Executive Summary

Retirement Planning

If you own a company or are the Human Resource Officer (HRO) of a major corporation, then the retirement plan that your company chooses not only affects the company and employees, but you personally. Selecting the wrong type of plan could limit your contribution levels and affect your tax situation and retirement planning. Additionally, you can be held personally liable if your employees aren’t treated fairly under the plan. There are many different types of retirement plans and many financial advisors do not have the expertise to help you select the right plan for your company and provide the ongoing support and fiduciary service required by law. The Retirement Planning service provides the expertise needed to help your company make the right decisions for yourself and your employees. We’ve developed a Retirement Planning Process that helps ensure that owners, management and employees are all on the right track towards investing for their retirement.

Service Methodology

Performance Analysis: Year-long, continual monitoring of your investments; Independent Advice; Recommendations regarding positioning of funds within your employer provided retirement plan; Development of an “Investment Policy” to be used by trustees and advisors to guide the direction of the plan (optional).

Investment Options: Mutual Funds and Stocks; Managed Accounts; Corporate Bonds; Annuities; Life Insurance.

Semi-Annual Reviews: Comprehensive review of your returns for the trustees; Employee meetings to educate employees; Retirement Review- for members preparing for retirement; Comparison of returns to benchmark; Free consultations with your third party administrator; Staying up-to-date on and presenting new tax laws and retirement plan legislation.

Plan Design: Plan Type Review- SEP, SIMPLE, 401(k), 403(b), Defined Benefit, Money Purchase etc; Plan Design and Analysis- Age Weighted, Social Security Integrated, New Comparability; Non-Qualified Executive Retirement Plans (Deferred Compensation, Executive Bonus, etc.); Comparative analysis of retirement plan vendors.

Client Services & Communications: Weekly email market updates; Special reports on how to reduce your taxes and other important topic; Quarterly Newsletter detailing our firm’s research, analysis and view of the current state of the investment markets; Educational Workshops- on topics like Social Security, Market Updates, Tax Planning.

Service Options

Companies can elect whether they just require Appleton Greene for advice and support with the Bronze Client Service, for research and performance analysis with the Silver Client Service, for facilitating departmental workshops with the Gold Client Service, or for complete process planning, development, implementation, management and review, with the Platinum Client Service. Ultimately, there is a service to suit every situation and every budget and clients can elect to either upgrade or downgrade from one service to another as and when required, providing complete flexibility in order to ensure that the right level of support is available over a sustainable period of time, enabling the organization to compensate for any prescriptive or emergent changes relating to: Customer Service; E-business; Finance; Globalization; Human Resources; Information Technology; Legal; Management; Marketing; or Production.

Service Mission

The service mission is to provide a money management system for your company’s retirees and pre-retirees. This is a conservative system. The average person does not understand that the classic brokerage house and bank brokerages use a buy-and-hold methodology. This does not work for the average employee. It does work well for the broker and his/her firm. Folks have no idea where they will be in 5, 10, or 15 years financially. All they end up with is a hope and a prayer portfolio. Don’t you think that your employees deserve more? We think so and you do have options. We strive to provide successful investment solutions that are low in volatility and risk. Our strategies are designed to help you and your employees reach your financial goals. Each employee has different needs and we help design and implement their own type of investment strategy that will work for their individual circumstances. We take the time to get to know you and your key employees, as well as your actual needs and risk tolerance. We believe that having a well thought out plan in both accumulation and distribution stages is critical in achieving a successful, worry-free retirement. Our thorough, comprehensive planning process allows us to address all of your investment concerns, including protection from market volatility, income planning, retirement goals, legacy planning, tax planning, and most importantly, peace of mind.

We act as a fiduciary where we make recommendations on funds, monitor investments, provide employee education and assist the employer in meeting all their requirements. We are an advisor to the plan trustees and the employees and we do not have discretion to make decisions without employer authorization. We will always disclose any fees we received or any conflicts of interest. We know that you are already likely to have a plan in place, but that doesn’t mean that it’s the right plan. If you have any doubts about your retirement plan, we would be happy to meet with you and provide a general review to help you understand potential issues that you may have with the existing plan or if your plan has been set up correctly.

