11.15.2007 - OPEN PLATFORM OF INDEPENDENT EXPERTS

ProNvest selects and integrates the independent experts (Investment Managers/RIAs) in its platform and conducts ongoing due diligence in compliance with PPA guidelines. By offering an open platform of independent experts, ProNvest helps alleviate the liability of plan providers offering investment advice, helps plan sponsors fulfill their fiduciary responsibility and reduces the cost challenges for providers in offering sponsors multiple independent experts as follows:

• ProNvest’s due diligence and monitoring services supports the plan sponsor’s efforts to fulfill its fiduciary responsibility in the selection and monitoring of investment managers.

• ProNvest helps enable the plan sponsor to select the independent expert that best meets the needs of its plan as opposed to using the sole independent expert that is offered by the provider.

• ProNvest helps reduce provider fiduciary liability by shifting both the due diligence effort required and liability of that decision from the provider to the sponsor.

ProNvest standardizes the integration and operation of each independent expert into the program so that a single integration with the provider is required even if the plan decides to switch independent experts voluntarily or involuntarily at a later date. Single integration helps eliminates additional integration costs to connect with each managed account provider as may be requested by the sponsor, minimizes ongoing support of data connections and use of IT resources and helps eliminates potential service disruption to participants when changing independent experts