This Example is intended to help you compare the cost of investing in the Fund with the cost of investing in other mutual funds. The Example assumes that you invest $10,000 in the Fund for the time periods indicated and then redeem all of your shares at the end of those periods. The Example also assumes that your investment has a 5% return each year and that the Fund’s operating expenses remain the same. Class C shares automatically convert to Class A shares after eight years. The expense example for Class C shares for the ten-year period reflects the conversion to Class A shares. Although your actual costs may be higher or lower, based on these assumptions your costs would be:

Under normal conditions, the Fund pursues its investment objective by investing at least 80% of its net assets, plus the amount of any borrowings for investment purposes, in a diversified portfolio of convertible securities issued by U.S. and foreign companies. Convertible securities may include corporate bonds, debentures, notes, preferred stocks, and any other securities that can be exchanged for equity securities or provide an opportunity for equity participation. For purposes of this 80% policy, the Fund also may gain exposure to convertible securities through derivatives or other ‘synthetic’ means.

The Fund may invest in both investment grade convertible securities and lower-rated (commonly referred to as “high-yield” or “junk”) convertible securities or, if unrated, determined by Lord Abbett to be of comparable quality. The Fund may invest in companies of all sizes and may from time to time invest a significant amount of its assets in securities of small and mid-sized companies and below investment grade securities.

The Fund may invest up to 20% of its net assets in non-convertible debt or equity securities. In addition, the Fund may invest up to 20% of its net assets in foreign securities. The Fund defines foreign securities as securities of non-U.S. issuers that are denominated in non-U.S. currencies.

The Fund will not invest more than 25% of its total assets in any industry; however, this limitation does not apply to mortgage-backed securities, privately issued mortgage-related securities, or securities issued by the U.S. Government, its agencies and instrumentalities.

The Fund may use derivatives to hedge against risk or to gain investment exposure. Currently, the Fund expects to invest in derivatives consisting principally of futures, forwards, options, and swaps. Specifically, the Fund expects to employ a variety of options strategies for the Fund, including purchasing and selling put and call options, as well as utilizing “spreads” and other option combinations. In “spread” transactions, the Fund buys and writes a put or buys and writes a call on the same underlying instrument with the options having different expiration dates. The Fund may also take advantage of the pricing inefficiencies of an embedded option through the purchase of a convertible bond. Such convertible arbitrage strategies seek to take advantage of the pricing inefficiencies of the embedded option in a convertible bond. Convertible arbitrage involves purchasing a portfolio of convertible securities, generally convertible bonds, and hedging a portion of the equity risk by selling short

the underlying common stock. The Fund may use derivatives to seek to enhance returns, to attempt to hedge some of its investment risk, to manage portfolio duration, as a substitute for holding the underlying asset on which the derivative instrument is based, or for cash management purposes. For example, the Fund may invest in or sell short U.S. Treasury futures, securities index futures, other futures, and/or currency forwards to adjust the Fund’s exposure to the direction of interest rates, or for other portfolio management reasons.

The portfolio management team uses fundamental, bottom-up analysis to identify convertible securities that it believes are undervalued and that potentially may increase total return and reduce downside risk. The portfolio management team will work toward reducing risk through portfolio diversification, credit analysis, assessment of risk/return potential, and attention to current developments and trends in interest rates and economic conditions. The Fund engages in active and frequent trading of its portfolio securities.

The Fund may sell a security when the Fund believes the security is less likely to benefit from the current market and economic environment, or shows signs of deteriorating fundamentals, among other reasons. The Fund may deviate from the investment strategy described above for temporary defensive purposes. The Fund may miss certain investment opportunities if defensive strategies are used and thus may not achieve its investment objective.

PRINCIPAL RISKS

As with any investment in a mutual fund, investing in the Fund involves risk, including the risk that you may receive little or no return on your investment. When you redeem your shares, they may be worth more or less than what you paid for them, which means that you may lose a portion or all of the money you invested in the Fund. The principal risks of investing in the Fund, which could adversely affect its performance, include:

· Market Risk: The market values of securities will fluctuate, sometimes sharply and unpredictably, based on overall economic conditions, governmental actions or intervention, market disruptions caused by trade disputes, tariffs or other factors, political developments, and other factors. Prices of equity securities tend to rise and fall more dramatically than those of debt securities.

