| METROPOLITAN SERIES FUND |
SUMMARY PROSPECTUS April 29, 2013 |
BlackRock Large Cap Value 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 29, 2013, and the Portfolio’s financial statements for the year ended December 31, 2012, 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, 2012, 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
Long-term growth of capital.
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. See the Contract prospectus for a description of those fees, expenses and charges. If Contract expenses were reflected, the fees and expenses in the table and Example would be higher.
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 |
0.63% | 0.63% | 0.63% | |||||||||
| Distribution and/or Service |
None | 0.25% | 0.15% | |||||||||
| Other Expenses |
0.03% | 0.03% | 0.03% | |||||||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|||||||
| Total Annual Portfolio |
0.66% | 0.91% | 0.81% | |||||||||
| Fee Waiver* |
(0.03% | ) | (0.03% | ) | (0.03% | ) | ||||||
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|||||||
| Net Operating Expenses |
0.63% | 0.88% | 0.78% | |||||||||
| (1) | MetLife Advisers, LLC has contractually agreed, for the period April 29, 2013 through April 30, 2014, to reduce the Management Fee for each Class of the Portfolio to the annual rate of 0.68% for the first $250 million of the Portfolio’s average daily net assets, 0.625% for the next $500 million, 0.60% for the next $250 million and 0.55% for amounts over $1 billion. This arrangement may be modified or discontinued prior to April 30, 2014, only with the approval of the Board of Trustees of the Portfolio. |
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 the Portfolio’s operating expenses remain the same, and that all fee waivers for the Portfolio will expire after one year. 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 |
$ | 64 | $ | 208 | $ | 365 | $ | 820 | ||||||||
| Class B |
$ | 90 | $ | 287 | $ | 501 | $ | 1,117 | ||||||||
| Class E |
$ | 80 | $ | 256 | $ | 447 | $ | 999 | ||||||||
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 107% of the average value of its portfolio.
Principal Investment Strategies
BlackRock Advisors, LLC (“BlackRock”), subadviser to the Portfolio, under normal market conditions, invests at least 80% of the Portfolio’s net assets in a portfolio of securities issued by large capitalization companies, which may include common and preferred stocks. BlackRock considers large capitalization companies to be those with market capitalizations within the capitalization range of companies included in the Russell 1000 Value Index, which is composed of value stocks in the Russell 1000 Index. As of December 31, 2012, the Russell 1000 Index included companies with capitalizations of approximately $312.72 million and above. BlackRock will continue to consider stock of a company to be stock of a large capitalization company, and may continue to hold the stock, even if the company has moved outside the capitalization range of the Russell 1000 Value Index. The Portfolio may invest up to 20% of its assets in smaller
capitalization stocks. The Portfolio may invest in derivatives, such as index futures, to obtain investment exposure, enhance return, or “hedge” or protect its assets from an unfavorable shift in the value or rate of a reference instrument.
Stock Selection
The Portfolio emphasizes value-oriented investments and invests primarily in a diversified portfolio of equity securities of large cap companies located in the United States that the subadviser believes are trading at below normal valuations. BlackRock uses a quantitative model to look for companies that are consistent with the Portfolio’s strategy. The factors employed by the model include stock valuation, quality of earnings and potential earnings growth. BlackRock looks for strong relative earnings growth, earnings quality and good relative valuation. A company’s stock price relative to its earnings and book value is also examined—if BlackRock believes that a company is overvalued, the company will not be considered as an investment. After the initial screening is performed, BlackRock relies on fundamental analysis, using both internal and external research, to optimize its quantitative model to choose companies BlackRock believes have strong, sustainable earnings growth with current momentum at attractive price valuations.
In seeking to outperform the Portfolio’s benchmark, BlackRock reviews potential investments using certain criteria that are based on the securities in the benchmark index. These criteria currently include the following:
| • | relative price-to-earnings and price to book ratio. |
| • | stability and quality of earnings. |
| • | earnings momentum and growth. |
| • | weighted median market capitalization of the Portfolio. |
| • | allocation among the economic sectors of the Portfolio as compared to its benchmark index. |
| • | weighted individual stocks within the applicable index. |
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 or the price of its shares to decrease or could cause 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 and investor sentiment. Significant disruptions to the financial markets could adversely affect the liquidity and volatility of securities held by the Portfolio.
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.
Derivatives Risk. The Portfolio may invest in derivatives to obtain investment exposure, enhance return or “hedge” or protect its assets from an unfavorable shift in the value or rate of a reference instrument. Derivatives can significantly increase the Portfolio’s exposure to market risk, credit and counterparty risk (the risk that an issuer or counterparty will default or become less creditworthy) and other risks. Derivatives may be illiquid and difficult to value. Because of their complex nature, some derivatives may not perform as intended. As a result, the Portfolio may not realize the anticipated benefits from a derivative it holds or it may realize losses. Derivative transactions may create investment leverage, which may increase the Portfolio’s volatility and may require the Portfolio to liquidate portfolio securities when it may not be advantageous to do so.
Portfolio Turnover Risk. The investment techniques and strategies utilized by the Portfolio might result in a high degree of portfolio turnover. High portfolio turnover rates will increase the Portfolio’s transaction costs, which can adversely affect the Portfolio’s performance.
Past Performance
The information below shows the volatility of the Portfolio’s returns from year to year and how the Portfolio’s average annual returns over time compare with those of a broad-based securities market index. 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. Effective January 31, 2005,
BlackRock Large Cap Value Portfolio
2
BlackRock 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
| Highest Quarter |
2nd – 2003 | 21.55% | ||
| Lowest Quarter |
4th – 2008 | -19.37% |
| Average Annual Total Return as of December 31, 2012 | ||||||||||||
| 1 Year | 5 Years | 10 Years | ||||||||||
| Class A |
14.28% | -1.55% | 6.41% | |||||||||
| Class B |
13.97% | -1.80% | 6.14% | |||||||||
| Class E |
14.14% | -1.70% | 6.24% | |||||||||
| Russell 1000 Value Index |
17.51% | 0.59% | 7.38% | |||||||||
Management
Adviser. MetLife Advisers, LLC (“MetLife Advisers”) is the Portfolio’s investment adviser.
Subadviser. BlackRock Advisors, LLC (the “Subadviser”) is the subadviser to the Portfolio.
Portfolio Managers. The Portfolio is managed by a team led by Chris Leavy, CFA, Managing Director of BlackRock, and Peter Stournaras, CFA, Managing Director of BlackRock. They are jointly and primarily responsible for the day-to-day management of the Portfolio. Messrs. Leavy and Stournaras have been managers of the Portfolio since 2012 and 2010, respectively.
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.
BlackRock Large Cap Value Portfolio
3