Virtus Equity Trend Series

Virtus Equity Trend Series

Investment Objective

The Series has an investment objective of long-term capital appreciation.

Fees and Expenses

The following table describes the fees and expenses you may pay if you buy and hold shares of the Virtus Equity Trend Series. The table does not include any fees or sales charges imposed under the variable contracts for which the Series is an investment option. If they were included, your costs would be higher.

Shareholder Fees (fees paid directly from your investment)

Shareholder Fees - Virtus Equity Trend Series	Class A	Class I
Shareholder Fees	none	none

Annual Series Operating Expenses (expenses that you pay each year as a percentage of the value of your investment.)

Annual Fund Operating Expenses - Virtus Equity Trend Series		Class A	Class I
Management Fees		1.00%	1.00%
Distribution and/or Service (12b-1) Fees		0.25%	none
Other Expenses		0.66%	0.66%
Acquired Fund Fees and Expenses		0.02%	0.02%
Total Annual Series Operating Expenses	[1]	1.93%	1.68%
Less: Expense Reimbursement	[2]	(0.21%)	(0.21%)
Total Annual Series Operating Expenses After Expense Reimbursement	[1],[2]	1.72%	1.47%

Example

This example is intended to help you compare the cost of investing in the Series with the cost of investing in other mutual funds. The example assumes that you invest $10,000 in the Series 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, that the Series’ total operating expenses remain the same and that the expense reimbursement arrangement remains in place for the contractual period. The example does not reflect variable contract fees and charges, and if it did, 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 - Virtus Equity Trend Series - USD ($)	1 Year	3 Years	5 Years	10 Years
Class A	175	586	1,022	2,237
Class I	150	509	893	1,969

Portfolio Turnover

The Series 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 Series Operating Expenses or in the Example, affect the Series’ performance. During the most recent fiscal year, the Series’ portfolio turnover rate was 187% of the average value of its portfolio.

Principal Investment Strategies

The Series utilizes a rules based investment process and may invest in securities representing the approximately 130 sub-sectors of the primary sectors of the S&P 500® Index and/or cash equivalents (high-quality short-term securities). Allocations to each sub-sector are based on quantitative models.

The Series has the flexibility to invest in any combination of the sub-sectors and high-quality short-term securities, or 100% in high-quality short-term securities. A relative strength momentum model is utilized to rank each sub-sector of the equity market. The Series will allocate to those sub-sectors that the model determines are more likely to outperform the broad market. A market risk indicator model is also used to determine whether the market is in a lower or higher level of risk based on price trends in the overall market. When the market is determined to be in a higher level of risk, a defensive cash equivalent position may be built by allocating from those sub-sectors of the market that are not exhibiting absolute positive momentum, up to 100% of Series assets.

The adviser is responsible for the day-to-day management of the Series' investments and manages the investments of the Series to conform with its investment policies as described in this prospectus.

Principal Risks

The Series may not achieve its objective(s), and it is not intended to be a complete investment program. The value of the Series' investments that supports your share value may decrease. If between the time you purchase shares and the time you sell shares the value of the Series' investments decreases, you will lose money. Investment values can decrease for a number of reasons. Conditions affecting the overall economy, specific industries or companies in which the Series invests can be worse than expected, and investments may fail to perform as the adviser expects. As a result, the value of your shares may decrease. Purchase and redemption activities by variable contract owners may impact the management of the Series and its ability to achieve its investment objective(s). The redemption by one or more large variable contract owners or groups of variable contract owners of their holdings in the Series could have an adverse impact on the remaining variable contract owners in the Series including by accelerating the realization of capital gains and increasing the Series' transaction costs. The principal risks of investing in the Series are:

>     Equity Securities Risk.  The risk that events negatively affecting issuers, industries or financial markets in which the Series invests, will impact the value of the stocks held by the Series and thus, the value of the Series' shares over short or extended periods. Investments in a particular style or in small or medium-sized companies may enhance that risk.

>     Market Volatility Risk.  The risk that the value of the securities in which the Series invests may go up or down in response to the prospects of individual issuers and/or general economic conditions. Price changes may be temporary or may last for extended periods.

