|
SUMMARY PROSPECTUS May 1, 2025 |
AB Variable Products Series Fund, Inc.
Global Risk Allocation—Moderate Portfolio—Class B
Before you invest, you may want to review the Portfolio’s Prospectus, which contains more information about the Portfolio and its risks. The Portfolio’s Prospectus and Statement of Additional Information, both dated May 1, 2025, as may be amended or supplemented, are incorporated by reference into this Summary Prospectus. For free paper or electronic copies of the Portfolio’s Prospectus, reports to shareholders and other information about the Portfolio, go to www.abfunds.com/go/prospectus, email a request to prorequest@alliancebernstein.com, call (800) 227-4618, or ask any insurance company that offers shares of the Portfolio.
INVESTMENT OBJECTIVE
The Portfolio’s investment objective is to seek long-term growth of capital while seeking to limit volatility.
FEES AND EXPENSES OF THE PORTFOLIO
This table describes the fees and expenses that you may pay if you buy, hold and sell shares of the Portfolio. The table and Examples below do not reflect deductions at the separate account level or contract level for any charges that may be incurred under a contract. Contractholders that invest in the Portfolio should refer to the variable contract prospectus for a description of fees and expenses that apply to Contractholders. Inclusion of these charges would increase the fees and expenses in the Annual Portfolio Operating Expenses table and Examples below.
Shareholder Fees (fees paid directly from your investment)
N/A
Annual Portfolio Operating Expenses (expenses that you pay each year as a percentage of the value of your investment)
| Management Fees |
.47% | |||
| Distribution (12b-1) Fees |
.25% | |||
| Other Expenses: |
||||
| Transfer Agent |
.00% | (a) | ||
| Other Expenses |
.06% | |||
|
|
|
|||
| Total Other Expenses |
.06% | |||
|
|
|
|||
| Acquired Fund Fees and Expenses |
.04% | |||
|
|
|
|||
| Total Annual Portfolio Operating Expenses |
.82% | |||
|
|
|
|||
| Fee Waiver and/or Expense Reimbursement(b) |
(.04)% | |||
|
|
|
|||
| Total Annual Portfolio Operating Expenses After Fee Waiver and/or Expense Reimbursement |
.78% | |||
|
|
|
|||
| (a) | Amount is less than .01%. |
| (b) | In connection with the Portfolio’s investments in AB Government Money Market Portfolio (the “Money Market Portfolio”) (except for the investment of any cash collateral from securities lending), the Adviser has contractually agreed to waive its management fee from the Portfolio and/or reimburse other expenses of the Portfolio in an amount equal to the Portfolio’s pro rata share of the Money Market Portfolio’s effective management fee, as included in “Acquired Fund Fees and Expenses”. The agreement will remain in effect until May 1, 2026 and may only be terminated or changed with the consent of the Portfolio’s Board of Directors. In addition, the agreement will be automatically extended for one-year terms unless the Adviser provides notice of termination to the Portfolio at least 60 days prior to the end of the period. |
Examples
The Examples are intended to help you compare the cost of investing in the Portfolio with the cost of investing in other mutual funds. The Examples assume 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 Examples also assume that your investment has a 5% return each year, that the Portfolio’s
S-1
operating expenses stay the same and that any fee waiver and/or expense limitation is in effect for only the first year. Although your actual costs may be higher or lower, based on these assumptions your costs would be:
| After 1 Year |
$ | 80 | ||
| After 3 Years |
$ | 258 | ||
| After 5 Years |
$ | 451 | ||
| After 10 Years | $ | 1,010 | ||
Portfolio Turnover
The Portfolio pays transaction costs, such as commissions, when it buys or sells securities (or “turns over” its portfolio). A higher portfolio turnover rate may indicate higher transaction costs. These transaction costs, which are not reflected in the Annual Portfolio Operating Expenses or in the Examples, affect the Portfolio’s performance. During the most recent fiscal year, the Portfolio’s portfolio turnover rate was 8% of the average value of its portfolio.
PRINCIPAL STRATEGIES
In making decisions on the allocation of assets among “growth assets” and “safety assets”, the Adviser uses a risk-weighted allocation methodology based on the expected “tail risk” of each asset class. For purposes of the Portfolio, growth assets include global equities and, at times, high yield fixed-income securities (commonly known as “junk bonds”), and safety assets include government securities of developed countries. This strategy attempts to provide investors with favorable long-term total return while minimizing exposure to material or “tail” losses. To execute this strategy, the percentage loss that will constitute a tail loss is calculated for each asset class based on historical market behavior and on a forward-looking basis through options prices. Portfolio assets are then allocated among asset classes so that growth assets contribute the majority of the expected risk of tail loss (“tail risk”) of the Portfolio, and safety assets contribute a lesser amount of tail risk. The Adviser makes frequent adjustments to the Portfolio’s asset class exposures based on these tail risk determinations. To help limit tail risk, the Portfolio utilizes a risk management strategy involving the purchase of put options and sale of call options on equity indices, equity index futures or exchange-traded funds, or ETFs. The Adviser will on a best efforts basis seek to limit the volatility of the Portfolio to no more than 10% on an annualized basis. Actual results may vary.
