VA/L Subaccounts: Data Definitions: Total Returns

 Growth of $10,000 Graph

The Growth of $10,000 graph shows a subaccount's performance based on how $10,000 invested in the subaccount would have grown over time. The returns used in the graph are not load-adjusted. The growth of $10,000 begins at the date of the subaccount's inception, or the first year listed on the graph, whichever is appropriate.

Located alongside the subaccount's graph line is a line that represents the growth of $10,000 in either the S&P 500 index (for stock subaccounts and hybrid subaccounts) or the Barclays Aggregate index (for bond subaccounts). The third line represents the subaccount's Morningstar category (see definition on Snapshot screen). These lines allow investors to compare the performance of the subaccount with the performance of a benchmark index and the subaccount's Morningstar category.

Both lines are plotted on a logarithmic scale, so that identical percentage changes in the value of an investment have the same vertical distance on the graph.

 

 Calendar-Year Total Returns

Total returns calculated on a calendar-year basis. Total return includes both income (in the form of dividends or interest payments) and capital gains or losses (the increase or decrease in the value of a security). Morningstar calculates total return by taking the change in a subaccount's AUV, assuming the reinvestment of all income and capital gains distributions (on the actual reinvestment date used by the subaccount) during the period, and then dividing by the initial AUV.

Unless marked as load-adjusted total returns, Morningstar does not adjust total return for sales charges or for redemption fees. Total returns do account for management, administrative, and 12b-1 fees and other costs automatically deducted from subaccount assets.

 

Trailing Total Returns

All references to total return represent a subaccount's gains over a specified period of time. Total return includes both income (in the form of dividends or interest payments) and capital gains or losses (the increase or decrease in the value of a security). Morningstar calculates total return by taking the change in a subaccount's AUV, assuming the reinvestment of all income and capital gains distributions (on the actual reinvestment date used by the subaccount) during the period, and then dividing by the initial AUV.

Morningstar does not adjust total returns for sales charges, contract charges, or surrender fees. (However, the standardized returns that Morningstar provides do incorporate those fees.) Total returns do account for costs automatically deducted from subaccount-level expenses, including M&E risk charges, and underlying fund-level expenses.