Putnam Diversified Income

Objective And Strategy

Objective
As high a level of current income as Putnam Investment Management, LLC believes is consistent with preservation of capital.

Strategy
Invest mainly in bonds that are securitized debt instruments (such as mortgage-backed investments) and other obligations of companies and governments worldwide, are either investment-grade or below investment-grade (sometimes referred to as "junk bonds") and have intermediate- to long-term maturities (three years or longer).
Tax Inefficient Fund

Principal Risks

* This portfolio invests in securities of foreign issuers which involves risks not typically associated with domestic issuers, including currency fluctuations and the possibility of political and economic instability. Emerging markets involve risks in addition to those generally associated with foreign securities, because political and economic structures in many emerging markets may be undergoing significant evolution and rapid development.

* The value of your investment in a Fund is based on the net asset value ("NAV") of the underlying funds and, in turn, the securities that the underlying funds hold. The Funds are subject to the risk that one or more underlying funds will not perform as expected or will underperform other similar funds or that the combination of underlying funds selected by the Funds' investment will not perform as expected. The Funds will be exposed to all of the risk of an investment in the underlying Funds.

* Fixed income securities are subject to interest rate risk because the prices of fixed income securities tend to move in the opposite direction of interest rates. When interest rates rise, fixed income security prices fall. When interest rates fall, fixed income security prices rise.

* Credit risk is the risk that the issuer of a security may be unable to make interest payments and/or repay principal when due. A downgrade to an issuer's credit rating or a perceived change in an issuer's financial strength may affect a security's value, and thus, impact the VA Short-Term Fixed Portfolio's performance.