issuers and their potential in light of their financial condition, and market, economic, political, and regulatory conditions. Factors considered may include analysis of an issuer's earnings, cash flows, competitive position, and management ability. Quantitative screening tools that systematically evaluate an issuer's valuation, price and earnings momentum, earnings quality, and other factors, may also be considered.
The sub-adviser may sell a holding for a variety of reasons, such as to secure gains, limit losses, or redeploy assets into opportunities believed to be more promising, among others.
Principal Risks
As with any mutual fund, the value of the Fund's investments, and therefore the value of your shares, may go up or down and you could lose money. There is no guarantee that the Fund will achieve its investment goal. An investment in the Fund is not a deposit of a bank and is not insured or guaranteed by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation or any other government agency. Italicized terms refer to separate Principal Risks that are each defined in the Principal Risks section below.
While the Fund may be subject to various risk exposures at any given time depending on market conditions and other factors impacting holdings and investment strategies, the Fund under normal circumstances is subject to the following principal risks:
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Equity Securities Risk: Equity securities tend to go up and down in value, sometimes rapidly and unpredictably.
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Growth Companies Risk: Growth companies are those that a portfolio manager believes have the potential for above average or rapid growth but may be subject to greater price volatility than investments in "undervalued" companies.
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Large-Capitalization Companies Risk: Although large-capitalization companies tend to have more stable prices than smaller, less established companies, they are still subject to equity securities risk. In addition, large-capitalization equity security prices may not rise as much as prices of equity securities of small-capitalization companies.
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Technology Sector Risk: Companies in the technology sector face a number of risks, including operating in rapidly changing fields, abrupt or erratic market movements, limited product lines, markets or financial resources, management that is dependent on a limited number of people, short product cycles, aggressive pricing of products and services, new market entrants and rapid obsolescence of products and services due to technological innovations or changing consumer preferences. In addition, many U.S. companies in the technology sector have diverse operations, with products or services in foreign markets, exposing them to risks associated with foreign markets.
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Active Management Risk: A portfolio manager's judgments about the potential value or price appreciation of an investment may prove to be incorrect or fail to have the intended results, which could negatively impact the Fund's performance.
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Small Number of Holdings Risk: Because performance may be dependent on a smaller number of holdings, the Fund may be more adversely impacted by price volatility than funds with a greater number of holdings.
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Currency Risk: A decline in the value of a foreign (non-U.S.) currency relative to the U.S. dollar reduces the value in U.S. dollars of the Fund's investments denominated in or with exposure to that foreign currency.
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Foreign (Non-U.S.) Markets Risk: Investing in foreign issuers (companies or other entities) can involve more risks than investing in U.S. issuers, such as risks relating to market, economic, political, regulatory and geopolitical conditions relevant to that market. These factors can make investments in foreign issuers more volatile and less liquid than U.S. investments. Less stringent regulatory, accounting, and disclosure requirements and general supervision for issuers and markets are more common in certain foreign countries. Enforcing legal rights can be difficult, costly, and slow in certain foreign countries, and can be particularly difficult against foreign governments. In addition, foreign markets can react differently to these conditions than the U.S. market. Markets and economies throughout the world are becoming increasingly interconnected, and conditions or events in one market, country or region may adversely impact investments or issuers in, or foreign exchange rates with, another market, country or region.
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Mid-Capitalization Companies Risk: Mid-capitalization companies may be subject to greater price volatility and may be more vulnerable to economic, market and industry changes than larger, more established companies.
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Underlying Fund Risk: Because the Fund is available for investment by one or more "fund of funds" of the Trust and thus may have a significant percentage of its outstanding shares held by such fund of funds, a change in asset allocation by the fund of funds could result in large redemptions out of the Fund, causing the sale of securities in a short timeframe and potential increases in expenses to the Fund and its remaining shareholders, both of which could negatively impact performance.
Performance
The bar chart and Average Annual Total Returns table below show performance information for the Fund and provide some indication of the risk of investing in the Fund by showing changes in the performance of the Fund from year to year and showing how the Fund's average annual total returns compare to the returns of:
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a broad-based securities market index that represents the overall domestic equity market (the "Regulatory Benchmark") which the Fund has added to comply with new regulatory requirements and thus may not necessarily represent the Fund's principal investment strategies; and
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a growth domestic equity market index that the Investment Adviser considers to be representative of the growth domestic equity markets and the Fund's principal investment strategies. The Investment Adviser considers the growth domestic equity markets index to continue to be the appropriate benchmark index for the Fund for performance comparison.
The bar chart shows the performance of the Fund's Class I shares. Returns do not reflect fees and expenses of any variable annuity contract or variable life insurance policy; if these fees and expenses