Pioneer Bond Fund

Objective And Strategy

Objective
Current income.

Strategy
The Fund seeks current income by investing primarily in an investment-grade portfolio, consistent with capital preservation and prudent investment risk, to help provide a steady stream of dividend income to meet immediate and long-term needs and, potentially, to diversify an investor's overall holdings.
Tax Inefficient Fund

Principal Risks

* Fund of Funds Risks. The Portfolio is a "Fund of Funds" that invests in Underlying ETFs, which are typically open-end investment companies or unit investment trusts. By investing in securities of an Underlying ETF, the Portfolio shareholders will indirectly bear its proportionate share of any fees and expenses of the Underlying ETF in addition to the Portfolio's own fees and expenses. As a result, your cost of investing will be higher than the cost of investing directly in the Underlying ETFs and may be higher than mutual funds that invest directly in stocks and bonds. Also, the Fund may be prevented from fully allocating assets to a particular Underlying ETF due to fund-of funds investment limitations.

* 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.

* During periods of declining interest rates, the issuer of a security may exercise its option to prepay principal earlier than scheduled, forcing the portfolio to reinvest in lower yielding securities.

* Mortgage-backed securities may be affected by, among other things, changes or perceived changes in interest rates, factors concerning the interests in and structure of the issuer or the originator of the mortgage, or the quality of the underlying assets. The underlying assets may default or decline in quality or value.

* Bonds guaranteed by a government are subject to inflation risk and price depreciation risk.

* The risk that a preferred stock will decline in price, or fail to pay dividends when expected, because the issuer experiences a decline in its financial status, or that such stock may be illiquid.

* The risk that high yield securities and unrated securities of similar credit quality (commonly known as "junk bonds") are subject to greater levels of credit and liquidity risks. High yield securities are considered primarily speculative with respect to the issuer's continuing ability to make principal and interest payments.

* Rising interest rates will generally cause the prices of bonds and other debt securities to fall. Longer maturity debt securities may be subject to greater price fluctuations than shorter maturity debt securities. In addition, falling interest rates may cause an issuer to redeem, call or refinance a debt security before its stated maturity, which may result in the fund having to reinvest the process in lower yielding securities.

* The Fund's investments in asset classes that the portfolio managers expect to perform differently from equity and fixed-income investments may be volatile or illiquid, particularly during periods of market instability, and they may not provide the expected returns.

* A floating rate loan may not be fully collateralized which may cause the floating rate loan to decline significantly in value.

* Floating rate loans generally are subject to restrictions on resale. Floating rate loans sometimes trade infrequently in the secondary market. As a result, valuing a floating rate loan can be more difficult, and buying and selling a floating rate loan at an acceptable price can be more difficult or delayed, including extended trade settlement periods. Difficulty in selling a floating rate loan can result in a loss.