YOUR INVESTMENT

FINANCIAL INFORMATION

YOUR INVESTMENT

CHOOSING A SHARE CLASS

The Fund offers in this Prospectus six classes of shares: Class A, B, C, F, R2, and R3 shares. Each class represents investments in the same portfolio of securities, but each has different expenses, dividends, eligibility requirements, and sales charges. Share class offerings are broadly grouped into three purchase categories:

•   Retirement and Benefit Plans. Investors investing through Retirement and Benefit Plans are offered Class A, R2, and R3 shares. Actual share class availability is determined by your plan and your plan service provider. See "Retirement and Benefit Plan Investors" for more information.

•   Fee-Based Programs. Investors in Fee-Based Programs are offered Class A and F shares. Actual share class availability is determined by your program sponsor. See "Fee-Based Program Investors" for more information.

•   All Other Investors. Class A, B, and C shares are offered to individual investors, certain retirement plans, and other investors not qualifying for one of the other two categories above.

You may purchase shares at the NAV per share determined after we receive your purchase order submitted in proper form, plus any applicable sales charge. We will not consider an order to be in proper form until we have certain identifying information required under applicable law. For more information, see "Purchases" and "Other Information for Fund Investors – Procedures Required by the USA PATRIOT Act." We reserve the right to modify, restrict, or reject any purchase order or exchange request if the Fund or Lord Abbett Distributor LLC determines that it is in the best interest of the Fund and its shareholders. All purchase orders are subject to our acceptance.

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You should read this section carefully to determine which class of shares is best for you and discuss your selection with your Financial Intermediary. Each class has different sales charges and expenses, allowing you to choose the class that best meets your needs. You should make a decision only after considering various factors, including the expected effect of any applicable sales charges and the level of class expenses on your investment over time, the amount you wish to invest, the length of time you plan to hold the investment, your qualification for any waiver of a sales load or fee reduction, whether you plan to take any distributions in the near future, and the availability of the share class for purchase. You should consult with your investment professional or Financial Intermediary about comparative pricing of investor services available under each available share class, the compensation that will be received by your investment professional or Financial Intermediary in connection with each available share class, and other factors that may be relevant to your choice of share class in which to invest.

If you are thinking about rolling over retirement plan assets to an IRA, if you think you may be moving from one plan to another, or if there is a change related to your Financial Intermediary, there may be limitations on your ability to make additional purchases of shares of a particular class. Purchases or sales through a participating Retirement and Benefit Plan or Fee-Based Program must be consistent with the procedures for the plan or program. Records relating to such purchases or sales are maintained by, or on behalf of, the plan or the program sponsor.

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Share Classes. The following table compares key features of each share class. You should review the Fee Table and Example at the front of this Prospectus carefully before choosing your share class. Your Financial Intermediary can help you decide which class meets your goals. Not all share classes may be available through your Financial Intermediary. Your Financial Intermediary may receive different compensation depending upon which class you choose.

For more information on selecting a share class, see "Classes of Shares" in the Statement of Additional Information.

continued on next page

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  ⁽¹⁾   The Rule 12b-1 plan provides that the maximum payments that may be authorized by the Board for Class A shares are 0.50%; and for Class B, C, F, R2, and R3 shares, 1.00%. The Fund may not pay compensation where tracking data is not available for certain accounts or where the Authorized Institution (as defined below) waives part of the compensation. In such cases, the Fund will not require payment of any otherwise applicable CDSC.

  ⁽²⁾   Ask your Financial Intermediary about the Lord Abbett Funds available for exchange.

  ⁽³⁾   Shareholders may be able to transfer shares of one class of the Fund for shares of another class (e.g., Class A to Class F, or Class R2 to Class A) subject to the eligibility requirements for the other share class and any applicable sales load or CDSC. The transaction will be based on the respective NAV of each class as of the trade date for the exchange. Consequently, the transferring shareholder may receive fewer shares or more shares than originally owned, depending on that day's NAVs. Please contact your Financial Intermediary for additional information on how to move your shares into another share class.

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Investment Minimums. Minimum initial and additional investment amounts vary depending on the class of shares you buy and the nature of your investment account. For investors purchasing Class F, R2, and R3 shares through Retirement and Benefit Plans or Fee-Based Programs offered by Financial Intermediaries, the minimums that apply to the plans or programs may apply instead of those shown below.

See "Other Information About Retirement and Benefit Plans and Fee-Based Programs" for more information.

   ⁽¹⁾   Consult your Financial Intermediary for more information.

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SALES CHARGES

Class A Share Front-End Sales Charges. You buy Class A shares at the offering price, which is the NAV plus a sales charge. You pay a lower rate as the size of your investment increases to certain levels called breakpoints. You do not pay a sales charge on the Fund's distributions or dividends you reinvest in additional Class A shares. The table below shows the rate of sales charge you pay, depending on the amount you purchase.

  †  See "Dealer Concessions on Class A Share Purchases Without a Front-End Sales Charge."

Note: The above percentages may vary for particular investors due to rounding.

Reducing Your Class A Share Front-End Sales Charges. As indicated in the above chart, you may purchase Class A shares at a discount if you qualify under the circumstances outlined below. To receive a reduced front-end sales charge, you must let the Fund or your Financial Intermediary know at the time of your

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purchase of Fund shares that you believe you qualify for a discount. If you or a related party have holdings of Eligible Funds in other accounts with your Financial Intermediary or with other Financial Intermediaries that may be combined with your current purchases in determining the sales charge as described below, you must let the Fund or your Financial Intermediary know. You may be asked to provide supporting account statements or other information to allow us or your Financial Intermediary to verify your eligibility for a discount. If you or your Financial Intermediary do not notify the Fund or provide the requested information, you may not receive the reduced sales charge for which you otherwise qualify. Class A shares may be purchased at a discount if you qualify under either of the following conditions:

•   Rights of Accumulation – A Purchaser may combine the value at the current public offering price of Class A, B, and C shares of any Eligible Fund already owned with a new purchase of Class A shares of any Eligible Fund in order to reduce the sales charge on the new purchase. Class F, R2, and R3 share holdings may not be combined for these purposes.

•   Letter of Intention – A Purchaser may combine purchases of Class A, B, and C shares of any Eligible Fund the Purchaser intends to make over a 13-month period in determining the applicable sales charge. Current holdings under Rights of Accumulation may be included in a Letter of Intention. Shares purchased through reinvestment of dividends or distributions are not included. A Letter of Intention may be backdated up to 90 days. Class F, R2, and R3 share holdings may not be combined for these purposes.

The term "Purchaser" includes: (1) an individual; (2) an individual, his or her spouse, and children under the age of 21; (3) Retirement and Benefit Plans including a 401(k) plan, profit-sharing plan, money purchase plan, defined benefit plan, and 457(b) plan sponsored by a governmental entity, non-profit organization, school district or church to which employer contributions are made,

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as well as SIMPLE IRA plans and SEP-IRA plans; or (4) a trustee or other fiduciary purchasing shares for a single trust, estate or single fiduciary account. An individual may include under item (1) his or her holdings in Eligible Funds as described above in IRAs, as a sole participant of a Retirement and Benefit Plan sponsored by the individual's business, and as a participant in a 403(b) plan to which only pre-tax salary deferrals are made. An individual and his or her spouse may include under item (2) their holdings in IRAs, and as the sole participants in Retirement and Benefit Plans sponsored by a business owned by either or both of them. A Retirement and Benefit Plan under item (3) includes all qualified Retirement and Benefit Plans of a single employer and its consolidated subsidiaries, and all qualified Retirement and Benefit Plans of multiple employers registered in the name of a single bank trustee. A Purchaser may include holdings of Class A, B, and C shares of Eligible Funds as described above in accounts with Financial Intermediaries for purposes of calculating the front-end sales charges.

For more information on eligibility for these privileges, read the applicable sections in the Application and the Statement of Additional Information. This information also is available at www.lordabbett.com or by calling Lord Abbett at 888-522-2388 (at no charge).

Class A Share Purchases Without a Front-End Sales Charge. Class A shares may be purchased without a front-end sales charge under any of the following conditions:

•  purchases of $1 million or more,

•  purchases by Retirement and Benefit Plans with at least 100 eligible employees,

•  purchases for Retirement and Benefit Plans made through Financial Intermediaries that perform participant recordkeeping or other administrative services for the plans and that have entered into special arrangements with the Fund and/or Lord Abbett Distributor specifically for such purchases,

•  purchases made with dividends and distributions of Class A shares of another Eligible Fund,

•  purchases representing repayment under the loan feature of the Lord Abbett-sponsored prototype 403(b) plan for Class A shares,

•  purchases by employees of any consenting securities dealer having a sales agreement with Lord Abbett Distributor,

•  purchases made by or on behalf of Financial Intermediaries for clients that pay the Financial Intermediaries fees in connection with Fee-Based Programs, provided that the Financial Intermediaries or their trading agents have entered

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into special arrangements with the Fund and/or Lord Abbett Distributor specifically for such purchases,

•  purchases by trustees or custodians of any pension or profit sharing plan, or payroll deduction IRA for the employees of any consenting securities dealer having a sales agreement with Lord Abbett Distributor,

•  purchases by each Lord Abbett-sponsored fund's Directors or Trustees, officers of each Lord Abbett-sponsored fund, employees and partners of Lord Abbett (including retired persons who formerly held such positions and family members of such purchasers), or

•  purchases involving the concurrent sale of Class B or C shares of the Fund related to the requirements of a settlement agreement that the broker-dealer entered into with a regulatory body relating to share class suitability. These sales transactions will be subject to the assessment of any applicable CDSC (although the broker-dealer may pay on behalf of the investor or reimburse the investor for any such CDSC), and any investor purchases subsequent to the original concurrent transactions will be at the applicable public offering price, which may include a sales charge.

See the Statement of Additional Information for a listing of other categories of purchases that qualify for Class A share purchases without a front-end sales charge.

These categories may be subject to a CDSC.

CDSC

A CDSC, regardless of class, is not charged on shares acquired through reinvestment of dividends or capital gains distributions and is charged on the original purchase cost or the current market value of the shares at the time they are redeemed, whichever is lower. In addition, repayment of loans under certain Retirement and Benefit Plans will constitute new sales for purposes of assessing the CDSC.

To minimize the amount of any CDSC, the Fund redeems shares in the following order:

  1.  shares acquired by reinvestment of dividends and capital gains (always free of a CDSC)

  2.  shares held for six years or more (Class B), or one year or more (Class A and Class C)

  3.  shares held the longest before the sixth anniversary of their purchase (Class B), or before the first anniversary of their purchase (Class A and Class C)

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Class A Share CDSC. If you buy Class A shares of the Fund under one of the starred ( ) categories listed above or if you acquire Class A shares in exchange for Class A shares of another Lord Abbett-sponsored fund subject to a CDSC and you redeem any of the Class A shares before the first day of the month in which the one-year anniversary of your purchase falls, a CDSC of 1% normally will be collected.

The Class A share CDSC generally will not be assessed under the following circumstances:

•  benefit payments under Retirement and Benefit Plans in connection with loans, hardship withdrawals, death, disability, retirement, separation from service, or any excess distribution under Retirement and Benefit Plans (documentation may be required);

•  redemptions by Retirement and Benefit Plans made through Financial Intermediaries that have special arrangements with the Fund and/or Lord Abbett Distributor, provided the plan has not redeemed all, or substantially all, of its assets from the Lord Abbett-sponsored funds;

•  redemptions by Retirement and Benefit Plans made through Financial Intermediaries that have special arrangements with the Fund and/or Lord Abbett Distributor that include the waiver of CDSCs and that were initially entered into prior to December 2002; or

•   Eligible Mandatory Distributions under 403(b) plans and IRAs.

