497K 1 c497k.htm
   

NYLI VP Candriam Emerging Markets Equity Portfolio

(formerly MainStay VP Candriam Emerging Markets Equity Portfolio)

Summary Prospectus

May 1, 2024
As revised August 12, 2024

  
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 by going online to dfinview.com/NYLIM/?site=VP, by calling 800-624-6782, option 2 or by sending an e-mail to NYLIShareholderServices@nylim.com. The Portfolio’s Prospectus and Statement of Additional Information, both dated May 1, 2024, as may be amended from time to time, are incorporated by reference into this Summary Prospectus.
Investment Objective

The Portfolio seeks long-term capital appreciation.

Fees and Expenses of the Portfolio

The table below describes the fees and expenses that you may pay if you buy, hold and sell shares of the Portfolio. The table does not include any separate account or policy fees or charges imposed under the variable annuity policies and variable universal life insurance policies for which the Portfolio is an investment option. If they were included, your costs would be higher. Investors should consult the applicable variable annuity policy or variable universal life insurance policy prospectus for more information.

          

 

 

Initial

 

Service

 

 

 

Class

 

Class

Annual Portfolio Operating Expenses

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

(fees paid directly from your investment)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Management Fees (as an annual percentage of the Portfolio's average daily net assets)1

 

1.00

%

 

1.00

%

Distribution and Service (12b-1) Fees

 

None

 

 

 

0.25

%

 

Other Expenses

 

0.14

%

 

 

0.14

%

Total Annual Portfolio Operating Expenses

 

1.14

%

 

1.39

%

1. The management fee is as follows: 1.00% on assets up to $1 billion; and 0.975% on assets over $1 billion.

Example

The 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 does not include any separate account or policy fees or charges imposed under the variable annuity policies and variable universal life insurance policies for which the Portfolio is an investment option. If they were included, your costs would be higher. The Example assumes that you invest $10,000 in the Portfolio for the time periods indicated whether or not you 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. The Example reflects the contractual fee waiver and/or expense reimbursement arrangement, if applicable, for the current duration of the arrangement only. 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

 

 Initial Class

 

$      116

 

$      362

 

$      628

 

$   1,386

 

 Service Class

 

$      142

 

$      440

 

$      761

 

$   1,669

 

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 52% of the average value of its portfolio.

Principal Investment Strategies

Under normal circumstances, the Portfolio invests at least 80% of its assets (net assets plus any borrowings for investment purposes) in equity securities or equity-related securities issued by entities in, or tied economically to, emerging markets. The Portfolio may invest in securities issued by entities with market capitalizations at the time of investment of $500 million or more. These securities may be denominated in U.S. or non-U.S. currencies. The Portfolio may also invest in exchange-traded funds (“ETFs”) to obtain this exposure or for other investment purposes. The Portfolio may also invest in American Depositary Receipts, Global Depositary Receipts and non-voting Depositary Receipts. An issuer of a security is considered to be a U.S. or foreign issuer based on the issuer’s “country of risk” (or similar designation) as determined by a third-party such as Bloomberg.

Candriam, the Portfolio’s Subadvisor, defines emerging market countries as those countries that are included in the MSCI Emerging + Frontier Markets Index.

The Subadvisor determines that an investment is tied economically to an emerging market if such investment satisfies either of the following conditions: (i) the issuer’s primary trading market is in an emerging market, or (ii) the investment is included in an index representative of emerging markets, such as MSCI Emerging + Frontier Markets Index.

    
  

 


At times, the Portfolio might increase the relative exposure to investments in a particular region or country. The Portfolio may invest up to 20% of its net assets in securities that are not issued by entities in, or tied economically to, emerging markets. These investments may include equity securities, U.S. government and agency securities and short-term investments, such as cash and cash equivalents.

The Portfolio may also make use of derivative financial instruments for the purpose of hedging or exposure, such as futures, options, swaps, and forwards.

Investment Process: The Subadvisor seeks to create medium to longer-term capital appreciation through investments in emerging market companies that are considered to generate high, and growing, levels of profits by constructing a diversified, conviction based portfolio, aiming for consistent risk-adjusted returns greater than the MSCI Emerging Markets Index.

Investment opportunities are identified via a thematic approach, which seeks to identify and analyze investable longer term structural trends as well as shorter term local and global trends, combined with a bottom-up stock selection methodology based on a proprietary quantitative screening platform to identify companies with attractive profitability levels and sustainable growth trends relative to their country and/or sector. Additionally, this proprietary quantitative screening platform also seeks to limit exposure to industries which do not satisfy the Subadvisor’s environmental, social or governance (“ESG”) criteria such as certain types of extractive industries, tobacco-related industries and industries related to chemical, biological or white phosphorus weapons. By incorporating ESG criteria within the investment process, the Subadvisor identifies other factors that may influence a company's value and competitiveness over the medium- and long-term, which are not always immediately obvious in traditional financial analyses. External factors such as CO2 costs or health and safety standards affect most companies, either positively or negatively, when integrated into their economic model. Some factors offer a new opportunity while others are considered a threat to the business model.

