Form 497VPI Files Dataset

The Form 497VPI Files dataset collects every EDGAR submission of Form 497VPI — the channel through which insurance-company registrants file initial summary prospectuses, updating summary prospectuses, and dated supplements (stickers) for variable annuity and variable life insurance contracts under Rule 497(k) of the Securities Act of 1933, made operative by Rule 498A. One record corresponds to one 497VPI accession and contains the registrant's filed prospectus document together with a normalized JSON metadata sidecar that exposes the EDGAR submission header and the variable-product series/class taxonomy. The legal registrant is an insurance-company separate account registered as a unit investment trust under the Investment Company Act of 1940 with an effective registration statement on Form N-4 (variable annuities) or Form N-6 (variable life), and the operational filer is the depositor insurance company that issues the contract. The dataset's earliest sample date is April 1, 2021, reflecting the Rule 498A transition period during which insurers began routinely using the new submission types. Records are distributed as monthly ZIP containers, with each container holding one accession-numbered subdirectory per filing, in HTML, JSON, and TXT file formats.

Update Frequency
Daily
Updated at
2026-05-19
Earliest Sample Date
2021-04-01
Total Size
117.8 MB
Total Records
7,155
Container Format
ZIP
Content Types
HTML, JSON, TXT
Form Types
497VPI

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Dataset Files

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What This Dataset Contains

This dataset packages every Form 497VPI submission that has appeared on EDGAR since the 497VPI channel went live. Form 497VPI is one of the variants of Form 497 introduced by the SEC in March 2020 when Rule 498A was adopted. Rule 498A established a layered disclosure framework specific to variable annuity and variable life insurance contracts: the registrant satisfies the prospectus-delivery obligation by sending an Initial Summary Prospectus (ISP) to new investors, sending an annual Updating Summary Prospectus (USP) to existing contract owners, and posting the full statutory prospectus and statement of additional information online. The 497VPI submission type is the EDGAR channel that delivers those summary prospectuses, plus dated stickers and supplements that update them between full re-filings, after the registration statement is effective.

A 497VPI filing is therefore neither a stand-alone registration statement nor a full statutory prospectus. It is a short, focused disclosure document that either (a) constitutes the layered ISP or USP for a particular contract series and share class, or (b) supplements an already-effective summary or statutory prospectus to communicate a discrete event such as a fund substitution, portfolio rename, fee change, rider availability change, or investment-policy addition. The full statutory prospectus is referenced by date in the supplement header and is filed separately on EDGAR (typically under Form N-4, N-6, or another Form 497 variant).

The dataset is organized as one ZIP container per calendar month at <year>/<year>-<month>.zip. The file types found in the dataset are HTML, JSON, and TXT. The dataset reflects only the post-adoption era — Rule 498A and the 497VPI channel did not exist before 2020, so every record in the dataset is HTML wrapped in EDGAR SGML and accompanied by JSON metadata, and that has been true from the dataset's first month onward.

Content Structure of a Single Record

What one record is

One record in the Form 497VPI Files dataset corresponds to a single EDGAR submission of Form 497VPI. On disk, a record materializes as one folder named with the 18-digit zero-padded EDGAR accession number (no dashes), nested inside a per-month ZIP container at <year>/<year>-<month>.zip. Each accession folder carries a normalized metadata.json sidecar plus the document set the registrant filed: at minimum the SGML-wrapped 497VPI primary HTML document, and where present any auxiliary text or HTML attachments. Image payloads referenced from inside the HTML (logos, charts, brand glyphs) are excluded from the dataset copy even when EDGAR lists them in the submission manifest.

A record therefore holds two distinct layers: (1) a dataset-side normalization of the EDGAR submission header expressed as JSON, and (2) the original SEC filing artifact, the SGML <DOCUMENT> envelope wrapping the styled HTML prospectus body. Read together they answer who filed, when the filing becomes effective, which separate accounts/series/share classes it covers, and what the issuer is communicating to contract owners.

Container and folder layout

After unzipping a monthly archive, the ZIP expands to a single top-level <year>-<month>/ directory containing one subdirectory per filing. Each filing directory is named with the 18-digit dashless EDGAR accession number and holds the metadata sidecar and the registrant's filed document(s). The modal record is one HTML prospectus document plus its JSON sidecar; some accessions also include ancillary TXT or HTML attachments listed by EDGAR for the same submission.