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Class B Share CDSC. The CDSC for Class B shares normally applies if you redeem your shares before the sixth anniversary of their initial purchase. The CDSC will be remitted to Lord Abbett Distributor. The CDSC declines the longer you own your shares, according to the following schedule:

  ⁽¹⁾   The anniversary is the same calendar day in each respective year after the date of purchase. For example, the anniversary for shares purchased on May 1 will be May 1 of each succeeding year.

  (2)   Class B shares will automatically convert to Class A shares after the eighth anniversary of your purchase of Class B shares. Conversions will occur as follows:

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Class C Share CDSC. The 1% CDSC for Class C shares normally applies if you redeem your shares before the first anniversary of their purchase. The CDSC will be remitted to Lord Abbett Distributor.

Class B Share CDSC and Class C Share CDSC. The Class B share CDSC and Class C share CDSC generally will not be assessed under the following circumstances:

•  benefit payments under Retirement and Benefit Plans in connection with loans, hardship withdrawals, death, disability, retirement, separation from service, or any excess contribution or distribution under Retirement and Benefit Plans (documentation may be required);

•  Eligible Mandatory Distributions under 403(b) plans and individual retirement accounts;

•  death of the shareholder; or

•  redemptions of shares in connection with Div-Move and Systematic Withdrawal Plans (up to 12% per year).

See "Automatic Services for Fund Investors" for more information.

A broker-dealer may pay on behalf of an investor or reimburse an investor for a CDSC otherwise applicable in the case of transactions involving purchases through such broker-dealer where the investor is concurrently selling his or her holdings in Class B or C shares of the Fund and buying Class A shares of that Fund, provided that the purchases are related to the requirements of a settlement agreement that the broker-dealer entered into with a regulatory body relating to share class suitability.

Reinvestment Privilege. If you redeem shares of the Fund, you have a one-time right to reinvest some or all of the proceeds in the same class of any Eligible Fund between the 31st and 60th days after redemption without a sales charge. If you paid a CDSC when you redeemed your shares, you will be credited with the amount of the CDSC. All accounts involved must have the same registration.

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RETIREMENT AND BENEFIT PLAN INVESTORS

Eligible Investors: Retirement and Benefit Plans. Retirement and Benefit Plans with plan-level or fund-level omnibus accounts held on the books of the Fund generally may be eligible to invest in Class A, R2, and R3 shares:

•   Class A Shares. Eligible Retirement and Benefit Plans may open an account and purchase Class A shares of the Fund by contacting any Financial Intermediary authorized to sell the Fund's shares. Your plan may be eligible for front-end sales charge waivers. See "Sales Charges – Class A Share Front-End Sales Charges" for more information.

•   Class R2 and R3 (together known also as "Class R") Shares. Class R shares generally are available through:

_m   certain employer-sponsored Retirement and Benefit Plans offering funds from multiple fund families as investment options where the employer, administrator, recordkeeper, sponsor, related person, Financial Intermediary, or other appropriate party has entered into an agreement to make Class R2 or R3 shares available to plan participants; or

_m   dealers that have entered into certain approved agreements with Lord Abbett Distributor.

Class R shares are also available for orders made by or on behalf of a Financial Intermediary for clients participating in an IRA rollover program sponsored by the Financial Intermediary that operates the program in an omnibus recordkeeping environment and has entered into special arrangements with the Fund and/or Lord Abbett Distributor specifically for such orders.

Class R shares generally are not available to retail non-retirement accounts, traditional and Roth IRAs, Coverdell Education Savings Accounts, SEPs, SARSEPs, SIMPLE IRAs, individual 403(b) plans, or 529 college savings plans.

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•   Transfers to Another Share Class. A Retirement and Benefit Plan may be able to transfer Class A, B, or C shares of the Fund (or any other share class that the Fund may designate) to Class R shares of the Fund if the plan satisfies the eligibility requirements for Class R shares, and subject to any applicable sales charge or CDSC.

•   IRA Rollovers. Generally, IRA rollovers by plan participants will not be eligible for reinvestment in Class R shares. However, if the rollover involves an in-kind transfer of Class R shares, the new account may continue to hold such Class R shares, but will not be allowed to make new purchases of Class R shares. Plan participants with beneficial interests in Class R shares may invest assets from Retirement and Benefit Plans in Class A, B, C, or F shares through an IRA rollover, provided that the investment meets the eligibility requirements for the particular share class. Rollovers invested in Class A, B, or C shares will be subject to applicable sales charges. Additional conditions also may apply to the transfer of shares into an IRA rollover account, and your Financial Intermediary may charge you a transaction-based or other fee for its services. These conditions and fees are in addition to those imposed by the Fund and its affiliates. In addition, the options and services available to you may be different from those discussed in this Prospectus. You should ask your Financial Intermediary about its services and any applicable fees.

•   Sales Charge Discounts. A Retirement and Benefit Plan or current or former plan participant will not be entitled to combine Class R shares with the shares of any other share class of the Lord Abbett Funds for purposes of calculating the applicable sales charge on any Class A share purchases.

FEE-BASED PROGRAM INVESTORS

Eligible Investors: Fee-Based Programs. Class A and F shares are available for purchases by or on behalf of Financial Intermediaries for clients in certain Fee-Based Programs:

•   Class A Shares. Investors in Fee-Based Programs may purchase Class A shares by contacting their Financial Intermediaries. You may be eligible for front-end sales charge waivers. See "Sales Charges" for more information.

•   Class F Shares. Class F shares generally are available to investors participating in Fee-Based Programs that have (or whose trading agents have) an agreement with Lord Abbett Distributor and to investors that are clients of certain registered investment advisers ("RIAs") that have an agreement with Lord Abbett Distributor, if it so deems appropriate.

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Additional Information Concerning Class F Shares. Class F shares generally are available in connection with the following:

•   Transfers Involving Fee-Based Programs of Financial Intermediaries or Accounts Held at RIAs Offering Class F Shares as Investment Options. If an investor moves his or her account from one Fee-Based Program or RIA offering Class F shares of the Lord Abbett Funds to another Fee-Based Program or RIA also offering Class F shares of the Lord Abbett Funds, the investor will be able to continue his or her investment in Class F shares and make new purchases of Class F shares. However, if an investor moves his or her account to a Fee-Based Program or RIA that does not offer Class F shares of Lord Abbett Funds as investment options, or otherwise holds assets from such an account other than in a Fee-Based Program or with an RIA that offers Class F shares, the investor may continue to hold the existing Class F shares but will not be allowed to make new purchases of Class F shares. If the investor later moves his or her account to another Fee-Based Program that offers Class F shares, the investor will be allowed to make new Class F share purchases. Alternatively, an investor may invest assets formerly invested in Class F shares in Class A, B, or C shares, provided that the investment meets the eligibility requirements for the particular share class and subject to applicable sales charges.

•   Transfers of Existing Holdings. Sponsors of Fee-Based Programs or RIAs that decide to offer Class F shares may be able to convert Class A shares of a Lord Abbett Fund (or any other share class that the Fund may designate) to Class F shares of the fund if the Fee-Based Program or the account placed with the RIA satisfies the eligibility requirements for Class F shares. Applicable sales charges, if any, will apply. A Fee-Based Program or an RIA will not be entitled to combine Class F shares with the shares of any other share class of the Lord Abbett Funds for purposes of calculating the applicable sales charges on any Class A share purchases the program or RIA may make. Consult your Financial Intermediary to determine whether Class F shares may be a suitable investment.

OTHER INFORMATION ABOUT RETIREMENT AND BENEFIT PLANS AND FEE-BASED PROGRAMS

Limitations on Fund Availability and Services. Purchase, redemption, and exchange privileges may differ when you are investing through certain Retirement and Benefit Plans or Fee-Based Programs because you may not be able to

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exchange into a Lord Abbett Fund or other fund that is not offered in your plan or program. Similarly, you may be able to move your retirement plan investment into an IRA account, but you may only make future purchases to the extent that you meet any eligibility requirements for the share class into which you have transferred. Financial Intermediaries may choose to impose qualification requirements for plans that differ from the Fund's share class eligibility standards. In certain cases this could result in the selection of a share class with higher service and distribution-related fees than otherwise would have been charged. The Fund is not responsible for, and has no control over, the decision of any Financial Intermediary to impose such differing requirements. You should discuss purchase, redemption, and exchange options with your Financial Intermediary to determine whether you qualify for a waiver of sales charges on any class of shares offered. If you do qualify, another class of shares may be more appropriate for you. Plan fiduciaries should consider their obligations under ERISA in determining which class is an appropriate investment for plan participants. You should be aware that your investment professional may receive different compensation depending upon the class in which you invest. Please consult with your Financial Intermediary for more information about available share classes.

Purchases, Redemptions, and Exchanges. Participants in Retirement and Benefit Plans must contact their sponsor, plan service provider, or Financial Intermediary to purchase, redeem or exchange shares, or to request detailed information about eligibility to purchase shares and the portability of such shares. Typically, no minimum investment is required for Retirement and Benefit Plans or Fee-Based Programs investing in Class F, R2, or R3 shares. Financial Intermediaries may establish requirements as to the purchase, redemption, or exchange of shares of the Fund, including maximum and minimum initial investment requirements, that are different from those described in this Prospectus and the Fund's Statement of Additional Information. Financial Intermediaries may choose to impose share class parameters different from those set forth in this Prospectus and the Fund's Statement of Additional Information. Additionally, investor services may only be available to plan participants through a plan service provider, plans may require separate applications, and plans' policies and procedures may be different from those described in this Prospectus. The Fund is not responsible for, and has no control over, the decision of any Financial Intermediary to impose such differing requirements. Eligible qualified Retirement and Benefit Plans or Fee-Based Programs can exchange their Class A, F, R2, or R3 shares for Eligible Funds, in keeping with the limitations described above. Be sure to read the current prospectus for any fund into which you are exchanging. Please see the Statement

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of Additional Information for details and limitations on moving investments in certain share classes to different share classes, and on moving investments held in certain accounts to different accounts.

Additional Services. Financial Intermediaries may provide some of the shareholder servicing and account maintenance services required by Retirement and Benefit Plan accounts and their plan participants, including transfers of registration, dividend payee changes, and generation of confirmation statements, and may arrange for plan service providers to provide other investment or administrative services. Financial Intermediaries may charge Retirement and Benefit Plans and plan participants transaction fees and/or other additional amounts for such services. Similarly, Retirement and Benefit Plans may charge plan participants for certain expenses. These fees and additional amounts are in addition to those imposed by the Fund and its affiliates, and could reduce your investment return in Fund shares. For questions about such accounts, contact your employee benefits office, plan service provider, or other Financial Intermediary that provides recordkeeping and shareholder services for your account.

Other Considerations. With respect to Class A, F, R2, and R3 shares held through certain Retirement and Benefit Plans and Fee-Based Programs, Lord Abbett and its affiliates may have other relationships with Financial Intermediaries relating to the provision of services to the Fund, such as providing omnibus account services or executing portfolio transactions for the Fund. If your plan service provider provides these services, Lord Abbett or the Fund may compensate it for these services. In addition, your Financial Intermediary may have other relationships with Lord Abbett or its affiliates that are not related to the Fund. See "Financial Intermediary Compensation – Payments for Recordkeeping, Networking, and Other Services" for more information.

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FINANCIAL INTERMEDIARY COMPENSATION

As part of a plan for distributing shares, the Fund and Lord Abbett Distributor pay sales and service compensation to Authorized Institutions that sell the Fund's shares and service its shareholder accounts.