ESG factors are evaluated by the Subadvisor based on data provided by its dedicated and independent ESG research team. The ESG research team conducts an ESG assessment of companies by their potential ability to create value by integrating sustainability into their business activities and the interest of stakeholders within their operating and financial managerial processes. The business activities analysis assesses how companies are exposed to major long-term ESG trends that can strongly influence the environment in which they operate and that may shape their future market challenges and long-term growth. The relationships with stakeholders give rise to opportunities as well as risks, and are therefore determinants of long-term value. The Subadvisor evaluates the extent to which each company incorporates the interests of stakeholders in its long-term strategy.

The ESG assessment is a contributing factor to determine the final assessment of a company, which in turn will determine the weighting of this position in the portfolio.

Finally, the Subadvisor applies a norms-based and controversial activities filter to exclude companies which may represent high risk due to a violation of UN Global Compact principles and exposed to highly controversial activities such as armament, tobacco and thermal coal.

The Subadvisor considers sector, currency, regional and country deviations relative to the MSCI Emerging Markets Index when making investment decisions for the Portfolio. The Subadvisor seeks to reduce risk by investing in securities of a large number of issuers across markets, sectors and countries.

Principal Risks

You can lose money by investing in the Portfolio. An investment in the Portfolio is not a bank deposit and is not insured or guaranteed by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation or any other governmental agency. The investments selected by the Subadvisor may underperform the market in which the Portfolio invests or other investments. The Portfolio may receive large purchase or redemption orders which may have adverse effects on performance if the Portfolio were required to sell securities, invest cash or hold a relatively large amount of cash at times when it would not otherwise do so.

The principal risks of investing in the Portfolio are summarized below.

Market Risk: Changes in markets may cause the value of investments to fluctuate, which could cause the Portfolio to underperform other funds with similar investment objectives and strategies. Such changes may be rapid and unpredictable. From time to time, markets may experience periods of stress as a result of various market, economic and geopolitical factors for potentially prolonged periods that may result in: (i) increased market volatility; (ii) reduced market liquidity; and (iii) increased redemptions of shares. Such conditions may add significantly to the risk of volatility in the net asset value of the Portfolio's shares and adversely affect the Portfolio and its investments.

Portfolio Management Risk: The investment strategies, practices and risk analyses used by the Subadvisor may not produce the desired results or expected returns. The quantitative screening performed by the Subadvisor, and the securities selected based on the screening, may not perform as expected. The quantitative screening may adversely affect the Portfolio's performance. There may also be technical issues with the construction and implementation of quantitative models (for example, software or other technology malfunctions, or programming inaccuracies). In addition, the Portfolio's performance will reflect, in part, the Subadvisor's ability to make active qualitative decisions. The application of ESG criteria may result in the Portfolio (i) having exposure to certain securities or industry sectors that are significantly different than the composition of the Portfolio's benchmark; and (ii) performing differently than other funds and strategies in its peer group that do not take into account ESG criteria or the Portfolio's benchmark. In addition, the Subadvisor's exclusionary ESG screen may result in the Portfolio forgoing opportunities to buy certain securities when it might otherwise be advantageous to do so, or selling securities for ESG reasons when it might be otherwise disadvantageous for it to do so.

Depositary Receipts Risk: Investments in depositary receipts may entail the special risks of investing in foreign securities, including currency exchange fluctuations, government regulations, and the potential for political and economic instability.

Equity Securities Risk: Investments in common stocks and other equity securities are particularly subject to the risk of changing economic, stock market, industry and company conditions and the risks inherent in the ability to anticipate such changes that can adversely affect the value of portfolio holdings.

Foreign Securities Risk: An issuer of a security is considered to be a U.S. or foreign issuer based on the issuer’s “country of risk” (or similar designation) as determined by a third party such as Bloomberg (or another similar third party). The issuer’s “country of risk” is determined based on a number of criteria, which may change from time to time and currently include, but are not limited to, its country of domicile, the primary stock exchange on which it trades, the location from which the majority of its revenue comes, and its reporting currency. Although a Portfolio will generally rely on an issuer’s “country of risk” (or

   

2

  


similar designation) as determined by Bloomberg (or another similar third party) when categorizing securities as either U.S. or foreign-based, it is not required to do so.