Filename conventions for the prospectus document itself are at the registrant's discretion. Three patterns dominate:

  • Filer-coded slugs ending in _497vpi.htm (for example c114446_497vpi.htm, tm2530959d1_497vpi.htm, mmtsii-efp20071_497vpi.htm).
  • Financial-printer slugs such as d13517d497vpi.htm (Donnelley) or analogous Toppan Merrill / Broadridge patterns.
  • Plain descriptive filenames such as supplement.htm or iaincomeadvsupplement.htm.

The authoritative pointer to the prospectus document is the entry in metadata.json.documentFormatFiles whose type equals "497VPI", not the filename.

The metadata.json sidecar

The sidecar is a normalized JSON projection of the EDGAR submission header. Its fields are:

  • formType — always "497VPI".
  • accessionNo — the dashed accession number (e.g. 0001193125-25-298109); the folder name is the same string with dashes removed at positions 10 and 13.
  • effectivenessDate — ISO YYYY-MM-DD date on which the supplement or summary prospectus is effective.
  • filedAt — full ISO timestamp with the Eastern-time offset (e.g. 2025-11-25T16:51:03-05:00); the correct field for intra-day chronological ordering.
  • description — short EDGAR description, often the literal "Form 497VPI -".
  • linkToFilingDetails — direct https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/... URL to the primary 497VPI document on EDGAR.
  • linkToTxt — URL to the EDGAR complete-submission .txt (the SGML wrapper for the entire submission).
  • linkToHtml — URL to the EDGAR -index.htm page for the accession.
  • linkToXbrl — empty string; 497VPI submissions do not carry XBRL.
  • documentFormatFiles — the EDGAR document manifest. Each entry has sequence, size (bytes as a string), documentUrl, type, and optionally description. The 497VPI prospectus document is the entry whose type is "497VPI". Other entries may be GRAPHIC (image attachments — these are excluded from the dataset payload) and a trailing entry whose type is a single space " " represents the complete-submission .txt file.
  • entities — array describing the filer; typically a single object with cik, companyName (suffixed with (Filer)), fileNo (the SEC file number, e.g. 333-124048), irsNo, fiscalYearEnd (MMDD), stateOfIncorporation, act (e.g. "33"), type ("497VPI"), and filmNo.
  • id — a dataset-internal 32-character hex identifier.
  • seriesAndClassesContractsInformation — the variable-product taxonomy: an array of series objects, each with a series S-number identifier, a series name, and a classesContracts array. Each class/contract object carries the classContract C-number identifier, a name, and optionally a ticker. A single 497VPI submission may cover one contract or several series with multiple share classes apiece (for example a College Retirement Equities Fund filing covering three series with four share classes each, including tickers such as QCSTRX, QCEQRX, QCSCRX); tickers are populated only when the class has one.
  • dataFiles — empty array for this form type.

The series-and-class structure is what makes 497VPI metadata distinctive among Form 497 variants. The S-number/C-number pair is the canonical join key into other SEC variable-products datasets, far more reliable than registrant CIK alone, because a single insurance company often files for many separate accounts and many contract families.

The primary 497VPI document

The non-metadata file in each folder is the prospectus filing artifact in the form EDGAR ingested it. Although the on-disk extension is .htm, the file is not naked HTML: it is the EDGAR SGML <DOCUMENT> wrapper around an HTML body, identical to what appears inside the complete-submission .txt. The wrapper carries five header tags before the renderable content:

1 <DOCUMENT>
2 <TYPE>497VPI
3 <SEQUENCE>1
4 <FILENAME>mmtsii-efp20071_497vpi.htm
5 <DESCRIPTION>MASSACHUSETTS MUTUAL VARIABLE ANNUITY SEPARATE ACCOUNT 4
6 <TEXT>
7 <HTML>
8 ... full styled supplement content ...
9 </HTML>
10 </TEXT>
11 </DOCUMENT>

<TYPE> is always 497VPI, <SEQUENCE> is always 1 for the primary document, <FILENAME> mirrors the on-disk name, and <DESCRIPTION> is optional (frequently a separate-account or contract identifier when present). The renderable HTML lives between the first <TEXT> and the last </TEXT> markers; the surrounding wrapper duplicates information already present in metadata.json.