Additionally, your broker-dealer or agent may charge you a fee to effect transactions in Fund shares.

As shown in the table "Fees and Expenses" above, sales compensation originates from sales charges, which are paid directly by shareholders, and 12b-1 distribution fees, which are paid by the Fund out of share class assets. Service compensation originates from 12b-1 service fees. Because 12b-1 fees are paid on an ongoing basis, over time they will increase the cost of your investment and may cost you more than paying other types of sales charges. The fees are accrued daily at annual rates based upon average daily net assets as follows:

  *  The Fund may designate a portion of the aggregate fee as attributable to service activities for purposes of calculating Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, Inc. ("FINRA") sales charge limitations.

Lord Abbett may pay 12b-1 fees to Financial Intermediaries or use the fees for other distribution purposes, including revenue sharing.

Sales Activities. The Fund may use 12b-1 distribution fees to pay Authorized Institutions to finance any activity that is primarily intended to result in the sale of shares. Lord Abbett Distributor uses its portion of the distribution fees attributable to the shares of a particular class for activities that are primarily intended to result in the sale of shares of such class. These activities include, but are not limited to, printing of Prospectuses and Statements of Additional Information and reports for other than existing shareholders, preparation and distribution of advertising and sales material, expenses of organizing and conducting sales seminars, additional payments to Authorized Institutions,

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maintenance of shareholder accounts, the cost necessary to provide distribution-related services or personnel, travel, office expenses, equipment and other allocable overhead.

Service Activities. Lord Abbett may pay 12b-1 service fees to Authorized Institutions for any activity that is primarily intended to result in personal service and/or the maintenance of shareholder accounts or certain Retirement and Benefit Plans. Any portion of the service fees paid to Lord Abbett Distributor will be used to service and maintain shareholder accounts.

Dealer Concessions on Class A Share Purchases With a Front-End Sales Charge. See "Sales Charges – Class A Share Front-End Sales Charges" for more information.

Dealer Concessions on Class A Share Purchases Without a Front-End Sales Charge. Except as otherwise set forth in the following paragraphs, Lord Abbett Distributor may pay Dealers distribution-related compensation (i.e., concessions) according to the Schedule set forth below under the following circumstances:

•  purchases of $1 million or more;

•  purchases by certain Retirement and Benefit Plans with at least 100 eligible employees; or

•  purchases for certain Retirement and Benefit Plans made through Financial Intermediaries that perform participant recordkeeping or other administrative services for the plans in connection with multiple fund family recordkeeping platforms and have entered into special arrangements with the Fund and/or Lord Abbett Distributor specifically for such purchases ("Alliance Arrangements").

Dealers receive concessions described below on purchases made within a 12-month period beginning with the first NAV purchase of Class A shares for the account. The concession rate resets on each anniversary date of the initial NAV purchase, provided that the account continues to qualify for treatment at NAV. Current holdings of Class B and C shares will be included for purposes of calculating the breakpoints in the Schedule below and the amount of the concessions payable with respect to the Class A shares investment. Concessions may not be paid with respect to Alliance Arrangements unless Lord Abbett Distributor can monitor the applicability of the CDSC. In addition, if a Financial Intermediary decides to waive receipt of the concession, any CDSC that might otherwise have applied to any such purchase will be waived. Any waiver must be authorized by the Financial Intermediary firm and the registered representative.

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Financial Intermediaries should contact Lord Abbett Distributor for more complete information on the commission structure.

  *  Class A shares purchased without a sales charge will be subject to a 1% CDSC if they are redeemed before the first day of the month in which the one-year anniversary of the purchase falls. For Alliance Arrangements involving Financial Intermediaries offering multiple fund families to Retirement and Benefit Plans, the CDSC normally will be collected only when a plan effects a complete redemption of all or substantially all shares of all Lord Abbett-sponsored funds in which the plan is invested.

Class B Shares. Lord Abbett Distributor may pay Financial Intermediaries selling Class B shares a commission of 4.00% of the purchase price of the Class B shares they sell and Lord Abbett Distributor will retain any applicable CDSC. Financial Intermediaries also receive an annual distribution/service fee of up to 0.25% of the average daily net assets represented by the Class B shares serviced by them.

Class C Shares. Lord Abbett Distributor may pay Financial Intermediaries selling Class C shares a commission of up to 1.00% of the purchase price of the Class C shares they sell and Lord Abbett Distributor will retain any applicable CDSC and an annual distribution/service fee of up to 1.00% of the average daily net assets represented by the Class C shares serviced by these Financial Intermediaries until the thirteenth month after purchase. Starting in the thirteenth month after purchase, these Financial Intermediaries will then receive an annual distribution/service fee of up to 1.00% of the average daily net assets represented by the Class C shares serviced by them.

Class F, R2, and R3 Shares. Class F, R2, and R3 shares are purchased at NAV with no front-end sales charge and no CDSC when redeemed. See "Retirement and Benefit Plan Investors," "Fee-Based Program Investors," and "Other Information About Retirement and Benefit Plans and Fee-Based Programs" for more information.

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Revenue Sharing and Other Payments to Dealers and Financial Intermediaries. In addition to the various sales commissions, concessions and 12b-1 fees described above, Lord Abbett, Lord Abbett Distributor and the Fund may make other payments to dealers and other firms authorized to accept orders for Fund shares (collectively, "Dealers").

Lord Abbett or Lord Abbett Distributor makes payments to Dealers in its sole discretion, at its own expense and out of its own resources (including revenues from advisory fees and 12b-1 fees) and without additional cost to the Fund or the Fund's shareholders. This compensation from Lord Abbett is not reflected in the fees and expenses listed above in the Fee Table section of this Prospectus. The payments may be for:

•  marketing and/or distribution support for Dealers;

•  the Dealers' and their investment professionals' shareholder servicing efforts;

•  training and education activities for the Dealers, their investment professionals and/or their clients or potential clients;

•  certain information regarding Dealers and their investment professionals;

•  sponsoring or otherwise bearing, in part or in whole, the costs for other meetings of Dealers' investment professionals and/or their clients or potential clients;

•  the purchase of products or services from the Dealers, such as investment research, software tools or data for investment analysis purposes; and/or

•  certain Dealers' costs associated with orders relating to Fund shares ("ticket charges").

Some of these payments are sometimes called "revenue sharing" payments. Most of these payments are intended to reimburse Dealers directly or indirectly for the costs they or their investment professionals incur in connection with educational seminars and training efforts about the Lord Abbett Funds to enable the Dealers and their investment professionals to make recommendations and provide services that are suitable and useful in meeting shareholder needs, as well as to maintain the necessary infrastructure to make the Lord Abbett Funds available to shareholders. The costs and expenses related to these efforts may include travel, lodging, entertainment and meals, among other things. In addition, Lord Abbett Distributor may, for specified periods of time, decide to forgo the portion of front-end sales charges to which it normally is entitled and allow Dealers to retain the full sales charge for sales of Fund shares. In some instances, these temporary arrangements will be offered only to certain Dealers expected to sell significant amounts of Fund shares.

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Lord Abbett or Lord Abbett Distributor may benefit from revenue sharing if the Dealer features the Fund in its sales system (such as by placing the Fund on its preferred fund list or giving access on a preferential basis to members of the Financial Intermediary's sales force or management). In addition, Lord Abbett Distributor may agree to participate in the Dealer's marketing efforts (such as by helping to facilitate or provide financial assistance for conferences, seminars or other programs at which Lord Abbett personnel may make presentations on the Fund to the intermediary's sales force). To the extent the Dealers sell more shares of the Fund or retain shares of the Fund in their clients' accounts, Lord Abbett receives greater management and other fees due to the increase in the Fund's assets. Although a Dealer may request additional compensation from Lord Abbett to offset costs incurred by the Dealer servicing its clients, the Dealer may earn a profit on these payments, if the amount of the payment exceeds the Dealer's costs.

Lord Abbett or Lord Abbett Distributor, in its sole discretion, determines the amounts of payments to Dealers, with the exception of purchases of products or services and certain expense reimbursements. Lord Abbett and Lord Abbett Distributor consider many factors in determining the basis or amount of any additional payments to Dealers. These factors include the Dealer's sales, assets and redemption rates relating to Lord Abbett Funds, penetration of Lord Abbett Fund sales among investment professionals within the Dealer, and the potential to expand Lord Abbett's relationship with the Dealer. Lord Abbett and Lord Abbett Distributor also may take into account other business relationships Lord Abbett has with a Dealer, including other Lord Abbett financial products or advisory services sold by or provided to a Dealer or one or more of its affiliates. Based on its analysis of these factors, Lord Abbett groups Dealers into tiers, each of which is associated with a particular maximum amount of revenue sharing payments expressed as a percentage of assets of the Lord Abbett Funds attributable to that particular Dealer. The payments presently range from 0.02% to 0.1% of Lord Abbett Fund assets attributable to the Dealer and/or its investment professionals. For certain relationships entered into before February 1, 2006 with Dealers selling the Lord Abbett Funds in connection with variable insurance products, Lord Abbett or Lord Abbett Distributor may make payments up to 0.15% of the related Lord Abbett Funds' assets and/or sales. These maximum payment limitations may not be inclusive of payments for certain items, such as training and education activities, other meetings, and the purchase of certain products and services from the Dealers. The Dealers within a particular tier may receive different amounts of revenue sharing or may not receive any. Lord Abbett or Lord Abbett Distributor may choose not to make payments in relation to certain of the Lord Abbett Funds or certain classes of shares of any given Fund. In addition, Lord Abbett's formula for calculating revenue sharing payments may be different from the formulas that the Dealers use. Please refer to the Fund's Statement of Additional Information for additional information relating to revenue sharing payments.

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Neither Lord Abbett nor Lord Abbett Distributor makes payments directly to a Dealer's investment professionals, but rather they are made solely to the Dealer itself (with the exception of expense reimbursements related to the attendance of a Dealer's investment professionals at training and education meetings and at other meetings involving the Lord Abbett Funds). The Dealers receiving additional payments include those that may recommend that their clients consider or select the Fund or other Lord Abbett Funds for investment purposes, including those that may include one or more of the Lord Abbett Funds on a "preferred" or "recommended" list of mutual funds. In some circumstances, the payments may create an incentive for a Dealer or its investment professionals to recommend or sell shares of Lord Abbett Funds to a client over shares of other funds. For more specific information about any additional payments, including revenue sharing, made to your Dealer, please contact your investment professional.

The Fund's portfolio transactions are not used to compensate Dealers that sell shares of the Lord Abbett Funds. Lord Abbett places the Fund's portfolio transactions with broker-dealers based on their ability to provide the best net results from the transaction to the Fund. If Lord Abbett determines that a Dealer can provide the Fund with the best net results, Lord Abbett may place the Fund's portfolio transactions with the Dealer even though it sells or has sold shares of the Fund. In no event, however, does or will Lord Abbett give any consideration to a Dealer's sales in deciding which Dealer to choose to execute the Fund's portfolio transactions. Lord Abbett maintains policies and procedures designed to ensure that it places portfolio transactions based on the Fund's receipt of the best net results only. These policies and procedures also permit Lord Abbett to give consideration to proprietary investment research a Dealer may provide to Lord Abbett.

Payments for Recordkeeping, Networking, and Other Services. In addition to the payments from Lord Abbett or Lord Abbett Distributor described above, from time to time, Lord Abbett and Lord Abbett Distributor may have other relationships with Financial Intermediaries relating to the provision of services to the Fund, such as providing omnibus account services or executing portfolio transactions for the Fund. The Fund generally may pay recordkeeping fees for services provided to plans where the account is a plan-level or fund-level omnibus account and plan participants have the ability to determine their investments in particular mutual funds. If your intermediary provides these services, Lord Abbett or the Fund may compensate the intermediary for these services. In addition, your intermediary may have other relationships with Lord Abbett or Lord Abbett Distributor that are not related to the Fund.

