DWS Global Income Builder VIP

DWS Global Income Builder VIP

Investment Objective

The fund seeks to maximize income while maintaining prospects for capital appreciation.

Fees and Expenses of the Fund

This table describes the fees and expenses you may pay if you buy and hold shares of the fund. This information does not reflect fees associated with the separate account that invests in the fund or any variable life insurance policy or variable annuity contract for which the fund is an investment option. These fees will increase expenses.

SHAREHOLDER FEES

(paid directly from your investment)

Shareholder Fees (USD $)	DWS Global Income Builder VIP Class A
SHAREHOLDER FEES (paid directly from your investment)	none

ANNUAL FUND OPERATING EXPENSES (expenses that you pay each year as a % of the value of your investment)

Annual Fund Operating Expenses	DWS Global Income Builder VIP Class A
Management fee	0.37%
Distribution/service (12b-1) fees	none
Other expenses	0.23%
Total annual fund operating expenses	0.60%

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 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 and that the fund's operating expenses remain the same. This example does not reflect any fees or sales charges imposed by a variable contract for which the fund is an investment option. If they were included, your costs would be higher.

Although your actual costs may be higher or lower, based on these assumptions your costs would be:

Expense Example (USD $)	1 Year	3 Years	5 Years	10 Years
DWS Global Income Builder VIP Class A	61	192	335	750

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 may indicate higher transaction costs. These costs are not reflected in annual fund operating expenses or in the expense example, but can affect the fund's performance.

Portfolio turnover rate for fiscal year 2013: 182%.

Principal Investment Strategy

Main investments. The fund invests in a broad range of both traditional asset classes (such as equity and fixed income investments) and alternative asset classes (such as real estate, infrastructure, convertibles, commodities, currencies and absolute return strategies). The fund can buy many types of securities, among them common stocks, including dividend-paying stocks, convertible securities, corporate bonds, government bonds, municipal securities, inflation-indexed bonds, mortgage- and asset-backed securities and exchange-traded funds (ETFs). The fund can invest in securities of any size, investment style category, or credit quality, and from any country (including emerging markets). The fund will generally invest in at least three different countries and will normally have investment exposure to foreign securities, foreign currencies and other foreign investments equal to at least 40% of the fund's net assets. The fund invests at least 25% of net assets in fixed income senior securities.

Management process. Portfolio management allocates the fund's assets among various asset categories. Portfolio management periodically reviews the fund's allocations and may adjust them based on current or anticipated market conditions or to manage risk consistent with the fund's overall investment strategy. Within each asset category, portfolio management uses one or more investment strategies for selecting equity and debt securities. Each investment strategy is managed by a team that specializes in a particular asset category, and that may use a variety of quantitative and qualitative techniques.

Derivatives. Portfolio management generally may use futures contracts, options on interest rate swaps, options on interest rate futures or interest rate swaps, which are types of derivatives (a contract whose value is based on, for example, indices, currencies or securities), for duration management (i.e., reducing or increasing the sensitivity of the fund's portfolio to interest rate changes) or for non-hedging purposes to seek to enhance potential gains. Portfolio management may also use (i) option contracts in order to gain exposure to a particular market or security, to seek to increase the fund's income, or to hedge against changes in a particular market or security, (ii) total return swap transactions to seek to enhance potential gains by increasing or reducing the fund's exposure to a particular sector or market, or (iii) credit default swaps to seek to increase the fund's income, to gain exposure to a bond issuer's credit quality characteristics without directly investing in the bond or to hedge the risk of default on bonds held in the fund's portfolio. In addition, portfolio management generally may use forward currency contracts (i) to hedge its exposure to changes in foreign currency exchange rates on its foreign currency denominated portfolio holdings; (ii) to facilitate transactions in foreign currency denominated securities; or (iii) for non-hedging purposes to seek to enhance potential gains.

The fund may also use various types of derivatives (i) for hedging purposes; (ii) for risk management; (iii) for non-hedging purposes to seek to enhance potential gains; or (iv) as a substitute for direct investment in a particular asset class or to keep cash on hand to meet shareholder redemptions.

Securities Lending. The fund may lend securities (up to one-third of total assets) to approved institutions.

Active Trading. The fund may trade actively. This could raise transaction costs (thus lowering returns).

Main Risks

There are several risk factors that could hurt the fund's performance, cause you to lose money or cause the fund's performance to trail that of other investments. The fund may not achieve its investment objective, and is not intended to be a complete investment program. 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 governmental agency.

Asset allocation risk. Portfolio management may favor one or more types of investments or assets that underperform other investments, assets, or securities markets as a whole. Anytime portfolio management buys or sells securities in order to adjust the fund's asset allocation this will increase portfolio turnover and generate transaction costs.

Stock market risk. When stock prices fall, you should expect the value of your investment to fall as well. Stock prices can be hurt by poor management on the part of the stock's issuer, shrinking product demand and other business risks. These may affect single companies as well as groups of companies. In addition, movements in financial markets may adversely affect a stock's price, regardless of how well the company performs. To the extent that the fund invests in a particular geographic region or market sector, performance will be affected by that region's general performance.