The inner HTML is heavily inline-styled (Times New Roman / Arial) and is almost always produced by Broadridge PROfile, Donnelley Financial Solutions, or Toppan Merrill — identifiable from HTML comments such as <!-- Licensed to: Lincoln Financial Group ... Broadridge -->. Pagination is simulated with <!-- Field: Page; Sequence: N --> / <!-- Field: /Page --> markers, allowing downstream parsers to split rendered output into page-like chunks. Documents are typically 5–16 KB.

The body of the inner HTML, in the order it usually appears, contains:

  • A title block naming the registrant insurance company, the separate account, and the variable contract family (for example "MassMutual Transitions Select II", "Lincoln ChoicePlus Assurance Series", "Monument Advisor", "College Retirement Equities Fund").
  • A dated supplement header that explicitly references the parent statutory prospectus, the Initial Summary Prospectus, and/or the Updating Summary Prospectus by date — the layered-disclosure breadcrumb required by Rule 498A.
  • For full ISP/USP documents, the Rule 498A "Key Information Table" in tabular form. The table summarizes, in a fixed order: (i) the most important fees and expenses (charges for early withdrawal, transactions, ongoing expenses); (ii) the principal risks of investing in the contract (loss of principal, lack of short-term investment suitability, insurance-company risk, investment risk, contract-adjustment risk); (iii) restrictions on the contract's investment options, optional benefits, and surrender/withdrawal mechanics; (iv) the contract's tax treatment, including consequences of withdrawals; and (v) conflicts of interest applicable to investment professionals' compensation.
  • For full ISP/USP documents, an overview of the contract — its purpose, the investor profile it is designed for, and the accumulation/annuitization phases.
  • Sections describing purchase payments; transfers among investment options; withdrawals (free withdrawal amount, surrender charges, required minimum distributions); the death benefit (standard and any optional enhanced versions); optional living benefit riders (guaranteed minimum withdrawal/income/accumulation benefits); and the menu of underlying investment options (the funds available through the separate account, often shown as a table cross-referencing each fund's own summary prospectus).
  • For supplements/stickers, a short body describing the discrete change being communicated. Common patterns are fund-substitution tables (existing fund → replacement fund), portfolio name changes for the separate account's sub-accounts, fee or rider availability changes, and investment-policy additions; the supplement frequently contains a side-by-side table comparing existing vs. new state.
  • A "Please retain this supplement for future reference" footer and an internal tracking code (for example MGN-CREFPRO-1125P) used by the registrant's compliance/print operations.

Because 497VPI is the channel for both the layered ISP/USP and for inter-effectiveness supplements, the documents in the dataset span a spectrum from full summary prospectuses (longer, with the complete Key Information Table and overview) to short single-purpose stickers (a paragraph or two and one comparison table). Both share the same SGML envelope and the same metadata sidecar shape.

Included content

Each record includes the metadata.json normalization, the SGML-wrapped 497VPI HTML primary document, and any accompanying TXT or HTML attachments listed in documentFormatFiles for that accession. The HTML body retains its original inline styling, table markup, financial-printer comments, and pagination markers exactly as filed.

Excluded or separate content

  • Image attachments (GRAPHIC entries in the EDGAR manifest, typically logos and brand glyphs in JPEG or GIF form) are omitted from the dataset payload even though they are listed in documentFormatFiles. If the inner HTML carries <IMG SRC="..."> references, the referenced asset bytes are not present in the folder.
  • The complete-submission .txt (the EDGAR SGML wrapper covering the whole submission) is referenced through linkToTxt but is not redundantly bundled into the folder.
  • The full statutory prospectus and statement of additional information that the summary prospectus layers over are not part of the 497VPI submission and are therefore not part of this dataset; they are referenced by date in the supplement header and are filed separately on EDGAR (typically under Form N-4, N-6, or another Form 497 variant).

Changes in required content over time

The structural envelope of a 497VPI record has been stable since the form was introduced. Rule 498A was adopted by the SEC in March 2020, with mandatory compliance for new registrants beginning July 1, 2020 and for existing variable-contract registrants on a phased schedule that culminated July 1, 2022. The 497VPI submission channel itself appears in EDGAR filings beginning April 2021, the dataset's earliest record date.

