XML 29 R23.htm IDEA: XBRL DOCUMENT v3.20.1
Total
AZL Balanced Index Strategy Fund
AZL® BALANCED INDEX STRATEGY FUND
Investment Objective
The Fund seeks long-term capital appreciation with preservation of capital as an important consideration.
Fees and Expenses Fees and Expenses of the Fund
The following table describes the fees and expenses that you may pay if you buy and hold shares of the Fund. The Fund is offered only as an investment option for certain Contracts. The table below reflects only Fund expenses and does not reflect Contract fees and expenses. If Contract fees and expenses were included, the fees and expenses in the following table would be higher. Please refer to your Contract prospectus for a description of those fees and expenses.
Annual Fund Operating Expenses (expenses that you pay each year as a percentage of the value of your investment)
Annual Fund Operating Expenses
AZL Balanced Index Strategy Fund
AZL Balanced Index Strategy Fund
Management Fee 0.05%
Other Expenses 0.04%
Acquired Fund Fees and Expenses 0.61% [1]
Total Annual Fund Operating Expenses 0.70%
[1] Because Acquired Fund Fees and Expenses are not included in the Fund’s Financial Highlights, the Fund’s total annual fund operating expenses do not correlate to the ratios of expenses to average net assets shown in the Financial Highlights table.
Example
This example is intended to help you compare the cost of investing in the Fund with the cost of investing in other mutual funds. The example assumes that you invest $10,000 in the Fund for the time periods indicated. The example also assumes that your investment has a 5% return each year, that the Fund’s operating expenses remain the same, and that you reinvest all dividends and distributions. It does not reflect any Contract fees. If Contract fees were included, the costs shown would be higher. Although your actual costs may be higher or lower, based on these assumptions your costs would be:
Expense Example
1 Year
3 Years
5 Years
10 Years
AZL Balanced Index Strategy Fund | AZL Balanced Index Strategy Fund | USD ($) 72 224 390 871
Expense Example, No Redemption
1 Year
3 Years
5 Years
10 Years
AZL Balanced Index Strategy Fund | AZL Balanced Index Strategy Fund | USD ($) 72 224 390 871
Portfolio Turnover
The Fund 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 fund operating expenses or in the example, affect the Fund’s performance. During the most recent fiscal year, the Fund’s portfolio turnover rate was 5% of the average value of its portfolio.
Investments, Risks, and Performance Principal Investment Strategies of the Fund
The Fund is a fund of funds that, under normal market conditions, seeks to achieve its investment objective by investing primarily in a combination of five underlying index funds:

          FUNDTARGET ALLOCATION
  •    AZL Enhanced Bond Index Fund
50%
  •    AZL S&P 500 Index Fund
26%
  •    AZL International Index Fund
12.5%
  •    AZL Mid Cap Index Fund
7.5%
  •    AZL Small Cap Stock Index Fund
4.0%

The AZL Enhanced Bond Index Fund is a bond index fund, subadvised by BlackRock Financial Management, LLC; the other four underlying funds are equity index funds, subadvised by BlackRock Investment Management, LLC. Therefore, under normal market conditions, the Fund will allocate approximately 50% of its assets in the underlying equity index funds and approximately 50% of its assets in the underlying bond index fund. These target allocations represent the Fund’s long-term strategic asset allocation, which is not expected to change under normal market conditions.

The investment results of the underlying funds will vary. As a result, the Manager monitors the actual allocations to the underlying funds daily and periodically adjusts the actual allocations to attempt to achieve the target allocation. Generally, the Manager will seek to maintain the actual fund allocations to target using the cash flows that result from contract holders buying or selling shares in the Fund. However, if cash flows were insufficient to maintain the target allocations, the Manager would then buy or sell underlying funds as necessary to attempt to return the Fund’s actual asset allocations to the targets. Generally, the actual allocations will not be more than 10% above or below the targets.

The AZL Enhanced Bond Index Fund under normal circumstances invests in a combination of securities with an overall weighting close to the capitalization weights of the Bloomberg Barclays U.S. Aggregate Bond Index (the “Index”). Under normal market conditions, the Fund invests at least 80% of its net assets in investment-grade debt securities (those of medium and high quality) of all types and repurchase agreements for those securities. Further, under normal circumstances, the Fund invests at least 80% of the value of its net assets in securities or other financial instruments that are components of or have economic characteristics similar to the securities included in the Index.

The AZL S&P 500 Index Fund under normal circumstances invests at least 80% of the value of its net assets in the securities of or in a statistically selected sampling of the securities of companies included in the S&P 500 Index or in derivative instruments linked to that Index.

