Equitas America is founded on the concept of membership. Each representative is an Associate Member of the limited liability company which is the broker/dealer. Each Associate Member contributes revenue to the company through commission sharing. Equitas uses the commissions shared by Associate Members to meet its expenses and to add capital strength to the broker/dealer. The Associate Member's profit is then distributed to two profit sharing pools. Owners of the Equitas Patronage Partnership receive a large proportion of the profit as repayment of a return on capital contributed. Any remaining profit is distributed to Associate Members (our Representatives).

This process of patronage, or rewarding each producer according to their production, has its roots in the farm and grain cooperatives of the American Midwest. Implicit in this patronage concept is the responsibility to keep shared expenses low, and yet to provide better support, price and service to you as a group, than you could get as an individual. In pursuit of new technology for our Members use, we have been guided by these precepts.

Equitas will maintain a central information file including your client�s crucial account information and investment information as well as name, address and phone number. This information database is maintained for all clients who conduct mutual fund, general securities, and insurance or partnership transactions.

Members using a clearing firm for mutual fund and general securities investing and trading have enhanced functions available through an internet connection. Clearing firm functions include:

• Complete Client Information with positions and balances, 120 day activity, and a full array of account inquiry functions including cashiering inquiry
• Trade Entry and Pending order processing with real time execution, commission calculations
• A full Broker Workstation environment
• Mutual fund order, view, and position inquiry for load and no-load funds in the client accounts
• Portfolio Management is available with tax-lot accounting, quarterly reporting, portfolio evaluation, and on-line maintenance of positions and cash. A download to your portfolio management software is also available
• Flexible Customer billing schedules for asset management accounts will calculate fees, invoice or debit the account with multiple billing cycles and are accessible from the desktop environment
• Dividend Reinvestment for many OTC and exchange-traded equities and closed end funds

• Interactive telephone voice response access to account information, order entry and funds transfer is available to clearing firm clients.
• Cash and integrated investment management accounts with credit and debit cards, free credit interest, money market sweep, free unlimited checking, margin credit, direct deposit, automatic periodic disbursement a bill payment service and specialized account statement are available to clearing firm clients
• Clearing firm Consolidated statements can be customized for the client to include monthly messages, previous month comparisons, and household assets as below the line items

In case you are a representative who is less worried about the newest technology and more worried about talking to a person, we also conduct all securities, mutual fund and insurance business over the phone or fax machine.

Our fax order entry system will accept mutual fund orders for either a "check and application" purchase or a mutual fund wire order as will all our traders. General Securities and mutual fund fax order tickets are provided for your use in our procedure manual. Monthly statements from the clearing firms are bulk shipped to you and mutual fund statements are mailed directly to you. Your business may be mailed to us for transmission to the mutual fund or clearing firm or insurance company or you may mail it direct, in most cases.