Within that span, the regulatory content requirements have not been amended, but the population of records has shifted: early-period filings skew toward initial summary prospectuses associated with first-time Rule 498A compliance for legacy contract families, while later-period filings increasingly consist of updating summary prospectuses (annual cycle) and discrete supplements. The Key Information Table format and item ordering — fees, risks, restrictions, taxes, conflicts of interest — has been fixed since adoption; the Form N-4 and Form N-6 amendments that accompanied Rule 498A in 2020 set the required contents and continue to govern.

Interpretation and extraction notes

  • The folder name (18-digit dashless accession number) and metadata.json.accessionNo (dashed form) refer to the same submission; convert by inserting dashes at positions 10 and 13.
  • Locate the prospectus document via metadata.json.documentFormatFiles[].type === "497VPI"; do not assume a filename. The filename is filer-discretionary and varies by financial printer.
  • The HTML primary document is wrapped in an SGML <DOCUMENT> envelope. To obtain renderable HTML, slice between the first <TEXT> line and the last </TEXT> line; everything before mirrors fields already in metadata.json.
  • The series/class/contract identifiers under seriesAndClassesContractsInformation are the canonical join keys to other variable-products data on EDGAR. A single 497VPI filing can cover multiple series and many share classes; do not assume one record equals one contract.
  • effectivenessDate is date-only and is the regulatory effective date; filedAt is a full timestamp with timezone and is the correct field for chronological ordering at sub-day resolution. The two can differ — particularly for stickers filed shortly before a forward-dated effectiveness.
  • A 497VPI document may be either a full ISP/USP or a short supplement/sticker. The presence or absence of the Key Information Table is a reliable signal: ISP/USP filings include it; one-topic supplements typically do not.
  • Inline images are not delivered. If a downstream pipeline renders the HTML, broken-image placeholders are expected; this is an intentional dataset choice, not a packaging error.
  • Financial-printer HTML comments (Broadridge, Donnelley, Toppan Merrill) and the <!-- Field: Page; Sequence: N --> page-fence comments are stable hooks for chunking by visual page when needed.
  • 497VPI submissions are not amendments in the 10-K/A sense; corrections or updates are themselves separate 497VPI filings rather than tagged amendments. Cross-filing reconciliation must be done by registrant CIK, series S-number, class C-number, and effectiveness date rather than by an amendment-of pointer.

Who Files or Publishes This Dataset, and When

A Form 497VPI record is an initial summary prospectus (ISP) for a variable annuity or variable life insurance contract, filed on EDGAR under Rule 497(k) of the Securities Act of 1933 in reliance on Rule 498A. Each submission delivers the layered-disclosure ISP that satisfies the Section 5(b)(2) prospectus delivery obligation for new prospective contract purchasers.

Who files

The legal registrant is an insurance company separate account registered with the SEC as a unit investment trust under the Investment Company Act of 1940, with an effective registration statement on Form N-4 (variable annuities) or Form N-6 (variable life). The operational filer is the depositor insurance company that establishes and funds the separate account, issues the contract, and is named as depositor on the registration statement. Typical filers include large multi-line insurers, dedicated annuity and life writers, and the variable-products subsidiaries of bank- or broker-affiliated insurance groups.

The filer population is narrow. Mutual funds, closed-end funds, BDCs, ETFs, and operating companies do not use 497VPI. Within insurance products, only variable contracts whose separate accounts are registered investment companies appear here; fixed annuities, non-registered indexed annuities, and general-account products are outside the regime. Underlying portfolio companies offered as investment options are separate Form N-1A registrants and are not the filer of the 497VPI, though they are referenced inside the document.

When the record is triggered

A 497VPI is filed whenever the depositor needs to place on EDGAR, or refresh, the ISP used for new contract sales. Common triggers:

  • Annual post-effective amendment. When an N-4 or N-6 post-effective amendment under Rule 485(a) or Rule 485(b) becomes effective, an updated ISP is filed to align with the newly effective statutory prospectus.
  • Stickers and supplements. A material mid-year change to the contract or disclosures produces a supplement and a corresponding ISP update.
  • Underlying fund substitutions. A Section 26(c) substitution changes the contract's investment menu and triggers a refresh of the ISP's appendix of portfolio companies.
  • Fee or charge changes. Updates to mortality and expense charges, administrative fees, surrender charges, or optional rider fees shown in the Key Information Table prompt a new ISP.
  • New contract launches. A new variable contract's ISP is filed immediately after the registration statement becomes effective so layered delivery can be used from first sale.

