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, giving effect to the fee waiver and expense reimbursement arrangement described above. 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 various types of short duration debt (or fixed income) securities and derivative instruments that are intended to provide economic exposure to such securities. Under normal conditions, the Fund invests substantially all of its assets in debt securities rated investment grade at the time of purchase or determined by Lord Abbett to be of comparable quality. However, the Fund may at times hold below investment grade securities (commonly referred to as “high-yield” or “junk” bonds) if the Fund purchased securities that were considered investment grade at their time of purchase and such securities subsequently are downgraded. The Fund may invest in:

· corporate debt securities of U.S. issuers;

· corporate debt securities of non-U.S. (including emerging market) issuers that are denominated in U.S. dollars;

· mortgage-backed, mortgage-related and other asset-backed securities, including privately issued mortgage-related securities and commercial mortgage-backed securities (“CMBS”);

· securities issued or guaranteed by the U.S. Government, its agencies and instrumentalities;

· debt securities issued or guaranteed by non-U.S. sovereign governments and their agencies, authorities, political subdivisions, or instrumentalities;

· loans, including bridge loans, novations, assignments, and participations; and

· structured securities and other hybrid instruments, including collateralized loan obligations (“CLOs”).

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 seeks to manage interest rate risk through its management of the average duration of the securities it holds in its portfolio. Under normal conditions, the Fund will maintain its average dollar-weighted duration range between one and three years. Subject to the foregoing, the Fund does not have any maturity or duration restrictions and may invest in securities of any maturity or duration. The duration of a security takes into account the pattern of all expected payments of interest and principal on the security over time, including how these payments are affected by changes in interest rates.

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. 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 market value of derivatives providing economic exposure substantially similar to the securities referenced in the Fund’s 80% policy, as described above, will be counted for purposes of measuring the Fund’s compliance with its 80% policy.

The portfolio management team buys and sells securities using a relative value-oriented investment process, meaning the portfolio management team generally seeks more investment exposure to securities believed to be undervalued and less investment exposure to securities believed to be overvalued. The portfolio management team combines top-down and bottom-up analysis to construct its portfolio. The portfolio management team uses a blend of fundamental research and quantitative tools to evaluate global economic conditions, opportunities, and risks across different segments of the fixed income market. The portfolio management team may actively rotate sector exposure based on its assessment of relative value. The Fund may engage 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.

· 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.

· 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.

· Mortgage-Related and Other Asset-Backed Securities Risk: Mortgage-related securities, including CMBS and other privately issued mortgage-related securities, and other asset-backed securities may be particularly sensitive to changes in prevailing interest rates and economic conditions, including delinquencies and defaults. The prices of mortgage-related and other asset-backed securities, depending on their structure and the rate of payments, can be volatile. They are subject to prepayment risk (higher than expected prepayment rates of mortgage obligations due to a fall in market interest rates) and extension risk (lower than expected prepayment rates of mortgage obligations due to a rise in market interest rates). These risks increase the Fund’s overall interest rate risk. Some mortgage-related securities receive government or private support, but there is no assurance that such support will remain in place.

· Foreign and Emerging Market Company Risk: Investments in foreign companies and in U.S. companies with economic ties to foreign markets generally involve special risks. These companies may be more vulnerable to economic, political, and social instability and subject to less government supervision, lack of transparency, inadequate regulatory and accounting standards, and foreign taxes. Foreign company securities also include American Depositary Receipts (“ADRs”), which may be less liquid than the underlying shares in their primary trading market. Foreign securities also may subject the Fund’s investments to changes in currency exchange rates. Emerging market securities generally are more volatile than other foreign securities, and are subject to greater liquidity, regulatory, and political risks. Investments in emerging markets may be considered speculative and generally are riskier than investments in more developed markets. Emerging markets are more likely to experience hyperinflation and currency devaluations. Securities of emerging market companies may have far lower trading volumes and less liquidity than securities of issuers in developed markets. In certain emerging market countries, governments participate to a significant degree in their respective economies. Action by these governments could have a significant adverse effect on market prices of securities and payment of dividends. Companies with economic ties to emerging markets may be susceptible to the same risks as companies organized in emerging markets.

· Sovereign Debt Risk: Sovereign debt securities are subject to the risk that the relevant sovereign government or governmental entity may delay or refuse to pay interest or repay principal on its debt. There is no legal process for

collecting sovereign debt that is not repaid, nor are there bankruptcy proceedings through which all or part of the unpaid sovereign debt may be collected.

· 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.