1933 Act File No. 033-43017

1940 Act File No. 811-06418

SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION
Washington, D.C. 20549

FORM N-1A

REGISTRATION STATEMENT UNDER THE SECURITIES ACT OF 1933		x

Pre-Effective Amendment No.		o

Post-Effective Amendment No. 36		x

and/or

REGISTRATION STATEMENT UNDER THE INVESTMENT COMPANY ACT OF 1940		x

Amendment No. 36		x

LORD ABBETT MUNICIPAL INCOME TRUST
Exact Name of Registrant as Specified in Charter

90 Hudson Street Jersey City, New Jersey 07302-3973
(Address of Principal Executive Office)

Registrant’s Telephone Number (800) 201-6984

Lawrence B. Stoller, Esq.
Vice President and Assistant Secretary
90 Hudson Street, Jersey City, New Jersey 07302-3973
(Name and Address of Agent for Service)

It is proposed that this filing will become effective (check appropriate box)

o immediately upon filing pursuant to paragraph (b)

x on February 1, 2008 pursuant to paragraph (b) of Rule 485

o 60 days after filing pursuant to paragraph (a) (1)

o on (date) pursuant to paragraph (a) (1)

o 75 days after filing pursuant to paragraph (a) (2)

o on (date) pursuant to paragraph (a) (2) of Rule 485

If appropriate, check the following box:

o this post-effective amendment designates a new effective date for a previously filed post-effective amendment.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has not approved or disapproved of these securities or determined whether this Prospectus is accurate or complete. Any representation to the contrary is a criminal offense.

Class P shares of each Fund are not offered to the general public and are not available in all states. Please call
888-522-2388 for further information.

The investment objective of each Fund is to seek the maximum amount of interest income exempt from federal income tax as is consistent with reasonable risk. Each Fund (except for the National Tax Free and Intermediate Tax Free Funds) also seeks as high a level of interest income exempt from the personal income tax of its corresponding state as is consistent with reasonable risk. The New York Tax Free Fund also seeks as high a level of interest income exempt from New York City personal income tax as is consistent with reasonable risk.

Each Fund assesses risk by considering the volatility the Fund has over time. By volatility we mean the level of price fluctuations in a Fund's holdings. The Funds, except the Intermediate Tax Free Fund, believe that a volatility that generally approximates the volatility of the Lehman Brothers Municipal Bond Index represents a reasonable risk. The Intermediate Tax Free Fund believes that a volatility that generally approximates the volatility of the Lehman Brothers 3-10 Year Insured Tax-Exempt Bond Index represents a reasonable risk.

To pursue its goal, under normal market conditions each Fund primarily invests in municipal bonds which, at the time of purchase, are rated investment grade or determined by Lord Abbett to be of comparable quality. Each Fund (except for the National Tax Free Fund) may invest up to 20% of its net assets in municipal bonds which, at the time of purchase, are rated below investment grade or determined by Lord Abbett to be of comparable quality. The National Tax Free Fund may invest up to 35% of its net assets in municipal bonds which, at the time of purchase, are rated below investment grade or determined by Lord Abbett to be of comparable quality.

Under normal market conditions, each Fund attempts to invest at least 80% of its net assets, plus the amount of any borrowings for investment purposes, in municipal bonds, the interest on which is exempt from federal, its corresponding state's and, in the case of the New York Tax Free Fund, New York City personal income tax (this policy may not be changed without shareholder approval). If the interest on a particular municipal bond is so exempt, the Fund will treat the bond as qualifying for purposes of the 80% requirement even though the issuer of the bond may be located outside of the named state or city.

Each Fund may invest up to 20% of its net assets in other fixed income securities, including bonds that pay interest that is subject to federal, its corresponding state's and/or, in the case of the New York Tax Free Fund, New York City personal income tax. Such bonds may include municipal bonds issued by other states, which may be exempt from federal but not state and/or local taxes.

Each Fund may invest in certain derivative investments such as swap transactions, interest rate caps and similar instruments, and residual interest bonds (also known as "inverse floaters"), in an attempt to increase income.

Under normal circumstances, we intend to maintain the average weighted stated maturity of each Fund, except for the Intermediate Tax Free Fund, at between ten and twenty-five years and as to the Intermediate Tax Free Fund, we intend to maintain the average weighted stated maturity at between three and ten years. A substantial amount of a Fund's holdings may be "callable," a feature that allows the bond issuer to redeem the bond before its maturity date.

• Income Tax Exemption – the bond issuer's ability to pay interest free from federal, state and/or local personal income taxes

• Total Return Potential – the return possibilities for an investment over a period of time, including appreciation and interest

• Call Protection – assurance by an issuer that it will not redeem a bond earlier than anticipated

To the extent that the supply of state tax-exempt municipal bonds is insufficient to meet a Fund's investment needs, it may invest in municipal bonds issued by other states, which may be exempt from federal but not state and/or local taxes.

While typically fully invested, we may take a temporary defensive position in: (i) short-term tax-exempt securities and (ii) cash, investment grade commercial paper, and short-term U.S. Government securities. This could reduce tax-exempt

Temporary defensive investments in taxable securities and investments in certain municipal bonds called private activity bonds will be limited to 20% of a Fund's assets. The income from private activity bonds is an item of tax preference for purposes of the federal alternative minimum tax ("AMT").

For All Funds – Each Fund's performance and the value of its investments will vary in response to changes in interest rates and other market factors. As interest rates rise, a Fund's investments typically will lose value. This risk is usually greater for longer-term bonds and particularly for inverse floaters than for shorter-term bonds. As a result, the Funds, which tend to invest in longer term bonds and inverse floaters to a greater degree than some municipal bond funds, normally will have greater market risk than those funds. In addition, lower rated municipal bonds in which each Fund may invest may be more volatile and may decline more in price in response to negative issuer developments or general economic news than higher rated securities.

Additional risks that could reduce each Fund's performance or increase volatility include the following:

• Credit Risk – If the market perceives a deterioration in the creditworthiness of an issuer, the value of bonds issued by that issuer tends to decline. Credit risk varies based upon the economic and fiscal conditions of each state and the municipalities, agencies, instrumentalities, and other issuers within the state. Insurance or other credit enhancements supporting a Fund's investment may be provided by either U.S. or foreign entities. These securities have the credit risk of the entity providing the credit support. Credit support provided by foreign entities may be less certain because of the possibility of adverse foreign economic, political or legal developments that may affect the ability of the entity to meet its obligations. A change in the credit rating or the market's perception of the creditworthiness of any of the municipal bond insurers that insure securities in a Fund's portfolio may affect the value of the securities

they insure, the Fund's share prices, and Fund performance. A Fund also may be adversely affected by the inability of an insurer to meet its insurance obligations.

• Liquidity Risk – The market for lower rated municipal bonds generally is less liquid than the market for higher rated bonds, subjecting them to greater price fluctuations. It may be difficult for a Fund to sell such securities in a timely manner and at their stated value, which could result in losses to the Fund.

• Call Risk – As interest rates decline, bond issuers may pay off their loans early by buying back the bonds, thus depriving bondholders of above market interest rates.

• Governmental Risk – Government actions, including actions by local, state and regional governments, could have an adverse effect on municipal bond prices. In addition, a Fund's performance may be affected by local, state, and regional factors depending on the states in which the Fund's investments are issued. These factors may, for example, include economic or political developments, erosion of the tax base and the possibility of credit problems.

• Sector Risk – Where nongovernmental users of facilities financed by tax-exempt revenue bonds are in the same industry (such as frequently occurs in the electric utility and health care industries), there may be additional risk to a Fund in the event of an economic downturn in that industry. This may result generally in a lowered ability of such users to make payments on their obligations. The electric utility industry is subject to rate regulation vagaries. The health care industry suffers from two main problems – affordability and access.

• Legislative Risk – Legislative changes in the tax-exempt character of particular municipal bonds could have an adverse effect on municipal bond prices.

• Management Risk – If certain sectors or investments do not perform as expected, the Funds could underperform other similar funds or lose money.