Timing

Rule 497(k) requires the summary prospectus to be filed no later than the date of first use. In practice, the 497VPI is filed on or shortly after the related post-effective amendment becomes effective. Cadence tracks the N-4/N-6 cycle: typically one annual ISP per contract following the 485(b) amendment, plus interim filings for stickers, substitutions, or fee changes. Use of Rule 498A is voluntary, so a 497VPI filing also signals that the registrant has elected the layered-disclosure regime for that contract.

The April 2021 earliest-sample date reflects the Rule 498A transition period; insurers began routinely using the new submission types as they completed their first annual updates under the new regime.

Important distinctions

  • 497VPI vs. 497VPU. 497VPI is the initial summary prospectus for prospective purchasers. Form 497VPU is the updating summary prospectus delivered to existing contract owners for the annual update obligation. Registrants often file both, but they are separate submission types with different audiences.
  • 497VPI vs. 497K. Form 497K is the mutual fund summary prospectus submission type under Rule 498 for N-1A registrants. The underlying disclosure regime, registrant type, and required content differ from Rule 498A.
  • 497VPI vs. plain 497. A bare 497 transmits a definitive prospectus or supplement under Rule 497 generally. The VPI suffix is reserved for documents meeting Rule 498A's ISP content and format requirements; a non-498A sticker or supplement uses unsuffixed 497 (or 497J).
  • Registrant vs. depositor. The EDGAR CIK identifies the separate account, but the contract is issued and guaranteed by the depositor insurer. Both are typically named on the cover.
  • Out of scope. Non-U.S. variable contracts sold to non-U.S. customers, and fixed or general-account products not registered as securities, generate no 497VPI records. Registered index-linked annuities (RILAs) registering on Form N-4 after the SEC's 2024 amendments may use Rule 498A, gradually expanding the 497VPI population.
  • Corrections. Because 497(k) filings are not registration statements, corrections are made by filing a fresh 497VPI rather than an amendment; each appears as a new accession number.

How This Dataset Differs From Similar Datasets or Filings

Form 497VPI sits in a tight cluster of variable insurance product filings created or restructured by Rule 498A in 2020. The most useful comparisons are the sibling 497-series filings, the underlying N-4 / N-6 registration statements, and the 485-series post-effective amendments that carry the full statutory prospectus a 497VPI summarizes.

Form 497VPU — Updating Summary Prospectus for Variable Products

The closest neighbor. Same rule (497(k)), same Rule 498A framework, same summary-prospectus structure. The difference is audience and lifecycle position: 497VPI is the initial summary delivered to prospective buyers; 497VPU is the annual updating summary delivered to existing contract owners and emphasizes year-over-year changes. To track a contract across its life, both datasets are required.

Forms N-4 and N-6 — Registration Statements for Variable Contracts

These are the authoritative source documents. N-4 (variable annuity separate accounts) and N-6 (variable life separate accounts) carry the full statutory prospectus, SAI, financial statements, and exhibits that 497VPI condenses. Anything not in the key-information table — full risk factor language, fund-by-fund expense detail, financial statements — must be pulled from the most recent effective N-4 / N-6.

Forms 485APOS and 485BPOS — Post-Effective Amendments

The mechanism for updating N-4 and N-6 registrations. Form 485BPOS (immediately effective) and Form 485APOS (subject to review) carry the full revised statutory prospectus; the matching 497VPI is filed afterward with the summary version. To audit what actually changed in a contract year over year, the 485-series amendment is more informative than 497VPI.

Form 497 — Generic Definitive Materials Under Rule 497

The longstanding catch-all for definitive prospectuses, supplements, and stickers filed under Rule 497(b), (c), (d), (e), or (h). It predates the summary regime and still carries full statutory prospectuses and mid-cycle supplements. 497VPI is narrower — restricted to 497(k) initial summary prospectuses for variable products. Researchers typically need both: 497VPI for the consumer summary, plain 497 for the underlying or supplemented statutory text.

