STRATEGIC PARTNER

Since its founding, Northside has maintained a cooperative, mutually beneficial relationship with the institutional investment consulting firm Jeffrey Slocum & Associates, Inc. For twenty years, Slocum has provided its clients -- more than 100 large employee benefit plans, foundations, endowments, healthcare institutions, insurance reserves, and other institutional fund sponsors -- with high quality, unbiased, completely independent investment advice.

The independence is an important differentiating feature for both Slocum and Northside. Unlike many other institutional investment consulting firms, Slocum has never received any revenue from investment managers or mutual fund providers. As with Northside Capital, Slocum sells no products or services to investment managers, receives no transaction-based revenue, and does not allow managers to "sponsor" client conferences or research. As a result, Slocum can make its recommendations free of any conflicting economic incentives.

Northside both benefits from, and contributes to, Slocum's substantial capital markets and manager research. Since historical performance is an unreliable predictor of future performance, Slocum's research effort is organized around the primary importance of qualitative assessments of the talent, skill, competitive edge, and integrity of investment managers. With a staff of 70 in its headquarters in Minneapolis, Slocum targets more than 1,000 meetings with investment managers per year. Jim DeWolfe of Northside is a key leader of, and contributor to, that research effort.

Slocum advises clients with more than $80 billion in aggregate assets. This gives the firm the wherewithal to acquire an array of the most advanced technological tools and data resources available today to buttress the capital markets and manager research activities. The firm also has extensive capabilities in asset allocation, risk measurement, and performance analysis and reporting. All of Slocum's tools, resources, and capabilities are available to Northside.

For more information on Jeffrey Slocum and Associates, Inc., its organization, people, research activities, and consulting services, please see its website. www.jslocum.com