Strategy. Under normal market conditions, the Portfolio invests at least 80% of its net assets, plus borrowings for investment purposes, in equity securities. The Portfolio invests primarily in equity securities of U.S. companies and foreign companies in developed markets. The Portfolio may invest in large, mid and small capitalization companies and will be broadly diversified across companies and industries. The Portfolio invests primarily in common stocks, but it also may invest in other equity securities such as preferred stocks, warrants, American Depositary Receipts and similar instruments. The Sub-Adviser believes that investing in equity markets using a traditional indexing approach exposes an investor to general market risk, including concentration in the largest capitalization securities in the applicable index, volatility, and unpredictable earnings … Show more… Under normal market conditions, the Portfolio invests at least 80% of its net assets, plus borrowings for investment purposes, in equity securities. The Portfolio invests primarily in equity securities of U.S. companies and foreign companies in developed markets. The Portfolio may invest in large, mid and small capitalization companies and will be broadly diversified across companies and industries. The Portfolio invests primarily in common stocks, but it also may invest in other equity securities such as preferred stocks, warrants, American Depositary Receipts and similar instruments. The Sub-Adviser believes that investing in equity markets using a traditional indexing approach exposes an investor to general market risk, including concentration in the largest capitalization securities in the applicable index, volatility, and unpredictable earnings that, over a full market cycle, do not necessarily provide optimal market returns. The Sub-Advisers strategy in constructing the portfolio differs from a traditional indexing approach under which a portfolio generally invests in all or a representative sample of the securities in the applicable index and weights those securities according to their market capitalization. In the Sub-Advisers view, market return, or beta, can be achieved with less exposure to general market risk. The Sub-Advisers SmartBeta Equity strategy seeks to achieve, over a full market cycle, above-market returns with less volatility compared to the equity markets as a whole, as measured by the MSCI World Index. Generally, a full market cycle consists of a period of rising stock prices and strong performance (a bull market) followed by a period of falling stock prices and weak performance (a bear market), and a return to a bull market. In constructing the portfolio, the Sub-Adviser analyzes fundamental risk/return characteristics as well as Environmental, Social and Governance ( ESG) considerations. The Sub-Adviser begins with the MSCI World Index, a universe of global developed market equity securities. The Sub-Adviser then uses computer-aided quantitative analysis to identify securities for potential investment by applying proprietary filters that interact to analyze individual issuer data for risk factors that may include , but are not limited to, lower earnings quality, higher price volatility, speculation and distress. Securities that pass these initial filters are assigned a preliminary weighting in the portfolio. The Sub-Adviser next applies a proprietary diversification methodology, which is designed to produce a weighting scheme that reduces concentration risk by applying a greater level of diversification to the largest securities (by market capitalization). The Sub-Adviser also assesses each security through its proprietary ESG framework, which assigns an ESG score to every stock. ESG scores are based on quantitative data and/or qualitative assessments (which may include ESG scores acquired from third-party providers of ESG research, ratings and data) as well as the Sub-Advisers proprietary research and assessment process. The data assessed include, but are not limited to, carbon emissions, water stress, health and safety at work, supply chain labor standards, business ethics, corruption and instability, and the data assessed may vary over time and depending on the issuer. Companies with ESG scores below 1.43 on a scale of 0 to 10 (with 10 representing the most favorable ESG score under the framework ) are automatically excluded. All ESG scores are monitored and updated regularly. The factors and processes used to determine ESG scores are expected to develop over time and involve the consideration of criteria deemed relevant by the Sub-Adviser and its third-party data providers. The Sub-Adviser seeks to construct a portfolio with the desired risk/return profile while minimizing ESG risk by considering ESG criteria, including ESG scores, and applying policies and standards that are designed to identify certain sectors, products and services in which the Sub-Adviser will not invest the Portfolios assets. The Sub-Advisers responsible investment sectoral policies generally exclude companies that the Sub-Adviser, in its sole discretion, determines are engaged in, have a specified level or type of involvement in, and/ or derive threshold amounts of their revenue from certain activities, including, but not limited to: coal production or coal power generation; oil sands production; shale and tight oil and gas production; Arctic oil and gas production; tobacco production; palm oil production; the production of soy, cattle products, and timber products; and the production of controversial weapons (such as anti-personnel landmines, cluster munitions, and chemical, biological and nuclear weapons ). The Sub-Advisers ESG standards generally exclude companies that the Sub-Adviser, in its sole discretion, determines are involved in the development, production, maintenance or sale of white phosphorus weapons; companies assessed as being non-compliant with international norms and standards (with a particular focus on the United Nations Global Compact Principles, the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises, and the International Labour Organizations Conventions); and companies that the Sub-Adviser, in its sole discretion, determines are exposed to severe controversies (i.e., companies involved in incidents and events that pose a severe business or reputation risk to a company due to the impact on stakeholders or the environment). The exclusions may be updated periodically in the Sub-Advisers discretion. The Sub-Adviser may consider exceptions to the exclusions based on a qualitative analysis demonstrating that the ESG criteria have been considered comprehensively. The level or type of involvement in, or the threshold amount of revenue derived from, certain activities that leads to exclusion by the Sub-Adviser can vary from one activity to another. In analyzing whether a company meets the Sub-Advisers criteria described above, the Sub-Adviser may rely upon, among other things, data provided by third-party providers. The Sub-Adviser, in its sole discretion, retains the right not to use data provided by third-party providers where it deems the data not to be representative of a companys current business operations. In such cases, or where data on specific companies may not be available from third-party providers, the Sub-Adviser may make reasonable estimates or otherwise exercise its discretion. The Sub-Adviser may apply this investment selection process to invest in emerging market equity securities. The Sub-Adviser may sell a security for a variety of reasons, including but not limited to, when the securitys fundamentals no longer meet the Sub-Advisers criteria, or to secure gains, limit losses, or redeploy assets into securities that the Sub-Adviser believes offer superior investment opportunities. Show less