Form 497K — Summary Prospectus for Mutual Funds (Rule 498)

The structural predecessor. 497K implements the 2009 Rule 498 summary regime for open-end funds; 497VPI extends the same layered approach to insurance contracts under Rule 498A. 497K covers fund-level disclosures (objective, performance, fund fees); 497VPI covers contract-level disclosures (insurance charges, surrender fees, death benefits, annuitization, underlying fund menu). The two are complementary — a variable contract's underlying funds have their own 497K filings.

Form N-VPFS — Variable Product Financial Statements

Form N-VPFS carries audited financial statements for the separate account. 497VPI contains no financial statements. Reconstructing separate-account financial condition requires N-VPFS or the financial statements inside N-4 / N-6 filings.

Key differences at a glance

  • vs. 497VPU: initial buyers vs. existing owners.
  • vs. N-4 / N-6: condensed summary vs. full statutory prospectus and exhibits.
  • vs. 485APOS / 485BPOS: consumer-facing summary vs. legally operative updated prospectus.
  • vs. generic 497: 497(k) summary only vs. all other Rule 497 paragraphs.
  • vs. 497K: variable insurance contracts vs. mutual funds.
  • vs. N-VPFS: disclosure document vs. financial statements.

Boundary summary

Form 497VPI captures one artifact: the initial Rule 498A summary prospectus for variable annuity and variable life contracts, filed under Rule 497(k) from April 2021 forward. It is the standardized key-information-table format that no other filing type provides. For a complete contract record, 497VPI is the entry point above a stack that also includes the most recent 485BPOS-effective N-4 or N-6, any mid-cycle 497 supplements, the 497VPU updates to existing owners, and the 497K filings for the underlying investment options.

Who Uses This Dataset

The Form 497VPI Files dataset serves a tight ecosystem around variable insurance contracts: carriers drafting and pricing them, distributors and advisors evaluating them, benchmarking and competitive analysts measuring them, and engineers and researchers structuring or studying them. Each role maps to specific record sections, primarily the key information table, fee schedules, rider terms, fund line-ups, and surrender and death benefit provisions.

Carrier disclosure and compliance drafters

Product disclosure teams inside variable annuity and VUL issuers draft and review the filings themselves. They work the key information table, fee tables, contract risk language, and surrender and tax sections, comparing wording against peer registrants to maintain template libraries and respond to SEC staff comments.

Broker-dealer product approval and due diligence

Home-office due diligence analysts use 497VPI filings to vet contracts for selling agreements and Reg BI reasonable-basis reviews. They focus on surrender schedules, M&E charges, rider fees, living and death benefit terms, and the underlying fund menu, and flag amendments that change selling materials or shelf status.

RIA and advisor research desks

Research staff supporting fee-only and hybrid advisors use the filings to evaluate held or proposed contracts and to build 1035 exchange analyses. They pull cost layers, riders, withdrawal provisions, and fund menus to produce side-by-side comparisons and exchange-versus-keep recommendations, especially for legacy contracts where marketing material is unavailable.

Competitive intelligence analysts

Competitive analysts at carriers and product consultancies track new launches and feature changes. They monitor optional benefit structures (GLWB, GMIB, GMAB, enhanced death benefits), bonus and persistency credits, and share-class architecture (B, L, C, I, O) to feed launch dashboards and product roadmap reviews.

Fee benchmarking specialists

Pricing and benchmarking analysts mine the standardized fee tables for base contract, M&E, administrative, transaction, transfer, and rider charges, plus portfolio company expense ranges. Output feeds periodic benchmarking studies and pricing-committee reviews of whether existing fee levels remain defensible against newly filed peers.

Actuarial and product pricing

Actuaries and pricing teams use rider charge structures, benefit base mechanics, withdrawal percentages by age band, step-up frequencies, and surrender schedules to calibrate lapse and utilization assumptions and to benchmark proposed designs against in-market contracts.

Regulatory affairs

Regulatory affairs staff at carriers and separate-account sponsors monitor evolving practice under Rules 498A and 497(k): disclosure ordering, key information table format, hyperlinking to the statutory prospectus, and treatment of fund substitutions, rider closures, and share-class changes. The dataset supports comment letters and internal interpretive memos.

