Retirement Connections: A Professionally Managed Solution

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1 Retirement Connections: A Professionally Managed Solution Expand your practice and build loyalty with an easy-to-use retirement plan for your small business clients For Financial Advisor use only. Not intended for use with clients.

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3 As an advisor, you think about the best way to offer new solutions to your clients. For business owners, the most meaningful solution could be a retirement plan for their employees. Retirement Connections brings together low-cost ETFs, actively managed investments and target-risk GPS Solutions in a comprehensive plan. You can diversify your practice and build loyalty by bringing this new offering to a valuable segment of your client base. AssetMark 01

4 Differentiate and expand your practice with a diversified, managed retirement plan solution Retirement Connections helps you strengthen ties with your small business clients as you grow your practice. You can also make a difference to your clients employees with professionally managed, closely monitored investment choices for their retirement plans. Deepen Your Connections with Clients Build Client Loyalty. Your involvement with Retirement Connections can strengthen your relationships with your valued small business clients who seek comprehensive retirement plan choices for navigating changing markets. Help Make Retirement a Reality. Help your clients employees prepare for retirement with a professionally managed plan and a range of choices from low-cost ETFs (exchange traded funds) to target-risk managed accounts. Enhance Business Development. A professionally managed retirement plan offering creates a competitive advantage with prospective clients who are business owners. The connections you make with plan participants may also translate into new business opportunities, such as IRA rollovers. Answer the Needs of the Small Business Owner Retirement Connections allows you to help employers: Attract and Retain Valuable Employees. A sophisticated and flexible retirement plan supports employee commitment. Better Prepare Participants for Retirement. A professionally managed plan with carefully chosen investments helps employees diversify for dynamic markets. Benefit from Retirement Experts. You can leverage the expertise of seasoned specialists for retirement planning. Reduce Risk. Fiduciary responsibility is shared with an investment manager that assumes responsibility for the investment choices. Increase Efficiency. A single point of contact for plan design and administration simplifies implementation for employers. Retirement Connections supports 401(k), 457(b), money purchase, profit sharing and non-qualified deferred compensation plans. 02 Retirement Connections

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7 Provide a unique range of investment choices and limit your clients fiduciary risk Retirement Connections provides access to both comprehensive, diversified managed accounts and other building blocks for participants who want to create their own mixes of investments. We offer deep experience with designing actively managed target-risk strategies and performing due diligence on investment managers. A Range of Investments An array of low-cost ETFs and other choices to build personalized portfolios Comprehensive target-risk managed accounts for changing markets, including six risk/return portfolios that employees can match with their personal preferences and goals Low-Cost ETFs and Actively Managed Choices For those participants who prefer to select individual investments for their portfolios, Retirement Connections includes low-cost ETFs covering a range of asset classes as well as actively managed choices. Our investment team completes rigorous due diligence to select and monitor all of these investments. Indexed ETFs target the following asset classes: US large cap equity, US mid cap equity, US small cap equity, international developed market equity, emerging market equity, core US bond and TIPS (treasury inflation protected securities). Actively managed choices include an opportunistic fixed income fund managed by AssetMark TM and a total return US bond ETF. In addition, a stable value fund and a money market fund are available as investment options. A glide path default investment that automatically adjusts over time for participants who don t make an election Flexibility and Choice Employees can select any combination of these investments to fit their unique retirement needs. AssetMark 05

8 Comprehensive Target-Risk Managed Account Strategies GPS Solutions feature broad diversification across global asset classes and investment styles in a single target-risk managed account. These managed account portfolios encompass both strategies that aim to capture market growth and strategies that have greater freedom to pursue opportunities across changing markets. By combining these approaches, GPS Solutions seek to lower overall portfolio volatility and promote investor confidence. GPS Solutions, comprising mutual funds managed by AssetMark, leverage the viewpoints of a wide variety of research providers, including well-known institutional and boutique investment management firms. These research providers may change at any time and are one of several factors used in the management of the funds. Plan participants can choose from six risk/return portfolios, ranging from Long-Term Growth to Conservative, based on their risk tolerance. Help Your Clients Reduce Fiduciary Risk with a 3(38) Manager As an advisor working with small business owners, you know these employers take on a lot of responsibility in their day-to-day working lives. If a business owner provides a retirement plan to employees, they are responsible and may be held personally liable for decisions made about their company plan, including the investments offered. However, with Retirement Connections, the employer can delegate a large share of the responsibility to an ERISA Section 3(38) investment manager. AssetMark acts as the 3(38) manager, with the following key responsibilities: Assuming fiduciary responsibility for the selection of the investments in the plan Acting solely in the interest of the plan and in accordance with ERISA laws and regulations Providing full fee transparency direct and indirect related to the investment choices Automatic Adjustment Across Risk/Return Portfolios with an Age-Based Glide Path An age-based glide path that moves assets across five risk/ return portfolios of GPS Solutions serves as the qualified default investment alternative (QDIA) for participants who do not make an initial investment selection. As a QDIA, GPS Solutions with the glide path offers deep diversification within a single managed account along with an investment strategy that automatically evolves to become more conservative for each participant as they approach the standard retirement age. Help your business clients limit their fiduciary risk while you build your practice with retirement plan accounts and rollover opportunities. This QDIA allows employees who don t make an investment election to benefit from participating in the plan. 06 Retirement Connections