• Reclassification Risk – The Internal Revenue Service ("IRS") has announced that holders of tax-exempt bonds have risks that their tax-exempt income may be reclassified as taxable if the bonds that they own were issued in an abusive transaction. Although the Funds attempt to purchase only bona fide tax-exempt securities, there is a risk that a bond issued as tax-exempt may be reclassified by the IRS as taxable, creating taxable rather than tax-exempt income. In such a case, the Funds might be required to send to you and file with the IRS information returns (Forms 1099-DIV) for the current or prior calendar years classifying (or reclassifying) some of their exempt-interest dividends as taxable dividends. On prior year dividends, you might need to

file amended income tax returns and pay additional tax and interest to avoid additional penalties and to limit interest charges on these taxable dividends.

Each Fund (except the National Tax Free and Intermediate Tax Free Funds) is nondiversified, which means that it may invest a greater portion of its assets in a single issuer than a diversified fund. Thus, it may be exposed to greater risk.

In addition, loss may result from a Fund's investments in certain derivative transactions such as swap transactions, interest rate caps and similar instruments, and inverse floaters. These instruments may be leveraged so that small changes may produce disproportionate and substantial losses to a Fund. They also may increase a Fund's interest rate risk.

An investment in the Funds is not a bank deposit and is not insured or guaranteed by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation or any other government agency. The Funds may not be appropriate for all investors and none of the Funds is a complete investment program. You could lose money investing in the Funds.

State and Territory Risks – Because each Fund other than the National Tax Free and Intermediate Tax Free Funds focuses on a particular state or territory, each such Fund's performance may be more affected by local, state and regional factors than a fund that invests in municipal bonds issued in many states. These factors may, for example, include economic or political developments, erosion of the tax base and the possibility of credit problems. In additions, downturns or developments in the U.S. economy or in foreign economies or significant world events may harm the performance of any of the Funds (including the National Tax Free and Intermediate Tax Free Funds), and may do so disproportionately as a result of the corresponding disproportionate impact of such occurrences on particular state, territory, or local economies. Certain state and local governments and other government issuers suffered significant drops in revenues coinciding with the last U.S. economic recession, resulting in a very difficult period for state and local governments. Despite the economic improvement in the nation as a whole during the last several years, many states continued to suffer fiscal imbalances. The recent housing market downturn and economic slow down are likely to cause declines in tax revenues and put pressure on budgetary reserves for affected governments. All of this could have significant consequences for each of the Funds because a worsening of the economic position of a state or other issuer of bonds in which one of the Funds invests could lower the value of that Fund's investments and could cause you to lose money.

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, before and after taxes, is not necessarily an indication of how the Fund will perform in the future. No performance is shown for Class F shares since this class has not completed a full calendar year of operations. No performance is shown for Class P* shares since the Fund has not issued Class P shares to date.

The bar chart shows changes in the performance of the Fund's Class A shares from calendar year to calendar year. This chart does not reflect the sales charges applicable to Class A shares. If the sales charges were reflected, returns would be less. Performance for the Fund's other share classes will vary due to the different expenses each class bears.

*As of October 1, 2007, Class P shares are closed to substantially all new Retirement and Benefit Plans and Fee-Based Programs (as defined below). See "Retirement and Benefit Plan Investors" and "Fee-Based Program Investors" for more information.

The table below shows how the average annual total returns of the Fund's Class A, B, and C shares compare to those of a broad-based securities market index. The Fund's returns reflect payment of the maximum applicable front-end or deferred sales charges.

The after-tax returns of Class A shares included in the table below are calculated using the historical highest individual federal marginal income tax rates and do not reflect the impact of state and local taxes. Actual after-tax returns depend on an investor's tax situation and may differ from those shown. The after-tax returns shown are not relevant to investors who hold their Fund shares through tax-deferred arrangements such as 401(k) plans or individual retirement accounts. After-tax returns for Class B and Class C shares are not shown in the table and will vary from those shown for Class A shares.

⁽¹⁾ Class F Shares have not completed a full calendar year of operations. Consequently, there are no returns to report for this share class.

⁽²⁾ The performance of the unmanaged index is not necessarily representative of the Fund's performance.

This table describes the fees and expenses that you may pay if you buy and hold shares of the Fund.

⁽¹⁾ Class B shares will automatically convert to Class A shares after the eighth anniversary of your purchase of Class B shares.

⁽²⁾ You may be able to reduce or eliminate the sales charge. See "Your Investment – Sales Charges – Class A Share Front-End Sales Charges" for more information.

⁽³⁾ The maximum contingent deferred sales charge ("CDSC") is a percentage of the lesser of the net asset value ("NAV") at the time of the redemption or the NAV when the shares were originally purchased.

⁽⁴⁾ A CDSC of 1.00% may be assessed on certain redemptions of Class A shares made without a sales charge. See "Your Investment – Sales Charges – Class A Share CDSC" for more information.

⁽⁵⁾ A CDSC of 1.00% may be assessed on Class C shares if they are redeemed before the first anniversary of their purchase.

⁽⁶⁾ "Management Fees" are payable to Lord Abbett for the Fund's investment management.

⁽⁷⁾ "12b-1 Fees" are fees incurred for activities that are primarily intended to result in the sale of Fund shares and service fees for shareholder account service and maintenance. Because 12b-1 fees are paid out 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.

⁽⁸⁾These amounts have been restated from fiscal year amounts to reflect current fees and expenses.

⁽⁹⁾ The 12b-1 fee the Fund will pay on Class C shares will be a blended rate calculated based on (1) 1.00% of the Fund's average daily net assets attributable to shares held for less than one year and (2) 0.80% of the Fund's average daily net assets attributable to shares held for one year or more. All Class C shareholders of the Fund will bear 12b-1 fees at the same rate.

⁽¹⁰⁾ Interest and Related Expenses ("interest expense") from Inverse Floaters include certain expenses and fees related to the Fund's investments in inverse floaters (also known as "residual interest bonds"). Under accounting rules, some of those expenses are liabilities with respect to interest paid on short-term floating rate notes issued by the trusts whose inverse floater certificates are held by the Fund. Accounting rules also require the Fund to recognize additional income in an amount that directly corresponds to these expenses. Therefore, the Fund's net asset values per share and total returns have not been affected by these additional expenses. These expenses affect the amount of the Fund's Total Other Expenses and Total Operating Expenses in the table above and the Example below. See "Additional Investment Information – Residual Interest Bonds."

⁽¹¹⁾ "Other Expenses" include fees paid for miscellaneous items such as shareholder services, professional services, administrative services provided by Lord Abbett, and fees to certain Financial Intermediaries (as defined below) for providing recordkeeping or other administrative services in connection with investments in the Fund.

⁽¹²⁾ For the period from February 1, 2008 through January 31, 2009, Lord Abbett has contractually agreed to reimburse a portion of the Fund's expenses (excluding interest expense) so that the Fund's net expenses (excluding interest expense) do not exceed an aggregate annualized rate of 0.95% of average daily net assets for Class A shares, 1.60% of average daily net assets for Class B and Class C shares, 0.70% of average daily net assets for Class F shares, and 1.05% of average daily net assets for Class P shares.

This example is intended to help you compare the cost of investing in the Fund with the cost of investing in other mutual funds. This example, like that in other funds' prospectuses, assumes that you invest $10,000 in the Fund at the maximum sales charge, if any, 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, that dividends and distributions are reinvested, and that the Fund's operating expenses remain the same. Although your actual costs may be higher or lower, based on these assumptions your costs (including any applicable CDSC) would be:

The table below shows how the average annual total returns of the Fund's Class A and C shares compare to those of a broad-based securities market index. The Fund's returns reflect payment of the maximum applicable front-end or deferred sales charges.

The after-tax returns of Class A shares included in the table below are calculated using the historical highest individual federal marginal income tax rates and do not reflect the impact of state and local taxes. Actual after-tax returns depend on an investor's tax situation and may differ from those shown. The after-tax returns shown are not relevant to investors who hold their Fund shares through tax-deferred arrangements such as 401(k) plans or individual retirement accounts. After-tax returns for Class C shares are not shown in the table and will vary from those shown for Class A shares.

