WCMG seeks attractively valued companies with strong competitive advantages across global markets.

First Trust Advisors L.P. ("First Trust"), a leading exchange-traded fund ("ETF") provider ranked #1 Best Fund Family in the World Equity category by Barron's for 2025,¹ with more than $236 billion in ETF assets under management as of February 27, 2026, announced today that it has launched a new actively managed ETF, the First Trust WCM Global Equity ETF (NYSE Arca: WCMG) (the "fund"). WCMG seeks to provide investors with long-term capital appreciation by investing in equity securities of companies located in the United States, other developed market countries, and emerging and frontier market countries. The fund is sub-advised by WCM Investment Management, LLC ("WCM") and represents the latest addition to First Trust's global/international product suite.

“We are thrilled to expand the First Trust WCM product suite with the launch of WCMG," said Ryan Issakainen, CFA, Senior Vice President, ETF Strategist at First Trust. "We believe WCM is a world class active manager, and as global allocations come into focus, we believe this fund may be an effective tool for investors seeking diversification across U.S., developed and emerging market equities.”

WCM's investment process incorporates a bottom-up fundamental research approach to identify companies that are industry leaders with expanding competitive advantages, strong balance sheets and attractive valuations. They believe that investment in a company with relatively low valuations may afford capital protection from permanent loss and may result in substantial appreciation if the market recognizes the company’s intrinsic value.

“The launch of the First Trust WCM Global Equity ETF represents the natural next step in our relationship with First Trust and our commitment to bringing our award-winning global equity strategies to market in an actively managed ETF structure. Building on our international and emerging market actively managed ETFs, WCMG gives investors a single vehicle to access WCM’s quality-growth philosophy across the full global opportunity set,” said Andrew Buchanan, Managing Director, WCM. WCMG expands First Trust's relationship with WCM, whose investment strategies have earned industry recognition including a LSEG Lipper Fund Award in 2025 and 2026 for the First Trust WCM Focused Global Growth Fund, Institutional Class Shares (WCMGX).²

Andrew Wiechert, Drew French, and Rob Quirk of WCM, serve as portfolio managers for the fund. The portfolio managers are primarily and jointly responsible for the day-to-day management of the fund.

For more information about First Trust, please contact Ryan Issakainen at (630) 765-8689 or RIssakainen@FTAdvisors.com.

About First Trust

First Trust is a federally registered investment advisor and serves as the fund’s investment advisor. First Trust and its affiliate First Trust Portfolios L.P. (“FTP”), a FINRA registered broker-dealer, are privately held companies that provide a variety of investment services. First Trust has collective assets under management or supervision of approximately $329 billion as of February 27, 2026, through unit investment trusts, exchange-traded funds, closed-end funds, mutual funds and separate managed accounts. First Trust is the supervisor of the First Trust unit investment trusts, while FTP is the sponsor. FTP is also a distributor of mutual fund shares and exchange-traded fund creation units. First Trust and FTP are based in Wheaton, Illinois. For more information, visit https://www.ftportfolios.com.

About WCM

Founded in 1976, WCM is an independent equity investment management firm which is majority owned by employees and manages approximately $115 billion on behalf of institutions and individuals around the world as of 3/31/2026. Their objective is to seek to deliver strong returns and consistent downside protection for their clients. They aim to achieve this goal by exploiting the weaknesses of conventional investment wisdom by pushing the boundaries of creativity in the investing world and cultivating a company culture that supports and nurtures the people who make that possible.

You should consider a fund’s investment objectives, risks, and charges and expenses carefully before investing. Contact First Trust Portfolios L.P. at 1-800-621-1675 or visit www.ftportfolios.com to obtain a prospectus or summary prospectus which contains this and other information about a fund. The prospectus or summary prospectus should be read carefully before investing.

Risk Considerations

You could lose money by investing in a fund. An investment in a fund is not a deposit of a bank and is not insured or guaranteed. There can be no assurance that a fund's objective(s) will be achieved. Investors buying or selling shares on the secondary market may incur customary brokerage commissions. Please refer to each fund's prospectus and Statement of Additional Information for additional details on a fund's risks. The order of the below risk factors does not indicate the significance of any particular risk factor.

