International Advantage Portfolio

Lipper Fund Awards: Source: Lipper Inc. The 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 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 Lipper Fund Award. For more information, see www.lipperfundawards.com. Although Lipper makes reasonable efforts to ensure the accuracy and reliability of the data contained herein, the accuracy is not guaranteed by Lipper. Other share classes may have different performance and expense characteristics.

Class A shares include maximum front-end sales charge of 5.50% (Alternatives), 5.25% (Equity) and 4.25% (Fixed Income).  Class B shares include deferred sales charge of 5.00% which declines to zero after sixth year.  Class C shares include deferred sales charge of 1.00% which declines to zero after first year. Class L shares, Class I, and Class IS shares are not subject to a sales charge.

Where the net expense ratio is lower than the gross expense ratio, certain fees have been waived and/ or expenses reimbursed. These waivers and/or reimbursements will continue for at least one year from the date of the applicable fund’s current prospectus (unless otherwise noted in the applicable prospectus) or until such time as the fund's Board of Directors/Trustees acts to discontinue all or a portion of such waivers and/or reimbursements. Absent such waivers and/or reimbursements, returns would have been lower. Expenses are based on the fund's current prospectus. The minimum initial investment is $5,000,000 for Class I shares.

The Fund has suspended offering Class L shares of the Portfolio for sale to all investors.

Growth of Investment illustration is based on an initial investment of $10,000 made since fund inception, assumes reinvestment of dividends and capital gains, but does not include sales charges and fees. Performance would have been lower if sales charges and fees had been included. Results are hypothetical.

Subject to change daily. Fund information, Portfolio Composition and Characteristics are provided for informational purposes only, and should not be deemed as a recommendation to buy or sell any security or securities in the sectors and/or countries presented. 

Returns are net of fees and assume the reinvestment of all dividends and income. Returns for less than one year are cumulative (not annualized). Performance of other share classes will vary.

Please keep in mind that double-digit returns are highly unusual and cannot be sustained. Investors should also be aware that these returns were primarily achieved during favorable market conditions. 

Effective July 1, 2015, the total expense ratio cap for each share class of MSIF International Advantage was lowered by 0.25% (25 basis points).

This material is a general communication, which is not impartial and all information provided has been prepared solely for informational and educational purposes and does not constitute an offer or a recommendation to buy or sell any particular security or to adopt any specific investment strategy. The information herein has not been based on a consideration of any individual investor circumstances and is not investment advice, nor should it be construed in any way as tax, accounting, legal or regulatory advice. To that end, investors should seek independent legal and financial advice, including advice as to tax consequences, before making any investment decision.

PORTFOLIO CHARACTERISTICS DEFINITIONS

The Net Asset Value (NAV) per share is determined by dividing the value of the fund's portfolio securities, cash and other assets, less all liabilities, by the total number of common shares outstanding. The common share market price is the price the market is willing to pay for shares of the fund at a given time. Number of holdings provided are a typical range, not a maximum number. The portfolio may exceed this from time to time due to market conditions and outstanding trades. Return on capital is a measure of a company’s efficiency at allocating the capital under its control to profitable investments, calculated by dividing net income minus dividends by total capital. Net cash to equity is the ratio of a company’s cash on hand against the total net worth of the company. Earnings per share (EPS) growth is the weighted average of earnings per share growth for all securities in the portfolio projected for the past five fiscal years. Earnings per share for a company is defined as total earnings divided by shares outstanding. Sales growth is the increase in sales over a specific period of time, often but not necessarily annually. Weighted Average Market Capitalization is a stock market index weighted by the market capitalization of each stock in the index. In such a weighting scheme, larger companies account for a greater portion of the index. Most indexes are constructed in this manner, with the best example being the S&P 500.

Turnover is sourced from the fund's current prospectus.

The index data displayed under allocations are calculated using MSIM and other third-party methodologies and may differ from data published by the vendor.