† The Return After Taxes on Distributions and Sale of Fund Shares for a period may be greater than the Return Before Taxes and the Return After Taxes on Distributions for the same period if there was a tax loss realized on the sale of Fund shares. The benefit of the tax loss (to the extent it can be used to offset other gains) may result in a higher return. The Return After Taxes on Distributions for a period may be the same as the Return Before Taxes for the same period if there are no distributions or if the distributions are small.

⁽¹⁾ Class F Shares have not completed a full calendar year of operations. Consequently, there are no returns to report for this share class.

⁽²⁾ The performance of the unmanaged index is not necessarily representative of the Fund's performance. Each index is composed of municipal bonds from many states while the Fund is a single-state municipal bond portfolio.

This table describes the fees and expenses that you may pay if you buy and hold shares of the Fund.

⁽¹⁾ You may be able to reduce or eliminate the sales charge. See "Your Investment – Sales Charges – Class A Share Front-End Sales Charges" for more information.

⁽²⁾ The maximum contingent deferred sales charge ("CDSC") is a percentage of the lesser of the net asset value ("NAV") at the time of the redemption or the NAV when the shares were originally purchased.

⁽³⁾ A CDSC of 1.00% may be assessed on certain redemptions of Class A shares made without a sales charge. See "Your Investment – Sales Charges – Class A Share CDSC" for more information.

⁽⁴⁾ A CDSC of 1.00% may be assessed on Class C shares if they are redeemed before the first anniversary of their purchase.

⁽⁵⁾ "Management Fees" are payable to Lord Abbett for the Fund's investment management.

⁽⁶⁾ "12b-1 Fees" are fees incurred for activities that are primarily intended to result in the sale of Fund shares and service fees for shareholder account service and maintenance. Because 12b-1 fees are paid out 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.

⁽⁷⁾ These amounts have been restated from fiscal year amounts to reflect current fees and expenses.

⁽⁸⁾ The 12b-1 fee the Fund will pay on Class C shares will be a blended rate calculated based on (1) 1.00% of the Fund's average daily net assets attributable to shares held for less than one year and (2) 0.80% of the Fund's average daily net assets attributable to shares held for one year or more. All Class C shareholders of the Fund will bear 12b-1 fees at the same rate.

⁽⁹⁾ Interest and Related Expenses ("interest expense") from Inverse Floaters include certain expenses and fees related to the Fund's investments in inverse floaters (also known as "residual interest bonds"). Under accounting rules, some of those expenses are liabilities with respect to interest paid on short-term floating rate notes issued by the trusts whose inverse floater certificates are held by the Fund. Accounting rules also require the Fund to recognize additional income in an amount that directly corresponds to these expenses. Therefore, the Fund's net asset values per share and total returns have not been affected by these additional expenses. These expenses affect the amount of the Fund's Total Other Expenses and Total Operating Expenses in the table above and the Example below. See "Additional Investment Information – Residual Interest Bonds."

⁽¹⁰⁾ "Other Expenses" include fees paid for miscellaneous items such as shareholder services, professional services, administrative services provided by Lord Abbett, and fees to certain Financial Intermediaries (as defined below) for providing recordkeeping or other administrative services in connection with investments in the Fund.

⁽¹¹⁾ For the period from February 1, 2008 through January 31, 2009, Lord Abbett has contractually agreed to reimburse a portion of the Fund's expenses (excluding interest expense) so that the Fund's net expenses (excluding interest expense) do not exceed an aggregate annualized rate of 0.95% of average daily net assets for Class A shares, 1.60% of average daily net assets for Class C shares, 0.70% of average daily net assets for Class F shares, and 1.05% of average daily net assets for Class P shares.

The table below shows how the average annual total returns of the Fund's Class A shares compared to those of a broad-based securities market index. The Fund's returns reflect payment of the maximum applicable front-end or deferred sales charges.

⁽¹⁾ Class F Shares have not completed a full calendar year of operations. Consequently, there are no returns for this share class.

This table describes the fees and expenses that you may pay if you buy and hold shares of the Fund.

⁽¹⁾ You may be able to reduce or eliminate the sales charge. See "Your Investment – Sales Charges – Class A Share Front-End Sales Charges" for more information.

⁽³⁾ A CDSC of 1.00% may be assessed on certain redemptions of Class A shares made without a sales charge. See "Your Investment – Sales Charges – Class A Share CDSC" for more information.

⁽⁴⁾ "Management Fees" are payable to Lord Abbett for the Fund's investment management.

⁽⁵⁾ "12b-1 Fees" are fees incurred for activities that are primarily intended to result in the sale of Fund shares and service fees for shareholder account service and maintenance. Because 12b-1 fees are paid out 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.

⁽⁶⁾ These amounts have been restated from fiscal year amounts to reflect current fees and expenses.

⁽⁷⁾ Interest and Related Expenses ("interest expense") from Inverse Floaters include certain expenses and fees related to the Fund's investments in inverse floaters (also known as "residual interest bonds"). Under accounting rules, some of those expenses are liabilities with respect to interest paid on short-term floating rate notes issued by the trusts whose inverse floater certificates are held by the Fund. Accounting rules also require the Fund to recognize additional income in an amount that directly corresponds to these expenses. Therefore, the Fund's net asset values per share and total returns have not been affected by these additional expenses. These expenses affect the amount of the Fund's Total Other Expenses and Total Operating Expenses in the table above and the Example below. See "Additional Investment Information – Residual Interest Bonds."

⁽⁸⁾ "Other Expenses" include fees paid for miscellaneous items such as shareholder services, professional services, administrative services provided by Lord Abbett, and fees to certain Financial Intermediaries (as defined below) for providing recordkeeping or other administrative services in connection with investments in the Fund.

⁽⁹⁾ For the period from February 1, 2008 through January 31, 2009, Lord Abbett has contractually agreed to reimburse a portion of the Fund's expenses (excluding interest expense) so that the Fund's net expenses (excluding interest expense) do not exceed an aggregate annualized rate of 0.95% of average daily net assets for Class A shares, 0.70% of average daily net assets for Class F shares, and 1.05% of average daily net assets for Class P shares. In addition, Lord Abbett expects to voluntarily reimburse approximately $181,000 of expenses, or approximately 0.13% of the Fund's net assets, for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2008. Accordingly, the estimated expense ratios (net of both contractual and voluntary expense reimbursements and excluding interest expense) are 0.67%, 0.57%, and 0.92% for Class A, Class F, and Class P shares, respectively. Lord Abbett may stop the voluntarily reimbursement at any time.

The table below shows how the average annual total returns of the Fund's Class A shares compare to those of a broad-based securities market index. The Fund's returns reflect payment of the maximum applicable front-end or deferred sales charges.

⁽¹⁾ Class F Shares have not completed a full calendar year of operations. Consequently, there are no returns to report for this share class.

This table describes the fees and expenses that you may pay if you buy and hold shares of the Fund.

⁽¹⁾ You may be able to reduce or eliminate the sales charge. See "Your Investment – Sales Charges – Class A Share Front-End Sales Charges" for more information.

⁽³⁾ A CDSC of 1.00% may be assessed on certain redemptions of Class A shares made without a sales charge. See "Your Investment – Sales Charges – Class A Share CDSC" for more information.

⁽⁴⁾ "Management Fees" are payable to Lord Abbett for the Fund's investment management.

⁽⁶⁾ These amounts have been restated from fiscal year amounts to reflect current fees and expenses.

⁽⁹⁾ For the period from February 1, 2008 through January 31, 2009, Lord Abbett has contractually agreed to reimburse a portion of the Fund's expenses (excluding interest expense) so that the Fund's net expenses (excluding interest expense) do not exceed an aggregate annualized rate of 0.95% of average daily net assets for Class A shares, 0.70% of average daily net assets for Class F shares, and 1.05% of average daily net assets for Class P shares. In addition, Lord Abbett expects to voluntarily reimburse approximately $102,000 of expenses, or approximately 0.10% of the Fund's net assets, for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2008. Accordingly, the estimated expense ratios (net of both contractual and voluntary expense reimbursements and excluding interest expense) are 0.72%, 0.60%, and 0.95% for Class A, Class F, and Class P shares, respectively. Lord Abbett may stop the voluntarily reimbursement at any time.

