MET INVESTORS SERIES TRUST |
SUMMARY PROSPECTUS May 1, 2011, As amended May 18, 2011 |
Rainier Large Cap Equity Portfolio
Class A and Class B Shares
Before you invest, you may want to review the Portfolios Prospectus, which contains more information about the Portfolio and its risks. You can find the Portfolios Prospectus and other information about the Portfolio (including the documents listed below) online at www.metlife.com/variablefunds. You can also get this information at no cost by calling 1-800-638-7732 or by sending an e-mail request to RCG@metlife.com. The Portfolios Prospectus and Statement of Additional Information, both dated May 1, 2011, and the financial statements of the Portfolio for the year ended December 31, 2010, including notes to the financial statements and financial highlights and the report of the Portfolios independent registered public accounting firm, which are included in the Annual Report of the Portfolio for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2010, are all incorporated by reference into this Summary Prospectus. This Summary Prospectus is intended for individuals who have purchased certain variable life insurance policies and variable annuity contracts (collectively, Contracts) from Metropolitan Life Insurance Company and its affiliates and is not intended for other investors.
Investment Objective
Maximize long-term capital appreciation.
Fees and Expenses of the Portfolio
The following table describes the fees and expenses that you may pay if you buy and hold shares of the Portfolio. These fees and expenses are for the year ended December 31, 2010, and are expressed as a percentage of the Portfolios average daily net assets over that period. The table and the Example below do not reflect the fees, expenses or withdrawal charges imposed by the Contracts. If Contract expenses were reflected, the fees and expenses in the table and Example would be higher. See the Contract prospectus for a description of those fees, expenses and charges.
Shareholder Fees (fees paid directly from your investment)None
Annual Portfolio Operating Expenses (expenses that you pay each year as a percentage of the value of your investment)
Class A | Class B | |||
Management Fee |
0.66% | 0.66% | ||
Distribution and/or Service (12b-1) Fees |
None | 0.25% | ||
Other Expenses |
0.03% | 0.03% | ||
Total Annual Portfolio Operating Expenses |
0.69% | 0.94% |
Example
The following Example is intended to help you compare the cost of investing in the Portfolio with the cost of investing in other mutual funds. The Example assumes that you invest $10,000 in the Portfolio for the time periods indicated and then redeem all of your shares at the end of those periods. The Example also assumes that your investment has a 5% return each year, that you reinvest all of your dividends and that the Portfolios operating expenses remain the same. Although your actual costs may be higher or lower, based on these assumptions, your costs would be:
Class A | Class B | |||
1 Year |
$71 | $96 | ||
3 Years |
$221 | $301 | ||
5 Years |
$385 | $522 | ||
10 Years |
$861 | $1,159 |
Portfolio Turnover
The Portfolio pays transaction costs, such as commissions, when it buys and sells securities (or turns over its portfolio). A higher portfolio turnover rate may indicate higher transaction costs. These costs, which are not reflected in annual portfolio operating expenses or in the Example, affect the Portfolios performance. During the most recent fiscal year, the Portfolios portfolio turnover rate was 84.3% of the average value of its portfolio.
Principal Investment Strategies
Rainier Investment Management, Inc. (Rainier), subadviser to the Portfolio, invests the Portfolios assets, under normal circumstances, primarily (at least 80% of the Portfolios assets) in the common stock of large capitalization companies traded in the U.S. with prospects of strong earnings growth and attractive overall business fundamentals, selling at attractive valuations. Rainier considers large capitalization companies to be those with market capitalizations of at least $3 billion at the time of investment. The Portfolio may invest in common stock of companies of all sizes, including small capitalization companies. Investments in companies with market capitalization below $3 billion will normally comprise 20% or less of the Portfolio. The Portfolio will normally be invested in approximately 75 to 150 securities. The Portfolio may invest up to 25% of its assets in foreign securities. Currently Rainier intends to invest only in U.S. dollar denominated securities of foreign issuers or American Depositary Receipts.
Rainier refers to its stock selection philosophy as Growth at a Reasonable Price (GARP). Stock selection focuses on companies that are likely to demonstrate superior earnings growth relative to their peers, and whose equities are selling at attractive relative valuations. The Portfolio is diversified over a broad cross-section
of economic sectors and industries. To help control risk, Rainier compares the Portfolios economic sector weightings to a broad index, such as the S&P 500 Index, and normally avoids extreme overweighting or underweighting relative to that Index.
Primary Risks
As with all mutual funds, there is no guarantee that the Portfolio will achieve its investment objective. You could lose money by investing in the Portfolio. An investment in the Portfolio through a Contract is not a deposit or obligation of, or guaranteed by, any bank, and is not federally insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, the Federal Reserve Board, or any other agency of the U.S. Government.
The value of your investment in this Portfolio may be affected by one or more of the following risks, which are described in more detail in Primary Risks of Investing in the Portfolio in the Prospectus, any of which could cause the Portfolios return, the price of the Portfolios shares or the Portfolios yield to fluctuate. Please note that there are many other circumstances that could adversely affect your investment and prevent the Portfolio from reaching its objective, which are not described here.
