WesMark Balanced Fund
WesMark Bond Fund
WesMark Growth Fund
WesMark West Virginia Municipal Bond Fund
(Portfolios of WesMark Funds)
Supplement to Prospectuses Dated April 30, 1999
I. At a special meeting of shareholders to be held on December 17,
1999, shareholders of the above-named Funds will be asked to vote
on the changes described below. If approved by shareholders, these
changes will take effect on or after January 1, 2000. Shareholders
will be notified if any of these changes are not approved at the
special meeting or any adjournment thereof. Please keep this
supplement for your records.
Shareholders will be asked to consider the following proposals:
(1) To elect five Trustees.
(2) To make changes to the fundamental investment policies of the
Funds:
(a)To amend the Funds' fundamental investment policies
regarding borrowing money and issuing senior securities to
read as follows:
"The Fund may borrow money, directly or indirectly, and
issue senior securities to the maximum extent permitted
under the 1940 Act."
(b) To amend the Funds' fundamental investment policies
regarding investments in real estate to read as follows:
"The Fund may not purchase or sell real estate, provided
that this restriction does not prevent the Fund from
investing in issuers which invest, deal, or otherwise
engage in transactions in real estate or interests
therein, or investing in securities that are secured by
real estate or interests therein. The Fund may exercise
its rights under agreements relating to such securities,
including the right to enforce security interests and to
hold real estate acquired by reason of such enforcement
until that real estate can be liquidated in an orderly
manner."
(c) To amend the Funds' fundamental investment policies
regarding investments in commodities to read as follows:
"The Fund may not purchase or sell physical commodities,
provided that the Fund may purchase securities of
companies that deal in commodities."
(d) To amend the Funds' fundamental investment policies
regarding underwriting securities to read as follows:
"The Fund may not underwrite the securities of other
issuers, except that the Fund may engage in transactions
involving the acquisition, disposition or resale of its
portfolio securities, under circumstances where it may be
considered to be an underwriter under the Securities Act
of 1933."
(e) To amend the Funds' fundamental investment policies
regarding lending by the Fund to read as follows:
"The Fund may not make loans, provided that this
restriction does not prevent the Fund from purchasing debt
obligations, entering into repurchase agreements, lending
its assets to broker/dealers or institutional investors
and investing in loans, including assignments and
participation interests."
(f) To amend the Funds' fundamental investment policies
regarding concentration of the Funds' investments in the
securities of companies in the same industry to read as
follows:
"The Fund will not make investments that will result in
the concentration of its investments in the securities of
issuers primarily engaged in the same industry. Government
securities, municipal securities and bank instruments will
not be deemed to constitute an industry."
(g) To amend, and to make non-fundamental, the Funds'
fundamental investment policies regarding buying
securities on margin to read as follows:
"The Fund will not purchase securities on margin, provided
that the Fund may obtain short-term credits necessary for
the clearance of purchases and sales of securities, and
further provided that the Fund may make margin deposits in
connection with its use of financial options and futures,
forward and spot currency contracts, swap transactions and
other financial contracts or derivative instruments."
(3) To eliminate the Funds' fundamental investment policies regarding
selling securities short.
II. The following actions have been taken by the Board of Trustees with
regard to certain non-fundamental investment policies and limitations
of the Funds:
(1) Approved revisions to the following non-fundamental investment
policies of the Funds:
(a) Approved revisions to the Funds' non-fundamental investment
policies regarding pledging assets to read as follows:
"The Fund will not mortgage, pledge, or hypothecate any of its
assets, provided that this shall not apply to the transfer of
securities in connection with any permissible borrowing or to
collateral arrangements in connection with permissible
activities."
(b)Approved revisions to the Funds' non-fundamental investment
policies regarding investments in illiquid securities to read
as follows:
"The Fund will not purchase securities for which there is no
readily available market, or enter into repurchase agreements
or purchase time deposits maturing in more than seven days, if
immediately after and as a result, the value of such
securities would exceed, in the aggregate, 15% of the Fund's
net assets."
(2) Approved the elimination of the non-fundamental investment
limitation of the Funds regarding writing call options and
purchasing put options (WesMark Balanced Fund and WesMark Bond
Fund only).
(3) Approved the elimination of the following undertakings for the
Funds:
"The Fund does not expect to borrow money, pledge or lend
securities in excess of 5% of the value of its net assets during
the coming fiscal year."
(4) Approved the adoption of the following non-fundamental investment
limitations pertaining to concentration by the Funds:
"(a) utility companies will be divided according to their services
(for example, gas, gas transmission, electric and telephone will
be considered a separate industry); (b) financial service
companies will be classified according to the end users of their
services (for example, automobile finance, bank finance and
diversified finance will each be considered a separate industry);
and (c) asset-backed securities will be classified according to
the underlying assets securing such securities. To conform to the
current view of the SEC staff that only domestic bank instruments
may be excluded from industry concentration limitations, as a
matter of non-fundamental policy, the Fund will not exclude
foreign bank instruments from industry concentration limitation
tests so long as the policy of the SEC remains in effect. In
addition, investments in bank instruments, and investments in
certain industrial development bonds funded by activities in a
single industry, will be deemed to constitute investment in an
industry, except when held for temporary defensive purposes. The
investment of more than 25% of the value of the Fund's total
assets in any one industry will constitute `concentration.'"
(5) Approved the adoption of the following non-fundamental investment
limitation for the Funds when applying their commodities
restrictions:
"As a matter of non-fundamental policy, for purposes of the
commodities policy, investments in transactions involving futures
contracts and options, forward currency contracts, swap
transactions and other financial contracts that settle by payment
of cash are not deemed to be investments in commodities."
III. The Board of Trustees approved the following restatement of the Funds'
fundamental investment policies regarding diversification, without
changing the meaning of the policy (WesMark Balanced Fund and WesMark
Bond Fund only):
"With respect to securities comprising 75% of the value of its total
assets, the Fund will not purchase securities of any one issuer (other
than cash; cash items; securities issued or guaranteed by the
government of the United States or its agencies or instrumentalities
and repurchase agreements collateralized by such U.S. government
securities; and securities of other investment companies) if, as a
result, more than 5% of the value of its total assets would be invested
in the securities of that issuer, or the Fund would own more than 10%
of the outstanding voting securities of that issuer."
November 17, 1999
Edgewood Services, Inc., Distributor
Clearing Operations
P.O. Box 897
Pittsburgh, PA 15230-0897
Cusip 951025105
Cusip 951025204
Cusip 951025303
Cusip 951025402
G01920-22 (11/99)