9 Support Your Clients with Plan Consulting and Employee Education We designed Retirement Connections to help you leverage our platform to expand your business. Your familiarity with our risk-managed strategies and the ongoing oversight we maintain for all the choices on the platform is valuable knowledge you can use to help employers understand the investments in Retirement Connections. In addition to general investment guidance, your role may include the selection and monitoring of the investment manager and the rest of the Retirement Connections team. Using tools like the Investment Policy Statement and the fiduciary plan review report, you can conduct service provider and compliance reviews for employers. The Retirement Connections team supports you with reports, tutorials and personalized training. You can also connect directly with employees as you provide education about the plan during enrollment meetings and educational seminars. These touch points provide you an avenue for cementing more relationships, and may provide you with the opportunity for future IRA rollovers for your business. AssetMark 07

10 Bring your clients a team of specialists to support every aspect of their retirement plans Financial Advisor Third Party Administrator (TPA) RETIREMENT PLAN SPONSOR (EMPLOYER) Investment Manager Recordkeeper Custodian Rely on our Team to Help You Seamlessly Implement Your Clients Plans Investment Manager AssetMark Custodian TD Ameritrade Trust Company Recordkeeper Professional Capital Services (PCS) Third Party Administrator (TPA) PCS (Preferred Provider) 08 Retirement Connections

11 Financial Advisor General investment guidance and education to the plan sponsor or oversight committee Investment Manager Ongoing review of service providers Discretionary investment manager under ERISA 3(38) Services for plan participants, including enrollment meetings and educational seminars fiduciary responsibility and liability for the selection of the investments in the plan thorough, ongoing due diligence on all plan investments, including selection, monitoring, managing and replacement as needed Preparation and ongoing maintenance of the investment policy statement (IPS) Third Party Administrator (TPA) Plan design services including drafting and maintaining the plan document Custodian Required compliance and regulatory testing Asset custody and safekeeping Preparation and filing of the IRS Form 5500 Trust statements and annual reports including certified trust statements Flexibility to use an existing TPA to the plan if preferred Directed trustee services providing extra protection of plan assets Distribution services including federal and state tax withholding and reporting AssetMark 09

12 Recordkeeper Services for the Financial Advisor Comprehensive fiduciary plan review report Web access to plan and participant-level information for the entire plan Enrollment and participant education support services Enrollment booklet Video-based education and enrollment module Retirement readiness and planning tools Services for Employers Access to aggregate plan information and individual participant details Integration with many in-house payroll systems and payroll vendors Complete fiduciary support services, including the preparation and delivery of notices and reports A 408(b)(2)-compliant annual fee and expense report for all vendors providing services to the plan Paperless capabilities, including new hire enrollment, deferral rate changes and withdrawal requests and approvals Services for Employees Participant access to online transactional services and on-demand reporting Dynamic retirement readiness tools Daily valuation and maintenance of participant accounts Account rollover tool and integration with personal financial management software 10 Retirement Connections

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14 Working with You Every Step of the Way Whether you have experience with retirement plans or are just getting started, Retirement Connections can help you diversify your practice and develop customer loyalty. Here s how: 1. Identify. Your own client list is your greatest resource. Identify a small business client with a retirement plan, or a client who is looking to offer one. Your regional consultant can also help you find prospects using a database of 1.3 million retirement plans. 3. Compare. Your regional consultant generates a detailed comparison between your client s existing plan and a Retirement Connections plan. 4. Propose. We develop a customized proposal for you to review with your client. 5. Engage. The team sets up a call including you and your client to discuss the proposal and how to move forward. 2. Benchmark. For qualified opportunities, your regional consultant creates a plan diagnostic to benchmark an employer s existing plan against its peers and its industry, and identify plan gaps for you and your client. 12 Retirement Connections

15 Retirement Connections provides a comprehensive integrated solution for the needs of your small business clients. It s a powerful tool to help you build your business as you enter into the retirement plan market. And you can count on us to provide the training, support and level of service you ve come to expect from our platform. About ASSETMARK AssetMark was founded by financial advisors to help advisors serve their clients. We believe there are times to take advantage of market conditions and times when the priority is simply to avoid risk. Based on this philosophy, we have developed strategies that incorporate multiple investment approaches in an effort to take advantage of market upswings, avoid downside volatility and build investor confidence. With approximately $20 billion in assets, AssetMark helps independent financial advisors meet their clients wealth management, investment and retirement needs.

16 Contact us at (option 2) to discuss your questions or schedule a meeting AssetMark, Inc Grant Street, 10th Floor, Concord, CA GPS Solutions are implemented using mutual funds that are proprietary to AssetMark. AssetMark serves as the investment advisor to the GuidePath Funds and the GuideMark Funds. These mutual funds invest, through affiliated and third-party funds, in a variety of investments, including equities, fixed income securities, real estate securities, commodity-related securities and managed futures. There are general risks associated with these investments. These include, but are not limited to, security selection risk, asset class risk and risk inherent in various investment strategies that each mutual fund may employ. AssetMark, Inc. is an investment adviser registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission AssetMark, Inc. All rights reserved C /2013