For example, the Lord Abbett Funds may enter into arrangements with and pay fees to Financial Intermediaries that provide recordkeeping or other subadministrative services to certain groups of investors in the Lord Abbett Funds, including participants in Retirement and Benefit Plans, investors in mutual fund advisory

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programs, investors in variable insurance products and clients of Financial Intermediaries that operate in an omnibus environment (collectively, "Investors"). The recordkeeping services typically include: (a) establishing and maintaining Investor accounts and records; (b) recording Investor account balances and changes thereto; (c) arranging for the wiring of funds; (d) providing statements to Investors; (e) furnishing proxy materials, periodic Lord Abbett Fund reports, prospectuses and other communications to Investors as required; (f) transmitting Investor transaction information; and (g) providing information in order to assist the Lord Abbett Funds in their compliance with state securities laws. The fees Lord Abbett Funds pay are designed to compensate Financial Intermediaries for such services.

The Lord Abbett Funds may also pay fees to broker-dealers for networking services. Networking services may include but are not limited to:

•  establishing and maintaining individual accounts and records;

•  providing client account statements; and

•  providing 1099 forms and other tax statements.

The networking fees that the Lord Abbett Funds pay to broker-dealers normally result in reduced fees paid by the Fund to the transfer agent, which would otherwise provide these services.

Financial Intermediaries may charge additional fees or commissions other than those disclosed in this Prospectus, such as a transaction based fee or other fee for its service, and may categorize and disclose these arrangements differently than the discussion above and in the Fund's Statement of Additional Information. You may ask your Financial Intermediary about any payments it receives from Lord Abbett or the Fund, as well as about fees and/or commissions it charges.

PURCHASES

Retirement and Benefit Plan Investors. You must place all orders to purchase Fund shares through the Financial Intermediary administering your Retirement and Benefit Plan. For more information on how to purchase Fund shares or for the limitations on the amount that may be purchased, please consult your Financial Intermediary. See "Retirement and Benefit Plan Investors" and "Other Information About Retirement and Benefit Plans and Fee-Based Programs" for more information.

Fee-Based Program Investors. You must place all orders to purchase Fund shares through the Financial Intermediary offering your Fee-Based Program. For more information on how to purchase Fund shares or for the limitations on the amount that may be purchased, please consult your Financial Intermediary. See "Fee-Based Program Investors" and "Other Information About Retirement and Benefit Plans and Fee-Based Programs" for more information.

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All Other Investors. Initial purchases of Class A, B, and C shares may be made through any Financial Intermediary that has a sales agreement with Lord Abbett Distributor, or you can fill out the Application and send it to the Fund at the address stated below. Contact your Financial Intermediary for initial purchases of Class F, R2, or R3 shares. See "Other Information About Retirement and Benefit Plans and Fee-Based Programs" for more information. You should note that your purchases and other transactions may be subject to review and verification on an ongoing basis. Please carefully read the paragraph below titled "Proper Form" before placing your order to ensure that your order will be accepted.

Lord Abbett International Dividend Income Fund
P.O. Box 219336
Kansas City, MO 64121

Proper Form. An initial purchase order submitted directly to the Fund must contain: (1) a completed application with all applicable requested information, and (2) payment by check. When purchases are made by check, redemption proceeds will not be paid until the Fund or transfer agent is advised that the check has cleared, which may take up to 15 calendar days. For more information, please call the Fund at 888-522-2388.

See "Procedures Required by the USA PATRIOT Act" for more information.

EXCHANGES

Retirement and Benefit Plan Investors. You may be able to exchange shares of a class of the Fund for shares of the same class of an Eligible Fund, subject to restrictions and procedures contained in your Retirement and Benefit Plan. You must place all orders to exchange Fund shares through the Financial Intermediary administering your Retirement and Benefit Plan. For more information on how to exchange Fund shares or on the limitations applicable to exchanges, please consult your Financial Intermediary. See "Retirement and Benefit Plan Investors" and "Other Information About Retirement and Benefit Plans and Fee-Based Programs" for more information.

Fee-Based Program Investors. You may be able to exchange shares of a class of the Fund for shares of the same class of an Eligible Fund, subject to restrictions and procedures contained in your Fee-Based Program. You must place all orders to exchange Fund shares through the Financial Intermediary offering your

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Fee-Based Program. For more information on how to exchange Fund shares or on the limitations applicable to exchanges, please consult your Financial Intermediary. Exchanges are taxable transactions for shareholders that are subject to tax. See "Fee-Based Program Investors" and "Other Information About Retirement and Benefit Plans and Fee-Based Programs" for more information.

All Other Investors. You or your investment professional may instruct the Fund to exchange shares of any class for shares of the same class of any Eligible Fund. Instructions may be provided in writing, or by telephone, with proper identification, by calling 888-522-2388. The Fund must receive instructions for the exchange before the close of the New York Stock Exchange, Inc. ("NYSE") on the day of your call or online request to get the NAV per share of the Eligible Fund determined on that day. Exchanges are taxable transactions for shareholders that are subject to tax. Be sure to read the current prospectus for any fund into which you are exchanging. Please see the Fund's Statement of Additional Information for details and limitations on moving investments in certain share classes to different share classes, and on moving investments held in certain accounts to different accounts. You should also consult your Financial Intermediary if you have any questions.

REDEMPTIONS

Retirement and Benefit Plan Investors. You may redeem Fund shares subject to restrictions and procedures established by your Retirement and Benefit Plan. You must place all orders to redeem Fund shares through the Financial Intermediary administering your Retirement and Benefit Plan. For more information on how to redeem Fund shares or for the limitations on redemptions, please consult your Financial Intermediary. See "Other Information About Retirement and Benefit Plans and Fee-Based Programs" for more information.

Fee-Based Program Investors. You may redeem Fund shares subject to restrictions and procedures established by your Fee-Based Program. You must place all orders to redeem Fund shares through the Financial Intermediary offering your Fee-Based Program. For more information on how to redeem Fund shares or for the limitations on redemptions, please consult your Financial Intermediary. See "Other Information About Retirement and Benefit Plans and Fee-Based Programs" for more information.

All Other Investors. Redemptions of Fund shares are executed at the NAV next determined after the Fund receives your order in proper form. In the case of redemptions involving Retirement and Benefit Plans, you may be required to provide the Fund with

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one or more completed forms before your order will be executed. Contact your Financial Intermediary for redemptions involving Class F, R2, or R3 shares. For more information, please call 888-522-2388. To determine if a CDSC applies to a redemption, see "Class A Share CDSC," "Class B Share CDSC," "Class C Share CDSC," and "Class B Share CDSC and Class C Share CDSC."

By Broker. Call your investment professional for instructions on how to redeem your shares.

By Telephone. To obtain the proceeds of a redemption of less than $50,000 from your account, you or your representative should call the Fund at 888-522-2388.

Online. If you have direct account access privileges, you may submit a redemption request online by logging onto www.lordabbett.com and entering your account information and personal identification data.

By Mail. Submit a written redemption request indicating the name(s) in which the account is registered, the Fund's name, the class of shares, your account number, and the dollar value or number of shares you wish to redeem and include all necessary signatures.

Through a Financial Intermediary. Your Financial Intermediary may process a redemption on your behalf. Your Financial Intermediary will be responsible for furnishing all necessary documents to Lord Abbett and may charge you for this service.

If you have direct account access privileges, redemption proceeds may be paid by electronic transfer via an automated clearing house ("ACH") deposit to your bank account on record with the Fund; otherwise, normally a check will be mailed to the name(s) and address in which the account is registered (or otherwise according to your instruction) within three business days after receipt of your redemption request. Your account balance must be sufficient to cover the amount being redeemed or your redemption order will not be processed. Under unusual circumstances, the Fund may suspend redemptions, or postpone payment for more than seven days, as permitted by federal securities laws.

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If the signer has any legal capacity (i.e., the authority of an individual to act on behalf of an entity or other person(s)), the signature and capacity must be guaranteed by an Eligible Guarantor . Certain other legal documentation may be required. For more information regarding proper documentation, please call 888-522-2388.

A Guaranteed Signature is designed to protect you from fraud by verifying your signature. We require a Guaranteed Signature by an Eligible Guarantor on requests for:

•  a redemption check for which you have the legal capacity to sign on behalf of another person or entity (i.e., on behalf of an estate or on behalf of a corporation);

•  a redemption check payable to anyone other than the shareholder(s) of record;

•  a redemption check to be mailed to an address other than the address of record;

•  a redemption check payable to a bank other than the bank we have on file; or

•  a redemption for $50,000 or more.

Redemptions in Kind. The Fund has the right to pay redemption proceeds to you in whole or in part by a distribution of securities from the Fund's portfolio. It is not expected that the Fund would do so except in unusual circumstances. If the Fund pays your redemption proceeds by a distribution of securities, you could incur brokerage or other charges in converting the securities to cash.

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The Fund expects to pay dividends from its net investment income quarterly and to distribute any net capital gains annually.

All distributions, including dividends from net investment income, will be reinvested in Fund shares unless you instruct the Fund to pay them to you in cash. Retirement and Benefit Plan accounts may not receive distributions in cash. For distributions payable on accounts other than those held in the name of your dealer, if you instruct the Fund to pay your distributions in cash, and the Post Office is unable to deliver one or more of your checks or one or more of your checks remains uncashed for a certain period, the Fund reserves the right to reinvest your checks in your account at the NAV on the day of the reinvestment following such period. In addition, the Fund reserves the right to reinvest all subsequent distributions in additional Fund shares in your account. No interest will accrue on checks while they remain uncashed before they are reinvested or on amounts represented by uncashed redemption checks. There are no sales charges on reinvestments.

For U.S. federal income tax purposes the Fund's distributions generally are taxable to shareholders, other than tax-exempt shareholders (including certain Retirement and Benefit Plan shareholders, as discussed below), regardless of whether paid in cash or reinvested in additional Fund shares. Distributions of net investment income and short-term capital gains are taxable as ordinary income; however, certain qualified dividends that the Fund receives and distributes may be subject to a reduced tax rate if you meet holding period and certain other requirements. Distributions of net long-term capital gains are taxable as long-term capital gains, regardless of how long you have owned Fund shares. Any sale, redemption, or exchange of Fund shares may be taxable.

If you buy shares when the Fund has realized but not yet declared or distributed income or capital gains, you will be "buying a dividend" by paying the full price for shares and then receiving a portion of the price back in the form of a potentially taxable dividend.

Shareholders that are exempt from U.S. federal income tax, such as Retirement and Benefit Plans that are qualified under Section 401 of the Internal Revenue Code, generally are not subject to U.S. federal income tax on Fund dividends or distributions or on sales or exchanges of Fund shares. However, in the case of Fund shares held through a nonqualified deferred compensation plan, Fund dividends and distributions received by the plan and sales and exchanges of Fund shares by the plan generally will be taxable to the employer sponsoring such plan in accordance with U.S. federal income tax laws governing deferred compensation plans.

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A plan participant whose Retirement and Benefit Plan invests in the Fund generally is not taxed on Fund dividends or distributions received by the plan or on sales or exchanges of Fund shares by the plan for U.S. federal income tax purposes. However, distributions to plan participants from a Retirement and Benefit Plan generally are taxable to plan participants as ordinary income.

