| BRIGHTHOUSE FUNDS TRUST I |
SUMMARY PROSPECTUS |
April 28,
2025 |
Brighthouse/Eaton Vance
Floating Rate Portfolio
Class A and Class
B 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, reports to
shareholders, and other information about the Portfolio (including the documents listed below) online at https://dfinview.com/BHFT. You can also get this information at no cost by calling
1-800-882-1292 or by sending an e-mail request to RCG@brighthousefinancial.com. The Portfolio’s Prospectus and Statement of
Additional Information, both dated April 28, 2025, as supplemented from time
to time, and the Portfolio’s financial statements for the
year ended December 31, 2024, 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 Form N-CSR of the Portfolio, dated
December 31, 2024, are all incorporated by reference into this Summary
Prospectus. This Summary Prospectus is intended for individuals
who have purchased Contracts (as defined below) from insurance companies, including insurance companies affiliated with Brighthouse Investment Advisers, LLC, and is not intended for use by other investors. |
Investment Objective
A high level of current income.
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 your variable life insurance policy or variable annuity contract (the “Contract”). If Contract expenses were reflected, the fees and
expenses in the table and Example would be higher. See the Contract prospectus for a description of those fees, expenses and charges.
| 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 |
| Management Fee |
0.60% |
0.60% |
| Distribution and/or Service (12b-1) Fees |
None |
0.25% |
| Other Expenses |
0.10% |
0.10% |
| Total Annual Portfolio Operating Expenses |
0.70% |
0.95% |
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 and that the Portfolio’s operating expenses remain the same. 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 |
$72 |
$224 |
$390 |
$871 |
| Class B |
$97
|
$303
|
$525
|
$1,166
|
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 39% of the average value of its portfolio.
During the most recent fiscal year, the Portfolio’s portfolio turnover rate was 39% of the average value of its portfolio.
Principal Investment Strategies
Eaton Vance Management (“Eaton Vance” or “Subadviser”),
subadviser to the Portfolio, invests, under normal circumstances, at least 80% of the
Portfolio’s net assets in income producing floating rate loans and other floating rate debt securities. The Portfolio invests primarily in senior floating rate loans of domestic and foreign borrowers
(“Senior Loans”). Senior Loans typically are secured with specific collateral and have a claim on the assets and/or stock of the borrower that is senior to subordinated debtholders and stockholders of
the borrower. Loans typically are of below investment grade quality and have below
investment grade credit ratings, which ratings are associated with securities having high yield/high risk, speculative characteristics.
The Portfolio may also invest in secured and unsecured subordinated loans, second lien loans and
subordinated bridge loans (“Junior Loans”). In addition, the Portfolio may invest in other floating rate debt securities, fixed income debt obligations and money market instruments, which
may include bonds, notes and debentures issued by corporations; debt securities issued or
guaranteed by the U.S. Government or one of its agencies or instrumentalities; and
commercial paper. Those money market instruments with a remaining maturity of less than 60 days will
be deemed floating rate
debt securities. Senior Loans and Junior Loans are referred to together herein as “loans.”
The Portfolio may invest up to 20% of its total assets in foreign Senior Loans and foreign securities. Foreign Senior Loans must be U.S. dollar denominated or be
denominated in Euros, British pounds, Swiss francs, or Canadian dollars (each such foreign
currency, an “Authorized Foreign Currency”).
Eaton Vance’s portfolio managers seek to maintain broad
borrower and industry diversification among the Portfolio’s loans. When selecting
loans, the portfolio managers seek to implement a systematic risk-weighted approach that utilizes fundamental analysis of risk/return characteristics. Loans may be sold if, in the opinion of Eaton
Vance’s portfolio managers, the risk-return profile deteriorates or if the portfolio managers wish to pursue more attractive investment opportunities. In managing the Portfolio, Eaton Vance seeks to
invest in a portfolio of loans that it believes will be less volatile over time than the general loan market. Preservation of capital is considered when consistent with the Portfolio’s
objective.