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Service Objectives

The following list represents the Key Service Objectives (KSO) for the Appleton Greene Retirement Planning service.

1. Exploring Options
   We understand that the success of a business relies both on the quality and commitment of its people and the organization’s ability to plan and operate strategically. We listen to you and work to understand your goals and challenges. Focused on priority objectives, we set out to develop solutions that improve plan performance and deliver tangible value to the bottom line. Start your planning today by exploring your options, including corporate benefits planning, employee benefits, 401(k) and corporate retirement plans, executive benefits, and business owner and executive succession.
2. Employee Planning
   In today’s complex benefit planning environment it is essential that you are positioned to assess benefit plan structure, claims impact, cost sharing, and various risk transfer strategies. We have experienced how a strategic approach to benefit planning and risk transfer techniques adds value to your employee benefits offering and materially improves plan performance. In light of the increased regulatory landscape and with benefit costs continuing to escalate, many businesses are rethinking their offering of employee benefits. This service provides a comprehensive analysis of your current employee benefit programs and provides a framework to: Assess cost drivers of medical and pharmacy plans; Evaluate alternative funding options; Integrate plan resources; Educate employees; Benchmark plans; Leverage technology; Negotiate premiums; Improve communications. This service assures that you have a leading, cost effective core benefits program aligned with corporate objectives to attract, retain and reward your people. The review can cover the following areas: Medical insurance: HMO, POS; Cafeteria plans; Disability; Dental; Life and AD&D; Vision; Long-term care; Critical illness; Voluntary benefits; Employee assistance programs.
3. Corporate Planning
   Having a framework to support informed decision making aligned with fiduciary roles and responsibilities is critical to meeting regulatory requirements and fulfilling participant expectations. Your organization has specific goals, and your corporate retirement plan should be responsive to those goals. Key considerations, such as corporate structure, business objectives, and cash flow are factors in the decisions related to the appropriate corporate retirement plan design for the business. We have seen how a strategic approach to fiduciary responsibility can drive improved participant outcomes, help minimize fiduciary risk and supports ability to adapt plan to changing business environment and goals. Now more than ever plan sponsors are rethinking their corporate retirement plans. This service provides plan sponsors with a framework to: Assess fiduciary risk; Review competitiveness of participant outcomes; Coordinate plan resources to maximize results. This service will help you to assess fiduciary risk, review participant outcomes and determine areas for improvement. Reviews include: 401(k) plans; Profit sharing plans; Pensions and defined benefit plans; Employee stock ownership plans; 403(b) plans and tax-sheltered annuities; 412(i) plans; Small business plans; Non-qualified retirement plans.
4. Executive Planning
   Having carefully aligned strategies for executive compensation and benefits is essential to sustained organizational success. Whether managing a family owned business, a closely held business or a public company, this service understands how financial strategies in Executive compensation and benefits, supports organizational growth and profitability while providing stability and incentives within an executive team. In today’s competitive business environment companies are seeking ways to complement core compensation strategies with targeted executive benefit programs that help those select participants to build and protect wealth. This service enables companies to evaluate their existing offerings and creates a framework to create programs that: Align executive incentives with corporate objectives; Recruit executive talent; Define goals and reward success. This service will enable you to review your current offerings to your executive team within the context of corporate goals and current market conditions. Review can include the following areas: Non-qualified deferred compensation planning; Supplemental executive retirement plans; Key man insurance planning; Stock option planning and incentive compensation.
5. Succession Planning
   Planning for the successful exit of an owner or key person from your business is essential to sustained success. Every business owner, at some point, leaves their business. Whether a sale to a third party, or a transfer to an insider such as key person or family member. This service proves how well thought through exit strategies can help you realize maximum value for your ownership interests. Thousands of companies will transition ownership and leadership over the coming decade. Many businesses do not have a plan for the current ownership to successfully exit and transition the business. This service helps you and the business to: Define the owner’s or executive’s exit objectives; Establish a framework to review and refine the exit plan; Motivate owners to execute the plan; Realize maximum value from the business; Evaluate tax planning alternatives; Instill confidence and success within succession. This service centers on the goals the business must achieve for you or a key person to leave it in style. Reviews can include the following areas: Buy-sell planning; Business valuation planning; Merger and acquisition support; Preparing for and structuring the business sale; ESOP and qualified retirement plan strategies.