You must provide your Social Security number or other taxpayer identification number to the Fund along with certifications required by the Internal Revenue Service when you open an account. If you do not or it is otherwise legally required to do so, the Fund will withhold 28% "backup withholding" tax from your distributions, sale proceeds, and any other payments to you.

Certain tax reporting information concerning the tax treatment of Fund distributions, including the source of dividends and distributions of capital gains by the Fund, will be mailed to shareholders each year.

AUTOMATIC SERVICES FOR FUND INVESTORS

Retirement and Benefit Plan and Fee-Based Program Investors. You should consult your Financial Intermediary about automatic services that may be offered through your Retirement and Benefit Plan or Fee-Based Program.

All Other Investors. Buying or selling shares automatically is easy with the services described below. With each service, you select a schedule and amount, subject to certain restrictions. You may set up most of these services when filling out the Application or by calling 888-522-2388.

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  *  In the case of Financial Intermediaries maintaining accounts in omnibus recordkeeping environments or in nominee name that aggregate the underlying accounts' purchase orders for Fund shares, the minimum subsequent investment requirements described above will not apply to such underlying accounts.

OTHER SERVICES FOR FUND INVESTORS

Retirement and Benefit Plan and Fee-Based Program Investors. You should consult your Financial Intermediary about other services that may be offered through your Retirement and Benefit Plan or Fee-Based Program.

All Other Investors. The following additional services are offered to individual investors as well as investors not qualifying for another investment category.

Telephone and Online Purchases and Redemptions. Shareholders, other than shareholders who hold their shares in an account maintained by a broker-dealer, may have direct account access privileges with the Fund, which allows shareholders to purchase or redeem shares by telephone or online. For new accounts, you may

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obtain direct account access privileges by completing the Account Application (including providing your bank information) and indicating that you wish telephone or online trading privileges. For existing accounts, you may obtain telephone or online trading privileges by submitting an Application for ACH Electronic Funds Transfer.

Transactions by telephone or online may be difficult to submit during times of drastic economic or market changes or during other times where communications may be difficult. When initiating a transaction by telephone or online, shareholders should be aware of the following considerations:

•   Security. The Fund and its service providers employ verification and security measures for your protection. You should note, however, that any person with access to your account and other personal information (including personal identification number) may be able to submit instructions by telephone or online. The Fund will not be liable for relying on instructions submitted by telephone or online that the Fund reasonably believes to be genuine.

•   Online Confirmation. The Fund is not responsible for online transaction requests that may have been sent but not received in good order. Requested transactions received by the Fund in good order are confirmed at the completion of the order and your requested transaction will not be processed unless you receive the confirmation message.

•   No Cancellations. You will be asked to verify the requested transaction and may cancel the request before it is submitted to the Fund. The Fund will not cancel a transaction submitted once it has been received (in good order) and is confirmed at the end of the telephonic or online transaction.

•   Insufficient Account Value. If you request a redemption transaction for a specific amount and your account value at the time the transaction is processed is less than the requested redemption amount, the Fund will deem your request as a request to liquidate your entire account.

•   Insufficient Funds. If you request a purchase and your bank account does not have sufficient funds to complete the transaction at the time it is presented to your bank, your requested transaction will be reversed and you will be subject to any and all losses, fees and expenses incurred by the Fund in connection with processing the insufficient funds transaction. The Fund reserves the right to liquidate all or a portion of your account to cover such losses, fees and expenses.

Account Statements. Every investor automatically receives quarterly account statements.

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Householding. We have adopted a policy that allows us to send only one copy of the Fund's Prospectus, proxy material, Annual Report and Semiannual Report to certain shareholders residing at the same "household." This reduces Fund expenses, which benefits you and other shareholders. If you need additional copies or do not want your mailings to be "householded," please call us at 888-522-2388 or send a written request with your name, the name of your fund or funds, and your account number or numbers to Lord Abbett Family of Funds, P.O. Box 219336, Kansas City, MO 64121.

Account Changes. For any changes you need to make to your account, consult your investment professional or call the Fund at 888-522-2388.

Systematic Exchange. You or your investment professional can establish a schedule of exchanges between the same classes of any Eligible Fund.

OTHER INFORMATION FOR FUND INVESTORS

Excessive Trading and Market Timing. The Fund is designed for long-term investors and is not intended to serve as a vehicle for frequent trading in response to short-term swings in the market. Excessive, short-term or market timing trading practices ("frequent trading") may disrupt management of the Fund, raise its expenses, and harm long-term shareholders in a variety of ways. For example, volatility resulting from frequent trading may cause the Fund difficulty in implementing long-term investment strategies because it cannot anticipate the amount of cash it will have to invest. The Fund may find it necessary to sell portfolio securities at disadvantageous times to raise cash to meet the redemption demands resulting from such frequent trading. Each of these, in turn, could increase tax, administrative, and other costs, and reduce the Fund's investment return.

To the extent the Fund invests in foreign securities, the Fund may be particularly susceptible to frequent trading because many foreign markets close hours before the Fund values its portfolio holdings. This may allow significant events, including broad market moves that occur in the interim to affect the values of foreign securities held by the Fund. The time zone differences among foreign markets may allow a shareholder to exploit differences in the Fund's share prices that are based on closing prices of foreign securities determined before the Fund calculates its NAV per share (known as "time zone arbitrage"). To the extent the Fund invests in securities that are thinly traded or relatively illiquid, the Fund also may be particularly susceptible to frequent trading because the current market price for such securities may not accurately reflect current market values. A shareholder may attempt to engage in frequent trading to take advantage of these pricing differences (known as "price arbitrage"). The Fund has adopted fair value procedures that allow the Fund to use values other than the closing market prices

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of these types of securities to reflect what the Fund reasonably believes to be their fair value at the time it calculates its NAV per share. The Fund expects that the use of fair value pricing will reduce a shareholder's ability to engage successfully in time zone arbitrage and price arbitrage to the detriment of other Fund shareholders, although there is no assurance that fair value pricing will do so. For more information about these procedures, see "Other Information for Fund Investors – Pricing of Fund Shares."

The Fund's Board has adopted additional policies and procedures that are designed to prevent or stop frequent trading. We recognize, however, that it may not be possible to identify and stop or avoid every instance of frequent trading in Fund shares. For this reason, the Fund's policies and procedures are intended to identify and stop frequent trading that we believe may be harmful to the Fund. For this purpose, we consider frequent trading to be harmful if, in general, it is likely to cause the Fund to incur additional expenses or to sell portfolio holdings for other than investment-strategy-related reasons. Toward this end, we have procedures in place to monitor the purchase, sale and exchange activity in Fund shares by investors and Financial Intermediaries that place orders on behalf of their clients, which procedures are described below. The Fund may modify its frequent trading policy and monitoring procedures from time to time without notice as and when deemed appropriate to enhance protection of the Fund and its shareholders.

Frequent Trading Policy and Procedures. Under the frequent trading policy, any Lord Abbett Fund shareholder redeeming Fund shares valued at $5,000 or more (other than shares of Lord Abbett U.S. Government & Government Sponsored Enterprises Money Market Fund) from an account will be prohibited from investing in the Fund in the account for 30 calendar days after the redemption (the "Policy"). The Policy applies to all redemptions and purchases for an account that are part of an exchange transaction or transfer of assets, but does not apply to the following types of transactions unless the Distributor determines in its sole discretion that the transaction may be harmful to the Fund: (1) systematic purchases and redemptions, such as purchases made through reinvestment of dividends or other distributions, or certain automatic or systematic investment, exchange or withdrawal plans (such as payroll deduction plans, and the Fund's Invest-A-Matic and Systematic Withdrawal Plans); (2) Retirement and Benefit Plan payroll and/or employer contributions, loans and distributions; (3) purchases or redemptions by a "fund-of-funds" or similar investment vehicle that the Distributor in its sole discretion has determined is not designed to and/or is not serving as a vehicle for frequent trading; (4) purchases by an account that is part of a Fee-Based Program or mutual fund separate account program; and (5) purchases involving certain transfers of assets, rollovers, Roth IRA conversions and IRA

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recharacterizations; provided that the Financial Intermediary maintaining the account is able to identify the transaction in its records as one of these transactions.

In addition to the Policy, we have procedures in place designed to enable us to monitor the purchase, sale and exchange activity in Fund shares by investors and Financial Intermediaries that place orders on behalf of their clients in order to attempt to identify activity that is inconsistent with the Policy. If, based on these monitoring procedures, we believe that an investor is engaging in, or has engaged in, frequent trading that may be harmful to the Fund, normally, we will notify the investor (and/or the investor's financial advisor) to cease all such activity in the account. If the activity occurs again, we will place a block on all further purchases or exchanges of the Fund's shares in the investor's account and inform the investor (and/or the investor's financial advisor) to cease all such activity in the account. The investor then has the option of maintaining any existing investment in the Fund, exchanging Fund shares for shares of Lord Abbett U.S. Government & Government Sponsored Enterprises Money Market Fund, or redeeming the account. Investors electing to exchange or redeem Fund shares under these circumstances should consider that the transaction may be subject to a CDSC or result in tax consequences. As stated above, although we generally notify the investor (and/or the investor's financial advisor) to cease all activity indicative of frequent trading prior to placing a block on further purchases or exchanges, we reserve the right to immediately place a block on an account or take other action without prior notification when we deem such action appropriate in our sole discretion. While we attempt to apply the Policy and procedures uniformly to detect frequent trading practices, there can be no assurance that we will succeed in identifying all such practices or that some investors will not employ tactics that evade our detection.

We recognize that Financial Intermediaries that maintain accounts in omnibus recordkeeping environments or in nominee name may not be able reasonably to apply the Policy due to systems limitations or other reasons. In these instances, the Distributor may review the frequent trading policies and procedures that an individual Financial Intermediary is able to put in place to determine whether its policies and procedures are consistent with the protection of the Fund and its investors, as described above. The Distributor also will seek the Financial Intermediary's agreement to cooperate with the Distributor's efforts to (1) monitor the Financial Intermediary's adherence to its policies and procedures and/or receive an amount and level of information regarding trading activity that the Distributor in its sole discretion deems adequate, and (2) stop any trading activity the Distributor identifies as frequent trading. Nevertheless, these circumstances may result in a Financial Intermediary's application of policies and procedures that are less effective at detecting and preventing frequent trading than

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the policies and procedures adopted by the Distributor and by certain other Financial Intermediaries. If an investor would like more information concerning the policies, procedures and restrictions that may be applicable to his or her account, the investor should contact the Financial Intermediary placing purchase orders on his or her behalf. A substantial portion of the Fund's shares may be held by Financial Intermediaries through omnibus accounts or in nominee name.

With respect to monitoring of accounts maintained by a Financial Intermediary, to our knowledge, in an omnibus environment or in nominee name, the Distributor will seek to receive sufficient information from the Financial Intermediary to enable it to review the ratio of purchase versus redemption activity of each underlying sub-account or, if such information is not readily obtainable, in the overall omnibus account(s) or nominee name account(s). If we identify activity that we believe may be indicative of frequent trading activity, we normally will notify the Financial Intermediary and request it to provide the Distributor with additional transaction information so that the Distributor may determine if any investors appear to have engaged in frequent trading activity. The Distributor's monitoring activity normally is limited to review of historic account activity. This may result in procedures that may be less effective at detecting and preventing frequent trading than the procedures the Distributor uses in connection with accounts not maintained in an omnibus environment or in nominee name.

