497K 1 d706365d497k.htm CLARION GLOBAL REAL ESTATE PORTFOLIO Clarion Global Real Estate Portfolio

MET INVESTORS

SERIES    TRUST

   SUMMARY PROSPECTUS    April 28, 2014

 

Clarion Global Real Estate Portfolio

Class A, Class B and Class E Shares

 

Before you invest, you may want to review the Portfolio’s Prospectus, which contains more information about the Portfolio and its risks. You can find the Portfolio’s 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 Portfolio’s Prospectus and Statement of Additional Information, both dated April 28, 2014, and the Portfolio’s financial statements for the year ended December 31, 2013, including the notes to the financial statements, the financial highlights and the report of the Portfolio’s independent registered public accounting firm, all of which are included in the Annual Report of the Portfolio, dated December 31, 2013, 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 use by other investors.

 

 

Investment Objective

 

Total return through investment in real estate securities, emphasizing both capital appreciation and current 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 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    Class E

Management Fee

  0.60%    0.60%    0.60%

Distribution and/or Service (12b-1) Fees

  None    0.25%    0.15%

Other Expenses

  0.05%    0.05%    0.05%
 

 

  

 

  

 

Total Annual Portfolio Operating Expenses

  0.65%    0.90%    0.80%

 

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 and that the Portfolio’s operating expenses remain the same. 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 A

   $ 67       $ 209       $ 363       $ 812   

Class B

   $ 92       $ 288       $ 500       $ 1,112   

Class E

   $ 82       $ 256       $ 446       $ 993   

 

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 Portfolio’s performance. During the most recent fiscal year, the Portfolio’s portfolio turnover rate was 36% of the average value of its portfolio.

 

Principal Investment Strategies

 

CBRE Clarion Securities LLC (“CBRE Clarion” or “Subadviser”), subadviser to the Portfolio, invests, under normal circumstances, at least 80% of the Portfolio’s assets in a portfolio of equity securities of companies that are principally engaged in the real estate industry. In selecting investments for the Portfolio, CBRE Clarion will select companies that derive their intrinsic value from the ownership, operation, development, construction, financing, management or sale of commercial, industrial or residential real estate or similar activities. These companies include real estate investment trusts and similarly situated real estate companies outside the U.S. (“REITs”). The Portfolio will have investments located in a number of different countries, including the U.S. The Portfolio may invest up to 90% of its assets in foreign securities, including a maximum of 35% in emerging markets. The Portfolio may invest in companies of any market capitalization.

 

CBRE Clarion uses a multi-step investment process for constructing the Portfolio’s investment portfolio that combines top-down region and sector allocation with bottom-up individual stock selection.

 

First, CBRE Clarion selects sectors and geographic regions in which to invest, and determines the degree of representation of

 

 


such sectors and regions, through a systematic evaluation of public and private property market trends and conditions. Second, CBRE Clarion uses an in-house valuation process to identify investments with superior current income and growth potential relative to their peers. This in-house valuation process examines several factors including:

 

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value and property;

 

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capital structure; and

 

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management and strategy.

 

Principal 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 the Portfolio may be affected by one or more of the following risks, which are described in more detail in “Principal Risks of Investing in the Portfolio” in the Prospectus, any of which could cause the Portfolio’s return, the price of the Portfolio’s shares or the Portfolio’s yield to fluctuate.

 

Market Risk.    The Portfolio’s 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 or investor sentiment. Significant disruptions to the financial markets could adversely affect the liquidity and volatility of securities held by the Portfolio.

 

Real Estate Investment Risk.    Investments in real estate investment trusts and other real estate related securities may be adversely impacted by the performance of the real estate market generally or that of a particular sub-sector or geographic region.

 

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.

 

Emerging Markets Risk.    In addition to all of the risks of investing in foreign developed markets, emerging market securities involve risks attendant to less mature and stable governments and economies, lower trading volume, trading suspension, security price volatility, proceed repatriation restrictions, government confiscation, inflation, deflation, currency devaluation and adverse government regulations of industries or markets. As a result of these risks, the prices of emerging market securities tend to be more volatile than the securities of issuers located in developed markets.

 

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.

 

Concentration Risk.    Substantial investments in a particular market, industry, group of industries, country, region, group of countries, asset class or sector make the Portfolio’s performance more susceptible to any single economic, market, political or regulatory occurrence affecting that particular market, industry, group of industries, country, region, group of countries, asset class or sector than a portfolio that invests more broadly.

 

Past Performance

 

The information below provides some indication of the risks of investing in the Portfolio by showing changes in the Portfolio’s performance from year to year and how the Portfolio’s average annual returns over time compare with those of a broad-based securities market index. 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. Effective April 28, 2008, Clarion became the subadviser. Investment performance prior to that date is attributable to the Portfolio’s former investment subadviser.

 

Year-by-Year Total Return for Class A Shares as of December 31 of Each Year

 

LOGO

 

Highest Quarter

  2nd – 2009       31.50%

Lowest Quarter

  4th – 2008   -30.52%

 

Average Annual Total Return as of December 31, 2013
     1 Year    5 Years    Since
Inception
   Inception
Date

Class A

   3.76%    14.29%    7.29%    5-1-04

Class B

   3.55%    14.02%    7.03%    5-1-04

Class E

   3.63%    14.15%    7.14%    5-1-04

FTSE EPRA/NAREIT
Developed Index
(reflects no deduction for mutual fund fees or expenses)

   4.39%    16.06%    8.97%   

 

Clarion Global Real Estate Portfolio

 

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Management

 

Adviser.    MetLife Advisers, LLC (“MetLife Advisers”) is the Portfolio’s investment adviser.

 

Subadviser.    CBRE Clarion Securities LLC is the subadviser to the Portfolio.

 

Portfolio Managers.    T. Ritson Ferguson, Chief Executive Officer and Co-Chief Investment Officer, Steven D. Burton, Co-Chief Investment Officer and Managing Director and Joseph P. Smith, Co-Chief Investment Officer and Managing Director, have all managed the Portfolio since 2008.

 

Purchase and Sale of Portfolio Shares

 

Shares of the Portfolio are only sold to separate accounts of Metropolitan Life Insurance Company and its affiliates to fund Contracts. For information regarding the purchase and sale of the Portfolio’s shares, please see the prospectus for the relevant Contract.

 

Tax Information

 

For information regarding the tax consequences of Contract ownership, please see the prospectus for the relevant Contract.

 

Payments to Broker-Dealers and Other Financial Intermediaries

 

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.

 

Clarion Global Real Estate Portfolio

 

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