Ultra Short Income Portfolio

Ultra Short Income Portfolio

Objective

The Ultra-Short Income Portfolio (the "Portfolio") seeks current income with capital preservation while maintaining liquidity.

Fees and Expenses

The table below describes the fees and expenses that you may pay if you buy and hold shares of the Portfolio. The Portfolio does not charge any sales loads or other fees when you purchase or redeem shares.

Annual Portfolio Operating Expenses (expenses that you pay each year as a percentage of the value of your investment)

Annual Fund Operating Expenses - Ultra Short Income Portfolio		Class IS	Institutional Class	Class A
Advisory Fee		0.20%	0.20%	0.20%
Shareholder Service or 12b-1 Fee		none	0.05%	0.25%
Other Expenses	[1]	0.20%	0.21%	0.25%
Total Annual Portfolio Operating Expenses	[2]	0.40%	0.46%	0.70%
Fee Waiver and/or Expense Reimbursement	[2]	0.15%	0.16%	0.15%
Total Annual Portfolio Operating Expenses After Fee Waiver and/or Expense Reimbursement	[2]	0.25%	0.30%	0.55%

Example

The example below is intended to help you compare the cost of investing in the Portfolio with the cost of investing in other mutual funds.

The example assumes that you invest $10,000 in the Portfolio, your investment has a 5% return each year and that the Portfolio's operating expenses remain the same (except that the example incorporates the fee waiver and expense limitation arrangement for only the first year). Although your actual costs may be higher or lower, based on these assumptions your costs would be:

Expense Example - Ultra Short Income Portfolio - USD ($)	1 Year	3 Year
Class IS	26	113
Institutional Class	31	131
Class A	56	209

Portfolio Turnover

The Portfolio pays transaction costs when it buys and sells securities (or "turns over" its portfolio). A higher portfolio turnover rate may indicate higher transaction costs and may result in higher taxes when Portfolio shares are held in a taxable account. These costs, which are not reflected in Total Annual Portfolio Operating Expenses or in the Example, affect the Portfolio's performance. Because the Portfolio had not commenced operations as of the most recent fiscal year end, no portfolio turnover rate is available for the Portfolio.

Principal Investment Strategies

The Portfolio invests primarily in liquid, high quality U.S. dollar-denominated money market instruments of U.S. and foreign financial issuers and non-financial issuers. The Portfolio also invests in obligations issued or guaranteed by the U.S. Government and its agencies and instrumentalities. The Portfolio's money market investments may include commercial paper, corporate debt obligations, debt obligations (including certificates of deposit and promissory notes) of U.S. banks or foreign banks, or of U.S. branches or subsidiaries of foreign banks, or foreign branches of U.S. banks (such as Yankee obligations), certificates of deposit of savings banks and savings and loan organizations, asset-backed securities, repurchase agreements and municipal obligations.

Pursuant to a fundamental policy adopted by the Portfolio, the Portfolio invests, under normal circumstances, at least 25% of its assets in securities issued by companies in the financial services industry, including banks, broker-dealers and insurance companies.

Securities purchased by the Portfolio (or the issuers of such securities) will carry a rating in the highest two rating categories, A-2, P-2 or F2 or better by Standard & Poor's Ratings Group, a division The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. ("S&P"), Moody's Investors Service, Inc. ("Moody's"), or Fitch, Inc. ("Fitch"), respectively, or the equivalent by another nationally recognized statistical rating organization ("NRSRO"), or if such investments are unrated, determined to be of comparable quality by the Adviser, at the time of investment. The Portfolio may invest up to 5% of its assets, determined at the time of investment, in securities (or the issuers of such securities) rated A-2, P-2 or F2 by S&P, Moody's or Fitch, respectively, and no more than 1% of its assets will be invested in an individual security or issuer with such rating.

Under normal circumstances, the Portfolio intends to maintain a maximum weighted average maturity of 90 days or less and a maximum weighted average life of 180 days or less.

The Portfolio is not a money market fund and does not seek to maintain a stable net asset value ("NAV").

The Adviser follows a multi-pronged investment process with respect to credit risk, interest rate risk and liquidity. Securities are reviewed on an ongoing basis to maintain or improve creditworthiness taking into consideration factors such as cash flow, asset quality, debt service coverage ratios and economic developments. Additionally, exposure to guarantors and liquidity providers is monitored separately as are the various diversification requirements. The Adviser manages the Portfolio's assets in an attempt to reduce credit or interest rate risks.