Unlike mutual funds, shares of the fund may only be redeemed directly from a fund by authorized participants in very large creation/redemption units. If a fund's authorized participants are unable to proceed with creation/redemption orders and no other authorized participant is able to step forward to create or redeem, fund shares may trade at a premium or discount to a fund's net asset value and possibly face delisting and the bid/ask spread may widen.

Changes in currency exchange rates and the relative value of non-US currencies may affect the value of a fund's investments and the value of a fund's shares.

Current market conditions risk is the risk that a particular investment, or shares of the fund in general, may fall in value due to current market conditions. For example, changes in governmental fiscal and regulatory policies, disruptions to banking and real estate markets, actual and threatened international armed conflicts and hostilities, and public health crises, among other significant events, could have a material impact on the value of the fund's investments.

A fund is susceptible to operational risks through breaches in cyber security. Such events could cause a fund to incur regulatory penalties, reputational damage, additional compliance costs associated with corrective measures and/or financial loss.

Depositary receipts may be less liquid than the underlying shares in their primary trading market and distributions may be subject to a fee. Holders may have limited voting rights, and investment restrictions in certain countries may adversely impact their value.

Investments in emerging market securities are generally considered speculative and involve additional risks relating to political, economic and regulatory conditions.

Equity securities may decline significantly in price over short or extended periods of time, and such declines may occur in the equity market as a whole, or they may occur in only a particular country, company, industry or sector of the market.

Political or economic disruptions in European countries, even in countries in which a fund is not invested, may adversely affect security values and thus the fund's holdings. A significant number of countries in Europe are member states in the European Union, and the member states no longer control their own monetary policies. In these member states, the authority to direct monetary policies, including money supply and official interest rates for the Euro, is exercised by the European Central Bank. The implications of the United Kingdom's withdrawal from the European Union are difficult to gauge and cannot yet be fully known.

The risks of investing in emerging market countries are magnified when investing in frontier market countries due to the potential for extreme price volatility and illiquidity; government ownership or control of parts of private sector and of certain companies as well as the relatively new and unsettled securities laws in many frontier market countries.

A fund may be a constituent of one or more indices or models which could greatly affect a fund's trading activity, size and volatility.

Since securities that trade on non-U.S. exchanges are closed when a fund's primary listing is open, there are likely to be deviations between the current price of an underlying security and the last quoted price from the closed foreign market, resulting in premiums or discounts to a fund's NAV.

Large capitalization companies may grow at a slower rate than the overall market.

Certain fund investments may be subject to restrictions on resale, trade over-the-counter or in limited volume, or lack an active trading market. Illiquid securities may trade at a discount and may be subject to wide fluctuations in market value.

The portfolio managers of an actively managed portfolio will apply investment techniques and risk analyses that may not have the desired result.

Market risk is the risk that a particular security, or shares of a fund in general may fall in value. Securities are subject to market fluctuations caused by such factors as general economic conditions, political events, regulatory or market developments, changes in interest rates and perceived trends in securities prices. Shares of a fund could decline in value or underperform other investments as a result. In addition, local, regional or global events such as war, acts of terrorism, spread of infectious disease or other public health issues, recessions, natural disasters or other events could have significant negative impact on a fund.

A fund faces numerous market trading risks, including the potential lack of an active market for fund shares due to a limited number of market makers. Decisions by market makers or authorized participants to reduce their role or step away in times of market stress could inhibit the effectiveness of the arbitrage process in maintaining the relationship between the underlying values of a fund's portfolio securities and a fund's market price.

Large inflows and outflows may impact a new fund's market exposure for limited periods of time.

A fund classified as "non-diversified" may invest a relatively high percentage of its assets in a limited number of issuers. As a result, a fund may be more susceptible to a single adverse economic or regulatory occurrence affecting one or more of these issuers, experience increased volatility and be highly concentrated in certain issuers.

Securities of non-U.S. issuers are subject to additional risks, including currency fluctuations, political risks, withholding, lack of liquidity, lack of adequate financial information, and exchange control restrictions impacting non-U.S. issuers.

A fund and a fund's advisor may seek to reduce various operational risks through controls and procedures, but it is not possible to completely protect against such risks. The fund also relies on third parties for a range of services, including custody, and any delay or failure related to those services may affect the fund's ability to meet its objective.

