Richard G. McDermott

On April 12, 1853, the New York State legislature passed a bill chartering the United States Trust Co. of New York with the mission of serving as manager, executor and trustee of personal and corporate funds. They opened for business in New York City in August of that year. US Trust has divisions in Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Florida, Texas, Oregon, California, Washington, and the District of Columbia. The firm also owns Campbell Cowperthwait, which manages growth-oriented portfolios for U.S. Trust's institutional clients.

Chapdelaine & Co, also known as “Chappy,” is a municipal bond broker's broker, and member of SIPC. Chapdelaine & Co. has more than forty five years of experience in the municipal bond market. Their firm provides dealer to dealer service and sales over the entire spectrum of the municipal market. Their brokers are registered with the FINRA and have account responsibilities arranged according to regions of the country or by maturity. The Chapdelaine & Co. trading room organization provides the synergy required, achieving a level of professional service and market execution unparalleled in the municipal market place today. The Chapdelaine home page provides a unique opportunity to client's firm by affording client accesses to current market offerings, bids, and bid wanteds and continually reflects reported changes. Their site features are user friendly and provide customer with quick access to information enabling customer to fill specific inquires for their firm and their firm's customers in the most timely and efficient manner. Each customer serviced by Chapdelaine & Co must be licensed and registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA), or the Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board (MSRB). Each customer of Chapdelaine and Co. is required to meet SEC net capital requirements and provide Chapdelaine & Co. with a copy of their most recent FOCUS 1 report demonstrating compliance with net capital requirements. In addition each customer will provide Chapdelaine & Co. with their clearance information, current clearing account numbers, and appropriate points of contact (POCs) for back office issues. Upon receipt of the above required information Chapdelaine & Co. will provide the same to the customer and will assign a broker as customer's point of contact (POC), enabling customer to execute trades with their brokers. The Chapdelaine & Co. trading room is organized to provide the best coverage throughout the yield curve. To accomplish this their trading activity is organized as follows: First, a Short Desk, specializing in securities maturing within the first seven years of the yield curve. Secondly, they have their National Desk that concentrates on securities maturing within 8yrs to 17yrs from issuance. Thirdly, their Dollar Bond Desk has responsibility to trade securities maturing within 18yrs and 40 years from issuance. Additional organizational features at Chapdelaine & Co. include their regional trading desks, which have primary responsibility to cover the dealers and dealer banks in the Southeast, California, Southwest, Ohio, Chicago and Midwest states. Lastly, their New York trading desk along with their Taxable and Zero coupon trading desks complete their organization matrix which has a proven history of producing optimum results in all aspects of customer service.

Cypress Capital Group, Inc. (CCG) is an independent, SEC-registered investment advisor headquartered in Palm Beach, Florida. Formerly known as Palm Beach Investment Advisors LLC, the firm was founded in 1988 when a Chicago firm headed by Barry Hoyt bought Palm Beach Investment Advisors, which had earlier absorbed Cypress Trust. CCG provides investment advice to individuals and institutional clients throughout the US.