BPAS is pleased to announce that we have moved the time for our daily website refresh. Previously, our website refresh took place at approximately 5:00 AM EST; this process will now begin at approximately 1:00 AM EST. In addition, starting on April 27th, we will move our afternoon cutoff time from 3:45 PM EST to 4:00 PM EST (the time of market close). We hope these changes provide additional value to our plan sponsor and participant clients.

The year end capital gain process is underway once again. Since participants often ask questions when they see share prices fluctuate associated with capital gain distributions, please see this memo for full details on the process.

For more details regarding this announcement, please select the following link.

Hand Benefits & Trust Company is pleased to announce, effective May 1, 2010, a change in the management of the SMART Funds® series of collective investment funds. For more details regarding this announcement, please select the following link.

This product announcement provides details on our new cutoff time for web and voice response transactions, and coming enhancements regarding Straight-Through-Processing. To read the announcement, please click here.

Federated has communicated a date change for the reorganization of the Federated International Equity Fund into the Federated International Leaders Fund. Please select the following link to read additional information including revised dates and trading parameters.

As an additional resource to clients, BPAS is pleased to roll out the Economic & Market Review presentation within our plan sponsor and participant websites. Hosted by Lou Iovannone of BPAS Philadelphia, this presentation provides an update on recent economic trends and conditions in the investment markets. The presentation is deployed using streaming video technology provided by Brainshark™. We hope the presentation will be useful – providing additional perspective on the investment markets so participants can make informed investment decisions.

To view the presentation, please click the following link – Economic & Market Review presentation. This link will also appear within the Education Tab of the plan sponsor and participant websites.

Notice to participants: An unusually large number of fund mergers have been announced for Q3, 2009; BPAS will be processing these changes automatically in coordination with the mutual fund families. To see the full list of fund mergers, please select one of the following links. More information on the specific changes can be found at fund family websites. Please note, Franklin Templeton funds are undergoing a name change only.

As an added resource to clients, BPA is pleased to roll out our Guided Tour of the Participant Website. A link to this page can be found at the login area of the participant website, or at https://www.bpas.com/GT.  The page includes 12 short video clips covering the most commonly used features of the site – including viewing account balances, making investment changes, initiating loan and distribution paperwork, conducting research through the Market Dashboard and other topics. We hope the Guided Tour will be useful for new plan participants as they enroll in the plan and as a ‘refresher course’ for existing participants. Video clips are deployed through Camtasia™ and include both audio and video.

BPA is pleased to roll out another website enhancement – our Enhanced Login feature. Please review the attached product announcement for details; this enhancement will become available in early May.