The AZL Mid Cap Index Fund under normal circumstances invests at least 80% of the value of its net assets in a statistically selected sampling of equity securities of companies included in the S&P 400 Index and in derivative instruments linked to the S&P 400 Index, primarily futures contracts.

The AZL Small Cap Stock Index Fund under normal market conditions invests at least 80% of its assets, plus any borrowings for investment purposes, in investments of small-capitalization companies, which for this purpose are companies with market capitalizations (the total market value of a company’s outstanding stock) at the time of purchase included in the S&P SmallCap 600 Index.

The AZL International Index Fund under normal circumstances invests at least 80% of the value of its net assets in a statistically selected sampling of equity securities of companies included in the MSCI EAFE Index and in derivative instruments linked to the MSCI EAFE Index, primarily futures contracts.
Principal Risks of Investing in the Fund
The price per share of the Fund will fluctuate with changes in value of the investments held by the Fund. You may lose money by investing in the Fund. An investment in the Fund is not a deposit of a bank and is not insured or guaranteed by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation or any other government agency. There is no guarantee that the Fund will achieve its objective.

The following is a summary of the principal risks to which the Fund’s portfolio as a whole is subject. If changes occur in a Fund’s portfolio holdings, the extent to which the portfolio is subject to each of these risks may also change.
  • Allocation Risk – The risk associated with the Manager’s decisions regarding how the Fund’s assets should be allocated among the various underlying funds, which could cause the Fund to underperform other funds with similar investment objectives. There can be no guarantee that investment decisions made by the Manager will produce the desired results. Further, because the Manager has limited discretion to change the underlying fund allocations under normal market conditions, the Fund might underperform comparable funds of funds for which the fund’s manager has discretion to adjust allocations to underlying funds.
  • Fund of Funds Risk – The Fund, as a shareholder of the underlying funds, indirectly bears its proportionate share of any investment management fees and other expenses of the underlying funds. Further due to the fees and expenses paid by the Fund, as well as small variations in the Fund’s actual allocations to the underlying funds and any cash held in the Fund’s portfolio, the performance and income distributions of the Fund will not be the same as the performance and income distributions of the underlying funds allocated according to the target allocations described here.
In addition, the Fund bears the investment risks of the investments of the underlying funds. The principal risks of the underlying funds are:
  • Market Risk – The market value of portfolio securities may go up or down, sometimes rapidly and unpredictably.
  • Issuer Risk – The value of a security may decline for a number of reasons directly related to the issuer of the security.
  • Index Fund Risk – The underlying funds generally do not attempt to manage market volatility or reduce the effects of poor performance. In addition, factors such as fund expenses, selection of a representative portfolio, changes in the composition of the index, or the timing of purchases or redemptions of fund shares may affect the correlation between the performance of the index and the fund’s performance.
  • Capitalization Risk – Investing in small- to mid-sized companies creates risk because smaller companies may have unpredictable or limited earnings, and their securities may be less liquid or experience more volatile prices than those of large companies.
  • Foreign Risk – Investing in the securities of non-U.S. issuers involves a number of risks, such as fluctuations in currency values, adverse political, social or economic developments, and differences in social and economic developments or policies.
  • Risks of Investing in Japan – Japan may be subject to political, economic, nuclear, and labor risks, among others. Any of these risks, individually or in the aggregate, can impact an investment made in Japan. The growth of Japan’s economy has recently lagged that of its Asian neighbors and other major developed economies. Since 2000, Japan’s economic growth rate has generally remained low relative to other advanced economies, and it may remain low in the future. The Japanese economy faces several concerns, any of which could negatively affect the value of Japanese investments.
  • Depositary Receipt Risk – Depositary receipts involve many of the same risks as those associated with direct investment in foreign securities.
  • Currency Risk – Investing in securities that trade in and receive revenues in foreign currencies creates risk because foreign currencies may decline relative to the U.S. dollar, resulting in a potential loss to the fund. In the case of hedging positions, the U.S. dollar may decline in value relative to the currency that has been hedged.
  • Interest Rate Risk – Debt securities held by the Fund may decline in value due to rising interest rates.
  • Credit Risk – The failure of the issuer of a debt security to pay interest or repay principal in a timely manner may have an adverse impact on a fund’s earnings.
  • Income Risk – Falling interest rates may cause a fund’s income to decline.