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Testimonials

Banking & Financial Services

“Performance improvement has to be the core objective of any training program. At Appleton Greene, this is achieved by ensuring that each program incorporates the implementation of a tangible business process. As they say, processes drive business, but it is always people who drive processes. Therefore, this kind of productive and interactive training is mission critical for any company that trades internationally.”

A quotation taken from a client reference within the Banking & Financial Services.

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Insurance

“Risk assessment is our business. So, we are drawn towards products and services which are inherently risk-averse. Appleton Greene’s programs are cost-efficient, time-efficient, process-efficient and risk-efficient. There is therefore no apparent risk involved because their processes merely assist our staff to undertake an internal analysis into our own processes and procedures and any changes that are made are made by us at our discretion.”

A quotation taken from a client reference within the Insurance industry.

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Aviation

“Managed outsourcing is the key to successful manufacturing these days. It would appear that the same principle applies to good education. The high points of my MBA and DBA were the opportunities to interact with industry specialists and successful business leaders. Appleton Greene recognizes this and is developing an impressive catalog of tangible programs and encourages learning providers to outsource to specialist consultants and business leaders as much as possible. This helps to bring the programs to life in the real world and engages and challenges employees.”

A quotation taken from a client reference within the Aviation.

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Retail

“The retail industry has changed considerably during the past 50 years. Much of our success today is based upon our ability to collaborate and to form strategic alliances with a variety of national and international business partners. Appleton Greene has embraced this philosophy with great effect and although they are still a small lean company, they are truly multi-national and multi-industrial in their approach.”

A quotation taken from a client reference within the Retail> industry.

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Manufacturing

“Successful growth on a global scale is determined by the quality of strategic partnering or strategic alliance management. Appleton Greene has been a real find in terms of corporate training services because their flexibility and international coverage makes them a valuable asset to have.”

A quotation taken from a client reference within the Manufacturing industry.

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More detailed achievements, references and testimonials are confidentially available to clients upon request.

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Industries

This service is primarily available to the following industry sectors:

Banking & Financial Services

Assets of the largest 1,000 banks in the world grew by 6.8% to a record US$96.4 trillion while profits declined by 85% to US$115 billion. Growth in assets in adverse market conditions was largely a result of recapitalization. EU banks holds the largest share of the total, 56%. Asian banks’ share amounts to 14%, while the share of US banks amounts to 13%. Fee revenue generated by global investment banking totals US$66.3 billion. The United States has the most banks in the world in terms of institutions i.e. 7,085 including 82,000 branches. This is an indicator of the geography and regulatory structure of the USA, resulting in a large number of small to medium-sized institutions in its banking system. China’s top 4 banks have in excess of 67,000 branches with an additional 140 smaller banks. Japan has 129 banks and 12,000 branches. Germany, France, and Italy each had more than 30,000 branches – more than double the 15,000 branches in the UK. Financial services are the economic services provided by the finance industry, which encompasses a broad range of organizations that manage money, including credit unions, banks, credit card companies, insurance companies, accountancy companies, consumer finance companies, stock brokerages, investment funds and some government sponsored enterprises. The financial services industry represents 20% of the market capitalization of the S&P 500 in the United States. Finance industry income as a proportion of GDP is 7.5%, and the finance industry’s proportion of all corporate income is 20%. The financial services industry constitutes the largest group of companies in the world in terms of earnings and equity market capitalization. However it is not the largest category in terms of revenue or number of employees. It is also a slow growing and extremely fragmented industry, with the largest company (Citigroup), only having a 3% US market share.

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