EQ Advisors TrustSM
EQ/T. Rowe Price Growth Stock Portfolio – Class IA and IB Shares
Summary Prospectus dated May 1, 2010
Before you invest, you may want to review the Portfolio’s Prospectus, which contains more information about the Portfolio and its risks. The Portfolio’s current Prospectus and Statement of Additional Information (“SAI”), dated May 1, 2010, and the Portfolio’s audited financial statements included in its annual report to shareholders dated December 31, 2009, are incorporated by reference into this Summary Prospectus. You can find the Portfolio’s Prospectus, SAI and other information about the Portfolio online at www.axa-equitablefunds.com/allporfolios.aspx. You can also get this information at no cost by calling 1-877-222-2144 or by sending an e-mail request to service@axa-equitable.com. This Summary Prospectus is intended for use in connection with a variable contract as defined in Section 817(d) of the Internal Revenue Code (“Contracts”) and certain other eligible investors and is not intended for use by other investors.
Investment Objective: Seeks to achieve long-term capital appreciation and secondarily, income.
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. The table below does not reflect any fees and expenses associated with variable life insurance contracts and variable annuity certificates and contracts (“Contracts”), which would increase overall fees and expenses. See the Contract prospectus for a description of those fees and expenses.
| Shareholder Fees (fees paid directly from your investment) | ||||
| Not applicable. | ||||
| Annual Portfolio Operating Expenses (expenses that you pay each year as a percentage of the value of your investment) | ||||
| EQ/T. Rowe Price Growth Stock Portfolio | Class IA Shares |
Class IB Shares | ||
| Management Fee |
0.79% | 0.79% | ||
| Distribution and/or Service Fees (12b-1 fees) |
None | 0.25% | ||
| Other Expenses |
0.17% | 0.17% | ||
| Total Annual Portfolio Operating Expenses |
0.96% | 1.21% | ||
| Fee Waiver and/or Expense Reimbursement+ |
–0.01% | –0.01% | ||
| Net Annual Operating Expenses After Fee Waiver and/or Expense Reimbursement |
0.95% | 1.20% | ||
| + | The expense reimbursement or fee waiver is expected to continue until April 30, 2011, unless the Board of Trustees consents to an earlier revision or termination. The expense reimbursement or fee waiver may be terminated by AXA Equitable Life Insurance Company at any time after that date. |
Example
This Example is intended to help you compare the cost of investing in the Portfolio with the cost of investing in other portfolios. The Example assumes that you invest $10,000 in the Portfolio for the periods indicated and then redeem all of your shares at the end of these periods. The Example also assumes that your investment has a 5% return each year, that the Portfolio’s operating expenses remain the same and that the expense limitation arrangement is not renewed. This Example does not reflect any Contract-related fees and expenses including redemption fees (if any) at the Contract level. If such fees and expenses were reflected, the total expenses would be higher. Although your actual costs may be higher or lower, based on these assumptions your costs would be:
| 1 Year | 3 Years | 5 Years | 10 Years | |||||||||
| Class IA Shares |
$ | 97 | $ | 305 | $ | 530 | $ | 1,177 | ||||
| Class IB Shares |
$ | 122 | $ | 383 | $ | 664 | $ | 1,465 | ||||
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 fund operating expenses or in the example, affect the Portfolio’s performance. During the most recent fiscal year, the Portfolio’s portfolio turnover rate was 52% of the average value of the Portfolio.
INVESTMENTS, RISKS, AND PERFORMANCE
Principal Investment Strategy: The Portfolio normally invests at least 80% of net assets, plus borrowings for investment purposes, in common stocks of a diversified group of growth companies. The Portfolio will invest primarily in equity securities of large-cap companies. For this Portfolio, large-cap companies are defined as those companies with market capitalization larger than the median market cap of companies in the Russell 1000 Growth Index, a widely used benchmark of the largest domestic growth stocks (the median market cap as of December 31, 2009 was $4.32 billion, and is subject to change) at the time of purchase. The Adviser mostly seeks investments in companies that have the ability to pay increasing dividends through strong cash flow. The Adviser generally looks for companies with an above-average rate of earnings growth and an attractive niche in the economy that gives them the ability to sustain earnings momentum even during times of slow economic growth. As growth investors, the Adviser believes that when a company increases its earnings faster than both inflation and the overall economy, the market will eventually reward it with a higher stock price.