⁽¹⁾Class F Shares have not completed a full calendar year of operations. Consequently, there are no returns to report for this share class.

This table describes the fees and expenses that you may pay if you buy and hold shares of the Fund.

⁽¹⁾ You may be able to reduce or eliminate the sales charge. See "Your Investment – Sales Charges – Class A Share Front-End Sales Charges" for more information.

⁽³⁾ A CDSC of 1.00% may be assessed on certain redemptions of Class A shares made without a sales charge. See "Your Investment – Sales Charges – Class A Share CDSC" for more information.

⁽⁴⁾ "Management Fees" are payable to Lord Abbett for the Fund's investment management.

⁽⁵⁾"12b-1 Fees" are fees incurred for activities that are primarily intended to result in the sale of Fund shares and service fees for shareholder account service and maintenance. Because 12b-1 fees are paid out 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.

⁽⁶⁾ These amounts have been restated from fiscal year amounts to reflect current fees and expenses.

⁽⁹⁾ For the period from February 1, 2008 through January 31, 2009, Lord Abbett has contractually agreed to reimburse a portion of the Fund's expenses (excluding interest expense) so that the Fund's net expenses (excluding interest expense) do not exceed an aggregate annualized rate of 0.95% of average daily net assets for Class A shares, 0.70% of average daily net assets for Class F shares, and 1.05% of average daily net assets for Class P shares. In addition, Lord Abbett expects to voluntarily reimburse approximately $48,000 of expenses, or approximately 0.03% of the Fund's net assets, for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2008. Accordingly, the estimated expense ratios (net of both contractual and voluntary expense reimbursements and excluding interest expense) are 0.78%, 0.67%, and 1.02% for Class A, Class F, and Class P shares, respectively. Lord Abbett may stop the voluntarily reimbursement at any time.

⁽¹⁾ Class F Shares have not completed a full calendar year of operations. Consequently, there are no returns to report for this share class.

This table describes the fees and expenses that you may pay if you buy and hold shares of the Fund.

⁽¹⁾You may be able to reduce or eliminate the sales charge. See "Your Investment – Sales Charges – Class A Share Front-End Sales Charges" 'for more information.

⁽³⁾A CDSC of 1.00% may be assessed on certain redemptions of Class A shares made without a sales charge. See "Your Investment – Sales Charges – Class A Share CDSC" for more information.

⁽⁴⁾ "Management Fees" are payable to Lord Abbett for the Fund's investment management.

⁽⁵⁾"12b-1 Fees" are fees incurred for activities that are primarily intended to result in the sale of Fund shares and service fees for shareholder account service and maintenance. Because 12b-1 fees are paid out 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.

⁽⁶⁾ These amounts have been restated from fiscal year amounts to reflect current fees and expenses.

The after-tax returns of Class A shares included in the table below are calculated using the historical highest individual federal marginal income tax rates and do not reflect the impact of state and local taxes. Actual after-tax returns depend on an investor's tax situation and may differ from those shown. The after-tax returns shown are not relevant to investors who hold their Fund shares through tax-deferred arrangements such as 401(k) plans or individual retirement accounts. After-tax returns for Class C shares are not shown in the table and will vary from those shown for Class A shares.

⁽¹⁾ Class F Shares have not completed a full calendar year of operations. Consequently, there are no returns to report for this share class.

This table describes the fees and expenses that you may pay if you buy and hold shares of the Fund.

⁽¹⁾ You may be able to reduce or eliminate the sales charge. See "Your Investment – Sales Charges – Class A Share Front-End Sales Charges" for more information.

⁽³⁾ A CDSC of 1.00% may be assessed on certain redemptions of Class A shares made without a sales charge. See "Your Investment – Sales Charges – Class A Share" for more information.

⁽⁴⁾ A CDSC of 1.00% may be assessed on Class C shares if they are redeemed before the first anniversary of their purchase.

⁽⁵⁾ "Management Fees" are payable to Lord Abbett for the Fund's investment management.

⁽⁷⁾ These amounts have been restated from fiscal year amounts to reflect current fees and expenses.

The table below shows how the average annual total returns of the Fund's Class A, B, C, and P* shares compare to those of a broad-based securities market index. The Fund's returns reflect payment of the maximum applicable front-end or deferred sales charges.

The after-tax returns of Class A shares included in the table below are calculated using the historical highest individual federal marginal income tax rates and do not reflect the impact of state and local taxes. Actual after-tax returns depend on an investor's tax situation and may differ from those shown. The after-tax returns shown are not relevant to investors who hold their Fund shares through tax-deferred arrangements such as 401(k) plans or individual retirement accounts. After-tax returns for Class B, C, and P shares are not shown in the table and will vary from those shown for Class A shares.

⁽²⁾ Class F shares have not completed a full calendar year of operations. Consequently, there are no returns to report for this share class.

⁽³⁾ The performance of the unmanaged index and average is not necessarily representative of the Fund's performance.

This table describes the fees and expenses that you may pay if you buy and hold shares of the Fund.

⁽¹⁾ Class B shares will automatically convert to Class A shares after the eighth anniversary of your purchase of Class B shares.

⁽²⁾ Effective April 1, 2008, the maximum sales charge on Class A purchases of the Fund will be reduced from 3.25% to 2.25%. You may be able to reduce or eliminate the sales charge. See "Your Investment – Sales Charges – Class A Share Front-End Sales Charges" for more information.

⁽³⁾The maximum contingent deferred sales charge ("CDSC") is a percentage of the lesser of the net asset value ("NAV") at the time of the redemption or the NAV when the shares were originally purchased.

⁽⁴⁾ A CDSC of 1.00% may be assessed on certain redemptions of Class A shares made without a sales charge. See "Your Investment – Sales Charges – Class A Share CDSC" for more information.

⁽⁵⁾ A CDSC of 1.00% may be assessed on Class C shares if they are redeemed before the first anniversary of their purchase.

⁽⁶⁾ "Management Fees" are payable to Lord Abbett for the Fund's investment management.

⁽⁸⁾ These amounts have been restated from fiscal year amounts to reflect current fees and expenses.

⁽¹¹⁾ For the period from February 1, 2008 through January 31, 2009, Lord Abbett has contractually agreed to reimburse a portion of the Fund's expenses so that the Fund's net expenses do not exceed an aggregate annualized rate of 0.25% of average daily net assets for Class A shares, 1.00% of average daily net assets for Class B and C shares, 0.10% of average daily net assets for Class F shares, and 0.45% of average daily net assets for Class P shares.

⁽¹⁾ Class F shares have not completed a full calendar year of operations. Consequently, there are no returns to report for this share class.

This table describes the fees and expenses that you may pay if you buy and hold shares of the Fund.

⁽¹⁾ You may be able to reduce or eliminate the sales charge. See "Your Investment – Sales Charges – Class A Share Front-End Sales Charges" for more information.

⁽³⁾ A CDSC of 1.00% may be assessed on certain redemptions of Class A shares made without a sales charge. See "Your Investment – Sales Charges – Class A Share CDSC" for more information.

⁽⁴⁾ "Management Fees" are payable to Lord Abbett for the Fund's investment management.

⁽⁶⁾ These amounts have been restated from fiscal year amounts to reflect current fees and expenses.

⁽⁹⁾ For the period from February 1, 2008 through January 31, 2009, Lord Abbett has contractually agreed to reimburse a portion of the Fund's expenses (excluding interest expense) so that the Fund's net expenses (excluding interest expense) do not exceed an aggregate annualized rate of 0.95% of average daily net assets for Class A shares, 0.70% of average daily net assets for Class F shares, and 1.05% of average daily net assets for Class P shares. In addition, Lord Abbett expects to voluntarily reimburse approximately $257,000 of expenses, or approximately 0.19% of the Fund's net assets, for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2008. Accordingly, the estimated expense ratios (net of both contractual and voluntary expense reimbursements and excluding interest expense) are 0.63%, 0.51%, and 0.86% for Class A, Class F, and Class P shares, respectively. Lord Abbett may stop the voluntarily reimbursement at any time.