ERISA and retirement plan consultants

Plan consultants reviewing variable contracts inside 403(b), qualified plan, and IRA arrangements pull total cost of ownership, fund line-up expense ranges, surrender provisions, and annuitization features into 408(b)(2) fee validation and fiduciary review files.

Data vendors and insurance fintech engineers

Engineering teams at variable-contract analytics vendors and advisor-tech platforms parse the HTML, TXT, and metadata to extract registrant, filing date, contract name, fee table values, rider terms, and fund line-ups. The output feeds normalized product databases, amendment-detection pipelines, and exchange-suitability calculators.

LLM and RAG builders for insurance text

Teams building retrieval-augmented systems for insurance Q and A use the standardized 498A section structure (key information, fees, withdrawals, death benefits, taxes, conflicts of interest) as a corpus for chunking, embedding, and grounded answer generation on contract-specific questions.

Academic researchers in insurance and disclosure policy

Researchers in insurance economics, household finance, and securities regulation study fee dispersion, rider diffusion, fund menu construction, and prospectus readability across registrants and over time, using the filings as primary evidence on Rule 498A disclosure effectiveness.

Specific Use Cases

The Form 497VPI Files dataset supports a small set of concrete workflows around variable annuity and variable life contracts. Each use case below maps to specific record fields or document sections.

Fee benchmarking across variable annuity contracts

Extract M&E, administrative, distribution, transaction, transfer, and rider charges from the Rule 498A Key Information Table and the contract fee tables in each ISP/USP, joined on the seriesAndClassesContractsInformation S-number/C-number pairs. The output is a normalized fee matrix keyed by registrant CIK, contract series, and share class (B, L, C, I, O), used in pricing-committee reviews and quarterly peer benchmarking studies.

Detecting fund substitutions and portfolio renames

Filter records where the body is a short supplement (no Key Information Table) and parse the side-by-side "existing fund -> replacement fund" tables that dominate sticker filings. Pair the supplement's effectivenessDate with the parent registrant's CIK and series S-number to build a longitudinal substitution log feeding sub-account mapping tables in advisor-tech platforms.

Rider feature tracking for competitive intelligence

Mine the optional benefit sections (GLWB, GMIB, GMAB, enhanced death benefit) of full ISP filings to capture withdrawal percentages by age band, step-up frequency, benefit-base roll-up rates, and rider fees. Group by registrant and filedAt to populate launch dashboards and quarterly competitive product roadmap reviews.

1035 exchange analysis for legacy variable contracts

For an existing contract identified by C-number, retrieve the most recent 497VPI ISP/USP and pull surrender schedule, M&E, rider charges, death benefit terms, and the underlying fund menu. Combine with a candidate replacement contract pulled the same way to produce side-by-side exchange-versus-keep memos that RIA research desks file with each 1035 recommendation.

RAG corpus for contract-specific Q and A

Chunk the inner HTML on the financial-printer <!-- Field: Page; Sequence: N --> markers and the standardized Rule 498A section headings (Key Information, Fees, Risks, Withdrawals, Death Benefit, Taxes, Conflicts). Embed with metadata tags drawn from the JSON sidecar (CIK, series S-number, class C-number, ticker, effectivenessDate) so retrieval can be scoped to a single contract version when answering owner or advisor questions.

Amendment-detection pipeline for product databases

Because 497VPI corrections are themselves new submissions rather than tagged amendments, run a reconciliation job keyed on (CIK, series S-number, class C-number) sorted by filedAt. Diff successive Key Information Tables and fee schedules to surface fee changes, rider closures, and share-class additions, and emit change events that downstream selling-agreement and shelf-status workflows can subscribe to.

Dataset Access

The Form 497VPI Files dataset is accessible through three endpoints: a JSON index for metadata and container discovery, a full-archive download, and per-container downloads. The typical workflow is to consume the index, fetch the relevant container files, unzip them, and read the records.

Dataset Index JSON API: https://api.sec-api.io/datasets/form-497vpi-files.json

This endpoint returns dataset-level metadata (name, description, last updated timestamp, earliest sample date, total records, total size, form types, container format, and file types), the full dataset download URL, and a list of container files. Each container entry includes its key, size, record count, last updated timestamp, and download URL. Polling this endpoint daily lets you detect which containers changed in the latest refresh and selectively download only those. This endpoint does not require an API key.

