All forms, as well as retirement contribution checks should be sent via overnight mail to:

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1 Year-End Processing Deadlines For Signator Investors Premiere Select Retirement Accounts The end of the year is approaching, and we would like to take this opportunity to alert you to a number of important processing deadlines for Premiere Select retirement accounts 1. Consistent with IRS requirements, distributions are tax reported for the year the distribution is processed. Distributions cannot be backdated to reflect a previous tax year for any reason. To help ensure timely processing of all distribution requests, correspondents should familiarize their staff with all time frames detailed in this Notice. Please review this Notice for information on the following areas: Procedures to skip or reduce a 2009 RMD payment Conversions to a Roth IRA Processed in 2009 Contributions to a Roth and the Five-Year Aging Date Recharacterizations of Roth Conversions or IRA Contributions Year-End Distributions Periodic Distribution Plan Payments Executing Trades Needed to Satisfy a Distribution Contributions Received January 1 through April 15, 2010 Deadline for Retirement Account Alternative Investment Asset Acceptability Review Key Dates to Remember Your attention to the instructions contained in this communication will help us ensure that all transactions intended for the 2009 tax year are processed by December 31, All forms, as well as retirement contribution checks should be sent via overnight mail to: Signator Investors, Inc. C Clarendon Street Boston, MA Forms can also be faxed to the Signator cashiering department All checks must be made payable to National Financial Services LLC. 1 Includes Premiere Select Traditional, Roth, Rollover, SEP, SIMPLE IRAs, IRA Beneficiary Distribution Accounts, and Roth IRA Beneficiary Distribution Accounts; and Premiere Select Retirement Plan and Retirement Plan Beneficiary Distribution Accounts.

2 Year-End Processing Information The following information is being provided to assist you in managing the traditional year-end increase in processing volumes: Procedures to skip or reduce a 2009 Required Minimum Distribution (RMD) payment The Worker, Retiree, and Employer Recovery Act of 2008 (the Act) suspends Required Minimum Distribution (RMD) rules for 2009 so that individuals can choose to keep their money invested in 2009 rather than be forced to withdraw from accounts that may have decreased in value. Below are the procedures to request that a scheduled 2009 periodic distribution payment(s) be skipped or reduced. To skip or reduce a scheduled 2009 periodic distribution: Clients can submit a Letter of Instruction or the 2009 RMD Suspension Request Form to Signator Investors Cashiering via fax to Information for clients who choose to reduce their scheduled 2009 payment(s) from an existing periodic distribution plan: To reduce the payment amount of an MRD calculated plan, a BDA five year plan, or a General fixed period plan, the customer must specify the dollar amount to be deducted from the annual amount. The deduction will be allocated across all scheduled 2009 payments. Please note that for a BDA five year plan, one year will be added to the scheduled end date of the plan. For example, if a BDA five year plan is scheduled to end on June 30, 2009, the plan will be extended to June 30, To reduce the payment amount of a General fixed amount plan, the customer can either specify the dollar amount to be deducted (the deduction will be allocated across all scheduled 2009 payments), or can choose to skip one or more of the scheduled 2009 payments. Clients who have not already established a periodic distribution plan (also known as a Personal Withdrawal Service (PWS) plan), do not need to do anything if they choose not to take a payment in Note: Clients who take some or all of their scheduled 2009 RMD may be eligible to roll the funds back into their IRA. In accordance with IRS Notice , for amounts taken as 2009 RMDs, the rollover period has been extended to the later of 60 days or November 30, The rollover is still subject to other existing rollover rules (including but not limited to: cannot rollover more than once in a rolling twelve month period, distributions from non-spouse Beneficiary Distribution Accounts (BDAs) are not eligible for rollover, etc).