RISK/RETURN DEFINITIONS
Active Share is the fraction of the portfolio or fund that is invested differently than its benchmark as of the last day of the reporting period. A portfolio with a high degree of Active Share does not assure a fund’s relative outperformance. Active Share calculation may consolidate holdings with the same economic exposure. Excess Return or value added (positive or negative) is the portfolio’s return relative to the return of the benchmark. Alpha (Jensen's) is a risk-adjusted performance measure that represents the average return on a portfolio or investment above or below that predicted by the capital asset pricing model (CAPM) given the portfolio's or investment's beta and the average market return. Prior to 6/30/2018 Alpha was calculated as the excess return of the fund versus benchmark. Beta is a measure of the relative volatility of a security or portfolio to the market's upward or downward movements. A beta greater than 1.0 identifies an issue or fund that will move more than the market, while a beta less than 1.0 identifies an issue or fund that will move less than the market. The Beta of the Market is always equal to 1. Information ratio is the portfolio’s alpha or excess return per unit of risk, as measured by tracking error, versus the portfolio’s benchmark. R squared measures how well an investment’s returns correlate to an index. An R squared of 100 means the portfolio performance is 100% correlated to the index’s, whereas a low r-squared means that the portfolio performance is less correlated to the index’s. Sharpe ratio is a risk-adjusted measure calculated as the ratio of excess return to standard deviation. The Sharpe ratio determines reward per unit of risk. The higher the Sharpe ratio, the better the historical risk-adjusted performance. Standard deviation measures how widely individual performance returns, within a performance series, are dispersed from the average or mean value. Tracking error is the amount by which the performance of the portfolio differs from that of the benchmark.

RISK CONSIDERATIONS
There is no assurance that a Portfolio will achieve its investment objective. Portfolios are subject to market risk, which is the possibility that the market values of securities owned by the Portfolio will decline and that the value of Portfolio shares may therefore be less than what you paid for them. Accordingly, you can lose money investing in this Portfolio. Please be aware that this Portfolio may be subject to certain additional risks. In general, equities securities’ values also fluctuate in response to activities specific to a company. Investments in foreign markets entail special risks such as currency, political, economic, market and liquidity risks. The risks of investing in emerging market countries are greater than risks associated with investments in foreign developed countries. Privately placed and restricted securities may be subject to resale restrictions as well as a lack of publicly available information, which will increase their illiquidity and could adversely affect the ability to value and sell them (liquidity risk).

Morningstar
Rankings: The percentile rankings are based on the average annual total returns for the periods stated and do not include any sales charges, but do include reinvestment of dividends and capital gains and Rule 12b-1 fees. The highest (or most favorable) percentile rank is 1 and the lowest (or least favorable) percentile rank is 100. The top-performing fund in a category will always receive a rank of 1.

Ratings: The Morningstar Rating™ for funds, or "star rating", is calculated for managed products (including mutual funds, variable annuity and variable life subaccounts, exchange-traded funds, closed-end funds, and separate accounts) with at least a three-year history. Exchange-traded funds and open-ended mutual funds are considered a single population for comparative purposes. It is calculated based on a Morningstar Risk-Adjusted Return measure that accounts for variation in a managed product's monthly excess performance, placing more emphasis on downward variations and rewarding consistent performance. The top 10% of products in each product category receive 5 stars, the next 22.5% receive 4 stars, the next 35% receive 3 stars, the next 22.5% receive 2 stars, and the bottom 10% receive 1 star. The Overall Morningstar Rating for a managed product is derived from a weighted average of the performance figures associated with its three-, five-, and 10-year (if applicable) Morningstar Rating metrics. The weights are: 100% three-year rating for 36-59 months of total returns, 60% five-year rating/40% three-year rating for 60-119 months of total returns, and 50% 10-year rating/30% five-year rating/20% three-year rating for 120 or more months of total returns. While the 10-year overall star rating formula seems to give the most weight to the 10-year period, the most recent three-year period actually has the greatest impact because it is included in all three rating periods. Ratings do not take into account sales loads.

© 2019 Morningstar. All Rights Reserved. The information contained herein: (1) is proprietary to Morningstar and/or its content providers; (2) may not be copied or distributed; and (3) is not warranted to be accurate, complete or timely. Neither Morningstar nor its content providers are responsible for any damages or losses arising from any use of this information. Past performance is no guarantee of future results.

OTHER CONSIDERATIONS
The MSCI All Country World Ex-U.S. Index is a free float-adjusted market capitalization weighted index designed to measure the equity market performance of developed and emerging markets, excluding the U.S. The term "free float" represents the portion of shares outstanding that are deemed to be available for purchase in the public equity markets by investors. The performance of the Index is listed in U.S. dollars and assumes reinvestment of net dividends. The index is unmanaged and does not include any expenses, fees or sales charges. It is not possible to invest directly in an index.

Please consider the investment objective, risks, charges and expenses of the fund carefully before investing. The prospectus contains this and other information about the fund. To obtain a prospectus, download one at morganstanley.com/im or call 1-800-548-7786. Please read the prospectus carefully before investing.

Morgan Stanley Investment Management (MSIM) is the asset management division of Morgan Stanley.