Ivy Funds VIP Limited-Term Bond
Summary Prospectus | April 30, 2015
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 Portfolio’s statement of additional information (SAI)) online at www.waddell.com/prospectus. You can also get this information at no cost by calling 888.WADDELL or by sending an e-mail request to IMCompliance@waddell.com. You can also get this information from your investment provider. The Portfolio’s prospectus dated April 30, 2015, and SAI dated April 30, 2015 (as each may be amended or supplemented) are incorporated herein by reference. This summary prospectus is intended for use in connection with certain life insurance policies and variable annuity contracts offered by certain select insurance companies (Participating Insurance Companies) and is not intended for use by other investors.
Objective
To seek to provide current income consistent with preservation of capital.
Fees and Expenses
This 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 imposed under the variable life insurance policies and variable annuity contracts (collectively, Policies) through which this Portfolio is offered. See the Policy prospectus for a description of those fees and expenses.
Shareholder Fees
| (fees paid directly from your investment) | N/A |
Annual Portfolio Operating Expenses
| (expenses that you pay each year as a % of the value of your investment) | ||||
| Management Fees |
0.50% | |||
| Distribution and Service (12b-1) Fees |
0.25% | |||
| Other Expenses |
0.05% | |||
| Total Annual Portfolio Operating Expenses |
0.80% | |||
Example
This example is intended to help you compare the cost of investing in the shares of the Portfolio with the cost of investing in other mutual funds. This example does not reflect any fees and expenses imposed under the Policies.
The example assumes that you invest $10,000 in the shares of the Portfolio for the time periods indicated. The example also assumes that your investment has a 5% return each year and that the Portfolio’s operating expenses remain the same. The costs are the same for each time period if you continue to hold your shares or if you redeem all your shares at the end of those periods. 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 | |||||||||
| $82 |
$ | 255 | $ | 444 | $ | 990 | ||||||
Portfolio Turnover
The Portfolio bears transaction costs, such as spreads between bid and asked prices, 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 34% of the average value of its portfolio.
Principal Investment Strategies
Ivy Funds VIP Limited-Term Bond seeks to achieve its objective by investing primarily in investment grade, U.S. dollar-denominated, debt securities of primarily U.S. issuers. The Portfolio may invest in U.S. government securities, corporate debt securities, mortgage-backed securities including collateralized mortgage obligations (CMOs) and other asset-backed securities. The Portfolio seeks to identify relative value opportunities between these sectors of the fixed-income market. Under normal circumstances, the Portfolio invests at least 80% of its net assets in bonds with limited-term maturities; therefore, the Portfolio seeks to maintain a dollar-weighted average maturity of not less than two years and not more than five years. Although the Portfolio primarily invests in securities issued by large capitalization companies, it may invest in securities issued by companies of any size.
Investment grade debt securities include bonds rated BBB- or higher by Standard & Poor’s, a division of The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. (S&P), or comparably rated by another nationally recognized statistical rating organization (NRSRO) or, if unrated, determined by Waddell & Reed Investment Management Company (WRIMCO), the Portfolio’s investment manager, to be of comparable quality.
WRIMCO may look at a number of factors in selecting securities for the Portfolio’s holdings, beginning with a review of the broad economic and financial trends in the U.S. and world markets. This process aids in the determination of economic fundamentals, which leads to sector allocation.
Within a sector, WRIMCO typically considers the security’s current coupon, the maturity of the security, the relative value of the security based on historical yield information, the creditworthiness of the particular issuer (if not backed by the full faith and credit of the Treasury), and prepayment risks for mortgage-backed securities and other debt securities with call provisions.
Generally, in determining whether to sell a security, WRIMCO uses the same type of analysis that it uses in buying securities, including review of the security’s valuation and the issuer’s creditworthiness. WRIMCO also may sell a security to take advantage of what it believes are more attractive investment opportunities, to reduce the Portfolio’s holding in that security or to raise cash.
The Portfolio may, from time to time, utilize derivative instruments, including Treasury futures contracts, Treasury swaps and options for hedging purposes, to take a directional position on interest rates, to attempt to mitigate the impact of rising interest rates or to manage or adjust the duration of its portfolio.