3 Conversions to a Roth IRA Processed in 2009 Distributions from a Traditional IRA, Rollover IRA, SEP IRA, or SIMPLE IRA must be made on or before December 31, 2009, and converted to a Roth IRA within 60 days in order for the income to be included in gross income for Please note that SIMPLE IRA assets are not eligible for conversion until after the expiration of the two-year period, which begins on the date a participant first received contributions under the SIMPLE IRA plan maintained by his/her employer. To help ensure that Signator Investors is able to process these conversions by December 31, 2009, it is strongly recommended that Signator Investors receive the completed Premiere Select Roth IRA Conversion Form in good order on or before December 9, Conversion forms received in good order after December 9 will be processed on a best efforts basis up to and including December 31, Important Note: Under the Tax Increase Prevention and Reconciliation Act of 2005 (TIPRA), the $100,000 income limitation on conversions is scheduled to be eliminated after Do not submit conversion requests for 2010 reporting until after December 31, 2009, to ensure proper handling. Contributions to a Roth IRA and the Five-Year Aging Date Contributions to a Roth IRA made by December 31, 2009, will receive a Five-Year Aging Date of January 1, Annual contributions to a Roth IRA made between January 1, 2010, and April 15, 2010, as a prior year contribution will also receive a January 1, 2009, Five-Year Aging Date. For customers who convert to a Roth IRA, the conversion contribution has to be deposited to the Roth IRA by December 31, 2009, to receive a Five-Year Aging Date of January 1, The deadlines mentioned above under conversions will apply. Each Roth IRA receives a separate Five-Year Aging Date. It is the account owner s responsibility to track this five-year aging date. The five-year aging date for Roth IRAs begins on January 1 of the year for which the contribution relates. Recharacterizations of Roth Conversions or IRA Contributions Clients who erroneously convert IRA assets to a Roth IRA, or otherwise wish to change the nature of an IRA contribution, may recharacterize such conversion and/or contribution prior to the due date of their tax return (including extensions) for the year the conversion /contribution relates, without penalty. Clients can, in the future, reconvert back to the Roth IRA. There are, however, limits on reconversions, including the following:

4 A Roth IRA conversion contribution amount that has been recharacterized to another non-roth IRA can later be reconverted back to the Roth IRA. However, the IRS has imposed limits on the number of times an individual may reconvert previously converted and recharacterized assets. An IRA owner may not reconvert an amount previously converted and recharacterized before the later of January 1 of the taxable year following the taxable year in which the conversion was made, or the end of the 30-day period beginning on the day the IRA owner completes a recharacterization back to the original IRA. (For example, if an individual converts a Traditional IRA to a Roth IRA on August 1, 2009, and then recharacterizes the amount back to a Traditional IRA on November 1, 2009, he/she cannot reconvert the amount until at least January 1, 2010 If an individual converts a Traditional IRA to a Roth IRA on August 1, 2009,and then recharacterizes the amount back to a Traditional IRA on December 26, 2009, he/she must wait until at least January 26, 2010 a 30-day period before he/she can reconvert.) Any reconversion(s) exceeding this limit will be deemed an excess reconversion and will require the customer to include the taxable portion of the last valid conversion amount in income for the taxable year of the conversion. Note: SIMPLE IRA assets are not eligible for conversion until after the expiration of the two-year period for SIMPLE IRAs. For all reconversions beginning January 1, 2010, and thereafter, a reconversion of an amount that has been converted and recharacterized prior to January 1 of the taxable year, or, if later, the end of the 30- day period beginning on the day the recharacterization occurs, is treated as a failed conversion. IRA owners may correct a failed conversion by recharacterizing such amount back to the IRA from which the IRA owner reconverted. If the IRA owner fails to recharacterize the reconverted amount, such amount will be treated as a regular Roth IRA contribution and thus may be subject to the 6% excise tax to the extent that such amount exceeds the individual s annual IRA contribution limit for the tax year. Premiere Select IRA Recharacterization Request Forms are available on the Wizard on JHNetwork. Please note, it is strongly recommended that Signator Investors receives the completed forms in good order by December 9, 2009 in order to help ensure that all recharacterization transactions are processed and completed by December 31, Signator will process all recharacterization requests received in good order after December 9, 2009 on a best efforts basis up to and including December 31, A recharacterization processed in 2009 will be reflected on the R and 5498 forms that will be mailed in January 2010.