⁽¹⁾ Class F shares have not completed a full calendar year of operations. Consequently, there are no returns to report for this share class.

This table describes the fees and expenses that you may pay if you buy and hold shares of the Fund.

⁽¹⁾ You may be able to reduce or eliminate the sales charge. See "Your Investment – Sales Charges – Class A Share Front-End Sales Charges" for more information.

⁽³⁾ A CDSC of 1.00% may be assessed on certain redemptions of Class A shares made without a sales charge. See "Your Investment – Sales Charges – Class A Share CDSC" for more information.

⁽⁴⁾ "Management Fees" are payable to Lord Abbett for the Fund's investment management.

⁽⁶⁾ These amounts have been restated from fiscal year amounts to reflect current fees and expenses.

This section describes some of the investment techniques that might be used by the Funds and some of the risks associated with those techniques.

Adjusting Investment Exposure. Each Fund will be subject to risks associated with investments. Each Fund may, but is not required to, use various strategies to change its investment exposure to adjust to changes in economic, social, political, and general market conditions, which affect security prices, interest rates, currency exchange rates, commodity prices and other factors. For example, a Fund may seek to hedge against certain market risks. These strategies may involve effecting transactions in derivative and similar instruments, including but not limited to options, futures, forward contracts, swap agreements, warrants, and rights. If we judge market conditions incorrectly or use a hedging strategy that does not correlate well with a Fund's investments, it could result in a loss, even if we intended to lessen risk or enhance returns. These strategies may involve a small investment of cash compared to the magnitude of the risk assumed, and could produce disproportionate gains or losses.

Concentration. Each Fund will invest no more than 25% of its total assets in any industry, other than tax-exempt securities issued by governments or political subdivisions of governments to which this limitation does not apply. Where nongovernmental users of facilities financed by tax-exempt revenue bonds are in the same industry (such as frequently occurs in the electric utility and health care industries), there may be additional risk to a Fund in the event of an economic downturn in that industry. This may result generally in a lowered ability of such users to make payments on their obligations.

Diversification. The National Tax Free and Intermediate Tax Free Funds are diversified funds. A diversified fund, with respect to 75% of total assets, will normally not purchase a security if, as a result, more than 5% of the fund's total assets would be invested in securities of a single issuer or the fund would hold more than 10% of the outstanding voting securities of the issuer. Each of the other Funds is a nondiversified mutual fund. This means that each of the Funds may invest a greater portion of its assets in, and own a greater amount of the voting securities of, a single company than a diversified fund. As a result, the value of a nondiversified fund's investments may be more affected by a single adverse economic, political or regulatory event than the investments of a diversified fund would be.

or to pursue risk management strategies. These transactions involve the purchase or sale of a contract to buy or sell a specified security or other financial instrument at a specific future date and price on an exchange or in the over-the-counter ("OTC") market. The Funds are not registered as, nor are they subject to registration or regulation as, commodity pool operators under the Commodity Exchange Act.

Risks of Options and Futures. Fund transactions in futures, options on futures and other options, if any, involve additional risk of loss. Loss may result, for example, from adverse market movements, a lack of correlation between changes in the value of these derivative instruments and a Fund's assets being hedged, the potential illiquidity of the markets for derivative instruments, the risk that the counterparty to an OTC contract will fail to perform its obligations, or the risks arising from margin requirements and related leverage factors associated with such transactions.

Illiquid Securities. Each Fund may invest up to 15% of its net assets in illiquid securities that cannot be disposed of in seven days in the ordinary course of business at fair value. Illiquid securities include: domestic securities that are not readily marketable; certain municipal leases and participation interests; repurchase agreements and time deposits with a notice or demand period of more than seven days; certain structured securities and all swap transactions; and certain restricted securities (i.e., securities with terms that limit their resale to other investors or require registration under the federal securities laws before they can be sold publicly) that Lord Abbett determines to be illiquid. The purchase price and subsequent valuation of restricted and illiquid securities normally reflect a discount, which may be significant, from the market price of comparable securities for which a liquid market exists.

Insured Municipal Bonds. Each Fund may invest in bonds covered by insurance policies that guarantee timely payment of principal and interest. The insurance policies do not guarantee the value of the bonds themselves.

receive the appreciation in the value of a specified security, index or other instrument in return for a fee paid to the counterparty, which will typically be an agreed upon interest rate. If the underlying asset in a total return swap declines in value over the term of the swap, the Fund involved may also be required to pay the dollar value of that decline to the counterparty.

The Funds may also purchase and write (sell) options contracts on swaps, commonly referred to as swaptions. A swaption is an option to enter into a swap agreement. Like other types of options, the buyer of a swaption pays a non-refundable premium for the option and obtains the right, but not the obligation, to enter into an underlying swap on agreed-upon terms. The seller of a swaption, in exchange for the premium, becomes obligated (if the option is exercised) to enter into an underlying swap on agreed-upon terms.

The purchase of an interest rate cap entitles the purchaser, to the extent that a specified index exceeds a predetermined interest rate, to receive payment of interest on a notional principal amount from the party selling such interest rate cap. The purchase of an interest rate floor entitles the purchaser, to the extent that a specified index falls below a predetermined interest rate, to receive payments of interest on a notional principal amount from the party selling the interest rate floor. An interest rate collar is the combination of a cap and a floor that preserves a certain return within a predetermined range of interest rates.

The Funds may enter into swap transactions for hedging purposes or to seek to increase total return. The use of interest rate, credit and total return swaps, options on swaps, and interest rate caps, floors and collars, is a highly specialized activity which involves investment techniques and risks different from those associated with ordinary portfolio securities transactions. If Lord Abbett is incorrect in its forecasts of market values, interest rates and currency exchange rates, the investment performance of the Funds would be less favorable than it would have been if these investment techniques were not used. It is not currently expected that these investments will be a principal strategy of the Funds.

Non-Investment Grade Municipal Bonds. Non-investment grade municipal bonds and unrated municipal bonds of comparable credit quality (commonly known as "high yield" or "junk" bonds) may be highly speculative and have poor prospects for reaching investment grade standing. Non-investment grade securities are subject to the increased risk of an issuer's inability to meet principal and interest obligations and a greater risk of default. These securities may be subject to greater price volatility due to such factors as specific municipal developments, interest rate sensitivity, negative perceptions of the junk bond markets generally and less secondary market liquidity.

The secondary market for non-investment grade securities is concentrated in relatively few market makers and is dominated by institutional investors, including mutual funds, insurance companies and other financial institutions. As a result, the secondary market for such securities is not as liquid as, and is more volatile than, the secondary market for higher rated securities. In addition, market trading volume for lower rated securities is generally lower and the secondary market for such securities could shrink or disappear suddenly and without warning as a result of adverse market or economic conditions, independent of any specific adverse changes in the condition of a particular issuer. Because of the lack of sufficient market liquidity, a Fund may incur losses because it may be required to effect sales at a disadvantageous time and then only at a substantial drop in price. These factors may have an adverse effect on the market price and a Fund's ability to dispose of particular portfolio investments. A less liquid secondary market also may make it more difficult for a Fund to obtain precise valuations of the lower rated securities in its portfolio.

Private Activity or Industrial Development Bonds. Each Fund may invest up to 20% of its net assets (less any amount invested in the temporary taxable investments described under "Principal Strategy") in private activity bonds (sometimes called "AMT paper"). See "Distributions and Taxes." The credit quality of such bonds usually is directly related to the credit standing of the private user of the facilities.

