Sample Sales Proposal Booklet-Howard Capital Management

Sales Proposal ABC Company, Inc. 401(k) Plan

895 Main Street, Dubuque, IA 52001 | 800.548.2993 | americantrustretirement.com

American Trust Retirement Story

American Trust Retirement is a division of American Trust, a family-owned community bank founded in 1911. We have grown to strengthen the products, services, and financial management we provide to our clients while retaining the integrity and commitment of a community bank. As the fastest growing division in the bank, and with more than 60 years in the retirement industry, American Trust Retirement is positioned as a leader in the industry. In March 2014, the division grew our market presence through the acquisition of a third-party administrator that serviced over $430 million in assets. Today, the division services over 800 plans with more than $2.8 billion in plan assets.

Contents

• ATFutureBuilder

• Your Advisor

• Our Service Promise

• Participant Journey

• Investments

• Fiduciary Promise

• Plan Design Promise

• Your Plan Analysis

Building Tomorrow Today

Harness the power to break through barriers. Gain upside innovation and downside protection. Enjoy extraordinary experiences by design with ATFutureBuilder.

ATFutureBuilder is a comprehensive strategy that engages resources and personalized tools to help individuals and their beneficiaries build a strong and sustainable financial future. Through a powerful universe of financial centers of excellence, ATFutureBuilder anticipates, understands, and provides for participants’ current and future needs. From savings and investments to insurance and estate planning, participants are guided to their best financial future. An extraordinary user experience spanning multiple channels, ATFutureBuilder makes participating in a retirement plan easy to understand and available when, where, and how participants choose. Professionals delight them as they learn about and enroll in their plan, and we give them confidence to engage regularly through one-on-one guidance and attention in person, by phone, and online. Participants feel the value their company holds for them as they build their financial future.

American Trust Retirement’s ATFutureBuilder includes an interactive online experience superior to other retirement plans because it offers savers flexible investment options ranging from ala carte elections to fully-automated comprehensive account management. ATFutureBuilder is a solid foundation on which to construct a better retirement.

Explore more at www.atfuturebuilder.com.

Financial Management Group

Your Advisor

In a better position to make informed decisions for participants.

Information Driven

Education is Key We want our advisors to be in a position to help participants reach their financial goals and retirement objectives with confidence. Advisors need to know extensive knowledge about each participant’s financial situation, retirement plan features, and available investment options, and have knowledge on market conditions to make that happen. With American Trust, advisors are placed in a position to know their clients and determine their best path to retirement. Here’s how we do it: • Educational webinars on plan analysis, plan design, fiduciary responsibilities, and more • Assistance in evaluating each individual plan and making recommendations for improvement • Support in developing a service plan • Marketing materials for group and individual meetings • Multiple investment strategy options • Competitive pricing structures • Unique, analytical reports • And more!

Equipped with the Right Resources As a fully bundled retirement plan provider, advisors have access readily to all our resources, including our proprietary, trademarked retirement readiness solutions.

• ATBlueprint® • Plan Sponsor ATBlueprint®

• ATArchitect® (if applicable to the plan) • ATFutureBuilder Interactive Experience

Our Service Promise

Improve your plan’s average age adjustment score by 10% each year 1 .

Focusing on Retirement Readiness

Enrollment and Education Participating in a retirement plan can be daunting. Our education team makes enrolling easy by conducting customized meetings–in groups or one-on-one–that challenge, encourage, and educate employees about their 401(k) participation. We developed a series of educational materials for participants that effectively educate and offer assistance to our participants in understanding their retirement health.

Dedicated Administration Team A team of professionals–a relationship manager, data specialist, and compliance team–are assigned to your retirement plan to give you the extra attention you deserve.

Ongoing Support We are committed to offering you support from transition to daily plan maintenance. Our staff is available to answer your questions, discuss your plan options, assist participants, and more via in-person, email, or toll free.

