Elevation Series Trust board approves converting Vulcan Value Partners Fund into an ETF

The conversion Vulcan Value Partners Fund described in August as still needing the Board’s final approval is no longer waiting on it. On Wednesday, September 16, Elevation Series Trust filed a prospectus supplement telling current holders the mutual fund will be reorganized into Vulcan Value Partners ETF, and a Form N-14 registering the ETF shares that would be issued in the deal. August’s supplement had left the plan “subject to the Board’s final approval.” Wednesday’s paper records that the Board has approved. Shareholders are not being asked to vote.

The 0.75% fee the N-14 sets

The mutual fund pays Vulcan Value Partners, LLC an advisory fee of 0.85% of average daily net assets. Vulcan has contractually capped total annual operating expenses at 1.10% for Investor Class shares and 0.85% for Institutional Class shares, exclusive of acquired-fund fees, brokerage, interest, taxes and extraordinary expenses.

Wednesday’s N-14 sets the ETF’s unitary management fee at 0.75% of average daily net assets. That is 10 basis points below both the current advisory fee and the Institutional cap, and 35 basis points below the Investor cap. Under a unitary fee, Vulcan covers the ETF’s ordinary operating expenses out of that 0.75%, so holders would not see a separate 12b-1 or other-expenses line.

An August 3 post-effective amendment, still marked “subject to completion,” had put the same 0.75% in brackets and left the ticker and listed exchange blank. Wednesday’s N-14 states the 0.75% without brackets. Wednesday’s 497 still does not name an ETF ticker. The proposed closing remains “on or about [October 30], 2026.”

A $256.1 million book in a cheaper field

Vulcan Value Partners Fund ended its April 30, 2026, fiscal year with $256.1 million in net assets. As of June 30 it held 24 stocks and used the Russell 1000 Value Index as its primary benchmark. The strategy, on the adviser’s fact sheet, is long-term capital appreciation from mid- and large-capitalization U.S. companies the managers consider undervalued and to have a sustainable competitive advantage. The fund is the successor to a predecessor that was reorganized into Elevation Series Trust on September 12, 2025.

If the conversion closes, that book would sit in a U.S. active-value ETF field that already includes much larger, cheaper products.

Avantis U.S. Large Cap Value ETF AAVLV charges 0.15%. iShares Large Cap Value Active ETF BLCV charges 0.45%. American Century Focused Large Cap Value ETF BFLV charges 0.42%. They are the listed market that concentrated book would enter.

What Wednesday’s papers say

The supplement is dated September 16 and amends the fund’s prospectus, summary prospectus and statement of additional information dated August 28. It names the existing series as Vulcan Value Partners Fund, Investor Class VVPLX and Institutional Class VVILX. The acquiring fund is described as a newly organized series of the same trust that will operate as an exchange-traded fund.

After the reorganization, the paper says, the ETF is expected to keep a substantially similar investment strategy, the same portfolio-management team, and the same adviser. The conversion is expected to qualify as a tax-free reorganization for federal income-tax purposes, except for cash paid on any fractional shares or on shares held in accounts that cannot take the ETF.

The N-14 proposes to move substantially all of the mutual fund’s assets and liabilities into the ETF, distribute ETF shares to the mutual fund’s shareholders, and liquidate the target fund. It proposes to become effective on the 30th day after filing under Rule 488, the Securities Act rule that can make an N-14 effective on that timetable. It says neither the target fund’s shareholders nor the acquiring fund’s shareholders must vote under applicable state law or the trust’s declaration, and it says the conditions of Rule 17a-8 have been met. That is the 1940 Act rule that lets a board merge affiliated funds without a shareholder vote when it finds specified conditions are satisfied. The small-cap sibling is not in this reorganization. Elevation Series Trust filed a summary prospectus for Vulcan Value Partners Small Cap Fund earlier this month; that paper did not convert it.

VVILX merges into VVPLX on September 23

The operational date that does not wait for the ETF is September 23. The supplement says the Institutional class will be merged into the Investor class on or about that day, and the Investor Class Rule 12b-1 plan will be terminated then, in advance of the conversion.

As of April 30, 2026, Institutional Class shares (VVILX) accounted for $147.1 million of the fund’s net assets and Investor Class shares (VVPLX) for $109.0 million. The larger class is being folded into the share class that, until that same day, carried a 0.25% distribution fee. Because the 12b-1 plan ends on the merger date, Institutional holders are not being left in a more expensive vehicle; they lose the Institutional wrapper and, if the conversion closes, would hold a single ETF share class at 0.75%.

Holders whose accounts cannot accept ETF shares will not receive the new shares. The N-14 says those positions will be liquidated for cash on the closing date, and that the conversion to cash “will be a taxable event.” Direct accounts at the fund’s transfer agent are told to move the shares into a brokerage account that can hold an ETF before the reorganization. Fractional shares will be redeemed for cash beforehand. The N-14 still brackets the mailing of the information statement: on or about October 20 to holders of record as of October 1.

An earlier supplement, dated August 4, had already closed the fund to direct shareholders after August 5. Additional purchases, it said, had to come through intermediaries with a selling agreement.

What the conversion buys Vulcan is a listed wrapper around a book it already runs, at a fee that undercuts its own mutual-fund schedule and is five times the 0.15% AAVLV charges. What it costs a holder depends on the account: a single share class at 0.75% for those who can take the ETF, and a cash redemption for those who cannot.