For more information about the types of
investments in which the Portfolio may invest, please see “Investment Strategies and
Risks” in the Statement of Additional Information.
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. The
significance of any specific risk to an investment in the Portfolio will vary over time, depending on the composition of the Portfolio, market conditions, and other factors. You should read all of the risk
information presented below carefully, because any one or more of these risks could cause
the Portfolio’s return, the price of the Portfolio’s shares or 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, changes in general economic conditions, such as
prevailing interest rates or investor sentiment, or other factors including terrorism, war,
natural disasters and the spread of infectious illness including epidemics or pandemics. In addition, unexpected political, regulatory, trade and diplomatic events within the United States and abroad may
affect investor and consumer confidence and may adversely impact financial markets and the
broader economy, perhaps suddenly and to a
significant degree. Significant disruptions to the financial markets could adversely affect the
liquidity and volatility of securities held by the Portfolio.
Interest Rate Risk. The value of the Portfolio’s investments in fixed income securities may decline when prevailing interest rates rise or increase when interest
rates fall. The longer a security’s maturity or duration, the greater its value will change in response to changes in interest rates. The interest earned on the Portfolio’s investments in
fixed income securities may decline when prevailing interest rates fall. During periods of very low or negative interest rates, the Portfolio may be unable to maintain positive returns or pay dividends to
Portfolio shareholders. Additionally, under certain market conditions in which interest
rates are low or negative, the Portfolio may have a very low, or even negative yield. A low
or negative yield would cause the Portfolio to lose money and the net asset value of the
Portfolio’s shares to decline in certain conditions and over certain time
periods. Changes in prevailing interest rates, particularly sudden changes, may also increase the level of volatility in fixed income and other markets, increase redemptions in the Portfolio’s shares and reduce the liquidity
of the Portfolio’s debt securities and other income-producing holdings. Changes in
interest rate levels are caused by a variety of factors, such as central bank monetary
policies, inflation rates, and general economic and market conditions.
Credit and Counterparty Risk. The value of the Portfolio’s investments may be adversely affected if a security’s credit rating is downgraded or an issuer of
an investment held by the Portfolio fails to pay an obligation on a timely basis, otherwise defaults or is perceived by other investors to be less creditworthy. If a counterparty to a derivatives or other
transaction with the Portfolio files for bankruptcy, becomes insolvent, or otherwise
becomes unable or unwilling to honor its obligation to the Portfolio, the Portfolio may
experience significant losses or delays in realizing income on or recovering collateral and may lose all or a part of the income from the transaction.
Loan Investment Risk. Investments in loans expose the Portfolio to interest rate risk and the credit and counterparty risk
of the underlying borrowers of those loans. No active trading market may exist for certain
loans. Moreover, adverse market conditions may impair the liquidity of some actively traded
loans. The Portfolio may have difficulty valuing and selling loans that are illiquid or are
less actively traded. Loans are also subject to the risk that borrowers will prepay the principal more quickly than expected, which could cause the Portfolio to reinvest the repaid principal in investments with
lower yields, thereby exposing the Portfolio to a lower rate of return. There may be a
limited amount of public information about the loans in which the Portfolio invests.
Purchases and sales of loans are generally subject to contractual restrictions that may impede the Portfolio’s ability to buy or sell loans and may negatively affect the transaction price. Loan transactions may take
longer than seven days to settle, and the Portfolio may hold cash, sell investments, or
temporarily borrow from banks or other lenders in order to
Brighthouse/Eaton Vance Floating Rate Portfolio
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meet short-term
liquidity needs. The Portfolio may not be entitled to rely on the anti-fraud protections of the federal securities laws with respect to any loans it owns in the event of fraud or misrepresentation by a
borrower. The Portfolio’s purchase and sale of loans may involve the risk of market
manipulation by a borrower. Any investments in below investment grade loans and other debt
securities expose a portfolio to greater market risk and credit and counterparty risk than
a portfolio that invests only in investment grade loans and debt securities. Lower rated securities also may be subject to greater price volatility than higher rated investments.