While most assets are invested in U.S. common stocks, other securities may also be purchased, including convertible securities, warrants, and preferred stocks, in keeping with portfolio objectives. The Portfolio may invest up to 30% of its total assets in securities of foreign issuers, including those in emerging markets.
In pursuing the Portfolio’s investment objective, the Adviser has the discretion to purchase some securities, including convertible securities, warrants and preferred stocks, that do not meet its normal investment criteria, as described above, when it perceives an unusual opportunity for gain. These special situations might arise when the Adviser believes a security could increase in value for a variety of reasons, including a change in management, an extraordinary corporate event, a new product introduction, or a favorable competitive development.
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The Adviser may sell securities for a variety of reasons, such as to secure gains, limit losses, or redeploy assets into more promising opportunities.
Principal Risks: An investment in the Portfolio is not a deposit of a bank and is not insured or guaranteed by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation or any other government agency. You may lose money by investing in the Portfolio.
Performance may be affected by one or more of the following risks, which are described in detail in the section of the Portfolio’s Prospectus “More Information on Strategies, Risks and Benchmarks:”
Equity Risk: In general, stocks and other equity security values fluctuate, and sometimes widely fluctuate, in response to changes in a company’s financial condition as well as general market, economic and political conditions.
Foreign Securities Risk: Investments in foreign securities, including depositary receipts, involve risks not associated with investing in U.S. securities. Foreign markets, particularly emerging markets, may be less liquid, more volatile and subject to less government supervision than domestic markets. Security values also may be negatively affected by changes in the exchange rates between the U.S. dollar and foreign currencies. Differences between U.S. and foreign legal, political and economic systems, regulatory regimes and market practices also may impact security values and it may take more time to clear and settle trades involving foreign securities.
Currency Risk: Investments in foreign currencies and in securities that trade in, or receive revenues in, foreign currencies are subject to the risk that those currencies will decline in value relative to the U.S. dollar. Any such decline may erode or reverse any potential gains from an investment in securities denominated in foreign currency or may widen existing loss. Currency rates may fluctuate significantly over short periods of time for a number of reasons, including changes in interest rates, intervention by governments, central banks or supranational entities, or by the imposition of currency controls or other political developments in the U.S. or abroad.
Emerging Markets Risk: There are greater risks involved in investing in emerging market countries and/or their securities markets. Investments in these countries and/or markets may present market, credit, currency, liquidity, legal, political, technical and other risks different from, or greater than, the risks of investing in developed countries. In addition, the risks associated with investing in a narrowly defined geographic area are generally more pronounced with respect to investments in emerging market countries.
Investment Style Risk: An Adviser may use a particular style or set of styles — in this case “growth” styles — to select investments. Those styles may be out of favor or may not produce the best results over short or longer time periods. Growth stocks may be more sensitive to changes in current or expected earnings than the prices of other stocks. Growth investing also is subject to the risk that the stock price of one or more companies will fall or will fail to appreciate as anticipated, regardless of movements in the securities market. Growth stocks also tend to be more volatile than value stocks, so in a declining market, their prices may decrease more than value stocks in general. They also may increase the volatility of the Portfolio’s share price.
Large-Cap Company Risk: Larger more established companies may be unable to respond quickly to new competitive challenges such as changes in technology and consumer tastes. Many larger companies also may not be able to attain the high growth rate of successful smaller companies, especially during extended periods of economic expansion.
Special Situations Risk: A Portfolio may use aggressive investment techniques, including seeking to benefit from “special situations,” such as mergers, consolidations, liquidations, reorganizations, restructurings, tender or exchange offers or other unusual events expected to affect a particular issuer. In general, securities of companies which are the subject of a tender or exchange offer or a merger, consolidation, liquidation, restructuring or reorganization proposal sell at a premium to their historic market price immediately prior to the announcement of an offer for the company. However, it is possible that the value of securities of a company involved in such a transaction will not rise and in fact may fall, in which case a Portfolio would lose money. It is also possible that an Adviser’s assessment that a particular company is likely to be acquired or acquired during a specific time frame may be incorrect, in which case a Portfolio may not realize any premium on its investment and could lose money if the value of the securities declines during the Portfolio’s holding period.