The market price of a fund's shares will generally fluctuate in accordance with changes in the fund's net asset value ("NAV") as well as the relative supply of and demand for shares on the exchange, and a fund's investment advisor cannot predict whether shares will trade below, at or above their NAV.

A fund with significant exposure to a single asset class, country, region, industry, or sector may be more affected by an adverse economic or political development than a broadly diversified fund.

Securities of small- and mid-capitalization companies may experience greater price volatility and be less liquid than larger, more established companies.

Trading on an exchange may be halted due to market conditions or other reasons. There can be no assurance that a fund's requirements to maintain the exchange listing will continue to be met or be unchanged.

A fund may hold securities or other assets that may be valued on the basis of factors other than market quotations. This may occur because the asset or security does not trade on a centralized exchange, or in times of market turmoil or reduced liquidity. Portfolio holdings that are valued using techniques other than market quotations, including "fair valued" assets or securities, may be subject to greater fluctuation in their valuations from one day to the next than if market quotations were used. There is no assurance that a fund could sell or close out a portfolio position for the value established for it at any time.

Value characteristics of a stock may not be fully recognized for a long time or a stock judged to be undervalued may actually be appropriately priced at a low level.

First Trust Advisors L.P. (FTA) is the adviser to the First Trust fund(s). FTA is an affiliate of First Trust Portfolios L.P., the distributor of the fund(s).

The information presented is not intended to constitute an investment recommendation for, or advice to, any specific person. By providing this information, First Trust is not undertaking to give advice in any fiduciary capacity within the meaning of ERISA, the Internal Revenue Code or any other regulatory framework. Financial professionals are responsible for evaluating investment risks independently and for exercising independent judgment in determining whether investments are appropriate for their clients.

¹First Trust Advisors was ranked #1 Best Fund Family in the world equity category by Barron's for 2025. Barron’s 2025 survey ranks the performance of fund families’ actively managed funds. To qualify for Barron’s fund-family ranking, firms must offer a wide range of funds with a minimum track record of one year. For the 2025 ranking, a total of 46 fund families met the criteria, with 42 fund families qualifying for the five-year and 10-year rankings. The world equity category included 46 fund families. To be eligible, firms must offer at least three mutual funds or ETFs in Lipper’s general U.S. equity category, one in world equity, and one in a mixed equity such as a balanced or target-date fund, as well as two taxable bond funds and one tax-exempt bond fund. Index funds are excluded, but include actively managed ETFs and so-called smart-beta ETFs, which are passively managed but created from active strategies Rankings are based on a firm’s funds within those respective categories. Each fund’s performance is measured against all of the other funds in its Lipper category, with a percentile ranking of 100 being the highest and one the lowest. This result is then weighted by asset size, relative to the fund family’s other assets in its general classification. The category weightings for the one-year results for 2025 were general equity, 38.2%; mixed asset, 21.5%; world equity, 16.5%; taxable bond, 20%; and tax-exempt bond, 3.8%. The category weightings for the five-year results for 2025 were general equity, 37.7%; mixed asset, 21.8%; world equity, 16.7%; taxable bond, 20%; and tax-exempt bond, 3.8%. The category weightings for the ten-year results in 2025 were general equity, 38.1%; mixed asset, 23%; world equity, 15.9%; taxable bond, 19.2%; and tax-exempt bond, 3.7%. The totals may not add up to 100% because of rounding.

²The First Trust WCM Focused Global Growth Fund, Institutional Class Shares (WCMGX) was the winner of the 2025 and 2026 LSEG Lipper Fund Award for Best Global Large-Cap Growth Fund, United States over 10 years. The awards are for the time periods stated and not indicative of any other time period. The LSEG Lipper Fund Awards, granted annually, highlight funds and fund companies that have excelled in delivering consistently strong risk-adjusted performance relative to their peers. The LSEG Lipper Fund Awards are based on the Lipper Leader for Consistent Return rating, which is a risk-adjusted performance measure calculated over 36, 60 and 120 months. The fund with the highest Lipper Leader for Consistent Return (Effective Return) value in each eligible classification wins the LSEG Lipper Fund Award. For the U.S. fund awards, only the share class with the best Lipper Leader score is used for each portfolio in determining asset class and overall awards. The calculation periods are through the end of November of the respective evaluation year. For the 2025 and 2026 awards, the U.S. Global Large-Cap Growth category consisted of 31 funds.

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