Residual Interest Bonds. Each Fund may invest up to 20% of its net assets in residual interest bonds ("RIBs") (also known as "inverse floaters") to enhance income and manage portfolio duration. RIBs are issued by tender option bond trusts ("trusts") that are established by a third party sponsor in connection with the transfer of municipal bonds to the trusts. In addition to RIBs, these trusts typically issue short-term floating rate notes which are usually sold to money market funds ("floating rate notes"). A RIB is a type of "derivative" debt instrument with a floating or variable interest rate that moves in the opposite direction of the interest rate on another security, normally the floating rate note. Because changes in the interest rate on the note inversely affect the interest paid on the RIB, the value and income of a RIB is generally more volatile than the value and income of a fixed rate municipal bond. RIBs have interest rate adjustment formulas which generally reduce or eliminate the interest paid to a Fund when short-term interest rates rise, and increase the interest paid to a Fund when short-term interest rates fall. The value of RIBs also falls faster than the value of fixed rate municipal bonds when interest rates rise, and conversely, their value rises more rapidly when interest rates fall. RIBs have varying degrees of liquidity, and the market for these securities is relatively volatile. RIBs tend to underperform the market for fixed rate municipal bonds in a rising long-term interest rate

environment, but tend to outperform that market when long-term interest rates decline.

Each Fund may acquire RIBs issued by trusts that have been established by a transfer of municipal bonds by the Fund or an agent on behalf of the Fund. Such transfers do not qualify for sale treatment under Statement of Financial Accounting Standard No. 140, "Accounting for Transfers and Servicing of Financial Assets and Extinguishments of Liabilities;" therefore, the municipal bonds deposited into such trusts are presented in the Funds' schedules of investments and the proceeds from the transactions are reported as a liability for trust certificates. Interest income from the underlying bonds is recorded by the Funds on an accrual basis. Interest expense incurred on the secured borrowing and other expenses related to remarketing, administration and trustee services to a trust are reported as expenses of the Fund involved. The floating rate trust certificates have interest rates that generally reset weekly and their holders have the option to tender certificates to the trust for redemption at par at each reset date. The RIBs held by a Fund provide the Fund the right to (1) cause the holders of a proportional share of floating rate trust certificates to tender their certificates at par and (2) transfer a corresponding share of the municipal bonds from the trust to the Fund.

Zero Coupon, Deferred Interest, Pay-In-Kind and Capital Appreciation Bonds. The Funds may invest in zero coupon bonds, deferred interest, pay-in-kind and capital appreciation bonds. These bonds are issued at a discount from their face value because interest payments are typically postponed until maturity. Pay-in-kind securities are securities that have interest payable by the delivery of additional securities.

Because these securities bear no interest and compound semiannually at the rate fixed at the time of issuance, their value generally is more volatile than the value of other fixed income securities. Since the bondholders do not receive interest payments, when interest rates rise, these securities fall more dramatically in value than bonds paying interest on a current basis. When interest rates fall, these securities rise more rapidly in value because the bonds reflect a fixed rate of return. If the issuer defaults, the Fund involved may not receive any return on its investment.

An investment in zero coupon and delayed interest securities may cause a Fund to recognize income and make distributions to shareholders before it receives any cash payments on their investment. To generate cash to satisfy distribution requirements, a Fund may have to sell portfolio securities that it otherwise would have continued to hold or to use cash flows from other sources such as the sale of Fund shares.

Information on Portfolio Holdings. The Funds' Annual and Semiannual Reports, which are sent to shareholders and filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC"), contain information about the Funds' portfolio holdings, including a complete schedule of holdings. The Funds also file their complete schedules of portfolio holdings with the SEC on Form N-Q as of the end of their first and third fiscal quarters.

In addition, on or about the first day of the second month following each calendar quarter-end, each Fund makes publicly available a complete schedule of its portfolio holdings as of the last day of each such quarter. The Funds also may make publicly available other portfolio related information within 15 days following the end of each calendar month for which such information is made available. Such information may include: a list of the largest portfolio positions; portfolio commentaries; portfolio performance attribution information; "fact sheets" or similar updates; and certain other information regarding one or more portfolio positions. This information will remain available until the schedule, list, commentary, fact sheet, performance attribution or other information for the next month is publicly available. You may view this information for the most recently ended calendar quarter or month at www.lordabbett.com under the relevant Fund's holdings tab or request a copy at no charge by calling Lord Abbett at 888-522-2388.

From time to time, a portfolio manager, analyst, or other Lord Abbett employee may express observations and/or opinions regarding macroeconomic, geopolitical, market sector, industry, issuer-specific, or other developments. The observations and/or opinions expressed by such person do not necessarily represent the observations and/or opinions of Lord Abbett or any other person associated with Lord Abbett. Any such observations and/or opinions are subject to change at any time for any reason, and Lord Abbett disclaims any responsibility to update such observations and/or opinions. These observations and/or opinions may not be relied upon as investment advice and, because investment decisions for Lord Abbett Funds are based on multiple factors, may not be relied upon as any indication of trading intent on behalf of any Lord Abbett Fund.

For more information on the Funds' policies and procedures with respect to the disclosure of their portfolio holdings and ongoing arrangements to make available such information on a selective basis to certain third parties, please see "Investment Policies – Policies and Procedures Governing the Disclosure of Portfolio Holdings" in the Statement of Additional Information.

Boards of Directors/Trustees. The Boards oversee the management of the business and affairs of the Funds. The Boards meet regularly to review their respective Funds' portfolio investments, performance, expenses, and operations. The Boards appoint officers who are responsible for the day-to-day operations of their respective Funds and who execute policies authorized by the Boards. More than 75 percent of the Board members are independent of Lord Abbett.

Each year in December the Boards consider whether to approve the continuation of the existing management and administrative services agreements between the Funds and Lord Abbett. A discussion regarding the basis for the Boards' approval is available in the Funds' Semiannual Report to Shareholders for each six-month period ended March 31.

Investment Adviser. The Funds' investment adviser is Lord, Abbett & Co. LLC, which is located at 90 Hudson Street, Jersey City, NJ 07302-3973. Founded in 1929, Lord Abbett manages one of the nation's oldest mutual fund complexes, with assets under management of approximately $110 billion in 51 mutual funds and other advisory accounts as of December 31, 2007.

Investment Managers. Lord Abbett uses a team of investment managers and analysts acting together to manage each Fund's investments. The Statement of Additional Information contains additional information about investment manager compensation, other accounts managed, and ownership of Fund shares.

Daniel S. Solender heads the investment management team. Peter Scott Smith is a senior team member. Messrs. Solender and Smith are primarily and jointly responsible for the day-to-day management of the Funds. Mr. Solender, Director of Municipal Bond Management, joined Lord Abbett in 2006. Prior thereto he served as a Vice President and Portfolio Manager at Nuveen Investments from 1991 to 1999 and 2003 to 2006 and served as Principal and Portfolio Manager at Vanguard Group from 1999 to 2003. Mr. Solender has been in the investment business since 1987 and has been a member of the team since 2006. Mr. Smith, Investment Manager, joined Lord Abbett in 1992 and has been in the investment business since 1989 and a member of the team since 1992.

Management Fee. Lord Abbett is entitled to an annual management fee based on each Fund's average daily net assets. The management fee for each Fund, except the Intermediate Tax Free Fund, is calculated daily and payable monthly at the following annual rates:

0.45% on the first $1 billion of average daily net assets;
0.40% on the next $1 billion of average daily net assets; and
0.35% on average daily net assets over $2 billion.

Based on this calculation, the management fee paid to Lord Abbett for the fiscal year ended September 30, 2007, with respect to each Fund (excluding the Intermediate Tax Free Fund) was at an effective annual rate of 0.45% of each Fund's respective average daily net assets.

The management fee for the Intermediate Tax Free Fund is calculated daily and payable monthly at the following annual rates:

0.40% on the first $2 billion of average daily net assets;
0.375% on the next $3 billion; and
0.35% on assets over $5 billion.

For the fiscal year ended September 30, 2007, Lord Abbett reimbursed the Intermediate Tax Free Fund for its entire effective management fee of 0.40%.

In addition, Lord Abbett provides certain administrative services to each of the Funds pursuant to an Administrative Services Agreement in return for a fee at the annual rate of 0.04% of each Fund's average daily net assets. Each Fund pays all expenses not expressly assumed by Lord Abbett. For more information about the services Lord Abbett provides to the Funds, see the Statement of Additional Information.