Investments in foreign (non-U.S.) securities may be riskier than investments in U.S. securities. Foreign regulatory regimes and securities markets can have less stringent investor protections and disclosure standards and less liquid trading markets than U.S. regulatory regimes and securities markets, and can experience political, social and economic developments that may affect the value of investments in foreign securities. Foreign securities may also subject the Portfolio's investments to changes in currency rates. Changes in the value of foreign currencies may make the return on an investment increase or decrease, unrelated to the quality or performance of the investment itself. Economic sanctions may be, and have been, imposed against certain countries, organizations, companies, entities and/or individuals. Economic sanctions and other similar governmental actions or developments could, among other things, effectively restrict or eliminate the Portfolio’s ability to purchase or sell certain foreign securities or groups of foreign securities, and thus may make the Portfolio’s investments in such securities less liquid or more difficult to value. Such sanctions may also cause a decline in the value of securities issued by the sanctioned country or companies located in or economically tied to the sanctioned country. In addition, as a result of economic sanctions and other similar governmental actions or developments, the Portfolio may be forced to sell or otherwise dispose of foreign investments at inopportune times or prices. The Portfolio may seek to hedge against its exposure to changes in the value of foreign currency, but there is no guarantee that such hedging techniques will be successful in reducing any related foreign currency valuation risk. These risks may be greater with respect to securities of companies that conduct their business activities in emerging markets or whose securities are traded principally in emerging markets.

Emerging Markets Risk: The risks related to investing in foreign securities are generally greater with respect to securities of companies that conduct their business activities in emerging markets or whose securities are traded principally in emerging markets. The risks of investing in emerging markets are elevated under adverse market conditions and include: (i) smaller trading volumes for such securities and limited access to investments in the event of market closures (including due to local holidays), which result in a lack of liquidity and in greater price volatility; (ii) less government regulation, which could lead to market manipulation, and less extensive, transparent and frequent accounting, auditing, recordkeeping, financial reporting and other requirements, which limit the quality and availability of financial information; (iii) the absence of developed legal systems, including structures governing private or foreign investment or allowing for judicial redress (such as limits on rights and remedies available) for investment losses and injury to private property; (iv) loss resulting from problems in share registration and custody; (v) sensitivity to adverse political or social events affecting the region where an emerging market is located; (vi) particular sensitivity to economic and political disruptions, including adverse effects stemming from wars, sanctions, trade restrictions, recessions, depressions or other economic crises, or reliance on international or other forms of aid, including trade, taxation and development policies; and (vii) the nationalization of foreign deposits or assets.

Exchange-Traded Fund ("ETF") Risk: The risks of owning an ETF generally reflect the risks of owning the underlying securities in which the ETF invests or is designed to track, although lack of liquidity in an ETF’s shares could result in the market price of the ETF’s shares being more volatile than its underlying portfolio securities. Disruptions in the markets for the securities underlying ETFs could result in losses on the investments in ETFs. ETFs also have management fees and transaction costs that may make them more expensive than owning the underlying securities directly.

Liquidity and Valuation Risk: The Portfolio’s investments may be illiquid at the time of purchase or liquid at the time of purchase and subsequently become illiquid due to, among other things, events relating to the issuer of the securities, market events, operational issues, economic conditions, investor perceptions or lack of market participants. The lack of an active trading market may make it difficult to sell or obtain an accurate price for a security. If market conditions or issuer specific developments make it difficult to value securities, the Portfolio may value these securities using more subjective methods, such as fair value pricing. In such cases, the value determined for a security could be different than the value realized upon such security's sale. As a result, an investor could pay more than the market value when buying shares or receive less than the market value when selling shares. This could affect the proceeds of any redemption or the number of shares an investor receives upon purchase. The Portfolio is subject to the risk that it could not meet redemption requests within the allowable time period without significant dilution of remaining investors' interests in the Portfolio. To meet redemption requests or to raise cash to pursue other investment opportunities, the Portfolio may be forced to sell securities at an unfavorable time and/or under unfavorable conditions, which may adversely affect the Portfolio’s performance.

Derivatives Risk: Derivatives are investments whose value depends on (or is derived from) the value of an underlying instrument, such as a security, asset, reference rate or index. Derivative strategies may be riskier than investing directly in the underlying instrument and often involve leverage, which may exaggerate a loss, potentially causing the Portfolio to lose more money than it originally invested and would have lost had it invested directly in the underlying instrument. For example, if the Portfolio is the seller of credit protection in a credit default swap, the Portfolio effectively adds leverage to its portfolio and is subject to the credit exposure on the full notional value of the swap. Derivatives may be difficult to sell, unwind and/or value. Derivatives may also be 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.

