Note to reader regarding actuarial valuations:

This valuation report may not be relied upon for any purpose other than those explicitly noted in the Introduction, nor may it be relied upon by any party other than the parties noted in the Introduction. Mercer is not responsible for the consequences of any other use. A valuation report is a snapshot of a plan’s estimated financial condition at a particular point in time; it does not predict a pension plan’s future financial condition or its ability to pay benefits in the future. If maintained indefinitely, a plan’s total cost will depend on a number of factors, including the amount of benefits the plan pays, the number of people paid benefits, the amount of plan expenses, and the amount earned on any assets invested to pay the benefits. These amounts and other variables are uncertain and unknowable at the valuation date. The content of the report may not be modified, incorporated into or used in other material, sold or otherwise provided, in whole or in part, to any other person or entity, without Mercer’s permission. All parts of this report, including any documents incorporated by reference, are integral to understanding and explaining its contents; no part may be taken out of context, used, or relied upon without reference to the report as a whole.

To prepare the results in this report, actuarial assumptions are used to model a single scenario from a range of possibilities for each valuation basis. The results based on that single scenario are included in this report. However, the future is uncertain and the Plan’s actual experience will differ from those assumptions; these differences may be significant or material. Different assumptions or scenarios within the range of possibilities may also be reasonable, and results based on those assumptions would be different. Furthermore, actuarial assumptions may be changed from one valuation to the next because of changes in regulatory and professional requirements, developments in case law, plan experience, changes in expectations about the future, and other factors.

The valuation results shown in this report also illustrate the sensitivity to one of the three key actuarial assumptions, including the discount rate, and the sensitivity to three adverse scenarios. We note that the results presented herein rely on many assumptions, all of which are subject to uncertainty, with a broad range of possible outcomes, and the results are sensitive to all the assumptions used in the valuation.

Should the Plan be wound up, the going concern funded status and solvency financial position, if different from the wind-up financial position, become irrelevant. The hypothetical wind-up financial position estimates the financial position of the Plan assuming it is wound up on the valuation date. Emerging experience will affect the wind-up financial position of the Plan assuming it is wound up in the future. In fact, even if the Plan were wound up on the valuation date, the financial position would continue to fluctuate until the benefits are fully settled.

Decisions about benefit changes, granting new benefits, investment policy, funding policy, benefit security, and/or benefit-related issues should not be made solely on the basis of this valuation, but only after careful consideration of alternative economic, financial, demographic, and societal factors, including financial scenarios that assume future sustained investment losses. Funding calculations reflect our understanding of the requirements of Pension Benefits Standards Act, the Income Tax Act, and related regulations that are effective as of the valuation date. Mercer is not a law firm, and the analysis presented in this report is not intended to be a legal opinion. You should consider securing the advice of legal counsel with respect to any legal matters related to this report.