Goldman Sachs Trend Driven Allocation

Objective And Strategy

Objective
Total return while seeking to provide volatility management.

Strategy
The Fund will continue to have exposure to a broad spectrum of asset classes and geographic regions by investing in equity and fixed income securities of U.S. and non-U.S. issuers, pooled investment vehicles and certain types of derivatives. However, rather than passively investing in such instruments in order to seek to track an index, the Fund will employ active investment management techniques, which may involve buying and selling securities and other instruments potentially based upon analysis of economic and market factors. In addition, the Fund will seek to manage volatility and limit losses by allocating the assets away from risky investments in distressed market environments.

Principal Risks

* This portfolio is non-diversified, with the potential to invest a greater portion of its assets in a limited number of companies. Consequently, this portfolio may have more risk as changes in the value of a single security may have a more significant effect on the portfolio's net asset value.

* 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.

* This portfolio can leverage or use leveraged instruments or derivatives. Portfolios that use leverage, that is, borrow money, are subject to the risk that the cost of borrowing money to leverage will exceed the returns for the securities purchased or that the securities purchased may actually go down in value. Thus, the portfolio's net asset value can decrease more quickly than if the portfolio had not borrowed. Portfolios that use leveraged instruments or derivatives such as futures, options and swap agreements, may expose the portfolio to additional risks that it would not be subject to if it invested directly in the securities underlying those derivatives. The more a portfolio invests in leveraged instruments, the more the leverage will magnify any gains or losses on those investments.

* 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.

* Generally, a security is liquid if the Portfolio is able to sell the security at a fair price within a reasonable time. Liquidity is generally related to the market trading volume for a particular security.

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