Foreign Investment Risk. Investments in foreign securities, whether direct or indirect, tend to be more volatile and less liquid than investments in U.S. securities because, among other things, they involve risks relating to
political, social, economic and other developments abroad, as well as risks resulting from
differences between the regulations and reporting standards and practices to which U.S. and
foreign issuers are subject. To the extent foreign securities are denominated in foreign currencies, their values may be adversely affected by changes in currency exchange rates. All of the risks of
investing in foreign securities are typically increased by investing in emerging market countries.
High Yield Debt Security Risk. High yield debt securities, or “junk” bonds, may be more susceptible to market risk and credit and counterparty risk than
investment grade debt securities because issuers of high yield debt securities are less secure financially and their securities are more sensitive to downturns in the economy. In addition, the
secondary market for high yield debt securities may not be as liquid as that for higher rated debt securities. High-yield debt securities range from those for which the prospect for repayment of
principal and interest is predominantly speculative to those which are currently in default
on principal or interest payments or whose issuers are in bankruptcy.
Past Performance
The information below provides some indication of the risks of investing in the Portfolio by showing changes in the Portfolio’s performance from year to year and
how the Portfolio’s average annual returns over time compare with those of a broad-based securities market index and an additional index reflecting the market segment(s) in which the Portfolio
invests. 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.
Year-by-Year Total Return for Class A Shares as of
December 31 of Each Year
December 31 of Each Year
| Highest Quarter |
Q2 2020 |
7.04% |
| Lowest Quarter |
Q1 2020 |
-10.07% |
Average Annual Total Return as of December 31,
2024
| |
1 Year |
5 Years |
10 Years |
| Class A |
8.00% |
4.66% |
4.37% |
| Class B |
7.70% |
4.40% |
4.11% |
| Bloomberg U.S. Universal Bond Index* (reflects no deduction for mutual fund fees or expenses) |
2.04% |
0.06% |
1.73% |
| Morningstar LSTA U.S. Leveraged Loan Index
(reflects no deduction for mutual fund fees
or expenses) |
8.95% |
5.86% |
5.15% |
*
Effective February 26, 2025, the Bloomberg U.S. Universal Bond Index was added as a broad measure of market performance in accordance with recent changes to regulatory
disclosure requirements. The Portfolio continues to use the Morningstar LSTA U.S. Leveraged Loan Index as an additional benchmark that reflects the market segment(s) in which the Portfolio invests.
Management
Adviser. Brighthouse Investment Advisers, LLC (“BIA”), is the Portfolio’s investment
adviser.
Subadviser. Eaton Vance Management is the subadviser to the Portfolio.
Portfolio Managers. Ralph H. Hinckley Jr., CFA, Vice President and Portfolio Manager, has managed the Portfolio since February 2025. Michael J. Turgel, CFA, Vice President and Portfolio Manager, has managed the Portfolio since September 2020.
Purchase and Sale of Portfolio Shares
Shares of the Portfolio are only sold to separate accounts of insurance companies, including insurance companies affiliated with BIA, 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.
Brighthouse/Eaton Vance Floating Rate Portfolio
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Payments to Broker-Dealers and Other Financial
Intermediaries
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,
including insurance companies that are affiliated with the Portfolio and BIA. The Portfolio
and its related companies, including BIA, may make payments to the sponsoring insurance companies (or their affiliates) for distribution and/or other services, and the
insurance companies may benefit more from offering the Portfolio as an investment option in the Contracts than offering other portfolios. The benefits to the
insurance companies of offering the Portfolio over other 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.
BHF-36758
Brighthouse/Eaton Vance Floating Rate Portfolio
4