>     Portfolio Turnover Risk.  The risk that the Series' principal investment strategies will result in a consistently high portfolio turnover rate. See the "Portfolio Turnover" section above for more information about the impact that portfolio turnover can have on your investment.

>     Quantitative Model Risk.  The risk that investments selected using quantitative models may perform differently from the market as a whole or from their expected performance. There can be no assurance that use of a quantitative model will enable the Series to achieve positive returns or outperform.

>     Sector Focused Investing Risk.  The risk that events negatively affecting a particular industry or market sector in which the Series focuses its investments will cause the value of the Series' shares to decrease, perhaps significantly. To the extent that the Series invests a significant portion of its portfolio in ETFs representing one or more of the primary sectors of the S&P 500® Index (such as consumer discretionary, energy, healthcare) or in an ETF representing U.S. Treasuries, the Series is more vulnerable to conditions that negatively affect such sectors as compared to a Series that is not significantly invested in such sectors.

>     Short-Term Investments Risk.  The risk that the Series' short-term investments will not provide the liquidity or protection intended or will prevent the Series from experiencing positive movements in the Series' principal investment strategies.

>     U.S. Government Securities Risk.  The risk that U.S. Government securities in the Series' portfolio will be subject to price fluctuations, or that an agency or instrumentality will default on an obligation not backed by the full faith and credit of the United States.

Performance

The following bar chart and table provide some indication of the risks of investing in the Series. The bar chart shows the Series’ performance over the life of the Series. The table shows how the Series’ average annual returns compare to those of a broad-based market index. The Series’ past performance is not necessarily an indication of how the Series will perform in the future. The Series’ returns in the chart and table do not reflect the deduction of any separate account or variable contract charges. The returns would have been less than those shown if such charges were deducted.

Calendar Year Annual Total Return for Class A Shares

Annual Return (%)

Best Quarter: 1Q/2013: 10.37% Worst Quarter:​ 3Q/2015: -4.73% Year to date (3/31/17):​ 5.32%

Average Annual Total Returns (for the periods ended 12/31/16)

Average Annual Total Returns - Virtus Equity Trend Series	Label	1 Year	5 Years	Since Inception	Inception Date
Class A	Class A	(0.97%)	5.51%	3.86%	Feb. 14, 2011
Class A | S&P 500® Index (does not reflect fees or expenses)	S&P 500® Index (does not reflect fees or expenses)			11.59%	Feb. 14, 2011
Class I	Class I	(0.70%)		1.62%	Apr. 30, 2013
Class I | S&P 500® Index (does not reflect fees or expenses)	S&P 500® Index (does not reflect fees or expenses)			11.99%	Apr. 30, 2013
S&P 500® Index (does not reflect fees or expenses)	S&P 500® Index (does not reflect fees or expenses)	11.96%	14.66%

Class I Shares have been in existence only since April30, 2013; therefore, limited performance information for Class I Shares is available to include here. However, the returns for Class I Shares for other periods would have been substantially similar to those shown for Class A Shares because Class I Shares and Class A Shares are invested in the same portfolio of securities. Class A Shares pay distribution and services (12b-1) fees and Class I Shares do not; therefore, had the Class I Shares been operational during the periods shown only for Class A Shares, investment performance for Class I Shares would have been higher than for Class A Shares.

Updated performance information is available at virtus.com or by calling 800-367-5877.

[1] The Total Annual Series Operating Expenses do not correlate to the ratio of expenses to average net assets appearing in the Financial Highlights tables, which tables reflect only the operating expenses of the Series and do not include proxy expenses or acquired fund fees and expenses.

[2] The Series' investment adviser has contractually agreed to limit the Series' total annual operating expenses (excluding certain expenses, such as front-end or contingent deferred sales charges, taxes, interest, brokerage commissions, unusual or infrequently occurring expenses (such as litigation) and acquired fund fees and expenses, if any) so that such expenses do not exceed 1.70% for Class A Shares and 1.45% for Class I Shares through April 30, 2018. Following the contractual period, the adviser may discontinue this expense reimbursement arrangement at any time. Under certain conditions, the adviser may recapture operating expenses reimbursed under this arrangement for a period of three years following the time such reimbursement occurred.