[JFV Letterhead]

June 2001

Summary. CPAs, like all providers of personal financial services, are now required by a new law, the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act and the related Federal Trade Commission regulations, to inform their clients, in writing, of their policies regarding privacy of client information. This new law pertains to non-public personal (i.e., non-business) information about current and former individual clients. CPAs have been and continue to be bound by professional standards of confidentiality that are even more stringent than those required by this new law. We have always protected your right to privacy.

In order to assist you with your professional services needs and, in some cases, to comply with professional guidelines, we retain records relating to the professional services that we provide you. We have rigorous physical, electronic and procedural safeguards in place to protect these records, and they are accessed internally only on an "as-needed" basis.

Non-public personal information is never collected without your authorization, and we do not disclose such information except as required or permitted by law.

Types of Non-public Personal Information We Collect. In the process of preparing income, gift and estate tax returns, or as a result of providing other services, the firm collects certain non-public personal information about you (e.g., income, deductions, expenses, assets and liabilities) that you provide to us or that is obtained by us with your authorization.

Parties to Whom We Disclose Information. For current and former clients, we do not disclose any non-public personal information obtained in the course of our practice except as required or permitted by law. Permitted disclosures include, for instance, providing information to our employees, and in limited situations, to unrelated third parties who need to know that information to assist us in providing services to you. In all such situations, we stress the confidential nature of information being shared. In all cases involving disclosure of information to unrelated third parties, we disclose that information only with your prior permission.

Protecting the Confidentiality and Security of Current and Former Clients’ Information. The firm follows industry standards for protecting the confidentiality and security of the non-public personal information it collects. As you know, we retain records relating to professional services that we provide so that we are better able to assist you with your professional services needs and, in some cases, to comply with professional guidelines. In order to guard your non-public personal information, we maintain rigorous physical, electronic and procedural safeguards that comply with our professional standards.

As indicated above, the firm does not disclose any non-public personal information about you to any third party, except as permitted by law. The Internal Revenue Code, the AICPA Code of Professional Conduct and state ethics statutes and regulations also prohibit CPAs from disclosing non-public personal information without prior permission from the person(s) involved. The firm complies with all these provisions.

Permitted disclosures include third parties who assist us in providing services to you, such as CCH Incorporated, the vendor providing us with our tax compliance (return preparation) software, which is called ProSystem fx Tax. CCH has released their own Privacy Statement, reproduced in full and without modification here with their permission:

ProSystem fx Privacy Statement

At CCH, we are committed to keeping your information private and recognize the importance all customers place on the privacy and confidentiality of their information. While new technologies allow us to more efficiently serve our customers, we are committed to maintaining the rigorous privacy standards that are synonymous with our established and trusted name.

When collecting, storing and retrieving your firm's data—such as Tax Notebook information, electronically filed returns, returns submitted to us for customer support, and returns submitted to us for service center processing—extensive internal controls are maintained throughout the process to ensure security and confidentiality.

Data sent from your firm to CCH’s secure servers is encrypted to ensure safety and privacy during transmission. (Data encryption is the process of transforming information into a complex arrangement of illegible data.)

In addition, CCH’s Internet-based systems are protected behind firewalls and all mission critical servers are deployed in a cluster environment to provide an even greater level of security and protection against system failure. All data is maintained and backed-up on a regular schedule to provide adequate redundancy and ensure that the integrity of information is never jeopardized.

CCH employees are subject to a strict employment policy regarding confidentiality, and internal access to customer data is restricted to highly trained personnel on an "as-needed" basis. Information provided by your CPA firm is used strictly for lawful business purposes and is never shared with third parties without your consent, except as required by law.

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Your privacy, our professional ethics, and the ability to provide you with quality financial services are very important to us. Please call if you have any questions about this statement.

Sincerely,

JANSEN FURGASON & VALK PC