR YEAR TOTAL RETURN*

* Year to date total return for the six months ended June 30, 2021 is 11.60%. For the periods shown in the bar chart above, the highest quarterly return was 14.65% in the fourth quarter of 2020, and the lowest quarterly return was (25.00)% in the first quarter of 2020.

AVERAGE ANNUAL TOTAL RETURN

(For the periods ended December 31, 2020)

		Inception Date			1-Year			5-Year			10-Year			Since Inception
Shares Class			4/1/94
Returns before taxes				1.64	%			5.14	%			3.62	%			4.44	%
Returns after taxes on distributions				0.15	%			4.53	%			3.15	%			3.33	%
Returns after taxes on distributions and sale of Fund shares				1.78	%			4.10	%			2.95	%			3.40	%
MSCI World ex USA Index (reflects no deduction or fees, expenses or taxes)				7.59	%			7.64	%			5.19	%			5.40	%

After-tax returns are calculated using the historical highest individual federal marginal income tax rates and do not reflect the impact of state and local taxes. Actual after-tax returns depend on an investor's tax situation and may differ from those shown. After-tax returns shown are not relevant to investors who hold their shares through tax-advantaged arrangements, such as 401(k) plans or individual retirement accounts.

In calculating the federal income taxes due on redemptions, capital gains taxes resulting from redemptions are subtracted from the redemption proceeds and the tax benefits from capital losses resulting from the redemptions are added to the redemption proceeds. Under certain circumstances, the addition of the tax benefits from capital losses resulting from redemptions may cause the Returns after taxes on distributions and sale of fund shares to be greater than the Returns after taxes on distributions or even the Returns before taxes.

MANAGEMENT

INVESTMENT ADVISER AND PORTFOLIO MANAGERS. NTI, an indirect subsidiary of Northern Trust Corporation, serves as the investment adviser of the International Equity Fund. Michael R. Hunstad, Senior Vice President of NTI and Mark C. Sodergren, CFA, Senior Vice President of NTI, have been managers of the Fund since July 2019 and January 2017, respectively. The Northern Trust Company, an affiliate of NTI, serves as transfer agent, custodian and sub-administrator to the Fund.

PURCHASE AND SALE OF FUND SHARES

You may purchase Shares Class shares of the Fund by opening an account directly with Northern Funds (the 'Trust') with a minimum initial investment of $2,500 in the Fund ($500 for an IRA; $250 under the Automatic Investment Plan; and $500 for employees of Northern Trust and its affiliates). The minimum subsequent investment is $50 (except for reinvestments of distributions for which there is no minimum). The Fund reserves the right to waive these minimums.

You may also purchase Shares Class shares of the Fund through an account at Northern Trust (or an affiliate) or an authorized intermediary. If you purchase, sell (redeem) or exchange Shares Class shares through an authorized intermediary, you may be required to pay a commission and/or other forms of compensation to the intermediary. In addition, an authorized intermediary may impose different investment minimums than those set forth above. The Fund is not responsible for any investment minimums imposed by authorized intermediaries or for notifying shareholders of any changes to them.

On any business day, you may sell (redeem) or exchange shares through your account by contacting your Northern Trust account representative or authorized intermediary. If you purchase shares directly from the Trust, you may sell (redeem) or exchange your shares in one of the following ways:

∎

By Mail - Send a written request to: Northern Funds, P.O. Box 75986, Chicago, Illinois 60675-5986.

∎

By Telephone - Authorize the telephone privilege on your New Account Application. Call 800-595-9111 to use the telephone privilege.

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By Wire - Authorize wire redemptions on your New Account Application and have proceeds sent by federal wire transfer to a previously designated bank account (the minimum redemption amount by this method is $250). You will be charged $15 for each wire redemption unless the designated bank account is maintained at Northern Trust or an affiliated bank. Call 800-595-9111 for instructions.

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By Systematic Withdrawal - If you own shares of the Fund with a minimum value of $10,000, you may elect to have a fixed sum redeemed at regular intervals and distributed in cash or reinvested in one or more other funds of the Trust. Call 800-595-9111 for an application form and additional information. The minimum amount is $250 per withdrawal.

∎

By Exchange - Complete the Exchange Privilege section of your New Account Application to exchange shares of one fund in the Trust for shares of another fund in the Trust. Shares being exchanged must have a value of at least $1,000 ($2,500 if a new account is being established by the exchange, $500 if the new account is an IRA). Call 800-595-9111 for more information.

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By Internet - You may initiate transactions between Northern Trust banking and Fund accounts by using Northern Trust Private Passport. For details and to sign up for this service, go to northerntrust.com/funds or contact your Relationship Manager.

TAX INFORMATION

The Fund's distributions are generally taxable to you as ordinary income, qualified dividend income, capital gains, or a combination of the three, unless you are investing through a tax-exempt or tax-advantaged arrangement, such as a 401(k) plan or an individual retirement account. Distributions may be taxable upon withdrawal from tax-advantaged accounts.

PAYMENTS TO BROKERS-DEALERS AND OTHER FINANCIAL INTERMEDIARIES

If you purchase the 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.

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