The Adviser also assesses tail risk on a security, sector and country basis, and makes adjustments to the Portfolio’s allocations within each asset class when practicable. The Portfolio may invest in fixed-income securities with a range of maturities from short- to long-term. The Adviser expects that the Portfolio’s investments in high yield fixed-income securities will not exceed 10% of the Portfolio’s net assets. The Portfolio’s investments in each asset class will generally be global in nature.
The Adviser expects to utilize a variety of derivatives in its management of the Portfolio, including futures contracts, options, swaps and forwards. Derivatives often provide more efficient and economical exposure to market segments than direct investments, and the Portfolio may utilize derivatives and ETFs to gain exposure to equity and fixed-income asset classes. Because derivatives transactions frequently require cash outlays that are only a small portion of the amount of exposure obtained through the derivative, a portion of the Portfolio’s assets may be held in cash or invested in cash equivalents to cover the Portfolio’s derivatives obligations, such as short-term U.S. Government and agency securities, repurchase agreements and money market funds. At times, a combination of direct securities investments and derivatives will be used to gain asset class exposure so that the Portfolio’s aggregate exposure will substantially exceed its net assets (i.e., so that the Portfolio is effectively leveraged).
Currency exchange rate fluctuations can have a dramatic impact on returns. The Adviser may seek to hedge all or a portion of the currency exposure resulting from Portfolio investments through currency-related derivatives, or decide not to hedge this exposure.
PRINCIPAL RISKS
| • | Market Risk: The value of the Portfolio’s assets will fluctuate as the market or markets in which the Portfolio invests fluctuate. The value of the Portfolio’s investments may decline, sometimes rapidly and unpredictably, simply because of economic changes or other events, including public health crises (including the occurrence of a contagious disease or illness), terrorism, war, interest rate levels, tariffs and regional and global conflicts, that affect large portions of the market. It includes the risk that a particular style of investing may underperform the market generally. |
| • | Allocation Risk: The allocation of investments among asset classes may have a significant effect on the Portfolio’s net asset value, or NAV, when the asset classes in which the Portfolio has invested more heavily perform worse than the asset classes invested in less heavily. |
| • | Interest Rate Risk: Changes in interest rates will affect the value of investments in fixed-income securities. When interest rates rise, the value of existing investments in fixed-income securities tends to fall and this decrease in value may not be offset by higher income from new investments. Interest rate risk is generally greater for fixed-income securities with longer maturities or |
S-2
| durations. Changing interest rates may have unpredictable effects on the markets, may result in heightened market volatility and may detract from Portfolio performance. In addition, changes in monetary policy may exacerbate the risks associated with changing interest rates. |
| • | Credit Risk: An issuer or guarantor of a fixed-income security, or the counterparty to a derivatives or other contract, may be unable or unwilling to make timely payments of interest or principal, or to otherwise honor its obligations. The issuer or guarantor may default, causing a loss of the full principal amount of a security and accrued interest. The degree of risk for a particular security may be reflected in its credit rating. There is the possibility that the credit rating of a fixed-income security may be downgraded after purchase, which may adversely affect the value of the security. |
| • | High Yield Securities Risk: Investments in fixed-income securities with ratings below investment grade (commonly known as “junk bonds”) tend to have a higher probability that an issuer will default or fail to meet its payment obligations. These securities may be subject to greater price volatility due to such factors as specific corporate developments, interest rate sensitivity and negative perceptions of the junk bond market generally, and may be more difficult to trade than other types of securities. |
| • | Foreign (Non-U.S.) Risk: Investments in securities of non-U.S. issuers may involve more risk than those of U.S. issuers. These securities may fluctuate more widely in price and may be more difficult to trade due to adverse market, economic, political, regulatory or other factors. |
| • | Currency Risk: Fluctuations in currency exchange rates may negatively affect the value of the Portfolio’s investments or reduce its returns. |
| • | Investment in Other Investment Companies Risk: As with other investments, investments in other investment companies, including ETFs, are subject to market and selection risk. In addition, Contractholders of the Portfolio bear both their proportionate share of expenses in the Portfolio (including management fees) and, indirectly, the expenses of the investment companies in which the Portfolio invests (to the extent these expenses are not waived or reimbursed by the Adviser). |
