Virtus Rampart Enhanced Core Equity Series

Virtus Rampart Enhanced Core Equity Series

Investment Objective

The Series has investment objectives of capital appreciation and current income.

Fees and Expenses

The following table describes the fees and expenses you may pay if you buy and hold shares of the Virtus Rampart Enhanced Core Equity 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 Rampart Enhanced Core Equity Series Class A
Shareholder Fees	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 Rampart Enhanced Core Equity Series Class A
Management Fees	0.70%
Distribution and/or Service (12b-1) Fees	0.25%
Other Expenses	0.24%
Acquired Fund Fees and Expenses	0.02%
Total Annual Series Operating Expenses	1.21%	[1]
Less: Expense Reimbursement	(0.21%)	[2]
Total Annual Series Operating Expenses After Expense Reimbursement	1.00%	[1],[2]

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	1 Year	3 Years	5 Years	10 Years
Virtus Rampart Enhanced Core Equity Series | Class A | USD ($)	102	363	645	1,447

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 241% of the average value of its portfolio.

Principal Investment Strategies

The Series seeks to achieve its investment objectives by investing in ETFs, and/or securities representing the following sectors of the S&P 500® Index: consumer discretionary, consumer staples, energy, financials, healthcare, industrials, materials, technology, and utilities. The Series will also invest in exchange-traded funds ("ETFs") representing market segments that include low volatility and high beta securities. Allocations are based on a proprietary rules-based momentum model that looks to overweight those sectors and market segments that experienced stronger recent relative performance.

An options strategy is employed for the purpose of seeking to generate additional income. The strategy utilizes index-based, out-of-the-money put and call credit spreads. The strategy is driven by implied volatility, as measured by the CBOE Volatility Index® (VIX®), and seeks to exploit pricing inefficiencies in the S&P 500® Index.

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 subadviser 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:

>     Derivatives Risk.  The risk that the Series will incur a loss greater than the Series' investment in, or will experience greater share price volatility as a result of investing in, a derivative contract. Derivatives may include, among other things, futures, options, forwards and swap agreements and may be used in order to hedge portfolio risks, create leverage, or to attempt to increase returns.

>     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.

>     Exchange-Traded Funds (ETFs) Risk.  The risk that the value of an ETF will be more volatile than the underlying portfolio of securities the ETF is designed to track, or that the costs to the Series of owning shares of the ETF will exceed those the Series would incur by investing in such securities directly.

>     Fund of Funds Risk.  The risk that the Series' performance will be adversely affected by the assets owned by the other mutual funds in which it invests, and that the layering of expenses associated with the Series' investment in such other funds will cost shareholders more than direct investments would have cost.

>     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.

>     Sector Focused Investing Risk.  The risk that events negatively affecting a particular market sector in which the Series focuses its investments will cause the value of the Series' shares to decrease, perhaps significantly.

Performance

The following bar chart and table provide some indication of the risks of investing in the Series. The bar chart shows changes in the Series’ performance from year to year over a 10-year period. The table shows how the Series’ average annual returns compare to those of a broad-based securities 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 Returns for Class A Shares

Annual Return (%)

Best Quarter: 2Q/2009: 17.78% Worst Quarter:​ 4Q/2008: -20.13% Year to date (3/31/17):​ 5.10%

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

Average Annual Total Returns - Virtus Rampart Enhanced Core Equity Series	Label	1 Year	5 Years	10 Years
Class A	Class A	9.41%	10.58%	4.63%
S&P 500® Index (does not reflect fees or expenses)	S&P 500® Index (does not reflect fees or expenses)	11.96%	14.66%	6.95%

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 0.98% 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.