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SIGNATURE DONNA M. MCMANUS
TITLE TREASURER
<PAGE>
INDEPENDENT AUDITORS REPORT
To the Directors and Shareholders of Lord Abbett Developing Growth Fund, Inc.:
In planning and performing our audit of the financial statements of Lord
Abbett Developing Growth Fund, Inc. (the "Company") for the year ended January
31, 2000 (on which we have issued our report dated March 21, 2000), we
considered its internal control, including control activities for safeguarding
securities, in order to determine our auditing procedures for the purpose of
expressing our opinion on the financial statements and to comply with the
requirements of Form N-SAR, and not to provide assurance on the Company's
internal control.
The management of the Company is responsible for establishing and
maintaining internal control. In fulfilling this responsibility, estimates and
judgments by management are required to assess the expected benefits and related
costs of controls. Generally, controls that are relevant to an audit pertain to
the entity's objective of preparing financial statements for external purposes
that are fairly presented in conformity with generally accepted accounting
principles. Those controls include the safeguarding of assets against
unauthorized acquisition, use, or disposition.
Because of inherent limitations in any internal control, misstatements due
to error or fraud may occur and not be detected. Also, projections of any
evaluation of internal control to future periods are subject to the risk that
the internal control may become inadequate because of changes in conditions or
that the degree of compliance with policies or procedures may deteriorate.
Our consideration of the Company's internal control would not necessarily
disclose all matters in internal control that might be material weaknesses under
standards established by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants.
A material weakness is a condition in which the design or operation of one or
more of the internal control components does not reduce to a relatively low
level the risk that misstatements, error or fraud in amounts that would be
material in relation to the financial statements being audited may occur and not
be detected within a timely period by employees in the normal course of
performing their assigned functions. However, we noted no matters involving the
Company's internal control and its operation, including controls for
safeguarding securities, that we consider to be material weaknesses as defined
above as of January 31, 2000.
This report is intended solely for the information and use of management,
the Board of Directors and Shareholders of Lord Abbett Developing Growth Fund,
Inc., and the Securities and Exchange Commission and is not intended to be and
should not be used by anyone other than these specified parties.
DELOITTE & TOUCHE LLP
New York, New York
March 21, 2000
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</TABLE>