If an investor related to an account maintained in an omnibus environment or in nominee name is identified as engaging in frequent trading activity, we normally will request that the Financial Intermediary take appropriate action to curtail the activity and will work with the relevant party to do so. Such action may include actions similar to those that the Distributor would take, such as issuing warnings to cease frequent trading activity, placing blocks on accounts to prohibit future purchases and exchanges of Fund shares, or requiring that the investor place trades through the mail only, in each case either indefinitely or for a period of time. Again, we reserve the right to immediately attempt to place a block on an account or take other action without prior notification when we deem such action appropriate in our sole discretion. If we determine that the Financial Intermediary has not demonstrated adequately that it has taken appropriate action to curtail the frequent trading, we may consider seeking to prohibit the account or sub-account from investing in the Fund and/or may also terminate our relationship with the Financial Intermediary. As noted above, these efforts may be less effective at detecting and preventing frequent trading than the policies and procedures the Distributor uses in connection with accounts not maintained in an omnibus environment or in nominee name. The nature of these relationships also may inhibit or prevent the Distributor or the Fund from assuring the uniform assessment of CDSCs on investors, even though Financial Intermediaries

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operating in omnibus environments typically have agreed to assess the CDSCs or assist the Distributor or the Fund in assessing them.

Procedures Required by the USA PATRIOT Act. To help the government fight the funding of terrorism and money laundering activities, federal law requires all financial institutions, including the Fund, to obtain, verify, and record information that identifies each person who opens an account. What this means for you – when you open an account, we will ask for your name, address, date of birth, Social Security number or similar number, and other information that will allow us to identify you. We will ask for similar information in the case of persons who will be signing on behalf of a legal entity that will own the account. We also may ask for copies of documents. If we are unable to obtain the required information within a short period of time after you try to open an account, we will return your Application. Your monies will not be invested until we have all required information. You also should know that we may verify your identity through the use of a database maintained by a third party or through other means. If we are unable to verify your identity, we may liquidate and close the account. This may result in adverse tax consequences. In addition, the Fund reserves the right to reject purchase orders accompanied by cash, cashier's checks, money orders, bank drafts, traveler's checks, and third party or double-endorsed checks, among others.

Pricing of Fund Shares. NAV per share for each class of Fund shares is calculated, under normal circumstances, each business day at the close of regular trading on the NYSE, normally 4:00 p.m. Eastern time. Purchases and sales of Fund shares are executed at the NAV next determined after the Fund receives your order in proper form. Assuming they are in proper form, purchase and sale orders must be placed by the close of trading on the NYSE in order to receive that day's NAV; orders placed after the close of trading on the NYSE will receive the next day's NAV.

In calculating NAV, securities listed on any recognized U.S. or non-U.S. exchange (including NASDAQ) are valued at the market closing price on the exchange or system on which they are principally traded. Unlisted equity securities are valued at the last transaction price, or, if there were no transactions that day, at the mean between the most recently quoted bid and asked prices. Unlisted fixed income securities (other than those with remaining maturities of 60 days or less) are valued at prices supplied by independent pricing services, which prices reflect broker/dealer-supplied valuations and electronic data processing techniques, and reflect the mean between the bid and asked prices. Unlisted fixed income securities having remaining maturities of 60 days or less are valued at their amortized cost. The principal markets for non-U.S. securities and U.S. fixed income securities also generally close prior to the close of the NYSE. Consequently, values of non-U.S.

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investments and U.S. fixed income securities will be determined as of the earlier closing of such exchanges and markets.

Securities for which prices or market quotations are not available, do not accurately reflect fair value in Lord Abbett's opinion, or have been materially affected by events occurring after the close of the market on which the security is principally traded are valued under fair value procedures approved by the Fund's Board. These circumstances may arise, for instance, when trading in a security is suspended, the market on which a security is traded closes early, or demand for a security (as reflected by its trading volume) is insufficient and thus calls into question the reliability of the quoted or computed price, or the security is relatively illiquid. The Fund may use fair value pricing more frequently for securities primarily traded on foreign exchanges. Because many foreign markets close hours before the Fund values its foreign portfolio holdings, significant events, including broad market moves, may occur in the interim potentially affecting the values of foreign securities held by the Fund. The Fund determines fair value in a manner that fairly reflects the market value of the security on the valuation date based on consideration of any information or factors it deems appropriate. These may include recent transactions in comparable securities, information relating to the specific security, developments in the markets and their performance, and current valuations of foreign or U.S. indices. The Fund's use of fair value pricing may cause the NAV of Fund shares to differ from the NAV that would be calculated using market quotations. Fair value pricing involves subjective judgments and it is possible that the fair value determined for a security may be materially different from the value that could be realized upon the sale of that security.

Certain securities that are traded primarily on foreign exchanges may trade on weekends or days when the NAV is not calculated. As a result, the value of securities may change on days when shareholders are not able to purchase or sell Fund shares.

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FINANCIAL INFORMATION

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FINANCIAL INFORMATION

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AVAILABILITY OF CLASS I SHARES

Who May Invest? Class I shares are currently available for purchase by the following entities:

•  Registered investment advisers ("Adviser") investing on behalf of clients, provided that the Adviser:

(i)  is not affiliated or associated with a broker or dealer primarily engaged in the retail securities business ("Broker-Dealer");

(ii)  derives its compensation for its services exclusively from its clients for such advisory services; and

(iii) has entered into an appropriate agreement with the Fund and/or Lord Abbett Distributor LLC for such purchases.

•  Institutional investors, such as retirement plans ("Plans"), companies, foundations, trusts, endowments and other entities where the total amount of potential investable assets exceeds $10 million, that were not introduced to Lord Abbett by persons associated with a Broker-Dealer.

•  Each registered investment company within the Lord Abbett Family of Funds that operates as a fund of funds and, at the discretion of Lord Abbett Distributor, other registered investment companies that are not affiliated with Lord Abbett and operate as a fund of funds.

In addition, Class I shares may be available for purchases by or on behalf of Financial Intermediaries for clients that pay the Financial Intermediaries fees for services that include investment advisory or management services, provided that the Financial Intermediaries or their trading agents have entered into special arrangements with and agreeable to the Fund and/or Lord Abbett Distributor specifically for such purchases. Financial Intermediaries should contact Lord Abbett Distributor to determine whether the Financial Intermediary may be eligible for such purchases.

How Much Must You Invest? You may buy Fund shares through any independent securities dealer having a sales agreement with Lord Abbett Distributor, our principal underwriter. Place your order with your investment dealer or send the money to the Fund (P.O. Box 219366, Kansas City, MO 64121).

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The minimum initial investment is $1 million, except for (1) certain purchases through or by Financial Intermediaries or Advisers that charge a fee for services that include investment advisory or management services, and (2) purchases by Plans meeting the eligibility requirements described in the preceding paragraph, which have no minimum. This offering may be suspended, changed or withdrawn by Lord Abbett Distributor, which reserves the right to reject any order.

PURCHASES

Proper Form. You may purchase Class I shares at the net asset value ("NAV") per share next determined after we receive your purchase order submitted in proper form. We will not consider an order to be in proper form until we have certain identifying information required under applicable law. No sales charges apply.

An initial purchase order submitted directly to the Fund must contain: (1) a completed application with all applicable requested information and (2) payment by check. When purchases are made by check, redemption proceeds will not be paid until the Fund or transfer agent is advised that the check has cleared, which may take up to 15 calendar days. For more information, please call the Fund at 888-522-2388.

See "Procedures Required by the USA PATRIOT Act" for more information.

We reserve the right to modify, restrict or reject any purchase order or exchange request if the Fund or Lord Abbett Distributor determines that it is in the best interests of the Fund and its shareholders. All purchase orders are subject to our acceptance.

Buying Shares Through Your Dealer. Orders for shares received by the Fund prior to the close of the New York Stock Exchange, Inc. ("NYSE"), or received by dealers prior to such close and received by Lord Abbett Distributor prior to the close of its business day, will be confirmed at the NAV effective at such NYSE close. Orders received by dealers after the NYSE closes and received by Lord Abbett Distributor in proper form prior to the close of its next business day are executed at the NAV effective as of the close of the NYSE on that next business day. The dealer is responsible for the timely transmission of orders to Lord Abbett Distributor. A business day is a day on which the NYSE is open for trading.

Buying Shares By Wire. To open an account, call 888-666-0022, Institutional Trading Department, to set up your account and to arrange a wire transaction. Wire to: UMB, N.A., Kansas City, routing number – 101000695, bank account number: 987800033-3, FBO: (account name) and (your Lord Abbett account number). Specify the complete name of the Fund, note Class I shares and include

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your new account number and your name. To add to an existing account, wire to: UMB, N.A., Kansas City, routing number – 101000695, bank account number: 987800033-3, FBO: (account name) and (your Lord Abbett account number). Specify the complete name of the Fund, note Class I shares and include your account number and your name.

REDEMPTIONS

Redemptions of Fund shares are executed at the NAV next determined after the Fund receives your order in proper form. In the case of redemptions involving Retirement and Benefit Plans, you may be required to provide the Fund with one or more completed forms before your order will be executed. For more information, please call 888-522-2388.

By Broker. Call your investment professional for instructions on how to redeem your shares.

By Telephone. To obtain the proceeds of a redemption of less than $50,000 from your account, you or your representative should call the Fund at 888-522-2388.

Online. If you have direct account access privileges, you may submit a redemption request online by logging onto www.lordabbett.com and entering your account information and personal identification data.

By Mail. Submit a written redemption request indicating the name(s) in which the account is registered, the Fund's name, the class of shares, your account number, and the dollar value or number of shares you wish to redeem and include all necessary signatures.

If you have direct account access privileges, redemption proceeds may be paid by electronic transfer via an automated clearing house deposit to your bank account on record with the Fund; otherwise, normally a check will be mailed to the name(s) and address in which the account is registered (or otherwise according to your instruction) within three business days after receipt of your redemption request. Your account balance must be sufficient to cover the amount being redeemed or your redemption order will not be processed. Under unusual circumstances, the Fund may suspend redemptions, or postpone payment for more than seven days, as permitted by federal securities laws.

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If the signer has any legal capacity (i.e., the authority of an individual to act on behalf of an entity or other person(s)), the signature and capacity must be guaranteed by an Eligible Guarantor . Certain other legal documentation may be required. For more information regarding proper documentation, please call 888-522-2388.

A Guaranteed Signature is designed to protect you from fraud by verifying your signature. We require a Guaranteed Signature by an Eligible Guarantor on requests for:

•  a redemption check for which you have the legal capacity to sign on behalf of another person or entity (i.e., on behalf of an estate or on behalf of a corporation),

•  a redemption check payable to anyone other than the shareholder(s) of record,

•  a redemption check to be mailed to an address other than the address of record,

•  a redemption check payable to a bank other than the bank we have on file, or

•  a redemption for $50,000 or more.

By Wire. In order to receive funds by wire, our servicing agent must have the wiring instructions on file. To verify that this feature is in place, call 888-666-0022, Institutional Trading Department (minimum wire: $1,000). Your wire redemption request must be received by the Fund before the close of the NYSE for money to be wired on the next business day.

Redemptions in Kind. The Fund has the right to pay redemption proceeds to you in whole or in part by a distribution of securities from the Fund's portfolio. It is not expected that the Fund would do so except in unusual circumstances. If the Fund pays your redemption proceeds by a distribution of securities, you could incur brokerage or other charges in converting the securities to cash.

Eligible Guarantor is any broker or bank that is usually a member of the medallion stamp program. Most major securities firms and banks are members of this program. A notary public is not an eligible guarantor
Guaranteed Signature. An acceptable form of guarantee would be as follows:
• In the case of an estate -
Robert A. Doe Executor of the Estate of John W. Doe
[Date]
•  In the case of a corporation - ABC Corporation
Mary B. Doe
By Mary B. Doe, President [Date]

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Service when you open an account. If you do not or it is otherwise legally required to do so, the Fund will withhold 28% "backup withholding" tax from your distributions, sale proceeds and any other payments to you.

