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 Caption [Text]

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Shareholder Fees(fees paid directly from your investment)

Operating Expenses Caption [Text]

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Annual Portfolio Operating Expenses(expenses that you pay each year as a % of the value of your investment)

Portfolio Turnover [Heading]

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Portfolio Turnover

Portfolio Turnover [Text Block]

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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 74% of the average value of its portfolio.

Portfolio Turnover, Rate

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74.00%

Expense Example [Heading]

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Example

Expense Example Narrative [Text Block]

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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 portfolios. 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:

Strategy [Heading]

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Principal Investment Strategies

Strategy Narrative [Text Block]

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Ivy VIP Limited-Term Bond seeks to achieve its objective by investing primarily in investment-grade, U.S. dollar-denominated, limited-term debt securities (securities with a dollar-weighted average maturity of one to five years) 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.

Investment-grade debt securities include bonds rated BBB- or higher by S&P Global Ratings, a division of S&P Global, Inc. (S&P), or comparably rated by another nationally recognized statistical rating organization (NRSRO) or, if unrated, determined by Ivy Investment Management Company (IICO), the Portfolio’s investment manager, to be of comparable quality.

IICO may look at a number of factors in selecting securities for the Portfolio’s holdings, beginning with a top-down (assessing the market environment) 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, IICO

typically considers the maturity and perceived liquidity 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, IICO uses the same type of analysis that it uses in buying securities, including review of the security’s valuation and the issuer’s creditworthiness. IICO 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.

Risk [Heading]

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Principal Investment Risks

Risk Narrative [Text Block]

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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:

■	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.

■

Credit Risk.

An issuer of a fixed-income obligation may not make payments on the obligation when due or may default on its obligation. There also is the risk that an issuer could suffer adverse changes in its financial condition that could lower the credit quality of a security. This could lead to greater volatility in the price of the security, could affect the security’s liquidity, and could make it more difficult to sell. A downgrade or default affecting any of the Portfolio’s securities could affect the Portfolio’s performance. In general, the longer the maturity and the lower the credit quality of a bond, the more sensitive it is to credit risk.

■

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 to decline more than other fixed-income securities, and may magnify the effect of the rate increase on the price of such securities.

■

Fixed-Income Market Risk.

The prices of the Portfolio’s fixed-income securities respond to economic developments, particularly interest rate changes, as well as to perceptions about the creditworthiness of individual issuers. Generally, the Portfolio’s fixed-income securities will decrease in value if interest rates rise and vice versa. In a low interest rate environment, risks associated with rising rates are heightened. Rising interest rates tend to decrease liquidity, increase trading costs and increase volatility, all of which may make portfolio management more difficult and costly to the Portfolio and its shareholders. In the case of foreign securities, price fluctuations will reflect international economic and political events, as well as changes in currency valuations relative to the U.S. dollar. Other factors may materially and adversely affect the market price and yield of such fixed-income securities, including investor demand, changes in the financial condition of the applicable issuer, government fiscal policy and domestic or worldwide economic conditions. In addition, certain events, such as natural disasters, terrorist attacks, war, regional or global instability 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.

■

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. The amount and rate of distributions that the Portfolio’s shareholders receive are affected by the income that the Portfolio receives from its portfolio holdings. If the income is reduced, distributions by the Portfolio to shareholders may be less.

■

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. Typically, the longer the maturity or duration of a debt security, the greater the effect a change in interest rates could have on the security’s price. Thus, the sensitivity of the Portfolio’s debt securities to interest rate risk will increase with any increase in the duration of those securities. A decline in interest rates may cause the Portfolio to experience a decline in its income. Interest rates in the U.S. recently have been at, and remain near, historic lows, which may increase the Portfolio’s exposure to risks associated with rising rates. The Portfolio may be subject to heightened interest rate risk as a result of a rise or anticipated rise in interest rates. In addition, a general rise in rates may result in decreased liquidity and increased volatility in the fixed-income markets generally.

■	Management Risk. Portfolio performance is primarily dependent on IICO'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.

■

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 also would limit the potential for capital appreciation on mortgage-backed and asset-backed securities, thereby reducing the Portfolio’s income.

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.

■	Reinvestment Risk. A decline in interest rates may cause issuers to prepay higher-yielding securities held by the Portfolio, resulting in the Portfolio reinvesting in securities with lower yields, which may cause a decline in its income.

■

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.

Risk Lose Money [Text]

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As with any mutual fund, the value of the Portfolio’s shares will change, and you could lose money on your investment.

Bar Chart and Performance Table [Heading]

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Performance

Performance Narrative [Text Block]

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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 Class II shares of the Portfolio. The table shows the average annual total returns for Class II shares of the Portfolio and also compares the Portfolio’s returns with those of a broad-based securities market index and a Morningstar peer group (comprised of 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

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) 923-3355 for the Portfolio’s updated performance.

Performance Information Illustrates Variability of Returns [Text]

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Performance Availability Phone [Text]

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(888) 923-3355

Performance Past Does Not Indicate Future [Text]

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The Portfolio’s past performance does not necessarily indicate how it will perform in the future.

Bar Chart [Heading]

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Chart of Year-by-Year Returnsas of December 31 each year

Bar Chart Does Not Reflect Sales Loads [Text]

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The performance results do not reflect any Policy-related fees and expenses, which would reduce the performance results.

Bar Chart Closing [Text Block]

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In the period shown in the chart, the highest quarterly return was 2.80% (the second quarter of 2020) and the lowest quarterly return was -1.67% (the second quarter of 2013).

Performance Table Heading

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Average Annual Total Returnsas of December 31, 2020

Ivy VIP Limited-Term Bond | Class II

Risk/Return:

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Shareholder Fees (fees paid directly from your investment)

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Management Fees

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0.50%

Distribution and Service (12b-1) Fees