Principal Risks

There is no assurance that the Portfolio will achieve its investment objective and you can lose money investing in this Portfolio. The principal risks of investing in the Portfolio include:

•  Fixed Income Securities. Fixed income securities are
subject to the risk of the issuer's inability to meet principal and interest payments on its obligations (i.e., credit risk) and are subject to price volatility resulting from, among other things, interest rate sensitivity, market perception of the creditworthiness of the issuer and general market liquidity (i.e., market risk). The historically low interest rate environment increases the risk associated with rising interest rates, including the potential for periods of volatility and increased redemptions. The Portfolio may face a heightened level of interest rate risk, especially since the Federal Reserve Board has ended its quantitative easing program and may begin to raise rates.

•  Financial Services. The Portfolio is more susceptible to any economic, business, political, regulatory or other developments that adversely affect issuers in the financial services industry than a fund that does not concentrate its investments in the financial services industry. The profitability of many types of financial services companies may be adversely affected in certain market cycles, including periods of rising interest rates, which may restrict the availability and increase the cost of capital, and declining economic conditions, which may cause credit losses due to financial difficulties of borrowers. Financial services companies are also subject to extensive government regulation, including policy and legislative changes in the United States and other countries that are changing many aspects of financial regulation.

•  U.S. Government Securities. The U.S. government securities in which the Portfolio invests can be subject to two types of risk: credit risk and interest rate risk. When the general level of interest rates goes up, the prices of most fixed-income securities go down. When the general level of interest rates goes down, the prices of most fixed-income securities go up. With respect to U.S. government securities that are not backed by the full faith and credit of the United States, there is the risk that the U.S. Government will not provide financial support to such U.S. government agencies, instrumentalities or sponsored enterprises if it is not obligated to do so by law.

•Asset-Backed Securities. Asset-backed securities involve the risk that various federal and state consumer laws and other legal and economic factors may result in the collateral backing the securities being insufficient to support payment on the securities. Some asset-backed securities also entail prepayment risk, which may vary depending on the type of asset.

•  Repurchase Agreements. Repurchase agreements are subject to risks associated with the possibility of default by the seller at a time when the collateral has declined in value, or insolvency of the seller, which may affect the Portfolio's right to control the collateral and result in certain costs and delays. Repurchase agreements may involve a greater degree of credit risk than investments in U.S. government securities.

•  Foreign Money Market Securities. Investing in money market securities of foreign issuers involves some additional risks, including the possibility of adverse political, economic or other developments affecting the issuers of these securities.

•  Municipal Obligations. Because the Portfolio invests in municipal obligations issued by state and local governments and their agencies, the Portfolio may be susceptible to political, economic, regulatory or other factors affecting issuers of these municipal obligations. To the extent that the Portfolio invests in municipal obligations of issuers in the same economic sector, it could be more sensitive to economic, business or political developments which affect such sector.

•  Liquidity. The Portfolio's investments in illiquid securities may entail greater risk than investments in publicly traded securities. These securities may be more difficult to sell, particularly in times of market turmoil. Additionally, the market for certain investments deemed liquid at the time of purchase may become illiquid under adverse market or economic conditions. Illiquid securities may be more difficult to value. If the Portfolio is forced to sell an illiquid security to fund redemptions or for other cash needs, it may be forced to sell the security at a loss.

Shares of the Portfolio are not bank deposits and are not guaranteed or insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation or any other government agency.

Performance Information

As of the date hereof, the Portfolio has not yet completed a full calendar year of investment operations. Upon the completion of a full calendar year of investment operations by the Portfolio, this section will include charts that provide some indication of the risks of an investment in the Portfolio by showing the difference in annual total returns, highest and lowest quarterly returns and average annual total returns (before and after taxes) compared to a benchmark index selected for the Portfolio. Performance information for the Portfolio will be available online at www.morganstanley.com/im.

[1] Other expenses have been estimated for the current fiscal year.

[2] The Portfolio's "Adviser," Morgan Stanley Investment Management Inc., has agreed to reduce its advisory fee and/or reimburse the Portfolio so that Total Annual Portfolio Operating Expenses, excluding certain investment related expenses, taxes, interest and other extraordinary expenses (including litigation), will not exceed 0.25% for Class IS, 0.30% for the Institutional Class and 0.55% for Class A. The fee waivers and/or expense reimbursements will continue for at least one year or until such time as the Board of Trustees of Morgan Stanley Institutional Fund Trust (the "Fund") acts to discontinue all or a portion of such waivers and/or reimbursements when it deems such action is appropriate.