The Voluntary Investment Plan (the Plan) is a qualified pension plan under 401(a) of the Internal Revenue Code. The funds are tax deferred so all contributions are post-tax and taxes on earnings are deferred until the time of withdrawal. Participants can invest in any combination of the four fund options below:

Value Fund:  invests in market-based securities, principally composed of no-load or low-load mutual funds with strong performance records and aims to maximize long-term rate of returns while maintaining a similar risk profile to the primary benchmark’s index, the Russell 3000 Value Index

Income Fund:  the primary objective of this fund is principal protection through a guaranteed interest contract through the purchase of fixed income assets. Interest rates for each six-month contract period are based upon the yield and performance of the fixed income assets and are announced semi-annually each January and July.

Index Fund:  this fund is composed of Vanguard’s Institutional Plus Total Stock Market mutual fund, which offers broad diversification by investing in virtually all publicly traded U.S. companies, providing a single, comprehensive investment solution. By investing in the entire U.S. stock market, this fund allows you to spread risk and potentially benefit from the long-term growth of the U.S. equity market. The fund tracks the performance of the CRSP U.S. Total Market Index, aiming to capture the overall returns of the U.S. stock market, including capital gains and losses, as well as dividend income. The fund’s low-cost, index based approach seeks to deliver returns that are consistent with the overall U.S. stock market, minus fees, providing a transparent and a cost effective investment option.

Aggressive Fund:  the fund aims to maximize a risk-adjusted, long-term rate of return, while maintaining an aggressive diversified growth profile through a composition of majority of public equity funds and minority amount of alternative investments against the benchmark index, the Russell 3000 Growth Index. The time horizon for some of the alternative funds held by the Aggressive Fund is in the 5-10 year range because investments in the high growth arena take time to mature and play out their thesis. In contrast to the strategy of the Value Fund, with seeks steady growth with lower volatility, the Aggressive Fund includes some funds with more price volatility. Plan members who invest in the this portfolio should be willing to accept larger increases and decreases in the fund unit values, which are a consequence of investing in funds of this type.