Futures and other derivatives may be more volatile than direct investments in the instrument underlying the contract, and may not correlate perfectly to the underlying instrument. Futures and other derivatives also may involve a small initial investment relative to the risk assumed, which could result in losses greater than if they had not been used.

Due to fluctuations in the price of the underlying instrument, the Portfolio may not be able to profitably exercise an option and may lose its entire investment in an option. To the extent that the Portfolio writes or sells an option, if the decline in the value of the underlying instrument is significantly below the exercise price in the case of a written put option or increase above the exercise price in the case of a written call option, the Portfolio could experience a substantial loss.

Forward commitments entail the risk that the instrument may be worth less when it is issued or received than the price the Portfolio agreed to pay when it made the commitment. The use of foreign currency forwards may result in currency exchange losses due to fluctuations in currency exchange rates or an imperfect correlation between portfolio holdings denominated in a particular currency and the forward contracts entered into by the Portfolio.

Swaps may be subject to counterparty credit, correlation, valuation, liquidity and leveraging risks. Swap transactions tend to shift a Portfolio's investment exposure from one type of investment to another and may entail the risk that a party will default on its payment obligations to the Portfolio. Additionally,

   
  

3


applicable regulators have adopted rules imposing certain margin requirements, including minimums on uncleared swaps, which may result in the Portfolio and its counterparties posting higher margin amounts for uncleared swaps. Certain standardized swaps are subject to mandatory central clearing and exchange trading. Central clearing, which interposes a central clearinghouse to each participant’s swap, and exchange trading are intended to reduce counterparty credit risk and increase liquidity but neither makes swap transactions risk-free.

Derivatives may also increase the expenses of the Portfolio.

Market Capitalization Risk: Investments in securities issued by small-, mid-, or large-cap companies will be subject to the risks associated with securities issued by companies of the applicable market capitalization.  Securities of small-cap and mid-cap companies may be subject to greater price volatility, significantly lower trading volumes, cyclical, static or moderate growth prospects and greater spreads between their bid and ask prices than securities of larger companies. Smaller capitalization companies frequently rely on narrower product lines and niche markets and may be more vulnerable to adverse business or market developments.  Securities issued by larger companies may have less growth potential and may not be able to attain the high growth rates of successful smaller companies, especially during strong economic periods.  In addition, larger companies may be less capable of responding quickly to competitive challenges and industry changes, including those resulting from improvements in technology, and may suffer sharper price declines as a result of earnings disappointments.  There is a risk that the securities issued by companies of a certain market capitalization may underperform the broader market at any given time.

Growth Stock Risk: If growth companies do not increase their earnings at a rate expected by investors, the market price of the stock may decline significantly, even if earnings show an absolute increase. Growth company stocks also typically lack the dividend yield that can cushion stock prices in market downturns. These risks may be more pronounced in companies that are in the earlier stages of their growth cycle.

Regulatory Risk: The Portfolio as well as the issuers of the securities and other instruments in which the Portfolio invests are subject to considerable regulation and the risks associated with adverse changes in laws and regulations governing their operations.

Geographic Focus Risk: Issuers that operate in a single country, a small number of countries, or a particular geographic region can be affected similarly by the market, currency, political, economic, regulatory, geopolitical and other conditions in such country or region, and the Portfolio’s performance will be affected by the conditions, in the countries or regions to which the Portfolio is exposed. To the extent the Portfolio focuses its investments in a particular country or region, such as mainland China, Hong Kong or Taiwan, its performance will be more susceptible to adverse developments in such country or region than a more geographically diversified fund.

Currency Risk: Changes in the value of foreign (non-U.S.) currencies relative to the U.S. dollar may adversely affect investments in foreign currencies or in securities that trade in, and receive revenues in, or in derivatives that provide exposure to, foreign currencies. These changes in value can make the return on an investment go up or down, entirely apart from the quality or performance of the investment itself.

The Subadvisor may seek to reduce currency risk by hedging all or part of the exposure to various foreign currencies by engaging in hedging transactions, including swaps, futures, forward currency contracts and other derivatives. The Subadvisor may from time to time attempt to hedge all or a portion of the perceived currency risk by engaging in similar hedging transactions. However, these transactions and techniques may not always work as intended, and in certain cases the Portfolio may be worse off than if it had not engaged in such hedging practices. In addition, certain market conditions may make it impossible or uneconomical to hedge against currency risk.

