Strategy. The fund will attempt to achieve its investment objective by investing in a mix of American Funds Insurance Series (AFIS) funds in different combinations and weightings, while seeking to manage portfolio volatility and to provide downside protection primarily through the use of exchange-traded options and futures contracts. The underlying AFIS funds will primarily consist of equity funds in the growth, growth-and-income and equity-income categories. However, the fund may also invest in fixed income funds. A portion of the funds assets may also be held in cash and/or U.S. Treasury futures. Through its investments in the underlying funds, the fund will have significant exposure to growth-oriented common stocks. The fund will seek to generate some of its income from exposure to … Show more… The fund will attempt to achieve its investment objective by investing in a mix of American Funds Insurance Series (AFIS) funds in different combinations and weightings, while seeking to manage portfolio volatility and to provide downside protection primarily through the use of exchange-traded options and futures contracts. The underlying AFIS funds will primarily consist of equity funds in the growth, growth-and-income and equity-income categories. However, the fund may also invest in fixed income funds. A portion of the funds assets may also be held in cash and/or U.S. Treasury futures. Through its investments in the underlying funds, the fund will have significant exposure to growth-oriented common stocks. The fund will seek to generate some of its income from exposure to dividend paying stocks. The fund will seek exposure to investments outside the United States, including in emerging markets. The investment adviser believes that exposure to investments outside the United States can help provide diversification when seeking current income and long-term growth of capital. With respect to its fixed income investments, the underlying funds in which the fund invests may hold debt securities with a wide range of quality and maturities. The fund may invest in underlying funds with significant exposure to debt securities rated BB+ or below and Ba1 or below by Nationally Recognized Statistical Rating Organizations designated by the funds investment adviser, or unrated but determined by the funds investment adviser to be of equivalent quality. Debt securities rated BB+ or below and Ba1 or below are sometimes referred to as junk bonds. Exposure to lower rated securities may help the fund achieve its objective of providing current income. The underlying funds may hold securities issued and guaranteed by the U.S. government, securities issued by federal agencies and instrumentalities and securities backed by mortgages or other assets. The underlying funds may also invest in the debt securities of governments, agencies, corporations and other entities domiciled outside the United States. The funds investment adviser seeks to create combinations of underlying funds that complement each other with a goal of achieving the funds investment objective of providing long-term growth of capital while providing current income. In making this determination, the funds investment adviser considers the historical volatility and returns of the underlying funds and how various combinations would have behaved in past market environments. It also considers, among other topics, current market conditions and the investment positions of the underlying funds. The fund employs a risk-management overlay referred to in this prospectus as the managed risk strategy. The managed risk strategy consists of using hedge instruments primarily exchange-traded futures contracts and/or exchange-traded put options to attempt to stabilize the volatility of the fund around a target volatility level and to seek to reduce the downside exposure of the fund. The fund employs a subadviser to select individual put options and futures contracts on equity indexes of U.S. markets and markets outside the United States that the subadviser believes are correlated to the underlying funds equity exposure. These instruments are selected based on the subadvisers analysis of the relation of various equity indexes to the underlying funds portfolios, taking into consideration each underlying funds allocation within the fund. In addition, the subadviser will monitor liquidity levels of relevant options and futures contracts and transparency provided by exchanges as the counterparties in hedging transactions. The target volatility level will be set from time to time by the investment adviser and the subadviser and may be adjusted if deemed advisable in the judgment of the investment adviser and the subadviser. The subadviser may also seek to hedge the funds currency risk related to its exposure to equity index options and futures denominated in currencies other than the U.S. dollar. A futures contract on an index is an agreement pursuant to which two parties agree to take or make delivery of an amount of cash linked to the value of the index at the close of the last trading day of the contract. Though similar, an option on an index gives one party the contractual right (but not the obligation) to take or make delivery of an amount of cash linked to the value of the underlying index. Because such instruments derive their respective values from the price of an underlying index, both options and futures contracts are considered derivatives. A long position in an equity index put option and a short position in an equity index futures contract are both expected to gain in value when the underlying index declines, and lose value when the underlying index rises. The funds investment adviser periodically reviews the investment strategies and asset mix of the underlying funds. The investment adviser will also consider whether overall market conditions and the effect of the managed risk strategy would favor a change in the exposure of the fund to various asset types or geographic regions. Based on these considerations, the investment adviser may make adjustments to underlying fund holdings by adjusting the percentage of individual underlying funds within the fund, or adding or removing underlying funds. The investment adviser may also determine not to change the underlying fund allocations, particularly in response to short-term market movements, if in its opinion the combination of underlying funds is appropriate to meet the funds investment objective. The subadviser regularly adjusts the level of exchange-traded options and futures contracts held by the fund to seek to manage the funds overall net risk level. In situations of extreme market volatility, the subadviser will tend to use exchange-traded equity index options and/or futures more heavily, as such investments could significantly reduce the funds net economic exposure to equity securities. Even in periods of low volatility in the equity markets, however, the subadviser will continue to employ exchange-traded equity index put options to seek to preserve gains after favorable market conditions and to reduce losses in adverse market conditions. During such periods of low equity market volatility, the subadviser may also continue to use exchange-traded equity index futures contracts for hedging purposes, though it need not necessarily do so. In certain market conditions, the fund may also purchase exchange-traded equity index call options, write or sell exchange-traded equity index put and call options and/or take net long positions in exchange-traded equity index futures contracts. Show less