Small company risk. Small company stocks tend to be more volatile than medium-sized or large company stocks. Because stock analysts are less likely to follow small companies, less information about them is available to investors. Industry-wide reversals may have a greater impact on small companies, since they may lack the financial resources of larger companies. Small company stocks are typically less liquid than large company stocks.

Dividend-paying stock risk. As a category, dividend-paying stocks may underperform non-dividend paying stocks (and the stock market as a whole) over any period of time. In addition, issuers of dividend-paying stocks may have discretion to defer or stop paying dividends for a stated period of time. If the dividend-paying stocks held by the fund reduce or stop paying dividends, the fund's ability to generate income may be adversely affected.

Foreign investment risk. The fund faces the risks inherent in foreign investing. Adverse political, economic or social developments could undermine the value of the fund's investments or prevent the fund from realizing the full value of its investments. Financial reporting standards for companies based in foreign markets differ from those in the US. Additionally, foreign securities markets generally are smaller and less liquid than US markets. To the extent that the fund invests in non-US dollar denominated foreign securities, changes in currency exchange rates may affect the US dollar value of foreign securities or the income or gain received on these securities.

Emerging markets risk. Foreign investment risks are greater in emerging markets than in developed markets. Investments in emerging markets are often considered speculative.

Regional focus risk. Focusing investments in a single country or few countries, or regions, involves increased currency, political, regulatory and other risks. Market swings in such a targeted country, countries or regions are likely to have a greater effect on fund performance than they would in a more geographically diversified fund.

Derivatives risk. Risks associated with derivatives include the risk that the derivative is not well correlated with the security, index or currency to which it relates; the risk that derivatives may result in losses or missed opportunities; the risk that the fund will be unable to sell the derivative because of an illiquid secondary market; the risk that a counterparty is unwilling or unable to meet its obligation; and the risk that the derivative transaction could expose the fund to the effects of leverage, which could increase the fund's exposure to the market and magnify potential losses.

Currency strategies risk. The success of the currency strategies depends, in part, on the effectiveness and implementation of portfolio management's proprietary strategies. If portfolio management's analysis proves to be incorrect, losses to the fund may be significant and may substantially exceed the intended level of market exposure for the currency strategies.

As part of the currency strategies, the fund will have substantial exposure to the risks of non-US currency markets. Foreign currency rates may fluctuate significantly over short periods of time for a number of reasons, including changes in interest rates and economic or political developments in the US or abroad. As a result, the fund's exposure to foreign currencies could cause lower returns or even losses to the fund. Although portfolio management seeks to limit these risks through the aggregation of various long and short positions, there can be no assurance that it will be able to do so.

Counterparty risk. A financial institution or other counterparty with whom the fund does business, or that underwrites, distributes or guarantees any investments or contracts that the fund owns or is otherwise exposed to, may decline in financial health and become unable to honor its commitments. This could cause losses for the fund or could delay the return or delivery of collateral or other assets to the fund.

Credit risk. The fund's performance could be hurt if an issuer of a debt security suffers an adverse change in financial condition that results in a payment default, security downgrade or inability to meet a financial obligation. Credit risk is greater for lower-rated securities.

Because the issuers of high-yield debt securities or junk bonds (debt securities rated below the fourth highest credit rating category) may be in uncertain financial health, the prices of their debt securities can be more vulnerable to bad economic news, or even the expectation of bad news, than investment-grade debt securities. High-yield debt securities are considered speculative, and credit risk for high-yield securities is greater than for higher-rated securities.

Interest rate risk. When interest rates rise, prices of debt securities generally decline. The longer the duration of the fund's debt securities, the more sensitive it will be to interest rate changes. (As a general rule, a 1% rise in interest rates means a 1% fall in value for every year of duration.)

Inflation-indexed bond risk. Any rise in interest rates may cause inflation-indexed bonds to decline in price, hurting fund performance. If interest rates rise due to reasons other than inflation, the fund's investment in these securities may not be fully protected from the effects of rising interest rates. The performance of any bonds that are indexed to non-US rates of inflation may be higher or lower than those indexed to US inflation rates. The fund's actual returns could fail to match the real rate of inflation.

Prepayment and extension risk. When interest rates fall, issuers of high interest debt obligations may pay off the debts earlier than expected (prepayment risk), and the fund may have to reinvest the proceeds at lower yields. When interest rates rise, issuers of lower interest debt obligations may pay off the debts later than expected (extension risk), thus keeping the fund's assets tied up in lower interest debt obligations. Ultimately, any unexpected behavior in interest rates could increase the volatility of the fund's share price and yield and could hurt fund performance.

Municipal securities risk. The fund will be impacted by events in the municipal securities market. Negative events, such as severe fiscal difficulties, bankruptcy of one or more issuers, an economic downturn, unfavorable legislation, court rulings or political developments, or reduced monetary support from the federal government could hurt fund performance.