| • | Derivatives Risk: Derivatives may be difficult to price or unwind and leveraged so that small changes may produce disproportionate losses for the Portfolio. A short position in a derivative instrument involves the risk of a theoretically unlimited increase in the value of the underlying asset, reference rate or index, which could cause the Portfolio to suffer a potentially unlimited loss. Derivatives, especially over-the-counter derivatives, are also subject to counterparty risk, which is the risk that the counterparty (the party on the other side of the transaction) on a derivative transaction will be unable or unwilling to honor its contractual obligations to the Portfolio. |
| • | Leverage Risk: Because the Portfolio uses leveraging techniques, its NAV may be more volatile because leverage tends to exaggerate the effect of changes in interest rates and any increase or decrease in the value of the Portfolio’s investments. |
| • | Illiquid Investments Risk: Illiquid investments risk exists when certain investments are or become difficult to purchase or sell. Difficulty in selling such investments may result in sales at disadvantageous prices affecting the value of your investment in the Portfolio. Causes of illiquid investments risk may include low trading volumes and large positions. Foreign fixed-income securities may have more illiquid investments risk because secondary trading markets for these securities may be smaller and less well-developed and the securities may trade less frequently than domestic securities. Illiquid investments risk may be higher in a rising interest rate environment, when the value and liquidity of fixed-income securities generally decline. |
| • | Management Risk: The Portfolio is subject to management risk because it is an actively-managed investment fund. The Adviser will apply its investment techniques and risk analyses in making investment decisions for the Portfolio, but there is no guarantee that its techniques will produce the intended results. Some of these techniques may incorporate, or rely upon, quantitative models, but there is no guarantee that these models will generate accurate forecasts, reduce risk or otherwise perform as expected. |
As with all investments, you may lose money by investing in the Portfolio.
BAR CHART AND PERFORMANCE INFORMATION
The bar chart and performance information provide an indication of the historical risk of an investment in the Portfolio by showing:
| • | how the Portfolio’s performance changed from year to year over the life of the Portfolio; and |
| • | how the Portfolio’s average annual returns for one year, five years and since inception compare to those of a broad-based securities market index. |
S-3
The performance information does not take into account separate account charges. If separate account charges were included, an investor’s return would be lower. The Portfolio’s past performance, of course, does not necessarily indicate how it will perform in the future.
Bar Chart
During the period shown in the bar chart, the Portfolio’s:
Best Quarter was up 8.42%, 4th quarter, 2023; and Worst Quarter was down -13.15%, 1st quarter, 2020.
Performance Table
Average Annual Total Returns
(For the periods ended December 31, 2024)
| 1 Year | 5 Years | Since Inception* |
||||||||||
| Portfolio |
12.28% | 4.91% | 4.61% | |||||||||
| MSCI World Index (net) (U.S. Dollar hedged) (reflects no deduction for fees, expenses, or taxes) |
21.87% | 12.75% | 10.80% | |||||||||
| 60% MSCI World Index (U.S. Dollar hedged)/40% Bloomberg Global G7 Treasury Index (U.S. Dollar hedged)** (reflects no deduction for fees, expenses, or taxes) |
13.32% | 7.63% | 7.17% | |||||||||
| * | Since inception return is from April 28, 2015. |
| ** | The information for the composite index is presented to show how the Portfolio’s performance compares with the returns of an index of securities similar to those in which the Portfolio invests. |
INVESTMENT ADVISER
AllianceBernstein L.P. is the investment adviser for the Portfolio.
PORTFOLIO MANAGERS
The following table lists the persons responsible for day-to-day management of the Portfolio’s portfolio:
| Employee | Length of Service | Title | ||
| Daniel J. Loewy | Since 2016 | Senior Vice President of the Adviser | ||
| Leon Zhu | Since 2015 | Senior Vice President of the Adviser | ||
PURCHASE AND SALE OF PORTFOLIO SHARES
Effective January 1, 2020, the Portfolio offers its shares only through the separate accounts of Ohio National Life Insurance Company and its eligible affiliates (“Insurers”). You may only purchase and sell shares through these separate accounts. See the prospectus of the separate account of the Insurer for information on the purchase and sale of the Portfolio’s shares.
TAX INFORMATION
The Portfolio may pay income dividends or make capital gains distributions. The income and capital gains distributions are expected to be made in shares of the Portfolio. See the prospectus of the separate account of the Insurer for federal income tax information.
PAYMENTS TO INSURERS AND OTHER FINANCIAL INTERMEDIARIES
If you purchase shares of the Portfolio through an Insurer or other financial intermediary, the Portfolio and its related companies may pay the intermediary for the sale of Portfolio shares and related services. These payments may create a conflict of interest by influencing the Insurer or other financial intermediary and your salesperson to recommend the Portfolio over another investment. Ask your salesperson or visit your financial intermediary’s website for more information.
|
S-4