We ve made this change in an effort to provide the information you need to more easily manage your account and track your account activity.

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1 IRAFOCUS January 2012 IMPORTANT NEWS AND INFORMATION REGARDING YOUR IRA IN THIS ISSUE Your Statement Has a New Look Making Your IRA Contribution Your statement has been changed to make it easier to read while providing more information at a glance. Your statement now includes a section on Cash Activity, with transaction details of any deposits and disbursements. In addition, the Investment Positions section reflects each investment holding within your account, and any transaction activity for each holding. We ve made this change in an effort to provide the information you need to more easily manage your account and track your account activity. For questions concerning your new statement or account, please use our secure feature on our website, or call our Client Services Group at (866) Unrelated Business Taxable Income and Your IRA SEC Issues Alert on Self Directed IRAs and the Risk of Fraud RITA Investor Awareness Notice Annual Privacy Policy Disclosure Important 2012 Dates for IRAs FEBRUARY 1 We will mail your Form 1099-R if you received an IRA distribution in APRIL 1 If you are the account owner and turned 70½ last year, but you elected to defer taking your first required minimum distribution (RMD), you must take your first RMD payment by April 1. (You are also required to take the current year RMD by 12/31.) Send your completed 2011 Form 990-T and instruction to pay any UBTI/UDFI tax payment due to us (prior to the 4/17 due date). APRIL 17 Establish an IRA for a 2011 contribution. Postmark your 2011 IRA contribution to SDIRA Services. We will mail your 2011 Form 990-T and process your UBTI/UDFI tax payment to the IRS (upon your prior instruction). Remove prior year excess IRA contributions extensions allowed. Recharacterize prior year IRA contributions extensions allowed. MAY 31 We will mail your Form 5498 if you made IRA contributions for OCTOBER 15 Remove excess IRA contributions for the prior year. Recharacterize IRA contributions for the prior year. DECEMBER 31 Take your entire current year RMD amount to avoid a 50% penalty (account owners turning 70½ in the current year have until April 1 of the next year to take their first RMD payment). Convert a traditional IRA to a Roth IRA.

2 IRAfocusJanuary2012 Making Your IRA Contribution 2 This is good news for many people because it s easy to forget to make a contribution during the year. There also may be situations where the new year means a new job, a pay raise, or bonus that could be applied to a contribution. Whatever the situation, you have almost three months to do something good for your retirement nest egg, and if you contribute to a Traditional IRA, you may lower your tax burden. The calendar may have flipped to the new year, which means most tax tricks, tips, and deductions have ended for your 2011 taxes, but that isn t the case for your IRAs. Individual Retirement Accounts are unique in that the IRS gives you up until the tax filing deadline of April 17th to make your IRA contributions. That means you still have almost 3 months to make an IRA contribution to your Traditional or Roth IRA if you choose to. Even better, you can also make your 2012 IRA contribution now and put your retirement money to work faster. REMEMBERTO Makeyourcontributioncheckpayableto: SelfDirectedIRAServices,Inc. Writeyouraccountnumberonthecheck. Quick Reference: The IRA contribution limit for 2011 and 2012 is $5,000 if you are under age 50 and $6,000 if you are age 50 or over. IncludeaDepositCoupon(availableonthe Formssectionofourwebsite, Mailto:600CongressAve,Ste400 Austin,TX78701 EnvelopemustbepostmarkedbyApril17,2012. UBTI and Your IRA The investment entity should prepare and mail this directly to you. However, if a K-1 is received by Self Directed IRA Services, Inc. ( SDIRA Services ), we will forward this form to you. If you own an asset in your individual retirement account (IRA) which generates Unrelated Business Taxable Income (UBTI), including Unrelated Debt-Financed Income (UDFI), your IRA account may be subject to taxation. Assets which tend to generate UBTI include limited partnerships (LPs), limited liability companies (LLCs), real estate investment trusts (REITs) and debtfinanced real estate. At the end of each year, the investment entity must report each investor s pertinent financial information on a Schedule K-1 (IRS Form 1065). Generally, if gross UBTI of $1,000 or more is generated during the 2011 tax year, IRS Form 990-T must be prepared and filed with the IRS on or before the April 17, 2012 filing deadline. In addition, all applicable UBTI tax should be paid from your IRA account with SDIRA Services. If the amount of gross UBTI is less than $1,000, Form 990-T is not required to be filed. Any income or loss shown on the K-1 for an asset held within your IRA should not be included and/or reported on your personal tax return. In addition, it is very important that the K-1 properly reflect SDIRA Service s tax identification number (TIN) rather than your social security number. SDIRA Service s TIN is Please promptly notify us if the K-1 does not reflect this tax identification number. The account owner is responsible for determining if the filing of IRS Form 990-T is necessary. If required, you must first obtain an employer identification number (EIN) for your IRA by filing IRS Form SS-4. Once you obtain the EIN, you should then complete IRS Form 990-T and send it to SDIRA Services for our signature. You should contact your tax professional for assistance in obtaining the EIN and completion of the Form 990-T. Lastly, send your written instructions to authorize SDIRA Services pay the appropriate tax from your IRA account, along with your completed Form 990-T. A $50 fee will be charged by SDIRA Services for processing the Form 990-T and payment.

3 IRAfocus January SEC Issues Investor Alert on Self Directed IRAs and the Risk of Investment Fraud

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8 IRAfocus January Retirement Industry Trust Association Issues Consumer Investor Awareness Notice

9 IRAfocus January Annual Privacy Policy Disclosure

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