Past Performance

The following bar chart and table provide some indication of the risks of investing in the Portfolio by showing changes in the Portfolio’s performance from year to year and by showing how the Portfolio’s average annual returns compare with those of a broad measure of market performance over time. Separate variable annuity and variable universal life insurance account and policy fees and charges are not reflected in the bar chart and table. If they were, returns would be less than those shown. The Portfolio has selected the MSCI Emerging Markets Index (Net), which represents a broad measure of market performance, and is generally representative of the market sectors or types of investments in which the Portfolio invests.

Index returns reflect no deductions for fees, expenses or taxes, except for foreign withholding taxes where applicable.

Performance data for the classes varies based on differences in their fee and expense structures. Past performance is not necessarily an indication of how the Portfolio will perform in the future. Effective January 13, 2015, the Portfolio changed its subadvisors and revised its principal investment strategies. The performance in the bar chart and table prior to that date reflects the Portfolio’s prior subadvisors and principal investment strategies.

In addition, one of the Portfolio's subadvisors changed effective January 1, 2018 due to an organizational restructuring whereby all investment personnel of Cornerstone Capital Management Holdings LLC, the former subadvisor, transitioned to MacKay Shields LLC.

Effective May 1, 2021, the Portfolio replaced one of its subadvisors and modified its principal investment strategies. The past performance in the bar chart and table prior to that date reflects the Portfolio's prior subadvisor and principal investment strategies.

   

4

  


Annual Returns, Initial Class Shares
(by calendar year 2014-2023)

PerformanceBarChartData(2014:-11.97,2015:-16.2,2016:6.23,2017:43.12,2018:-20.55,2019:20.08,2020:25.71,2021:-2,2022:-28.72,2023:7.25)

   

Best Quarter

 

2020, Q2

22.39

%

Worst Quarter

 

2020, Q1

-23.24

%

Average Annual Total Returns (for the periods ended December 31, 2023)

          

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Inception

 

       1 Year

5 Years

10 Years

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Initial Class

2/17/2012

 

7.25

%

2.49

%

0.08

%

 

Service Class

2/17/2012

 

6.98

%

2.24

%

-0.17

%

 

MSCI Emerging Markets Index (Net)1

9.83

%

3.69

%

2.66

%

 

1.  The MSCI Emerging Markets Index (Net) is a free float-adjusted market capitalization index that is designed to measure equity market performance in the global emerging markets.

Management

New York Life Investment Management LLC serves as the Manager. Candriam serves as the Subadvisor. The individuals listed below are jointly and primarily responsible for day-to-day portfolio management.

   

Subadvisor

Portfolio Managers

Service Date

   

Candriam

Paulo Salazar, Head of Emerging Markets Equities

Since 2021

 

Philip Screve, Senior Fund Manager

Since 2015

 

Lamine Saidi, Senior Fund Manager

Since 2015

How to Purchase and Sell Shares

Shares of the Portfolio are currently offered to certain separate accounts to fund variable annuity policies and variable universal life insurance policies issued by New York Life Insurance and Annuity Corporation ("NYLIAC") and may also be offered to fund variable annuity policies and variable universal life insurance policies issued by other insurance companies. Shares of the Portfolio are also offered as underlying investments of the New York Life Investments VP Asset Allocation Portfolios ("Asset Allocation Portfolios") and other variable insurance funds.

Individual investors do not transact directly with the Portfolio to purchase and redeem shares. Rather, investors select underlying investment options offered by the applicable policy. Please refer to the prospectus for the variable annuity policy or variable universal life insurance policy that offers the Portfolio as an underlying investment option for information on the allocation of premium payments and on transfers among the investment divisions of the separate account.

Tax Information

Because the Portfolio's shareholders are the separate accounts of NYLIAC or other insurance companies through which you purchased your variable annuity policy or variable universal life insurance policy and the Asset Allocation Portfolios and other variable insurance funds, no discussion is included here as to the federal income tax consequences at the shareholder level. For information concerning the federal income tax consequences to variable annuity and variable universal life insurance policy owners, consult the prospectus relating to the appropriate policy.

   
  

5


Compensation to Broker/Dealers and Other Financial Intermediaries

The Portfolio and/or its related companies may pay NYLIAC or other participating insurance companies, broker/dealers, or other financial intermediaries for the sale of Portfolio shares and related services. These payments may create a conflict of interest by influencing the broker/dealer or other financial intermediary or your sales person to recommend the Portfolio over another investment and/or a policy that offers this Portfolio over another investment. Ask your individual salesperson or visit your broker/dealer’s or other financial intermediary firm’s website for more information. For additional information about these payments, please see the section entitled "The Trust and its Management" in the Prospectus.

“New York Life Investments” is both a service mark, and the common trade name, of certain investment advisors affiliated with New York Life Insurance Company.

   

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