Risk/Return Bar Chart and Table
The bar chart and table below provide some indication of the risks of investing in the Portfolio by showing changes in the Portfolio’s performance from year to year and by showing how the Portfolio’s average annual total returns for the past one, five and ten years through December 31, 2009 compare to the returns of a broad-based market index. Past performance is not necessarily an indication of future performance.
The performance results do not reflect any Contract-related fees and expenses, which would reduce the performance results.
| Calendar Year Annual Total Returns — Class IB |
| Best quarter (% and time period) | Worst quarter (% and time period) | |
| 26.57% (2001 4th Quarter) | –26.32% (2001 3rd Quarter) |
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For periods prior to the date Class IA Shares commenced operations (May 16, 2007), Class IA Share performance information shown below is the performance of Class IB Shares which reflects the effect of 12b-1 fees paid by Class IB Shares. Class IA Shares do not pay 12b-1 fees.
| Average Annual Total Returns | ||||||
| One Year |
Five Years |
Ten Years | ||||
| EQ/T. Rowe Price Growth Stock Portfolio – Class IA Shares |
42.89% | –2.29% | –1.73% | |||
| EQ/T. Rowe Price Growth Stock Portfolio – Class IB Shares |
42.39% | –2.48% | –1.82% | |||
| Russell 1000 Growth Index |
37.21% | 1.63% | –3.99% |
WHO MANAGES THE PORTFOLIO
Investment Manager: AXA Equitable Life Insurance Company (“AXA Equitable”).
AXA Equitable is responsible for overseeing the Adviser listed below, which is responsible for the day-to-day management of the Portfolio’s assets. AXA Equitable has been granted relief by the Securities and Exchange Commission to appoint, dismiss and replace Advisers and amend advisory agreements subject to the approval of the Board of Trustees and without obtaining shareholder approval. However, AXA Equitable may not enter into an advisory agreement with an “affiliated person” of AXA Equitable unless the advisory agreement is approved by the Portfolio’s shareholders.
Adviser: T. Rowe Price Associates, Inc.
Portfolio Manager:
| Name | Title | Date Began Managing the Portfolio | ||
| P. Robert Bartolo |
Vice President of T. Rowe Price Group, Inc. | October 2007 |
PURCHASE AND REDEMPTION OF PORTFOLIO SHARES
The Portfolio’s shares are currently sold only to insurance company separate accounts in connection with Contracts issued by AXA Equitable, AXA Life and Annuity Company, other affiliated or unaffiliated insurance companies and to The AXA Equitable 401(k) Plan (“AXA Equitable Plan”). Shares also may be sold to other tax-qualified retirement plans, to other portfolios managed by AXA Equitable that currently sell their shares to such accounts and plans and other eligible investors.
The Portfolio does not have minimum initial or subsequent investment requirements. Shares of the Portfolio are redeemable on any business day upon receipt of a request. All redemption requests will be processed and payment with respect thereto will normally be made within seven days after tender. Please refer to your Contract prospectus for more information on purchasing and redeeming Portfolio shares.
TAX INFORMATION
The Portfolio currently only sells its shares to insurance company separate accounts, qualified plans and other eligible investors. Accordingly, distributions the Portfolio makes of its net investment income and net realized gains — most or all of which it intends to distribute annually — and redemptions or exchanges of Portfolio shares generally will not be taxable to its shareholders (or to the holders of underlying Contracts or plan participants or beneficiaries). See the prospectus for your Contract for further tax information.
PAYMENTS TO BROKER-DEALERS AND OTHER FINANCIAL INTERMEDIARIES
This Portfolio is not sold directly to the general public but instead is offered as an underlying investment option for Contracts, retirement plans and other eligible investments. The Portfolio and its related companies may make payments to a sponsoring insurance company (or its affiliates) or other financial intermediary for distribution and/or other services. These payments may create a conflict of interest by influencing the insurance company or other financial intermediary and your financial adviser to recommend the Portfolio over another investment or by influencing an insurance company to include the Portfolio as an underlying investment option in the Contract. The prospectus (or other offering document) for your Contract may contain additional information about these payments.
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