1 Will be market adjusted

Communicating Plan Results

Plan Sponsor ATBlueprint ® The real measurement of an effective retirement plan is the ability for employees to retire successfully. The Plan Sponsor ATBlueprint illustrates at a plan level how prepared their employees are for retirement by outlining overall plan health, age segmented comparison, detailed year-by-year comparison, and participant investment profiles. Click here to view a sample Plan Sponsor ATBlueprint ® . Annual Plan Review Each year, we commit to providing you an update on the overall health of your plan, including total assets, number of participants, average account balance, participation rate, and average deferral rate from the plan’s transition to now. It illustrates, at an individual and plan level, the plan’s progress through ATBlueprint ® statistics, current ATArchitect ® results (if applicable to the plan), and highlights insurance needs.

Silver Award of Excellence 2017 PLANSPONSOR Survey

In the $5 million to $25 million market, American Trust received nationwide high marks when our plan sponsors answered the following question: How satisfied are you with your provider?

For more survey results, click here.

Participant Journey

Achieve retirement readiness with ATBlueprint ®

ATBlueprint ®

A Powerful Process The ATBlueprint tracks a participant’s progress to retirement. It is designed to:

• Define the relationship between a participant’s current and future income needs • Use monthly returns in future progress projections and cost of living adjustments based on residency • Suggest ways to increase the retirement balance

• Offer relevant ways to improve outcomes • Project a beneficiary’s monthly benefits • Estimate annual costs of long term-care insurance

Click here to view a sample ATBlueprint.

ATBlueprint ® Customization

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Reach Retirement Goals with Confidence Customizing the ATBlueprint helps you and your employees to be better prepared and feel more confident in reaching your retirement goals. Participants in the plan can accomplish this by creating and/or customizing their ATBlueprint by using specific measurements, including compensation, savings rates, and more. Additional information from other retirement accounts can also be incorporated.

Learn more about ATBlueprint.

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Interactive Online Experience

Track Your Progress American Trust is proud to introduce the ATFutureBuilder Interactive Online Experience, an effective new way to educate eligible employees about the importance of enrolling in and staying engaged with their retirement plan. It guides participants through a personalized, interactive experience that provides information about their retirement plan in an easy-to-understand format. This new experience has a powerful effect on employee engagement and enrollment in retirement plans.

Investments

Investment success through comprehensive and unbiased support.

Enhanced Process

All-Encompassing Due Diligence The fund selection process is vital in delivering an exceptional investment platform. We recognize the lack of predictive value a system built solely on historical performance delivers. Over thousands of funds are researched and we seek those with specific profiles, each adhering to a different investment style. We also aim to use institutional share class pricing when possible to provide you the best investments at the lowest price. The process includes both quantitative and qualitative analysis to identify suitable managers for our platform–we do not rely on scoring systems or absolutes. Our dedicated investment staff utilizes our disciplined evaluation process to form an opinion on each manager and recommends approval or removal to the investment committee.

Our due diligence emphasizes six key elements we believe are essential to understanding the attractiveness and quality of each new and existing manager strategy:

Performance

Performance

Strategy

Strategy

Operations

FUND SELECTION

Risk

Operations

Firm Review

Portfolio Assessment

Risk

Portfolio Assessment

Firm Review

Click here for a copy of the Due Diligence Report.

Investment Options

Investment Platform

1. Active Platform • Primarily uses active mutual fund options • More investment return potential with more investment risk potential • Average expense ratio of 0.49% as of 1.1.2018

2. Index Platform • Primarily uses index fund options

• Returns are generally closer to the category average • Average expense ratio of 0.09% as of 1.1.2018

Fund Line-up Funds in 15 assets categories:

• Large Growth • Large Blend • Large Value • Mid-Cap Growth • Mid-Cap Blend

• Mid Cap Value • Small Growth

• Balanced Fund • Short-Interm Bond • Interm-Long Term Bond • High Yield Bond • Stable Value

• Small Value • International • Emerging Markets

Click here to see the available funds and expense ratios.

Portfolio Managers

3

20

20

40

40

60

60

80

97

80

View the selection of portfolio managers.

Click here for more information on Investments.

Fiduciary Promise

Provide the highest level of fiduciary protection afforded under the law 2 .