  • Call Risk – If interest rates fall, issuers of callable debt securities are more likely to prepay prior to the maturity date. A fund may not be able to reinvest the proceeds from the prepayment in investments that will generate the same level of income.
  • Extension Risk – If interest rates rise, debt securities may be paid in full more slowly than anticipated.
  • Derivatives Risk – Certain underlying funds may invest in derivative instruments, which involves risks that may be different from or greater than the risks associated with investing directly in securities or other traditional investments.
  • Leveraging Risk – Certain underlying funds may engage in certain kinds of transactions, including the use of derivatives, that may give rise to a form of leverage. The use of leverage may require a fund to liquidate a portfolio position at a disadvantageous time or may exaggerate the effect of any increase or decrease in the value of the fund’s portfolio securities.
  • Liquidity Risk – An investment that is difficult to purchase or sell may have an adverse effect on the fund’s returns.
  • Mortgage-Related and Other Asset-Backed Risk – Investing in mortgage-related or other asset-backed securities involves a variety of risks associated with the credit markets, such as rising or falling interest rates, increases in the rate of defaults or prepayments, and the quality of the pool of mortgages (subprime risk) or other assets that back the security.
  • Portfolio Turnover – Certain underlying funds may trade portfolio securities frequently, which could result in higher transaction costs and could adversely affect the fund’s performance.
  • Private Placed Securities Risk – Certain underlying funds may invest in privately placed securities, which are subject to resale restrictions.
  • Repurchase Agreements and Purchase and Sale Contracts Risk – If the other party to a repurchase agreement or purchase and sale contract defaults on its obligation under the agreement, a fund may suffer delays and incur costs or lose money in exercising its rights under the agreement. If the seller fails to repurchase the security in ether situation and the market value of the security declines, the fund may lose money.
  • Sovereign Debt Risk – Sovereign debt instruments are subject to the risk that a governmental entity may delay or refuse to pay interest or repay principal on its sovereign debt, due, for example, to cash flow problems, insufficient foreign currency reserves, political considerations, the relative size of the governmental entity’s debt position in relation to the economy or the failure to put in place economic reforms required by the International Monetary Fund or other multilateral agencies.
  • Treasury Obligations Risk – Direct obligations of the U.S. Treasury have historically involved little risk of loss of principal if held to maturity. However, due to fluctuations in interest rates, the market value of such securities may vary during the period shareholders own shares of the Fund.
  • U.S. Government Obligations Risk – Certain securities in which an underlying fund may invest, including securities issued by certain government agencies and government sponsored enterprises, are not guaranteed by the U.S. Government or supported by the full faith and credit of the United States.
  • Focused Investments Risk – Certain underlying funds may invest in a relatively small number of issuers, industries, or regions which involves added risk. Changes in the value of a single security or a single economic, political, or regulatory event may have a large impact on the value of the fund’s portfolio.
Performance Information
The following bar chart and table provide an indication of the risks of an investment in the Fund by showing changes in its performance from year to year and by showing how the Fund’s average annual returns for one year, five years and ten years compare with those of a broad-based measure of market performance, the S&P 500 Index. The Fund’s performance also is compared to the Bloomberg Barclays U.S. Aggregate Bond Index, which shows how the Fund’s performance compares with the returns of a broad index of investment-grade fixed-rate debt issues, and to a Balanced Composite Index, which shows how the Fund’s performance compares with a composite index composed of the S&P 500 Index (50%) and the Bloomberg Barclays U.S. Aggregate Bond Index (50%) in proportions similar to the equity to fixed income allocation of the Fund.

Both the bar chart and the table assume reinvestment of dividends and distributions.

The performance of the Fund will vary from year to year. The Fund’s performance does not reflect the cost of insurance and separate account charges which are imposed under your Contract. If they were included, performance would be reduced. Past performance does not indicate how the Fund will perform in the future.
Performance Bar Chart and Table Calendar Year Total Return Annual Return %
Bar Chart
Highest and Lowest Quarter Returns (for periods shown in the bar chart)

Highest (Q1, 2019)
7.59%
Lowest (Q3, 2011)
-7.07%
Average Annual Total Returns
Average Annual Total Returns - AZL Balanced Index Strategy Fund
One Year Ended December 31, 2019 Five Years Ended December 31, 2019 Ten Years Ended December 31, 2019
AZL Balanced Index Strategy Fund 17.24% 5.95% 7.16%
S&P 500 Index [1] 31.49% 11.70% 13.56%
Bloomberg Barclays U.S. Aggregate Bond Index [1] 8.72% 3.05% 3.75%
Balanced Composite Index [1] 19.82% 7.49% 8.83%
[1] Reflects no deduction for fees, expenses, or taxes.