2006 3rd Quarter

Skip Halpern was one of three members of a panel that discussed how to develop, implement and upgrade a modern, public pension investment organization. Skip focused specifically on the governance and operation of the investment program of the fledgling Chinese National Social Security Fund (approximately $25 billion in assets), which IFS recently evaluated. His co-panelists were senior investment officers of the Japanese National Pension Investment Fund-- the largest pension fund in the world-- and the Korean Pension Service.

Ed Patchett, Senior Vice President and Managing Director, spoke at the Association IFEBP Annual Conference in Las Vegas. His presentation was entitled "How Investment Policies Can Impact Returns."

Skip Halpern, IFS President, spoke on the subject of "Current Fiduciary Issues in Investments".

Andy Irving, Managing Director and General Counsel spoke at the following:

• Proskauer Rose program entitled "ERISA Fest: Current High Stakes Employee Benefit Plan and Executive Compensation Issues for Directors and Officers" on the subject of "Best Practices Reviews: Enhance your Investment Program's Effectiveness and Efficiency".
• Andy was a panelist at a conference sponsored by Financial Research Associates LLC in New York.
  

Frank Lilly, CEO, spoke at the Association of Investment Management Sales Executives Annual Conference in Orlando. He participated in a panel discussion relating to "The Impact of Government Regulation (and Legislation) on Employee Benefit Plan Investing."

Ed Patchett, SVP and Managing Director of IFS' Retainer Consulting Practice, provided testimony to the 2006 ERISA Advisory Council. Ed's prepared testimony before the Working Group on Select Issues of a Procedurally Prudent Investment Process is available for download.

In its Sept/October edition, the Journal of Benefits and Compensation published an article entitled "The Role of the Independent Fiduciary," authored by Skip Halpern, President of IFS.

IFS was retained by the plan to analyze the terms of the settlement of a class action alleging breaches of fiduciary by the plan's fiduciaries associated with the plan's ownership of Westar stock and determine whether the settlement was reasonable. Working with outside counsel, IFS reviewed the relevant plan documents and court filings and interviewed the attorneys involved in the lawsuit and the mediator who conducted the settlement discussions.

IFS has been serving since 2003 as the independent fiduciary for two retirement plans (one cash balance plan and one profit sharing plan) sponsored by Fortunoff with respect to a Long Island, New York warehouse the plans purchased from one of the Fortunoff companies in 1992 and leased back to the company. Acting for the plans, IFS had taken steps to bring the plans and the company into compliance with the terms of the lease, agreed to a lease extension and supported a successful application to the Department of Labor for a prohibited transaction exemption permitting the lease extension.

IFS voted the shares of AmSouth Bank and Regions Financial Corporation held by the AmSouth Plans with respect to the proposed merger of AmSouth and Regions.

The Board of Trustees (the "Board") of the City of Oakland Police and Fire Retirement System ("PFRS") retained IFS, through a competitive bidding process, to conduct a management audit. A review of this nature had never been conducted by PFRS. The scope of the project covered over a dozen task areas, including governance and accountability, expert advice and the role of legal counsel, disclosure requirements, investment analysis and performance, investment benchmarks, investment reporting and monitoring, custody and securities lending and internal controls.