· Convertible Securities Risk: Convertible securities are subject to the risks affecting both equity and fixed income securities, including market, credit, liquidity, and interest rate risk. Convertible securities tend to be more volatile than other fixed income securities, and the markets for convertible securities may be less liquid than markets for common stocks or bonds. A significant portion of convertible securities have below investment grade credit ratings and are subject to increased credit and liquidity risks.

· Credit Risk: Debt securities are subject to the risk that the issuer or guarantor of a security may not make interest and principal payments as they become due or may default altogether. In addition, if the market perceives a deterioration in the creditworthiness of an issuer, the value and liquidity of securities issued by that issuer may decline. To the extent that the Fund holds below investment grade securities, these risks may be heightened. Insured debt securities have the credit risk of the insurer in addition to the credit risk of the underlying investment being insured.

· Call Risk: A substantial portion of bonds are “callable,” meaning they give the issuer the right to call or redeem the bonds before maturity. Issuers may call outstanding bonds when there is a decline in interest rates, when credit spreads

change, or when the issuer’s credit quality improves. As interest rates decline, these bond issuers may pay off their loans early by buying back the bonds, thus depriving the Fund of above market interest rates.

· Foreign Currency Risk: Investments in securities that are denominated or receiving revenues in foreign currencies are subject to the risk that those currencies will decline in value relative to the U.S. dollar, or, in the case of hedged positions, that the U.S. dollar will decline in value relative to the currency being hedged. Foreign currency exchange rates may fluctuate significantly over short periods of time.

· Liquidity/Redemption Risk: The Fund may lose money when selling securities at inopportune times to fulfill shareholder redemption requests. The risk of loss may increase depending on the size and frequency of redemption requests, whether the redemption requests occur in times of overall market turmoil or declining prices, and whether the securities the Fund intends to sell have decreased in value or are illiquid. The Fund may be less able to sell illiquid

securities at its desired time or price. It may be more difficult for the Fund to value its investments in illiquid securities than more liquid securities.

· Industry and Sector Risk: Although the Fund does not employ an industry or sector focus, its exposure to specific industries or sectors will increase from time to time based on the portfolio management team’s perception of investment opportunities. If the Fund is overweight in a single industry or sector relative to its benchmark index, the Fund will face an increased risk that the value of its portfolio will decrease because of events disproportionately affecting that industry or sector. Furthermore, investments in particular industries or sectors may be more volatile than the broader market as a whole.

· Mid-Sized and Small Company Risk: Investments in mid-sized and small companies may involve greater risks than investments in larger, more established companies. Securities of mid-sized and small companies tend to be more sensitive to changing economic, market, and industry conditions and tend to be more volatile and less liquid than equity securities of larger companies, especially over the short term. The securities of mid-sized and small companies tend to trade less frequently than those of larger, more established companies, which can adversely affect the pricing of these securities and the ability to sell these securities in the future.

· Derivatives Risk: The risks associated with derivatives may be different from and greater than the risks associated with directly investing in securities and other investments. Derivatives may increase the Fund’s volatility and reduce its returns. Derivatives may not perform as expected and the Fund may not realize the intended benefits. Whether the Fund’s use of derivatives is successful may depend on, among other things, the portfolio managers’ ability to correctly forecast market movements, company and industry valuation levels and trends, changes in foreign exchange and interest rates, and other factors. If the portfolio managers incorrectly forecast these and other factors, the Fund’s performance could suffer. Derivatives are also subject to liquidity risk and the risk that the counterparty to a derivative transaction may fail to fulfill its contractual obligations under the derivative contract. In addition, given their complexity, derivatives are subject to the risk that improper or misunderstood documentation may expose the Fund to losses.