Example response:

Example
1 {
2 "datasetId": "1f13365b-9ae0-694a-8886-981fac2e70d1",
3 "datasetDownloadUrl": "https://api.sec-api.io/datasets/form-497vpi-files.zip",
4 "name": "Form 497VPI Files Dataset",
5 "description": "Form 497VPI filings contain initial summary prospectuses for variable annuity and variable life insurance contracts, filed pursuant to Rule 497(k) under the Securities Act of 1933.",
6 "updatedAt": "2026-04-25T02:58:04.882Z",
7 "earliestSampleDate": "2021-04-01",
8 "totalRecords": 6010,
9 "totalSize": 101073555,
10 "formTypes": ["497VPI"],
11 "containerFormat": "ZIP",
12 "fileTypes": ["HTML", "JSON", "TXT"],
13 "containers": [
14 {
15 "downloadUrl": "https://api.sec-api.io/datasets/form-497vpi-files/2026/2026-04.zip",
16 "key": "2026/2026-04.zip",
17 "size": 4521893,
18 "records": 87,
19 "updatedAt": "2026-04-25T02:58:04.882Z"
20 }
21 ]
22 }

Download Entire Dataset: https://api.sec-api.io/datasets/form-497vpi-files.zip?token=YOUR_API_KEY

Downloads the complete dataset archive containing all containers from the earliest sample date (2021-04-01) onward. This endpoint requires an SEC API key.

Download Single Container: https://api.sec-api.io/datasets/form-497vpi-files/2026/2026-04.zip?token=YOUR_API_KEY

Downloads one monthly container file referenced in the index. Use this to fetch only the months you need or to incrementally pull updated containers identified via the index. This endpoint requires an SEC API key.

Frequently Asked Questions

What form does this dataset cover?

The dataset covers Form 497VPI, the EDGAR submission type used by insurance-company registrants to file initial summary prospectuses, updating summary prospectuses, and dated supplements for variable annuity and variable life insurance contracts under Rule 497(k) of the Securities Act of 1933, in reliance on Rule 498A.

What does one record in the Form 497VPI Files dataset represent?

One record corresponds to a single EDGAR submission of Form 497VPI, materialized as a folder named with the 18-digit dashless EDGAR accession number. The folder contains a normalized metadata.json sidecar plus the registrant's filed prospectus document — the SGML-wrapped 497VPI HTML — and any ancillary TXT or HTML attachments listed in the EDGAR document manifest.

Who is required to file Form 497VPI?

The legal registrant is an insurance-company separate account registered with the SEC as a unit investment trust under the Investment Company Act of 1940, with an effective registration statement on Form N-4 (variable annuities) or Form N-6 (variable life). The operational filer is the depositor insurance company that issues the contract. Mutual funds, closed-end funds, BDCs, ETFs, and operating companies do not use 497VPI.

What time period does the dataset cover?

The dataset's earliest sample date is April 1, 2021, which reflects the Rule 498A transition period — Rule 498A was adopted in March 2020, with mandatory compliance phased in through July 1, 2022, and insurers began routinely using the 497VPI submission type as they completed their first annual updates under the new regime.

What file format is the dataset distributed in?

The dataset is organized as one ZIP container per calendar month at <year>/<year>-<month>.zip. After unzipping, each container holds one accession-numbered subdirectory per filing. The file types in each record are HTML (the SGML-wrapped prospectus document), JSON (the metadata sidecar), and TXT (occasional ancillary attachments).

How does Form 497VPI differ from Form 497VPU?

497VPI is the initial summary prospectus delivered to prospective buyers of a variable contract; 497VPU is the annual updating summary prospectus delivered to existing contract owners and emphasizes year-over-year changes. Both are filed under Rule 497(k) and both follow the same Rule 498A summary-prospectus structure, but they target different audiences and lifecycle positions, so tracking a contract across its life requires both datasets.

How are corrections to a 497VPI filing handled?

Because 497(k) filings are not registration statements, corrections are made by filing a fresh 497VPI rather than tagging an amendment. Each correction appears as a new accession number, so cross-filing reconciliation must be done by registrant CIK, series S-number, class C-number, and effectivenessDate rather than by an amendment-of pointer.