Certain tax reporting information concerning the tax treatment of Fund distributions, including the source of dividends and distributions of capital gains by the Fund, will be mailed to shareholders each year.

OTHER SERVICES FOR FUND INVESTORS

Telephone and Online Purchases and Redemptions. Shareholders, other than shareholders who hold their shares in an account maintained by a broker-dealer, may have direct account access privileges with the Fund, which allows shareholders to purchase or redeem shares by telephone or online. For new accounts, you may obtain direct account access privileges by completing the Account Application (including providing your bank information) and indicating that you wish telephone or online trading privileges. For existing accounts, you may obtain telephone or online trading privileges by submitting an Application for ACH Electronic Funds Transfer.

Transactions by telephone or online may be difficult to submit during times of drastic economic or market changes or during other times where communications may be difficult. When initiating a transaction by telephone or online, shareholders should be aware of the following considerations:

•   Security. The Fund and its service providers employ verification and security measures for your protection. You should note, however, that any person with access to your account and other personal information (including personal identification number) may be able to submit instructions by telephone or online. The Fund will not be liable for relying on instructions submitted by telephone or online that the Fund reasonably believes to be genuine.

•   Online Confirmation. The Fund is not responsible for online transaction requests that may have been sent but not received in good order. Requested transactions received by the Fund in good order are confirmed at the completion of the order and your requested transaction will not be processed unless you receive the confirmation message.

•   No Cancellations. You will be asked to verify the requested transaction and may cancel the request before it is submitted to the Fund. The Fund will not cancel a transaction submitted once it has been received (in good order) and is confirmed at the end of the telephonic or online transaction.

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•   Insufficient Account Value . If you request a redemption transaction for a specific amount and your account value at the time the transaction is processed is less than the requested redemption amount, the Fund will deem your request as a request to liquidate your entire account.

•   Insufficient Funds. If you request a purchase and your bank account does not have sufficient funds to complete the transaction at the time it is presented to your bank, your requested transaction will be reversed and you will be subject to any and all losses, fees and expenses incurred by the Fund in connection with processing the insufficient funds transaction. The Fund reserves the right to liquidate all or a portion of your account to cover such losses, fees and expenses.

Telephone Exchange Privilege. Class I shares may be exchanged without a service charge for Class I shares of any Eligible Fund among the Lord Abbett-sponsored funds.

Account Statements. Every investor automatically receives quarterly account statements.

Householding. We have adopted a policy that allows us to send only one copy of the Fund's Prospectus, proxy material, Annual Report and Semiannual Report to certain shareholders residing at the same "household." This reduces Fund expenses, which benefits you and other shareholders. If you need additional copies or do not want your mailings to be "householded," please call us at 888-522-2388 or send a written request with your name, the name of your fund or funds, and your account number or numbers to Lord Abbett Family of Funds, P.O. Box 219336, Kansas City, MO 64121.

Account Changes. For any changes you need to make to your account, consult your investment professional or call the Fund at 888-522-2388.

OTHER INFORMATION FOR FUND INVESTORS

Excessive Trading and Market Timing. The Fund is designed for long-term investors and is not intended to serve as a vehicle for frequent trading in response to short-term swings in the market. Excessive, short-term or market timing trading practices ("frequent trading") may disrupt management of the Fund, raise its expenses, and harm long-term shareholders in a variety of ways. For example, volatility resulting from frequent trading may cause the Fund difficulty in

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implementing long-term investment strategies because it cannot anticipate the amount of cash it will have to invest. The Fund may find it necessary to sell portfolio securities at disadvantageous times to raise cash to meet the redemption demands resulting from such frequent trading. Each of these, in turn, could increase tax, administrative, and other costs, and reduce the Fund's investment return.

To the extent the Fund invests in foreign securities, the Fund may be particularly susceptible to frequent trading because many foreign markets close hours before the Fund values its portfolio holdings. This may allow significant events, including broad market moves that occur in the interim to affect the values of foreign securities held by the Fund. The time zone differences among foreign markets may allow a shareholder to exploit differences in the Fund's share prices that are based on closing prices of foreign securities determined before the Fund calculates its NAV per share (known as "time zone arbitrage"). To the extent the Fund invests in securities that are thinly traded or relatively illiquid, the Fund also may be particularly susceptible to frequent trading because the current market price for such securities may not accurately reflect current market values. A shareholder may attempt to engage in frequent trading to take advantage of these pricing differences (known as "price arbitrage"). The Fund has adopted fair value procedures that allow the Fund to use values other than the closing market prices of these types of securities to reflect what the Fund reasonably believes to be their fair value at the time it calculates its NAV per share. The Fund expects that the use of fair value pricing will reduce a shareholder's ability to engage successfully in time zone arbitrage and price arbitrage to the detriment of other Fund shareholders, although there is no assurance that fair value pricing will do so. For more information about these procedures, see "Other Information for Fund Investors – Pricing of Fund Shares."

The Fund's Board has adopted additional policies and procedures that are designed to prevent or stop frequent trading. We recognize, however, that it may not be possible to identify and stop or avoid every instance of frequent trading in Fund shares. For this reason, the Fund's policies and procedures are intended to identify and stop frequent trading that we believe may be harmful to the Fund. For this purpose, we consider frequent trading to be harmful if, in general, it is likely to cause the Fund to incur additional expenses or to sell portfolio holdings for other than investment-strategy-related reasons. Toward this end, we have procedures in place to monitor the purchase, sale and exchange activity in Fund shares by investors and Financial Intermediaries that place orders on behalf of their clients, which procedures are described below. The Fund may modify its frequent trading policy and monitoring procedures from time to time without notice as and when deemed appropriate to enhance protection of the Fund and its shareholders.

Frequent Trading Policy and Procedures. Under the frequent trading policy, any Lord Abbett Fund shareholder redeeming Fund shares valued at $5,000 or more

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(other than shares of Lord Abbett U.S. Government & Government Sponsored Enterprises Money Market Fund) from an account will be prohibited from investing in the Fund in the account for 30 calendar days after the redemption (the "Policy"). The Policy applies to all redemptions and purchases for an account that are part of an exchange transaction or transfer of assets, but does not apply to the following types of transactions unless the Distributor determines in its sole discretion that the transaction may be harmful to the Fund: (1) systematic purchases and redemptions, such as purchases made through reinvestment of dividends or other distributions, or certain automatic or systematic investment, exchange or withdrawal plans (such as payroll deduction plans, and the Fund's Invest-A-Matic and Systematic Withdrawal Plans); (2) Retirement and Benefit Plan payroll and/or employer contributions, loans and distributions; (3) purchases or redemptions by a "fund-of-funds" or similar investment vehicle that the Distributor in its sole discretion has determined is not designed to and/or is not serving as a vehicle for frequent trading; (4) purchases by an account that is part of a Fee-Based Program or mutual fund separate account program; and (5) purchases involving certain transfers of assets, rollovers, Roth IRA conversions and IRA recharacterizations; provided that the Financial Intermediary maintaining the account is able to identify the transaction in its records as one of these transactions.

In addition to the Policy, we have procedures in place designed to enable us to monitor the purchase, sale and exchange activity in Fund shares by investors and Financial Intermediaries that place orders on behalf of their clients in order to attempt to identify activity that is inconsistent with the Policy. If, based on these monitoring procedures, we believe that an investor is engaging in, or has engaged in, frequent trading that may be harmful to the Fund, normally, we will notify

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the investor (and/or the investor's financial advisor) to cease all such activity in the account. If the activity occurs again, we will place a block on all further purchases or exchanges of the Fund's shares in the investor's account and inform the investor (and/or the investor's financial advisor) to cease all such activity in the account. The investor then has the option of maintaining any existing investment in the Fund, exchanging Fund shares for shares of Lord Abbett U.S. Government & Government Sponsored Enterprises Money Market Fund, or redeeming the account. Investors electing to exchange or redeem Fund shares under these circumstances should consider that the transaction may be subject to a contingent deferred sales charge ("CDSC") result in tax consequences. As stated above, although we generally notify the investor (and/or the investor's financial advisor) to cease all activity indicative of frequent trading prior to placing a block on further purchases or exchanges, we reserve the right to immediately place a block on an account or take other action without prior notification when we deem such action appropriate in our sole discretion. While we attempt to apply the Policy and procedures uniformly to detect frequent trading practices, there can be no assurance that we will succeed in identifying all such practices or that some investors will not employ tactics that evade our detection.

We recognize that Financial Intermediaries that maintain accounts in omnibus recordkeeping environments or in nominee name may not be able reasonably to apply the Policy due to systems limitations or other reasons. In these instances, the Distributor may review the frequent trading policies and procedures that an individual Financial Intermediary is able to put in place to determine whether its policies and procedures are consistent with the protection of the Fund and its investors, as described above. The Distributor also will seek the Financial Intermediary's agreement to cooperate with the Distributor's efforts to (1) monitor the Financial Intermediary's adherence to its policies and procedures and/or receive an amount and level of information regarding trading activity that the Distributor in its sole discretion deems adequate, and (2) stop any trading activity the Distributor identifies as frequent trading. Nevertheless, these circumstances may result in a Financial Intermediary's application of policies and procedures that are less effective at detecting and preventing frequent trading than the policies and procedures adopted by the Distributor and by certain other Financial Intermediaries. If an investor would like more information concerning the policies, procedures and restrictions that may be applicable to his or her account, the investor should contact the Financial Intermediary placing purchase orders on his or her behalf. A substantial portion of the Fund's shares may be held by Financial Intermediaries through omnibus accounts or in nominee name.

With respect to monitoring of accounts maintained by a Financial Intermediary, to our knowledge, in an omnibus environment or in nominee name, the Distributor

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will seek to receive sufficient information from the Financial Intermediary to enable it to review the ratio of purchase versus redemption activity of each underlying sub-account or, if such information is not readily obtainable, in the overall omnibus account(s) or nominee name account(s). If we identify activity that we believe may be indicative of frequent trading activity, we normally will notify the Financial Intermediary and request it to provide the Distributor with additional transaction information so that the Distributor may determine if any investors appear to have engaged in frequent trading activity. The Distributor's monitoring activity normally is limited to review of historic account activity. This may result in procedures that may be less effective at detecting and preventing frequent trading than the procedures the Distributor uses in connection with accounts not maintained in an omnibus environment or in nominee name.

If an investor related to an account maintained in an omnibus environment or in nominee name is identified as engaging in frequent trading activity, we normally will request that the Financial Intermediary take appropriate action to curtail the activity and will work with the relevant party to do so. Such action may include actions similar to those that the Distributor would take, such as issuing warnings to cease frequent trading activity, placing blocks on accounts to prohibit future purchases and exchanges of Fund shares, or requiring that the investor place trades through the mail only, in each case either indefinitely or for a period of time. Again, we reserve the right to immediately attempt to place a block on an account or take other action without prior notification when we deem such action appropriate in our sole discretion. If we determine that the Financial Intermediary has not demonstrated adequately that it has taken appropriate action to curtail the frequent trading, we may consider seeking to prohibit the account or sub-account from investing in the Fund and/or may also terminate our relationship with the Financial Intermediary. As noted above, these efforts may be less effective at detecting and preventing frequent trading than the policies and procedures the Distributor uses in connection with accounts not maintained in an omnibus environment or in nominee name. The nature of these relationships also may inhibit or prevent the Distributor or the Fund from assuring the uniform assessment of CDSCs on investors, even though Financial Intermediaries operating in omnibus environments typically have agreed to assess the CDSCs or assist the Distributor or the Fund in assessing them.

