International Core Equity Portfolio

International Core Equity Portfolio

INVESTMENT OBJECTIVE

The Fund’s investment objective is to seek long-term capital appreciation.

FEES AND EXPENSES

This table describes the fees and expenses that you may pay if you buy and hold shares of the Fund. The table does not reflect the fees and expenses of variable annuity contracts or variable life insurance policies (together, “Variable Contracts”). If such fees and expenses were reflected, expenses shown would be higher.

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

Annual Fund Operating Expenses	International Core Equity Portfolio Class VC
Management Fees	0.75%
Other Expenses	0.68%
Total Annual Fund Operating Expenses	1.43%
Fee Waiver and/or Expense Reimbursement	(0.56%)	[1]
Total Annual Fund Operating Expenses After Fee Waiver and/or Expense Reimbursement	0.87%	[1]

Example

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. The Example does not reflect Variable Contract expenses, fees, and charges. If these expenses, fees, and charges were included, your costs would be higher. Although your actual costs may be higher or lower, based on these assumptions your costs would be:

Expense Example	1 Year	3 Years	5 Years	10 Years
International Core Equity Portfolio | Class VC | USD ($)	89	397	728	1,665

Portfolio Turnover.

The Fund pays transaction costs, such as commissions, when it buys and sells securities (or “turns over” its portfolio). A higher portfolio turnover rate may indicate higher transaction costs. These costs, which are not reflected in the annual fund operating expenses or in the example, affect the Fund’s performance. During the most recent fiscal year, the Fund’s portfolio turnover rate was 59.93% of the average value of its portfolio.

PRINCIPAL INVESTMENT STRATEGIES

To pursue its objective, the Fund invests principally in a diversified portfolio of equity securities of large foreign companies that the portfolio managers believe are undervalued. Under normal conditions, the Fund will invest at least 80% of its net assets, plus the amount of any borrowings for investment purposes, in equity securities of large companies. For purposes of the Fund’s investment policies, a large company is defined as a company included among the largest 80% of companies in terms of market capitalization at the time of investment in each country represented in the MSCI EAFE® Index. The Fund uses a “blend” strategy to gain investment exposure to both growth and value stocks, or to stocks with characteristics of both.

The Fund’s principal investments include the following types of securities and other financial instruments:

• Equity securities of large companies. The Fund may invest in any security that represents equity ownership in a company. Equity securities usually include common stocks, preferred stocks, equity interests in trusts (including real estate investment trusts (“REITs”) and privately offered trusts), partnerships, joint ventures, limited liability companies, vehicles with similar legal structures, and other instruments with similar characteristics. The Fund considers equity securities to include rights offerings and investments that convert into the equity securities described above.

• Foreign companies whose securities may be traded on U.S. or non-U.S. securities exchanges, may be denominated in the U.S. dollar or other currencies, and may include American Depositary Receipts (“ADRs”). The Fund also may invest in supranational organizations. Although the Fund is not required to hedge its exposure to any currency, it may choose to do so. The Fund may invest up to 15% of its net assets in securities of foreign companies that are traded primarily on securities markets or exchanges located in emerging market countries.

• Growth companies that the Fund’s portfolio management team believes exhibit faster-than-average gains in earnings and have the potential to continue profit growth at a high level.

• Value companies that the Fund’s portfolio management team believes to be undervalued according to certain financial measurements of intrinsic worth or business prospects and to have the potential for capital appreciation.

Consistent with its investment objective and policies, the Fund selectively may invest in derivatives. The Fund may use derivatives for risk management purposes, including to hedge against a decline in the value of certain investments and to adjust the investment characteristics of its portfolio. The Fund also may invest in derivatives for non-hedging purposes to increase its investment return or income. For example, the Fund may manage cash by investing in futures or other derivatives that provide efficient short-term investment exposure to broad equity markets. Some examples of the types of derivatives in which the Fund may invest are forward contracts, futures, options, and swap agreements.

The Fund generally will sell a security when the Fund believes the security is less likely to benefit from the current market and economic environment, shows signs of deteriorating fundamentals, or has reached its valuation target, among other reasons. The Fund seeks to remain fully invested in accordance with its investment objective. The Fund may, however, deviate entirely 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:

• Portfolio Management Risk: If the Fund’s fundamental research and quantitative analysis fail to produce the intended result, the Fund may suffer losses or underperform its benchmark or other funds with the same investment objective or strategies, even in a rising market.

• Market Risk: The market values of securities will fluctuate, sometimes sharply and unpredictably, based on overall economic conditions and other factors. Prices of equity securities tend to rise and fall more dramatically than those of debt securities.

• Equity Securities Risk: Equity securities, as well as equity-like securities such as convertible debt securities, may experience significant volatility. Such securities may fall sharply in response to adverse events affecting overall markets, a particular industry or sector, or an individual company’s financial condition.

• 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 overweights 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.

