Important Information About Investing

Working With Your Financial Professional

As an independent contractor, your financial professional has autonomy in managing his/her own business. In dealing with your securities investments as a registered representative of ING Financial Partners, your financial professional acts in accordance with our firm's policies, and places your interests first. The following information is important to your working relationship with your financial professional.

Your Rights as an Investor | Your Responsibilities as an Investor | How Our Firm and Your Financial Professional Receive Payments | Your Financial Professional's Other Businesses

Your Rights as an Investor

Clients have the right to high standards of professionalism from their financial professionals. The following is what you can expect to receive from our firm and your financial professional:

Courteous and timely service from your financial professional and all other associates and employees of our firm.
The ability to select your own financial professional or request a different one if you are not satisfied.
Confidential treatment of personal information (please see our Privacy Promise at www.ingfinancialpartners.com).
Investment suggestions based upon our understanding of your financial needs, goals and objectives.
Receive from our firm a copy of the current prospectus, and review the potential risks, benefits and costs of the suggested transactions.
Information that is on our firm's Web site with respect to compensation, commissions, and potential conflicts of interests.
Timely execution of transactions.
Account statements that are accurate and easy to understand for securities that are purchased in your brokerage account(s).
Prompt response to any questions or concerns you have, and fair resolution of any problems with your account(s).
On request, information regarding your financial professional's experience and industry background.

It is important to realize that securities investments:

Are not deposits and are not FDIC/NCUSIF insured;
Are not insured by any federal government agency;
Are not guaranteed by any bank or credit union or by ING Financial Partners;
May fluctuate and/or decline in value; and
May be illiquid in certain circumstances, which means that they cannot be readily sold.

Your Responsibilities as an Investor

You also have important responsibilities when it comes to working with your financial professional. To ensure the best possible relationship with our firm and your financial professional, you as our client and as an investor should:

Provide complete information to your financial professional about your income; net worth; tax status; investment experience; occupation; age; dependents; investment experience and risk tolerance; and other information as requested. Inform your financial professional about mutual fund holdings you may have at other broker-dealers, banks or trust companies, or held directly with a mutual fund company (including those you may hold in a retirement plan or as part of an annuity). This is to ensure that you can receive any appropriate discounts on purchases you make through our firm.
Be open and clear about your current financial situation and objectives, and contact your financial professional immediately if your circumstances change. To best serve you, your financial professional must be aware of all relevant facts.
Assume decision-making responsibility for your investments. You can expect your financial professional to offer more than one alternative for investing. You should evaluate the advice of your financial professional and determine which actions are best. Also, educate yourself in the basics of financial markets, the nature of risk and other aspects of investing. You should be able to make a reasoned judgment about investment suggestions. It is your responsibility to make decisions about your account and investments.
Consider carefully the validity and reliability of investment information obtained from all sources, especially unsolicited information obtained over the Internet.
Request and carefully read prospectuses and other materials before making any decisions. It is important that you have a clear understanding of the potential risks and benefits of each investment you make. If you have any questions about the information, ask your financial professional.
Review all statements and confirmations and report any errors to your financial professional immediately. Your financial professional should be able to quickly provide you with answers to your questions.
Review your holdings on a regular basis and whenever your financial circumstances change.
Have cash or securities available in your account at the time of a transaction. The SEC requires payment for purchases of securities by settlement date, which is usually between one to three business days.
Never make any payments for securities payable to your financial professional.
Do not loan any money or securities to, or borrow from, your financial professional.
Never make a check or money order payable to your financial professional nor give your financial professional cash to make an investment purchase. Do not make any investment in any business or venture in which your financial professional is involved in the organization or management of the business, unless the investment is made through our firm and your funds for the purchase are forwarded to our firm.
Do not authorize or permit your financial professional to act as personal custodian of your securities, stock powers, money, or other real or personal property you own. You should not give your financial professional any personal identification numbers (PIN) for bank accounts or securities accounts, or expect them to transfer money from those accounts for any purpose.
Ask questions. Your financial professional is there to serve your best interests and you should feel free to ask any question about any aspect of your account or a transaction.
Inform your financial professional if you do not understand his or hers suggestions and explanations. You should not invest if you do not understand the suggestions, explanations, products, services, or risk.

How Our Firm and Your Financial Professional Receive Payments

We believe that it is important for you to understand how our firm and your financial professional get paid for services. For this reason, we have prepared a separate document describing our compensation. That document, entitled Important Information About Your ING Financial Partners, Inc. Relationship, including ING Financial Partners’ Privacy Promise and Account Agreement Disclosure Supplement can also be found on our Web site at www.ingfinancialpartners.com. You should read this document, as it provides more information than we have set out below.

Our firm is in the business of providing financial suggestions that result in the execution of securities or insurance transactions, or the rendering of investment advice. In general, our firm offers you as our client a choice of how to compensate your financial professionals. You may either pay a commission for each transaction or, under certain circumstances, pay an asset management fee, or a combination of both. Our firm retains a portion of these fees, and the rest is paid to your financial professional.

Where you pay a commission for a securities transaction, you can expect full disclosure of that cost. The commission varies by product type and company, depending on the investment purchased. If in doubt as to how much the commission will be, ask your financial professional before making an investment. Where you pay an asset management fee for advice instead of a per-trade commission, you will be charged on a quarterly basis based on the value of your account. In this arrangement, you will enter into a specific contract for investment advisory services with your financial professional and our firm that details the amount of the fee to be paid.

In addition to the fees and commissions described above, our firm receives compensation from select advisory, mutual fund, and insurance companies, as well as other product manufacturers or distributors.

Your Financial Professional's Other Businesses

As an independent contractor, your financial professional may have a business other than securities separate from, and unaffiliated with, our firm. If properly licensed, your financial professional, under a separate marketing identity, may offer non-securities products and services including, among others:

Real estate brokerage
Legal services
Accounting services
Estate planning
Business planning
Tax preparation
Fixed insurance

When acting as your registered representative, your financial professional may only recommend products approved by our firm, and sales or purchases of these products may only be done through our firm. When engaged in the non-securities related activities noted above, your financial professional is not acting as a representative or agent of ING Financial Partners and is not subject to the rules and regulations of the SEC, FINRA and other securities regulatory bodies, although he or she may be subject to other regulations. You should independently assure that your financial professional is properly qualified to engage in non-securities related activities before agreeing to conduct any of these businesses with him or her. Do not hesitate to contact our home office by writing to the attention of the Compliance Department at ING Financial Partners, 909 Locust Street, Des Moines, Iowa, 50309-2899 if you have any questions about your financial professional or any product or service.