The National Tax Free and Intermediate Tax Free Funds offer in this Prospectus five classes of shares: Class A, B, C, F, and P. The California Tax Free Fund and New York Tax Free Fund offer four share classes: Class A, C, F, and P. The Connecticut Tax Free Fund, Georgia Tax Free Trust, Hawaii Tax Free Fund, Missouri Tax Free Fund, New Jersey Tax Free Fund, and Pennsylvania Tax Free Trust offer three share classes: Class A, F, and P. Each class in a Fund 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, Fee-Based Programs, and All Other Investors. However, tax-free funds should generally not serve as investments for tax-deferred retirement plans and accounts.

• Retirement and Benefit Plans. Investors investing through Retirement and Benefit Plans are offered Class A, and in certain limited circumstances, Class P 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, and in certain limited circumstances, Class P 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.

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.

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 think you may be moving from one retirement 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.

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.

⁽³⁾ National Tax Free, Intermediate Tax Free, California Tax Free, and New York Tax Free Funds only

⁽⁴⁾ As of October 1, 2007, Class P shares are closed to substantially all new Retirement and Benefit Plans and Fee-Based Programs. See "Retirement and Benefit Plan Investors" and "Fee-Based Program Investors" for more information.

⁽⁵⁾ Effective April 1, 2008: (1) the maximum front-end sales charge applicable to Class A shares of the Intermediate Tax Free Fund will be reduced from 3.25% to 2.25%; (2) no front-end sales charge will apply to purchases of the Intermediate Tax Free Fund of $500,000 or more; and (3) a CDSC of 1.00% will apply to certain purchases of the Intermediate Tax Free Fund of $500,000 or more. See "Sales Charges – Class A Share CDSC" for more information.

⁽⁶⁾The 12b-1 plan provides that the maximum payments that may be authorized by the Board for Class A shares are 0.50%; for Class P shares, 0.75%; and for Class B, C and F 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.

⁽⁷⁾ The Fund is subject to Class C service and distribution fees at a blended rate calculated based on (1) a service fee of 0.25% and a distribution fee of 0.75% of the Fund's average daily net assets attributable to shares held for less than one year and (2) a service fee of 0.25% and a distribution fee of 0.55% of the Fund's average daily net assets attributable to shares held for one year or more. All Class C shareholders of the Fund will bear service and distribution fees at the same rate.

⁽⁸⁾ Ask your Financial Intermediary about the Lord Abbett Funds available for exchange.

⁽⁹⁾ 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) 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.

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 shares through 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.

⁽²⁾ As of October 1, 2007, Class P shares are closed to substantially all new Retirement and Benefit Plans and Fee-Based Programs. See "Retirement and Benefit Plan Investors" and "Fee-Based Program Investors" for more information.

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."

Effective April 1, 2008, the front-end sales charges applicable to Class A shares of the Intermediate Tax Free Fund will be reduced as follows:

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

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 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, C, and P 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 share holdings may not be combined for these purposes.

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 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, 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, C, and P 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 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 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.

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 after the month of purchase (Class A), or one year or more (Class C)

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

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 on or before the 12th month after the month in which you initially purchased those shares, 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

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:

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

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

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.

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, and in certain limited circumstances, Class P 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 P Shares. As of October 1, 2007, Class P shares are closed to substantially all new Retirement and Benefit Plans with the following exceptions:

_m New Retirement and Benefit Plans that are considering selecting Class P shares as a plan option but did not do so by October 1, 2007 may invest in Class P shares if they select Class P shares as a plan option by March 31, 2008, provided that the selection is based on a proposal or recommendation that can be shown to have been presented to the plan on or prior to October 1, 2007.

Shareholders that held Class P shares as of October 1, 2007 may continue to hold their Class P shares and may make additional purchases. Class P shares may be redeemed at NAV by existing shareholders, or may be exchanged for shares of another class provided applicable eligibility requirements and sales charges for the other share class are satisfied. Class P 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.

Eligible Investors: Fee-Based Programs. Class A and F shares, and in certain limited circumstances, Class P 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 – Class A Share Front-End 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.

• Class P Shares. As of October 1, 2007, Class P shares are closed to substantially all new Fee-Based Programs, with the exception of the Citigroup/Smith Barney TRAK program. Shareholders that held Class P shares as of October 1, 2007 may continue to hold their Class P shares and may make additional purchases. Class P shares may be redeemed at NAV by existing shareholders, or may be exchanged for shares of another class provided applicable eligibility requirements and sales charges for the other share class are satisfied.

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 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.

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.

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 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.

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 or P 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 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, and P 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.

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 its 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 NASD sales charge limitations.

⁽¹⁾ The Fund is subject to Class C service and distribution fees at a blended rate calculated based on (1) a service fee of 0.25% and a distribution fee of 0.75% of the Fund's average daily net assets attributable to shares held for less than one year and (2) a service fee of 0.25% and a distribution fee of 0.55% of the Fund's average daily net assets attributable to shares held for one year or more. All Class C shareholders of the Fund will bear service and distribution fees at the same rate.

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

distribution of advertising and sales material, expenses of organizing and conducting sales seminars, additional payments to Authorized Institutions, 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 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, C, and P 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.

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

The dealer concession received is based on the amount of the Class A share investment as follows:

* Class A shares purchased without a sales charge will be subject to a 1% CDSC if they are redeemed on or before the 12th month after the month in which the shares were initially purchased. 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.

** Effective April 1, 2008, this amount will be reduced to $500,000 with respect to the Intermediate Tax Free Fund only.

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 0.75% of the average daily net assets represented by the Class C shares serviced by them.

Class F and P Shares. Class F and P 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.

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:

• 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;

• 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.

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.

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 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:

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.

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.

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 or P 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.

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.

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 Fee-Based Program. For more information on how to exchange Fund shares or on the limitations applicable to exchanges, 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.

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 will be treated as a sale for federal tax purposes and may create a taxable situation for you. See "Distributions and Taxes" for more information. 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.

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 one or more completed forms before your order will be executed. Contact your Financial Intermediary for redemptions involving Class F or P 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.

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.

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

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.

Each Fund expects to declare "exempt-interest dividends" from its net investment income daily and pay them monthly. Each Fund expects to distribute any net capital gains annually.

All distributions, including exempt-interest dividends, will be reinvested in Fund shares unless you instruct the Fund to pay them to you 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.

Each Fund seeks to earn income and pay exempt-interest dividends that are exempt from federal income tax. It is anticipated that substantially all of each Fund's income will be exempt from federal income tax. However, each Fund may invest a portion of its assets in securities that pay income that is not exempt from federal income tax. Further, a portion of the exempt-interest dividends you receive may be subject to federal individual or corporate alternative minimum tax ("AMT"). Each Fund may invest up to 20% of its net assets in private activity bonds (sometimes called "AMT paper"). The income from these bonds is an item of tax preference when determining your federal individual or corporate AMT, which may cause the income to be taxable.

Distributions of short-term capital gains and gains characterized as market discount are taxable as ordinary income for federal income tax purposes, while distributions of net long-term capital gains are taxable as long-term capital gains, regardless of how long you have owned shares or whether distributions are reinvested or paid in cash.

Exempt-interest dividends are taken into account when determining the taxable portion of your social security or railroad retirement benefits.

If you buy shares when a Fund has realized but not yet either 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 distribution.

You must provide your Social Security number or other taxpayer identification number to a 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 a Fund, will be mailed to shareholders each year. Because everyone's tax situation is unique, you should consult your tax adviser regarding the treatment of such distributions under the federal, state, local and foreign tax rules that apply to you, as well as the tax consequences of gains or losses from the sale, redemption, or exchange of your shares.

For All State Funds – With respect to each state Fund described below, generally exempt-interest dividends derived from interest income on obligations of that state or its political subdivisions, agencies or instrumentalities and on certain obligations of the federal government and other U.S. instrumentalities paid to shareholders who are residents of that state will be exempt from individual income tax in that state but exempt-interest dividends derived from interest on obligations of other states and local jurisdictions paid to such shareholders will not be exempt from state and local taxes in that state.