Procedures Required by the USA PATRIOT Act. To help the government fight the funding of terrorism and money laundering activities, federal law requires all financial institutions including the Fund to obtain, verify, and record information that identifies each person or entity that opens an account. What this means for you – when you open an account, we will require your name, address, date and place of organization or date of birth, taxpayer identification number or Social

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Security number, and we may ask for other information that will allow us to identify you. We also will ask for this information in the case of persons who will be signing on behalf of certain entities that will own the account. We may ask for copies of documents. If we are unable to obtain the required information within a short period of time after you try to open an account, we will return your purchase order or account application. Your monies will not be invested until we have all required information. You also should know that we will verify your identity through the use of a database maintained by a third party or through other means. If we are unable to verify your identity, we may liquidate and close the account. This may result in adverse tax consequences. In addition, the Fund reserves the right to reject purchase orders or account applications accompanied by cash, cashier's checks, money orders, bank drafts, traveler's checks, and third party or double-endorsed checks, among others.

Pricing of Fund Shares. NAV per share for each class of Fund shares is calculated, under normal circumstances, each business day at the close of regular trading on the NYSE, normally 4:00 p.m. Eastern time. Purchases and sales of Fund shares are executed at the NAV next determined after the Fund receives your order in proper form. Assuming they are in proper form, purchase and sale orders must be placed by the close of trading on the NYSE in order to receive that day's NAV; orders placed after the close of trading on the NYSE will receive the next day's NAV.

In calculating NAV, securities listed on any recognized U.S. or non-U.S. exchange (including NASDAQ) are valued at the market closing price on the exchange or system on which they are principally traded. Unlisted equity securities are valued at the last transaction price, or, if there were no transactions that day, at the mean between the most recently quoted bid and asked prices. Unlisted fixed income securities (other than those with remaining maturities of 60 days or less) are valued at prices supplied by independent pricing services, which prices reflect broker/dealer-supplied valuations and electronic data processing techniques, and reflect the mean between the bid and asked prices. Unlisted fixed income securities having remaining maturities of 60 days or less are valued at their amortized cost.

Securities for which prices or market quotations are not available, do not accurately reflect fair value in Lord Abbett's opinion, or have been materially affected by events occurring after the close of the market on which the security is principally traded are valued under fair value procedures approved by the Fund's Board. These circumstances may arise, for instance, when trading in a security is suspended, the market on which a security is traded closes early, or demand for a security (as reflected by its trading volume) is insufficient and thus calls into question the reliability of the quoted price, or the security is relatively illiquid. The Fund may use fair value pricing more frequently for securities primarily traded on foreign exchanges. Because many foreign markets close hours before the

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Fund values its foreign portfolio holdings, significant events, including broad market moves, may occur in the interim potentially affecting the values of foreign securities held by the Fund. The Fund determines fair value in a manner that fairly reflects the market value of the security on the valuation date based on consideration of any information or factors it deems appropriate. These may include recent transactions in comparable securities, information relating to the specific security, developments in the markets and their performance, and current valuations of foreign or U.S. indices. The Fund's use of fair value pricing may cause the NAV of Fund shares to differ from the NAV that would be calculated using market quotations. Fair value pricing involves subjective judgments and it is possible that the fair value determined for a security may be materially different from the value that could be realized upon the sale of that security.

Certain securities that are traded primarily on foreign exchanges may trade on weekends or days when the NAV is not calculated. As a result, the value of securities may change on days when shareholders are not able to purchase or sell Fund shares.

Revenue Sharing and Other Payments to Dealers and Financial Intermediaries. Lord Abbett, Lord Abbett Distributor and the Fund may make other payments to dealers and other firms authorized to accept orders for Fund shares (collectively, "Dealers").

Lord Abbett or Lord Abbett Distributor makes payments to Dealers in its sole discretion, at its own expense and out of its own resources (including revenues from advisory fees) and without additional cost to the Fund or the Fund's shareholders. This compensation from Lord Abbett is not reflected in the fees and expenses listed above in the Fee Table section of this Prospectus. The payments may be for:

•  marketing and/or distribution support for Dealers;

•  the Dealers' and their investment professionals' shareholder servicing efforts;

•  training and education activities for the Dealers, their investment professionals and/or their clients or potential clients;

•  certain information regarding Dealers and their investment professionals;

•  sponsoring or otherwise bearing, in part or in whole, the costs for other meetings of Dealers' investment professionals and/or their clients or potential clients;

•  the purchase of products or services from the Dealers, such as investment research, software tools or data for investment analysis purposes; and/or

•  certain Dealers' costs associated with orders relating to Fund shares ("ticket charges").

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Some of these payments are sometimes called "revenue sharing" payments. Most of these payments are intended to reimburse Dealers directly or indirectly for the costs they or their investment professionals incur in connection with educational seminars and training efforts about the Lord Abbett Funds to enable the Dealers and their investment professionals to make recommendations and provide services that are suitable and useful in meeting shareholder needs, as well as to maintain the necessary infrastructure to make the Lord Abbett Funds available to shareholders. The costs and expenses related to these efforts may include travel, lodging, entertainment and meals, among other things.

Lord Abbett or Lord Abbett Distributor may benefit from revenue sharing if the Dealer features the Fund in its sales system (such as by placing the Fund on its preferred fund list or giving access on a preferential basis to members of the Financial Intermediary's sales force or management). In addition, Lord Abbett Distributor may agree to participate in the Dealer's marketing efforts (such as by helping to facilitate or provide financial assistance for conferences, seminars or other programs at which Lord Abbett personnel may make presentations on the Fund to the intermediary's sales force). To the extent the Dealers sell more shares of the Fund or retain shares of the Fund in their clients' accounts, Lord Abbett receives greater management and other fees due to the increase in the Fund's assets. Although a Dealer may request additional compensation from Lord Abbett to offset costs incurred by the Dealer servicing its clients, the Dealer may earn a profit on these payments, if the amount of the payment exceeds the Dealer's costs.

Lord Abbett or Lord Abbett Distributor, in its sole discretion, determines the amounts of payments to Dealers, with the exception of purchases of products or services and certain expense reimbursements. Lord Abbett and Lord Abbett Distributor consider many factors in determining the basis or amount of any additional payments to Dealers. These factors include the Dealer's sales, assets and redemption rates relating to Lord Abbett Funds, penetration of Lord Abbett Fund sales among investment professionals within the Dealer, and the potential to expand Lord Abbett's relationship with the Dealer. Lord Abbett and Lord Abbett Distributor also may take into account other business relationships Lord Abbett has with a Dealer, including other Lord Abbett financial products or advisory services sold by or provided to a Dealer or one or more of its affiliates. Based on its analysis of these factors, Lord Abbett groups Dealers into tiers, each of which is associated with a particular maximum amount of revenue sharing payments expressed as a percentage of assets of the Lord Abbett Funds attributable to that particular Dealer. The payments presently range from 0.02% to 0.1% of Lord Abbett Fund assets attributable to the Dealer and/or its investment professionals. For certain relationships entered into before February 1, 2006 with Dealers selling the Lord Abbett Funds in connection with variable insurance products, Lord

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Abbett or Lord Abbett Distributor may make payments up to 0.15% of the related Lord Abbett Funds' assets and/or sales. These maximum payment limitations may not be inclusive of payments for certain items, such as training and education activities, other meetings, and the purchase of certain products and services from the Dealers. The Dealers within a particular tier may receive different amounts of revenue sharing or may not receive any. Lord Abbett or Lord Abbett Distributor may choose not to make payments in relation to certain of the Lord Abbett Funds or certain classes of shares of any given Fund. In addition, Lord Abbett's formula for calculating revenue sharing payments may be different from the formulas that the Dealers use. Please refer to the Fund's Statement of Additional Information for additional information relating to revenue sharing payments.

Neither Lord Abbett nor Lord Abbett Distributor makes payments directly to a Dealer's investment professionals, but rather they are made solely to the Dealer itself (with the exception of expense reimbursements related to the attendance of a Dealer's investment professionals at training and education meetings and at other meetings involving the Lord Abbett Funds). The Dealers receiving additional payments include those that may recommend that their clients consider or select the Fund or other Lord Abbett Funds for investment purposes, including those that may include one or more of the Lord Abbett Funds on a "preferred" or "recommended" list of mutual funds. In some circumstances, the payments may create an incentive for a Dealer or its investment professionals to recommend or sell shares of Lord Abbett Funds to a client over shares of other funds. For more specific information about any additional payments, including revenue sharing, made to your Dealer, please contact your investment professional.

The Fund's portfolio transactions are not used to compensate Dealers that sell shares of the Lord Abbett Funds. Lord Abbett places the Fund's portfolio transactions with broker-dealers based on their ability to provide the best net results from the transaction to the Fund. If Lord Abbett determines that a Dealer can provide the Fund with the best net results, Lord Abbett may place the Fund's portfolio transactions with the Dealer even though it sells or has sold shares of the Fund. In no event, however, does or will Lord Abbett give any consideration to a Dealer's sales in deciding which Dealer to choose to execute the Fund's portfolio transactions. Lord Abbett maintains policies and procedures designed to ensure that it places portfolio transactions based on the Fund's receipt of the best net results only. These policies and procedures also permit Lord Abbett to give consideration to proprietary investment research a Dealer may provide to Lord Abbett.

Payments for Recordkeeping, Networking, and Other Services. In addition to the payments from Lord Abbett or Lord Abbett Distributor described above, from time to time, Lord Abbett and Lord Abbett Distributor may have other relationships with Financial Intermediaries relating to the provision of services to

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the Fund, such as providing omnibus account services or executing portfolio transactions for the Fund. The Fund generally may pay recordkeeping fees for services provided to plans where the account is a plan-level or fund-level omnibus account and plan participants have the ability to determine their investments in particular mutual funds. If your intermediary provides these services, Lord Abbett or the Fund may compensate the intermediary for these services. In addition, your intermediary may have other relationships with Lord Abbett or Lord Abbett Distributor that are not related to the Fund.

For example, the Lord Abbett Funds may enter into arrangements with and pay fees to Financial Intermediaries that provide recordkeeping or other subadministrative services to certain groups of investors in the Lord Abbett Funds, including participants in Retirement and Benefit Plans, investors in mutual fund advisory programs, investors in variable insurance products and clients of Financial Intermediaries that operate in an omnibus environment (collectively, "Investors"). The recordkeeping services typically include: (a) establishing and maintaining Investor accounts and records; (b) recording Investor account balances and changes thereto; (c) arranging for the wiring of funds; (d) providing statements to Investors; (e) furnishing proxy materials, periodic Lord Abbett Fund reports, Prospectuses and other communications to Investors as required; (f) transmitting Investor transaction information; and (g) providing information in order to assist the Lord Abbett Funds in their compliance with state securities laws. The fees Lord Abbett Funds pay are designed to compensate Financial Intermediaries for such services.

The Lord Abbett Funds may also pay fees to broker-dealers for networking services. Networking services may include but are not limited to:

•  establishing and maintaining individual accounts and records;

•  providing client account statements; and

•  providing 1099 forms and other tax statements.

The networking fees that the Lord Abbett Funds pay to broker-dealers normally result in reduced fees paid by the Fund to the transfer agent, which would otherwise provide these services.

Financial Intermediaries may charge additional fees or commissions other than those disclosed in this Prospectus, such as a transaction based fee or other fee for its service, and may categorize and disclose these arrangements differently than the discussion above and in the Fund's Statement of Additional Information. You may ask your Financial Intermediary about any payments it receives from Lord Abbett or the Fund, as well as about fees and/or commissions it charges.

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FINANCIAL INFORMATION