Principal Investment Risks
As with any mutual fund, the value of the Portfolio’s shares will change, and you could lose money on your investment. The Portfolio is not intended as a complete investment program. A variety of factors can affect the investment performance of the Portfolio and prevent it from achieving its objective. These include:
| n | Company Risk. A company may be more volatile or perform worse than the overall market due to specific factors, such as adverse changes to its business or investor perceptions about the company. |
| n | Credit Risk. An issuer of a fixed-income obligation may not make payments on the obligation when due or may default on its obligation. |
| n | Derivatives Risk. The use of derivatives presents several risks, including the risk that these instruments may change in value in a manner that adversely affects the Portfolio’s net asset value (NAV) and the risk that fluctuations in the value of the derivatives may not correlate with the reference instrument underlying the derivative. Derivatives can be highly complex, can create investment leverage, may perform in unanticipated ways and may be highly volatile, and the Portfolio could lose more than the amount it invests. Derivatives may be difficult to value and may at times be highly illiquid, and the Portfolio may not be able to close out or sell a derivative position at a particular time or at an anticipated price. Moreover, some derivatives are more sensitive to interest rate changes and market price fluctuations than others. To the extent the judgment of WRIMCO as to certain anticipated price movements is incorrect, the risk of loss may be greater than if the derivative technique(s) had not been used. When used for hedging, the change in value of the derivative also may not correlate specifically with the security or other risk being hedged. Suitable derivatives may not be available in all circumstances, and there can be no assurance that the Portfolio will use derivatives to reduce exposure to other risks when that might be beneficial. Derivatives also may be subject to counterparty risk, which includes the risk that the Portfolio may sustain a loss as a result of the insolvency or bankruptcy of, or other non-compliance by, another party to the transaction. |
| n | Extension Risk. A rise in interest rates could cause borrowers to pay back the principal on certain debt securities, such as mortgage-backed or asset-backed securities, more slowly than expected, thus lengthening the average life of such securities. |
| This could cause the value of such securities to be more volatile or decline more than other fixed-income securities and may magnify the effect of the rate increase on the price of such securities. |
| n | Income Risk. The risk that the Portfolio may experience a decline in its income due to falling interest rates, earnings declines, or income decline within a security. |
| n | Interest Rate Risk. A rise in interest rates may cause a decline in the value of the Portfolio’s securities, especially securities with longer maturities. A decline in interest rates may cause the Portfolio to experience a decline in its income. Interest rates in the U.S. are at, or near, historic lows, which may increase the Portfolio’s exposure to risks associated with rising rates. In addition, a general rise in rates may result in decreased liquidity and increased volatility in the fixed-income markets generally. |
| n | Large Company Risk. Large capitalization companies may go in and out of favor based on market and economic conditions. Large capitalization companies may be unable to respond quickly to new competitive challenges, such as changes in technology, and also may not be able to attain the high growth rate of successful smaller companies, especially during extended periods of economic expansion. Although the securities of larger companies may be less volatile than those of companies with smaller market capitalizations, returns on investments in securities of large capitalization companies could trail the returns on investments in securities of smaller companies. |
| n | Management Risk. Portfolio performance is primarily dependent on WRIMCO’s skill in evaluating and managing the Portfolio’s holdings. There can be no guarantee that its decisions will produce the desired results, and the Portfolio may not perform as well as other similar mutual funds. |
| n | Market Risk. Markets can be volatile, and the Portfolio’s holdings can decline in response to adverse issuer, political, regulatory, market or economic developments or conditions that may cause a broad market decline. Different parts of the market, including different sectors and different types of securities can react differently to these developments. The financial crisis that started in 2008 continues to affect the U.S. and foreign economies and has resulted, and may continue to result, in an unusually high degree of volatility in the financial markets, both U.S. and foreign. Global economies and financial markets are becoming increasingly interconnected, which increases the possibilities that conditions in one country or region may adversely affect issuers in another country or region, which in turn may adversely affect securities held by the Portfolio. These circumstances have also decreased liquidity in some markets and may continue to do so. In addition, certain events, such as natural disasters, terrorist attacks, war, and other geopolitical events, have led, and may in the future lead, to increased short-term market volatility and may have adverse long-term effects on world economies and markets generally. |
| n | Mortgage-Backed and Asset-Backed Securities Risk. Mortgage-backed and asset-backed securities are subject to prepayment risk and extension risk. When interest rates decline, unscheduled prepayments can be expected to accelerate, shortening the average lives of such securities, and the Portfolio may be required to reinvest the proceeds of the prepayments at the lower interest rates then available. Unscheduled prepayments would also limit the potential for capital appreciation on mortgage-backed and asset-backed securities. Conversely, when interest rates rise, the values of mortgage-backed and asset-backed securities generally fall. Rising interest rates typically result in decreased prepayments and longer average lives of such securities. This could cause the value of such securities to be more volatile or decline more than other fixed-income securities, and may magnify the effect of the rate increase on the price of such securities. |
