Scope of Services

1. What activities can I move out of my office?
Most activities related to the input, review, reconciliation and correction of data for billing and reporting purposes can be eliminated. Additionally, personnel issues related to hiring, firing, training, supervision, sick leave, etc. can be reduced since employees who would have been added to your staff are now on our staff.

2. Do I give up control of my data?
A fundamental principle of the services offered by BOSS is that you should have direct access to your actual data. You can add to and edit your data in real time and immediately print reports reflecting the changes.

3. How much time can I save by outsourcing administrative services?
In addition to the time saved on data entry and the time consuming resolution of database problems, there are indirect time savings related to supervision, hiring, training, as well as the time it takes to stay abreast of the changing capabilities of your portfolio management software. None of these time consumers bring in an additional nickel of revenue. BOSS creates an environment that enables most advisors to radically increase time spent on their highest payoff activities - marketing, client service and portfolio management.

4. What software platforms do you support ?
We currently support PortfolioCenter offered by Schwab Performance Technologies.

6. What database conversions will BOSS do?
We will do full transaction by transaction conversions from dbCAMS, Techfi or AdvisorMart to PortfolioCenter. For other databases, data in Excel, or even statements we may still be able to create a performance history for PortfolioCenter®.

Company / Staff / Referrals

7. How long have you been providing services to financial professionals for outsourcing?
Support of portfolio management systems has been the sole activity of BOSS since February 1996.

8. Who owns your company?
The company is controlled by senior management of the firm.

9. How many firms are currently using your services?
Excluding special projects the company services over 130 companies.

10. How many staff members do you have dedicated to support of outsourced portfolio management systems?
All of the members of the firm work exclusively on support of outsourced portfolio management systems. There are currently 37 employees.

11. How does the level of technical expertise compare to that which would be available from my own staff?
With a steady flow of software changes, keeping a small staff current in all aspects of database management is an increasingly difficult task that is only complicated by staff turnover. BOSS account administrators spend all day every day immersed in the resolution of database problems. They share information on software capabilities and the application of those capabilities to real world issues with other staff members. Training is an ongoing process spearheaded by experienced Senior Account Administrators. The resulting level of expertise among BOSS staff members is very high.

12. Who will manage my data?
A specific Account Manager will be assigned to your firm.

13. What happens if the person managing my data is unavailable? Or on vacation?
Every database we manage has an assigned backup Account Manager as well as a primary Account Manager.

14. Can you give me the names/numbers of advisors with similar practices who are using your services?
References are available and can be provided at the end of your evaluation period. Like you, our clients are busy financial advisors and we wish to respect their time by restricting any contacts to new companies with a serious interest in doing business with us.

Costs

15. What costs can I avoid by outsourcing administrative activities?
Certainly the salary costs of the employee(s) doing the work can be eliminated. The actual cost of administrative staff, however, goes well beyond that. Less obvious costs include the cost of sick leave, maternity leave, workman's comp, or retirement plans and the costs associated with extra staff office space, furniture and equipment. As significant as the direct costs, however, is value of the time which is freed up for high payoff activities such as marketing, client service and portfolio management. Time spent on training new staff, supervising staff and learning about updated features of the software can also be redirected.

16. What is the cost of your service?
We recognize that each advisor’s office is different. Based on factors that have a direct bearing on your administrative requirements, we will propose fixed costs to meet your needs. In addition to establishing a known operational cost, you can operate your business from a unique perspective - the operational cost will increase only as fast as new clients are added and there will be an immediate decrease in operational cost upon the loss of any client.

17. Are my costs fixed or variable based on number of Clients? Accounts? Transactions? Hours worked?
The primary services provided by BOSS are provided on a fixed cost basis. Additional services that may vary significantly from month to month are billed on an hourly basis. Factors taken into account in determining the billing rate include, number of accounts, transaction activity, size of portfolios, as well as the custodians used for electronic downloads.

Implementation

18. How is my data protected? Is it secure technically?
BOSS uses RAID level technology on its servers. This technology simultaneously writes data to different hard drives while the database is in use. If one of the drives crashes, the system will continue to operate without loss of data. Each night your data is copied to a separate computer on our network. As an additional precaution, data is transferred electronically to another city for storage every night. Finally, all company servers and workstations sit behind a firewall to prevent unauthorized access.

19. Can I make changes to the data?
As a web based system, you have direct real time access to add or edit your data at any time. We can also provide different access rights for different members of your staff giving some the ability to changes data while restricting the ability of other to only viewing the data or generating reports. Your needs may be handled 100% by BOSS or you may enter some of the data yourself.

20. How long does it take to get all of the data set up?
This depends on a number of factors. A new database can usually be set up in less than a week if the information we need is provided in a timely manner. Any historical data entry will, of course, require more time depending on the amount of history to be added. Similarly, if initial positions are going to be divided by trade lots, more time may be required. Existing databases may vary widely. While we can get the support in place very quickly, the amount of time it takes to fix problems in the database will vary directly with the quality of the initial data.

21. What is my role as the Advisor in managing my data?
Your primary role is defining what you want the software to do for you. We can assist by giving you an understanding of the capabilities of the software and the options available to you. Beyond that, prompt responses to your assigned Account Manager will allow them to keep your data current and shorten the amount of time it takes to complete billing and reporting functions for you.

22. Who will my primary contact person be?
Your primary contact person will be the same Account Manager that is assigned to manage your data.

23. How long does it take to get reports out?
It may take up to five business days after the end of a reporting period for all the electronic information to be available. Once it is all available, reports from databases that we have maintained can usually be completed within several business days. Accounts with manual data entry will take longer since it usually takes longer to gain access to the data.

24. How often is the data updated?
Data from custodian downloads is updated each morning. Any manual additions or changes to the data are reflected in real time as they are entered.

25. If I use your outsourcing services, do I still need to purchase portfolio management software?
Advisors using our services pay a monthly license fee which we pass through to Schwab Performance Technologies. If you are a current PortfolioCenter® user, you will not pay the monthly license fee until your current annual contract expires. If you are not a current PortfolioCenter® user, you begin the monthly payments but there is no additional up front purchase or cost for the license.