5 Year-End Distributions The last day to request a distribution for 2009 is December 31, 2009; however, Signator Investors strongly recommends that these requests be submitted in good order by December 9, Submitting requests earlier allows you to address any that are Not In Good Order (NIGO) prior to December 31. Note: We will utilize the partial distribution process which allows available funds to be paid if funds available in the core account investment vehicle ( core account ) are insufficient to meet the requested distribution amount. The partial distribution process applies to both periodic and one time distributions and will be in effect for December only. Partial Distribution Process: If funds in the core account are insufficient to meet the requested or scheduled distribution amount, the distribution will pend for the greater of 15 business days or until December 31, The full distribution amount will be paid if it becomes available at any time during the pending period. This allows us to: Minimize the creation of multiple, small-dollar checks. Extend the pending period for distributions originally set to pay early in December until December 31. Pend distributions set to pay later in December the full 15 business days extending into January Generate a partial payment of funds available on December 31, 2009, for all pending distributions. Periodic Distribution Plan Payments The processing date for all December periodic distribution plan payments from a customer s core account scheduled to occur from Premiere Select retirement accounts between December 4, 2009 and December 31, 2009 will be pulled forward. Any existing periodic distribution that is scheduled to pay out of the core account between December 4 and December 31 will be processed in the December 4 nightly cycle. For Example: A customer has a periodic distribution plan established so that $ is to be distributed from his or her core account on December 22. This payment will feed into the nightly cycle on December 4 and will be processed on December 7. Mutual fund liquidating trades will be placed at market close on December 4. Additionally, all periodic distribution plans scheduled to pay from Premiere Select retirement accounts between December 21, 2009 and December 31, 2009, which were not processed in the December 4 pull forward described above, will be processed in the December 18 nightly cycle. This will help ensure that all 2009 retirement distributions are processed in the 2009 tax year.

6 The partial distribution process works as follows: We will pay the available amount on December 31, 2009, if the amount available is $50 or more 2. If the pending period extends to January 2010, we will pay the full amount remaining if it comes available during the pending period or any partial amount $50 or greater available both on December 31 and at the end of the pending period. The unpaid portion of the distribution will be deleted upon expiration of the pending period if sufficient funds have not become available to meet the requested amount. Important Note: Do not submit distribution requests for 2010 reporting until after December 31, 2009, to ensure proper handling. Executing Trades Needed to Satisfy a Distribution All trades must settle by December 31, 2009, to be available for distributions on December 31, 2009 (the last business day of the year 2009). Therefore, equity trades must be executed no later than December 28, Please take the different settlement periods for different securities into consideration when placing trades. Failure to allow sufficient time for trade settlement may cause distributions to occur in Contributions Received January 1 through April 15, 2010 All contribution checks mailed to Signator Investors must have the intended year of contribution designated in the check s memo field. If a check is received without a contribution year indicated, it will automatically be coded as a current year contribution. A contribution made after January 1, 2010 using Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT) (e.g., Periodic Investment Plan) will be coded as a current year contribution. If the contribution made between January 1 and April 15 is intended to be a prior year contribution, you must contact the Signator Investors Brokerage Services Group at , option 1. 2 For payment requests under $50, any available funds, up to the amount of the distribution request, will be paid out on December or at the end of the payment pending period, whichever is greater.

7 Deadline for Retirement Account Alternative Investment Asset Acceptability Review After November 13, 2009, we cannot accept any additional 2009 alternative investment asset reviews for retirement accounts. Form 5498 regulations require that all assets in a retirement account are valued once per year. Since these investments are not registered, therefore not regulated, pricing does not occur on a regular basis. To avoid under valuation on Form 5498 reporting, the six-week period prior to year-end is needed to allow for appropriate processing time. This deadline does not pertain to non-retirement accounts.perati Key dates to remember: All retirement periodic distribution plan payments scheduled to be made between December 4, 2009, and December 31, 2009, will be processed on December 4, This includes all distribution plans in FSWP. The last day to request 2009 Distributions is December 31, 2009; however, Signator Investors strongly recommends that these requests be submitted in good order by December 9, Signator will process all distribution requests received in good order after December 9, 2009 on a best efforts basis up to and including December 31, Distributions of residuals will be reported in the year that the residual distributions are processed. One-time distributions via EFT must be processed by December 30, 2009, in order to post by December 31, Newly established EFT instructions must go through a 7-10 day prenote period. If there is not sufficient time for the prenote period, the distribution will be sent via check to the address of record. The last day to establish a new periodic distribution plan for a distribution for the 2009 tax year is December 28, It is recommended that all distribution forms to establish periodic plans be received by Signator Investors by December 9, The form to establish periodic distribution plans is available on The Wizard on jhnetwork.com. Old versions of the form will be rejected.