| Certain mortgage-backed securities are U.S. government securities. See U.S. Government Securities Risk for the risks of these types of securities. For non-U.S. government securities, there is the risk that payments on a security will not be made when due, or the value of such security will decline, because the security is not issued or guaranteed as to principal or interest by the U.S. government or by agencies or authorities controlled or supervised by and acting as instrumentalities of the U.S. government or supported by the right of the issuer to borrow from the U.S. government. |
| n | Reinvestment Risk. A decline in interest rates may cause issuers to prepay higher-yielding bonds held by the Portfolio, resulting in the Portfolio reinvesting in securities with lower yields, which may cause a decline in its income. |
| n | Sector Risk. At times, the Portfolio may have a significant portion of its assets invested in securities of companies conducting business in a broadly related group of industries within an economic sector. Companies in the same economic sector may be similarly affected by economic or market events, making the Portfolio more vulnerable to unfavorable developments in that economic sector than funds that invest more broadly. |
| n | U.S. Government Securities Risk. Certain U.S. government securities, such as U.S. Treasury (Treasury) securities and securities issued by the Government National Mortgage Association (Ginnie Mae), are backed by the full faith and credit of the U.S. government. Other U.S. government securities, such as securities issued by the Federal National Mortgage Association |
| (Fannie Mae), the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation (Freddie Mac) and the Federal Home Loan Banks (FHLB), are not backed by the full faith and credit of the U.S. government and, instead, may be supported only by the credit of the issuer or by the right of the issuer to borrow from the Treasury. |
Performance
The chart and table below provide some indication of the risks of investing in the Portfolio. The chart shows how performance has varied from year to year for the Portfolio. The table shows the average annual total returns for the Portfolio and also compares the performance with those of a broad-based securities market index and a Lipper peer group (a universe of mutual funds with investment objectives similar to that of the Portfolio). The performance results do not reflect any Policy-related fees and expenses, which would reduce the performance results.
Performance results include the effect of expense reduction arrangements for some or all of the periods shown. If those arrangements had not been in place, the performance results for those periods would have been lower.
Prior to April 30, 2012, the Portfolio’s investment objective was to provide a high level of current income consistent with preservation of capital. Effective as of April 30, 2012, the Portfolio changed its investment objective to seeking to provide current income consistent with preservation of capital.
The Portfolio’s past performance does not necessarily indicate how it will perform in the future. Current performance may be lower or higher. Please call 888.WADDELL for the Portfolio’s updated performance.
Chart of Year-by-Year Returns
as of December 31 each year
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In the period shown in the chart, the highest quarterly return was 1.52% (the second quarter of 2011) and the lowest quarterly return was -1.67% (the second quarter of 2013). |
Average Annual Total Returns
| as of December 31, 2014 | 1 Year | Life of Portfolio |
||||||
| Shares of Ivy Funds VIP Limited-Term Bond (began on 08-23-10) |
0.97% | 1.39% | ||||||
| Barclays 1-5 Year U.S. Government/Credit Index (reflects no deduction for fees, expenses or taxes) |
1.42% | 1.60% | ||||||
| Lipper Variable Annuity Short-Intermediate Investment Grade Debt Funds Universe Average |
1.28% | 1.62% | ||||||
Investment Adviser
The Portfolio is managed by Waddell & Reed Investment Management Company (WRIMCO).
Portfolio Manager
Susan Regan, Vice President of WRIMCO, has managed the Portfolio since August 2014.
Purchase and Sale of Portfolio Shares
Shares of the Portfolio are currently sold only to separate accounts of Participating Insurance Companies to fund benefits payable under the Policies.
The Portfolio’s shares are redeemable. Shares are purchased or redeemed at the Portfolio’s NAV per share next calculated after the order is received in proper form on any business day. The Portfolio does not have initial and subsequent investment minimums. Please refer to your Policy prospectus for more information on purchasing and redeeming Portfolio shares.
Tax Information
Because the Portfolio’s only shareholders are separate accounts of Participating Insurance Companies, distributions the Portfolio makes of its net investment income and net realized gains, if any — 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 the underlying Policies). See the prospectus for your Policy for further tax information.
Payments to Broker-Dealers and other Financial Intermediaries
The Portfolio and its related companies may make payments to a Participating 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 Participating Insurance Company or other financial intermediary and your financial advisor to recommend the Portfolio over another investment or by influencing a Participating Insurance Company to include the Portfolio as an underlying investment option in the Policy. The prospectus (or other offering document) for your Policy may contain additional information about these payments.
VIPSUM-LTB