ETF risk. Because ETFs trade on a securities exchange, their shares may trade at a premium or discount to their net asset value. An ETF is subject to the risks of the assets in which it invests as well as those of the investment strategy it follows. The fund incurs brokerage costs when it buys and sells shares of an ETF and also bears its proportionate share of the ETF's fees and expenses, which are passed through to ETF shareholders.

Securities lending risk. Any decline in the value of a portfolio security that occurs while the security is out on loan is borne by the fund and will adversely affect performance. Also, there may be delays in recovery of securities loaned or even a loss of rights in the collateral should the borrower of the securities fail financially while holding the security.

Commodities-related investments risk. The commodities-linked derivative instruments in which the fund invests tend to be more volatile than many other types of securities and may subject the fund to special risks that do not apply to all derivatives transactions.

Infrastructure-related companies risk. Infrastructure-related companies can be affected by various factors, including general or local economic conditions and political developments, changes in regulations, environmental problems, casualty losses, and changes in interest rates.

Real estate securities risk. The value of real estate securities in general, and REITs in particular, are subject to the same risks as direct investments and will depend on the value of the underlying properties or the underlying loans or interest. The value of these securities will rise and fall in response to many factors, including economic conditions, the demand for rental property and interest rates. In particular, the value of these securities may decline when interest rates rise and will also be affected by the real estate market and by the management of the underlying properties. REITs may be more volatile and/or more illiquid than other types of equity securities.

Security selection risk. The securities in the fund's portfolio may decline in value. Portfolio management could be wrong in its analysis of industries, companies, economic trends, the relative attractiveness of different securities or other matters.

Focus risk. To the extent that the fund focuses its investments in particular industries, asset classes or sectors of the economy, any market price movements, regulatory or technological changes, or economic conditions affecting companies in those industries, asset classes or sectors will have a significant impact on the fund's performance.

Liquidity risk. In certain situations, it may be difficult or impossible to sell an investment in an orderly fashion at an acceptable price.

Pricing risk. If market conditions make it difficult to value some investments, the fund may value these investments using more subjective methods, such as fair value pricing. In such cases, the value determined for an investment could be different than the value realized upon such investment's sale. As a result, you could pay more than the market value when buying fund shares or receive less than the market value when selling fund shares.

IPO risk. Prices of securities bought in an initial public offering (IPO) may rise and fall rapidly, often because of investor perceptions rather than economic reasons. To the extent a mutual fund is small in size, its IPO investments may have a significant impact on its performance since they may represent a larger proportion of the fund's overall portfolio as compared to the portfolio of a larger fund.

Short sale risk. If the fund sells a security short and subsequently has to buy the security back at a higher price, the fund will lose money on the transaction. Any loss will be increased by the amount of compensation, interest or dividends and transaction costs the fund must pay to a lender of the security. The amount the fund could lose on a short sale is theoretically unlimited (as compared to a long position, where the maximum loss is the amount invested). The use of short sales, which has the effect of leveraging the fund, could increase the exposure of the fund to the market, increase losses and increase the volatility of returns.

The fund may not always be able to close out a short position at a particular time or at an acceptable price. A lender may request that borrowed securities be returned to it on short notice, and the fund may have to buy the borrowed securities at an unfavorable price. If this occurs at a time that other short sellers of the same security also want to close out their positions, it is more likely that the fund will have to cover its short sale at an unfavorable price and potentially reduce or eliminate any gain, or cause a loss, as a result of the short sale.

Past Performance

How a fund's returns vary from year to year can give an idea of its risk; so can comparing fund performance to overall market performance (as measured by an appropriate market index). Past performance may not indicate future results. All performance figures below assume that dividends were reinvested. For more recent performance figures, go to dws-investments.com (the Web site does not form a part of this prospectus) or call the phone number included in this prospectus. This information doesn't reflect fees associated with the separate account that invests in the fund or any variable life insurance policy or variable annuity contract for which the fund is an investment option. These fees will reduce returns.

Prior to May 1, 2012, the fund was named DWS Balanced VIP and operated with a different objective and investment strategy. Performance would have been different if the fund's current investment strategy had been in effect.

CALENDAR YEAR TOTAL RETURNS (%) (Class A)

Best Quarter: 12.93%, Q2 2009   Worst Quarter: -15.19%, Q4 2008
Year-to-Date as of 3/31/2014: 1.58%

Average Annual Total Returns
(For periods ended 12/31/2013 expressed as a %)

Average Annual Total Returns DWS Global Income Builder VIP	Class Inception	1 Year	5 Years	10 Years
Class A	Apr. 06, 1982	16.63%	12.26%	5.24%
Russell 1000 Index (reflects no deduction for fees, expenses or taxes)		33.11%	18.59%	7.78%
Barclays U.S. Aggregate Bond Index (reflects no deduction for fees, expenses or taxes)		(2.02%)	4.44%	4.55%
S&P Target Risk Moderate Index (reflects no deduction for fees, expenses or taxes)		10.47%	8.60%	5.41%

The Advisor believes the additional Barclays U.S. Aggregate Bond Index and S&P Target Risk Moderate Index reflect typical fund asset allocations and represent the fund's overall investment process.