Discretionary Trustee Services

Highest Level of Protection American Trust acts as a full discretionary trustee. Our services limit your fiduciary liability and litigation risk.

• Serve as contracted and authorized discretionary trustee in the plan document • Ensure plan is operating in accordance with your plan document • Review, draft, maintain, and interpret your plan document

• Monitor contribution timing • Assist with the annual audit • Support ERISA §404(c) compliance

§3(38) Investment Management Services

Alleviate Risk and Responsibility As a §3(38) investment manager, American Trust is responsible for the selection, monitoring, and replace- ment of the plan investments. Our qualified committee oversees the investment management process by: • Defining and executing the investment policy statement • Monitoring investments daily • Performing monthly formal reviews • Providing quarterly due diligence reports • Exercising an unbiased approach by not accepting compensation from mutual fund companies • Offering low-cost investment options with institutional share class pricing

2 Legal opinion by The Wagner Law Group.

Self Trustee

Directed Trustee

Self Trustee

§3(38) Investment Services

§3(21) Services

Discretionary Trustee

Lowest

Greatest Protection

Greater

§3(16) Fiduciary Services

Day-to-Day Peace of Mind We offer §3(16) fiduciary services as an optional service. As the §3(16) plan administrator, we will assume responsibility for the day-to-day operations of the plan. This will include added monitoring processes, enhanced communications, and less responsibility on you.

Click here to read the Opinion of Counsel Summary– Discretionary Trustee Services by the Wagner Law Group.

Plan Design Promise

Provide plan design analysis and recommendations each year.

Unmatched Expertise

Customized Plan Capabilities We specialize in complex plan design, including cross-testing, a type of profit sharing plan design which allows a plan sponsor to create employee classifications and provide for different allocation rates. The non-discrimination testing methodology used in this type of plan design takes into consideration an employee’s age and compensation. Benefits include:

• Flexible employer contribution • Multiple allocation rates among employees • Potential for FICA tax savings • Increased employee retention and recruitment • Higher contributions to business owners or employees in executive roles

Cross-testing can be used as a means to restructure compensation packages to save on payroll taxes. Assuming a compensation package consists of salary and bonuses, you could choose to pay less in cash or bonuses and divert the remaining amount to the profit sharing allocation, potentially giving you FICA tax savings.

What is Safe Harbor Safe Harbor is a type of plan design that guarantees a minimum employer contribution and in return allows for less restrictive non-discrimination testing requirements.

• Maximizes the HCEs deferral potential • Utilizes matching or nonelective contributions

• Implemented prior to the plan year • Offers immediate employee vesting

Your Plan Analysis

Extensive and detailed review of your current retirement plan.

Plan Design

Unique, Custom Solutions We specialize in complex plan designs, including cross-testing, a type of profit sharing plan design which allows employee classifications and different allocation rates. When evaluating design options, we focus on the current funding methodology used for employer contributions. We consider FICA tax savings, determine if multiple rates of allocations can be used among HCEs and NHCEs, and other factors.

Investments

Unbiased and Diversified Approach As a §3(38) investment manager, American Trust is responsible for the investment offerings. Investment options include funds from a core line-up, a series of actively managed portfolios ranging in risk tolerance, and ATArchitect ® (if applicable to the plan). Our process includes writing, maintaining, and executing the investment policy statement to outline our unique investment selection. We believe in driving investment success through comprehensive and unbiased support.

Fees

Full Transparency The 401(k) fee disclosure rules bring clarity to the overall costs of a retirement plan and are designed to encourage plan sponsors to benchmark their plan with other solutions. It is important to know how your plan compares to others in the industry. We ensure full fee disclosure by:

• Outlining true costs • Complying with fee regulations • Comparing fees in a side-by-side analysis

• Providing an annual fee disclosure revealing fees in a transparent format • Educating participants on the impact of costs for their retirement account • Highlighting savings with a tiered asset schedule • Remaining unbiased by not accepting compensation from mutual fund companies

Click here for your complete analysis on plan design, investments, and fees.