2005 4th Quarter

Skip Halpern of IFS spoke at the annual meeting of the National Conference on Teacher Retirement in October. The title of his session was the question the conference organizers asked him to address: "Do You Need a Fiduciary Audit?"

Ed Patchett of IFS recently presented two sessions on hedge fund investing at the 2006 International Foundation of Employee Benefits Plans Conference in Hawaii. The first session was geared toward plan attorneys while the second session was for a broader audience of conference attendees. In both sessions, Mr. Patchett defined the terms "hedge funds" and "hedge fund-of-funds," presented the investment characteristics of hedge funds, and reviewed the key risks investors face when investing in the asset class.

Skip Halpern of IFS conducted a workshop on governance of public pension funds at the November conference in Beijing. Attendees included Trustees, staff and regulators of public pension funds across Asia and the U.S.

Montana Board of Investments, Helena, hired ... the board's first full-time investment consultant ... after issuing an RFP in August following a one-time operational review by Independent Fiduciary Services.

In the article titled "Indictment of ex-trustee sparks outrage and questions at plan", Samuel W. "Skip" Halpern, executive vice president, Independent Fiduciary Services, Inc., Washington said that many of the issues raised about the Illinois Teacher Retirement System in the Levine scandal were addressed by his firm's 1998 evaluation of the System's processes and investment practices. One key recommendation was to establish an extensive and independent internal audit process, for example.

IFS recently completed its re-evaluation of the proposed merger of Hibernia with Capitol One Finance and instructed the Plans' trustee how to vote the proxies associated with participant shares.

IFS recently submitted its report proposing policies and procedures related to the Fund's involvement in securities litigation matters regarding securities in its investment portfolio.

IFS recently completed its evaluation and report on the fixed income portfolio of a multi-billion dollar, national Taft Hartley fund.

IFS recently completed its assignment as independent fiduciary to United Pension Plans, responsible for seeking to collect unpaid pension contributions.

IFS recently completed its evaluation of the investment consulting and brokerage services provided to the Children's Hospital.