Market Risk. The Portfolios share price can fall because of, among other things, a decline in the market as a whole, deterioration in the prospects for a particular industry or company, or changes in general economic conditions, such as prevailing interest rates and investor sentiment. Significant disruptions to the financial markets could adversely affect the liquidity and volatility of securities held by the Portfolio.
Foreign Investment Risk. Investments in foreign securities tend to be more volatile and less liquid than investments in U.S. securities because, among other things, they involve risks relating to political, social and economic developments abroad, as well as risks resulting from differences between the regulations and reporting standards and practices to which U.S. and foreign issuers are subject. To the extent foreign securities are denominated in foreign currencies, their values may be adversely affected by changes in currency exchange rates. All of the risks of investing in foreign securities are typically increased by investing in emerging market countries.
Market Capitalization Risk. Investing primarily in issuers in one market capitalization category (large, medium or small) carries the risk that due to current market conditions that category may be out of favor with investors. Larger, more established companies may be unable to respond quickly to new competitive challenges or attain the high growth rate of successful smaller companies. Stocks of smaller companies may be more volatile than those of larger companies due to, among other things, narrower product lines, more limited financial resources and fewer experienced managers. In addition, there is typically less publicly available information about small capitalization companies, and their stocks may have a more limited trading market than stocks of larger companies.
Investment Style Risk. Different investment styles such as growth or value tend to shift in and out of favor, depending on market and economic conditions as well as investor sentiment. The Portfolio may outperform or underperform other funds that employ a different investment style.
Past Performance
The information below shows the volatility of the Portfolios returns from year to year and how the Portfolios average annual returns over time compare with those of two broad-based securities market indices. Both the bar chart and table assume reinvestment of dividends and distributions. Note that the results in the bar chart and table do not include the effect of Contract charges. If these Contract charges had been included, performance would have been lower. As with all mutual funds, past returns are not a prediction of future returns.
The bar chart below shows you the performance of the Portfolios Class B shares for each full calendar year since its inception and indicates how it has varied from year to year. The Portfolio can also experience short-term performance swings as indicated in the high and low quarter information at the bottom of the chart. The table below compares the Portfolios average annual compounded total returns for each class with index returns. For more information about indexes, please see Index Descriptions in the Prospectus. It is not possible to invest directly in an index.
Year-by-Year Total Return as of December 31 of Each Year
Highest Quarter |
3rd 2009 | 14.41% | ||
Lowest Quarter |
4th 2008 | -24.41% |
Average Annual Total Return as of December 31, 2010 | ||||||
1 Year | Since Inception |
Inception Date | ||||
Class A |
15.70% | -5.53% | 11-01-07 | |||
Class B |
15.38% | -5.77% | 11-01-07 | |||
Russell 1000 Index |
16.10% | -3.78% | ||||
Russell 1000 Growth Index (Indices reflect no deduction for mutual fund fees and expenses) |
16.71% | -1.73% |
Rainier Large Cap Equity Portfolio
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Management
Adviser. MetLife Advisers, LLC (MetLife Advisers) is the Portfolios investment adviser. For more information about the Adviser, please see Additional Information about ManagementThe Adviser in the Prospectus and Investment Advisory and Other ServicesThe Adviser in the Statement of Additional Information.
Subadviser. Rainier Investment Management, Inc. (the Subadviser) is the subadviser to the Portfolio. For more information about the Subadviser, please see Additional Information about ManagementThe Subadviser in the Prospectus and Investment Advisory and Other ServicesThe Subadvisers in the Statement of Additional Information.
Portfolio Managers. The individual members of the investment management team are James R. Margard, CFA (lead manager), Chief Investment Officer and Director of Equity Management, Daniel M. Brewer, CFA, Senior Portfolio Manager, Mark W. Broughton, CFA, Senior Portfolio Manager, Stacie L. Cowell, CFA, Senior Portfolio Manager, Mark H. Dawson, CFA, Senior Portfolio Manager, Andrea L. Durbin, CFA, Senior Portfolio Manager, and Peter M. Musser, CFA, Senior Portfolio Manager. The members of the team have managed the Portfolio since inception, with the exception of Ms. Durbin, who began managing the Portfolio in 2008. For additional information, please see Additional Information about ManagementThe Subadviser in the Prospectus and Investment Advisory and Other ServicesPortfolio Management in the Statement of Additional Information.
Tax Information
For information regarding the tax consequences of Contract ownership, please see the prospectus for the relevant Contract.
Payments to Insurance Companies and Their Affiliates
The Portfolio is not sold directly to the general public but instead is offered as an underlying investment option for Contracts issued by insurance companies that are affiliated with the Portfolio and MetLife Advisers. As a result of these affiliations, the insurance companies may benefit more from offering the Portfolio as an investment option in the Contracts than offering other unaffiliated portfolios. The Portfolio and its related companies may also make payments to the sponsoring insurance companies (or their affiliates) for distribution and/or other services. The benefits to the insurance companies of offering the Portfolio over unaffiliated portfolios and these payments may be factors that the insurance companies consider in including the Portfolio as an underlying investment option in the Contracts and may create a conflict of interest. The prospectus for your Contract contains additional information about these payments.
Rainier Large Cap Equity Portfolio
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