The state tax advantage of owning interests in a single state municipal bond fund may be adversely affected if the Supreme Court upholds a Kentucky Court of Appeals decision that is currently under review. The Supreme Court heard oral arguments on the case on November 5, 2007. In its decision, the Kentucky court concluded that a Kentucky statute violated the interstate commerce clause of the federal constitution by allowing Kentucky to exempt interest derived by Kentucky residents from Kentucky state and local obligations while taxing Kentucky residents on interest derived from municipal obligations of other state and local jurisdictions. It is not possible to predict what the Supreme Court will decide, but if the lower court's decision were to be upheld, such a ruling would impact other states with

similar statutes because the case arises under the federal constitution. In such a case, Kentucky and other states with similar statutes would be required to treat income derived from all in-state and out-of-state bonds equally by either exempting income derived from all out-of-state bonds from a state's income tax or taxing income derived from all municipal bonds. Depending upon the relative yields of each particular state's municipal bonds, this might adversely affect single state municipal bond funds by potentially reducing the benefit of investing in a particular state's municipal bonds.

Special rules, described below, may also apply. Even if exempt from individual income tax, exempt-interest dividends may be subject to a state's franchise or other corporate or business taxes if received by a corporation subject to taxes in that state.

Generally, distributions other than exempt-interest dividends, whether received in cash or additional shares, that are federally taxable as ordinary income or capital gains will be includible in income for both state individual and corporate tax purposes. Furthermore, a portion of the Fund's distributions, including exempt-interest dividends, may be subject to state individual or corporate AMT. The income from private activity bonds may be an item of tax preference for state individual or corporate AMT purposes.

The following special rules generally apply only to shareholders who are residents of each respective state.

California Tax Free Fund – The Fund seeks to earn income and pay dividends that will be exempt from California individual income taxes. All exempt-interest dividends from the Fund are included in the income of corporate shareholders that are subject to the California franchise tax.

Connecticut Tax Free Fund – The Fund generally seeks to earn income and pay dividends that will be exempt from Connecticut individual income taxes. All exempt-interest dividends from the Fund are included in the income of corporate shareholders that are subject to the Connecticut corporation business tax.

Georgia Tax Free Trust – The Fund seeks to earn income and pay dividends that will be exempt from Georgia individual and corporate income taxes.

Hawaii Tax Free Fund – The Fund seeks to earn income and pay dividends that will be exempt from Hawaii individual and corporate income taxes.

Missouri Tax Free Fund – The Fund seeks to earn income and pay dividends that will be exempt from Missouri individual and corporate income taxes.

New Jersey Tax Free Fund – The Fund seeks to earn income and pay dividends that will be exempt from New Jersey personal income taxes. All exempt-interest dividends from the Fund are included in income of corporate shareholders that are subject to the New Jersey corporation business tax.

New York Tax Free Fund – The Fund seeks to earn income and pay dividends that will be exempt from New York State, as well as New York City, individual income taxes. All exempt-interest dividends from the Fund are included in the income of corporate shareholders that are subject to the New York State corporation franchise tax, as well as New York City general corporation tax.

Pennsylvania Tax Free Trust – The Fund seeks to earn income and pay dividends that will be exempt from Pennsylvania individual and corporate income taxes. Pennsylvania county personal property tax may be imposed on shares of the Pennsylvania Tax Free Trust if, on the annual assessment date, the Fund holds certain assets other than exempt securities in which the Fund may invest. In such circumstances, a portion of the value of the Fund's shares would be subject to personal property tax.

Shareholders generally will not be able to exclude exempt-interest dividends paid by the National Tax Free and Intermediate Tax Free Funds from their state taxable income. However, shareholders who are residents of a state that does not impose minimum investment requirements in order for exempt dividends from a Fund to be excludible from state taxable income may be eligible to exclude the percentage of income derived from obligations of that state when determining their state taxable income. The amount excludible from state taxable income generally will be relatively small, however. Information concerning the percentage of income attributable to each state will be provided to you. You should confirm with your tax adviser that income attributable to a state of residence is properly excludible when determining your taxable income. In addition, the portion of the National Tax Free and Intermediate Tax Free Funds' dividends attributable to private activity bonds will be a tax preference item for federal, and possibly state, AMT purposes.

The foregoing is only a summary of important state tax rules. You should consult your tax advisers regarding specific questions as to federal, state, local and foreign taxes and how these relate to your own tax situation.

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.

You can make fixed, periodic investments ($250 initial and $50 subsequent minimum) into your Fund account by means of automatic money transfers from your bank checking account. See the Application for instructions.

You may automatically reinvest the dividends and distributions from your account into another account in any Eligible Fund ($50 minimum).

* 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.

You can make regular withdrawals from most Lord Abbett-sponsored funds. Automatic cash withdrawals will be paid to you from your account in fixed or variable amounts. To establish an SWP, the value of your shares for Class A or C must be at least $10,000, and for Class B the value of your shares must be at least $25,000, except in the case of an SWP established for certain Retirement and Benefit Plans, for which there is no minimum. Your shares must be in non-certificate form.

The CDSC will be waived on redemptions of up to 12% of the current NAV of your account at the time of your SWP request. For SWP redemptions over 12% per year, the CDSC will apply to the entire redemption. Please contact the Fund for assistance in minimizing the CDSC in this situation. Redemption proceeds due to an SWP for Class B and C shares will be redeemed in the order described under "CDSC" under "Sales Charges."

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 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.

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

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

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

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 the Fund's 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 the Fund's 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 (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. Securities having remaining maturities of 60 days or less are valued at their amortized cost.

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.

These tables describe each Fund's performance for the fiscal periods indicated. "Total Return" shows how much your investment in each Fund would have increased (or decreased) during each period, assuming you had reinvested all dividends and distributions. These Financial Highlights have been audited by Deloitte & Touche LLP, the Funds' independent registered public accounting firm, in conjunction with their annual audits of the Funds' financial statements. Financial statements and the Report of Independent Registered Public Accounting Firm thereon appear in the 2007 Annual Report to Shareholders and are incorporated by reference in the Statement of Additional Information, which is available upon request. Certain information reflects financial results for a single Fund share.

^(b) Total return does not consider the effects of sales loads and assumes the reinvestment of all distributions.

^(d) The effect of payment by an affiliate for loss realized due to a trading error on total return is less than .01%.

^(e) Interest and fee expense relates to the liability for floating rate notes issued in conjunction with inverse floater securities transactions.

^(b) Total return does not consider the effects of sales loads and assumes the reinvestment of all distributions.

^(d) The effect of payment by an affiliate for loss realized due to a trading error on total return is less than .01%.

^(e) Interest and fee expense relates to the liability for floating rate notes issued in conjunction with inverse floater securities transactions.

^(b) Total return does not consider the effects of sales loads and assumes the reinvestment of all distributions.

^(d) The effect of payment by an affiliate for loss realized due to a trading error on total return is less than .01%.

^(e) Interest and fee expense relates to the liability for floating rate notes issued in conjunction with inverse floater securities transactions.

^(a) Commencement of investment operations was 9/28/2007; SEC effective date was 9/14/2007 and date shares first became available to the public was 10/01/2007.

^(c)Total return does not consider the effects of sales loads and assumes the reinvestment of all distributions.

^(e) Interest and fee expense relates to the liability for floating rate notes issued in conjunction with inverse floater securities transactions.

^(b) Total return does not consider the effects of sales loads and assumes the reinvestment of all distributions.

^(d) The effect of payment by an affiliate for loss realized due to a trading error on total return is less than .01%.

^(e) Interest and fee expense relates to the liability for floating rate notes issued in conjunction with inverse floater securities transactions.

^(b) Total return does not consider the effects of sales loads and assumes the reinvestment of all distributions.

^(d) The effect of payment by an affiliate for loss realized due to a trading error on total return is less than .01%.

^(e) Interest and fee expense relates to the liability for floating rate notes issued in conjunction with inverse floater securities transactions.

^(a)Commencement of investment operations was 9/28/2007; SEC effective date was 9/14/2007 and date shares first became available to the public was 10/01/2007.

^(c) Total return does not consider the effects of sales loads and assumes the reinvestment of all distributions.