Disclaimer for Standard & Poor’s Investment Advisory Services LLC

Standard & Poor’s Investment Advisory Services LLC (“SPIAS”) is a registered investment adviser and a wholly-owned subsidiary of The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. This website does not constitute an offer of services in jurisdictions where SPIAS or its affiliates do not have the necessary licenses. SPIAS does not provide advice to underlying clients of the firms to which it provides services. SPIAS does not act as a "fiduciary" or as an "investment manager", as defined under ERISA, to any investor. SPIAS is not responsible for client suitability. SPIAS’ models are not collective investment funds, and assets managed in accordance with the models may lose money.

SPIAS does not have any discretionary authority or control with respect to purchasing or selling securities or making other investments. SPIAS does not take into account any information about any investor or any investor’s assets when creating or providing recommendations to its clients or maintaining any model. SPIAS does not provide individualized advice to any investor. SPIAS makes no warranties, express or implied, as to results to be obtained from use of information provided by SPIAS and used in this service, and SPIAS expressly disclaims all warranties of suitability with respect thereto.

SPIAS may include in a model portfolio or substitution list, otherwise present as an investment option and/or recommend for investment certain funds to which Standard & Poor's or an affiliate licenses certain intellectual property or otherwise has a financial interest, including exchange-traded funds whose investment objective is to substantially replicate the returns of a proprietary Standard & Poor's index, such as the S&P 500. SPIAS includes these funds in models, otherwise presents them as an investment option and/or recommends them for investment based on asset allocation, sector representation, liquidity and other factors; however, SPIAS has a potential conflict of interest with respect to the inclusion of these funds. In cases where Standard & Poor's or an affiliate is paid fees that are tied to the amount of assets that are invested in the fund or the volume of trading activity in the fund, investment in the fund will generally result in Standard & Poor's or an affiliate earning compensation in addition to the fees received by SPIAS in connection with its provision of services. In certain cases there may be alternative funds that are available for investment that will provide investors substantially similar exposure to the asset class or sector.

Analytic services and products provided by Standard & Poor’s are the result of separate activities designed to preserve the independence and objectivity of each analytic process. Standard & Poor’s has established policies and procedures to maintain the confidentiality of non-public information received during each analytic process. Standard & Poor's and its affiliates provide a wide range of services to, or relating to, many organizations, including issuers of securities, investment advisers, broker-dealers, investment banks, other financial institutions and financial intermediaries, and accordingly may receive fees or other economic benefits from those organizations, including organizations whose securities or services they may recommend, rate, include in model portfolios, evaluate or otherwise address.