• Foreign and Emerging Market Company Risk: The Fund’s investments in foreign (including emerging market) companies and in U.S. companies with economic ties to foreign markets generally involve special risks that can increase the likelihood that the Fund will lose money. For example, as compared with companies organized and operated in the U.S., 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. In addition, the securities of foreign companies also may be subject to inadequate exchange control regulations, the imposition of economic sanctions or other government restrictions, higher transaction and other costs, reduced liquidity, and delays in settlement to the extent they are traded on non-U.S. exchanges or markets. Foreign company securities also include ADRs. ADRs may be less liquid than the underlying shares in their primary trading market. 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 because such markets tend to develop unevenly and may never fully develop. 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. The Fund may invest in securities of companies whose economic fortunes are linked to emerging markets but which principally are traded on a non-emerging market exchange. Such investments do not meet the Fund’s definition of an emerging market security. To the extent the Fund invests in this manner, the percentage of the Fund’s portfolio that is exposed to emerging market risks may be greater than the percentage of the Fund’s assets that the Fund defines as representing emerging market securities.

• Foreign Currency Risk: The Fund may invest in securities denominated in foreign currencies, which 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 relative to the currency being hedged. Currency rates in foreign countries may fluctuate significantly over short periods of time.

• Geographic Concentration Risk: To the extent the Fund focuses its investments in a single country or only a few countries in a particular geographic region, economic, political, regulatory or other conditions affecting such region may have a greater impact on Fund performance relative to a more geographically diversified fund.

• Large Company Risk: As compared to smaller companies, larger, more established companies may be less able to respond quickly to certain market developments and may have slower rates of growth. Large companies also may fall out of favor relative to smaller companies in certain market cycles, causing the Fund to incur losses or underperform.

• Blend Style Risk: Growth stocks tend to be more volatile than slower-growing value stocks. Growth stocks typically trade at higher multiples of current earnings than other stocks. Growth stocks often are more sensitive to market fluctuations than other securities because their market prices are highly sensitive to future earnings expectations. At times when it appears that these expectations may not be met, growth stocks’ prices typically fall. The prices of value stocks may lag the stock market for long periods of time if the market fails to recognize the company’s intrinsic worth. Value investing also is subject to the risk that a company judged to be undervalued may actually be appropriately priced or even overpriced. A portfolio that combines growth and value styles may diversify these risks and lower its volatility, but there is no assurance this strategy will achieve that result.

• Derivatives Risk: Derivatives can increase the Fund’s volatility and/or reduce the Fund’s returns. Derivatives are subject to certain risks, including the risk that the value of the derivative may not correlate with the value of the underlying security, rate, or index in the manner anticipated by portfolio management. Derivatives may be more sensitive to changes in economic or market conditions and may become illiquid. Derivatives are subject to leverage risk, which may increase the Fund’s volatility. Derivatives also are subject to counterparty risk, which means that the counterparty may fail to perform its obligations under the derivative contract. Central clearing of derivatives is intended to decrease counterparty risk but does not make these transactions risk-free. In addition, the Fund will be required to segregate permissible liquid assets to cover its obligations under these transactions and may have to liquidate positions before it is desirable to do so to fulfill its requirements to segregate. Whether the Fund’s use of derivatives is successful will depend on, among other things, the Fund’s ability to correctly forecast market movements and other factors. If the Fund incorrectly forecasts these and other factors, the Fund’s performance could suffer.

• 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.

• High Portfolio Turnover Risk: High portfolio turnover may result in increased brokerage fees or other transaction costs, reduced investment performance, and higher taxes resulting from increased realized capital gains.

An investment in the Fund is not a deposit of any bank and is not insured or guaranteed by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation or any other government agency. For more information on the principal risks of the Fund, please see the “More Information About the Fund – Principal Risks” section in the prospectus.

PERFORMANCE

The bar chart and table below provide some indication of the risks of investing in the Fund by illustrating the variability of the Fund’s returns. Each assumes reinvestment of dividends and distributions. The Fund’s past performance is not necessarily an indication of how the Fund will perform in the future.

The bar chart shows changes in the performance of the Fund’s Class VC shares from calendar year to calendar year. This chart does not reflect the sales charges or other expenses of Variable Contracts. If those sales charges and expenses were reflected, returns would be lower.

Bar Chart (per calendar year) — Class VC Shares

Best Quarter 1st Q ’12 +10.83% Worst Quarter 3rd Q ’11 -19.79%

Average Annual Total Returns (for the periods ended December 31, 2015)

The table below shows how the Fund’s average annual total returns compare to the returns of securities market indices with investment characteristics similar to those of the Fund.

Average Annual Returns - International Core Equity Portfolio	1 Year	5 Years	Life of Class	Inception Date for Performance
Class VC	(1.78%)	1.76%	2.90%	Apr. 30, 2010
MSCI EAFE® Index with Gross Dividends (reflects no deduction for fees, expenses, or taxes)	(0.39%)	4.07%	5.18%	Apr. 30, 2010
MSCI EAFE® Index with Net Dividends (reflects no deduction for fees or expenses, but reflects deduction of withholding taxes)	(0.81%)	3.60%	4.72%	Apr. 30, 2010

[1] For the period from May 1, 2016 through April 30, 2017, Lord, Abbett & Co. LLC has contractually agreed to waive its fees and reimburse expenses to the extent necessary to limit total annual operating expenses, excluding any acquired fund fees and expenses, to an annual rate of 0.87%. This agreement may be terminated only by the approval of the Fund's Board of Directors.