Optimized SMID Cap Core

Performance presented prior to December 15, 2010 occurred while the Portfolio Management Team was affiliated with a prior firm and the Portfolio Management Team members were the only individual(s) responsible for selecting the securities to buy and sell. Piedmont Investment Advisors maintains all of the books and records to support the historical performance.

Xponance,^® Inc. (“Xponance^®”) claims compliance with the Global Investment Performance Standards (GIPS®) and has prepared and presented this report in compliance with the GIPS standards. Xponance® has been independently verified for the periods from November 1, 1998 through December 31, 2020. The verification report is available upon request.

A firm that claims compliance with the GIPS standards must establish policies and procedures for complying with all the applicable requirements of the GIPS standards. Verification provides assurance on whether the firm’s policies and procedures related to composite and pooled fund maintenance, as well as the calculation, presentation, and distribution of performance, have been designed in compliance with the GIPS standards and have been implemented on a firm-wide basis. Verification does not provide assurance on the accuracy of any specific performance report.

GIPS^® is a registered trademark of CFA Institute. CFA Institute does not endorse or promote this organization, nor does it warrant the accuracy or quality of the content contained herein.

On August 31, 2018, FIS Group, Inc. (“FIS Group”) acquired Piedmont Investment Advisors, Inc.’s (“PIA”) predecessor, Piedmont Investment Advisors, LLC. Xponance®, Inc. (“Xponance®”) is an independent, registered investment adviser and is the successor registrant under the Investment Advisers Act of 1940 (the “Advisers Act”) to both FIS Group and its wholly-owned subsidiary, PIA. Pursuant to a corporate rebranding and consolidation strategy, Xponance® was established effective April 1, 2020, to leverage the long histories of its predecessor entities in providing customized investment management products to institutional clients. FIS Group (through its former subsidiaries, Fiduciary Investment Solutions, Inc. and FIS Funds Management, Inc.) managed assets since 1996 and PIA (through its former affiliate Piedmont Investment Advisors, LLC) began managing assets in 2000. The firm maintains a list of composite descriptions and limited pool fund(s) descriptions, which is available upon request.

Total firm assets presented through, and including, Calendar Year 2019 represent total firm assets for PIA, prior to April 1, 2020, this composite was managed by legacy firm PIA. Total firm assets presented post  April 1, 2020 represent the total firm assets of Xponance^®.

Optimized SMID Cap Core Composite contains fully discretionary SMID core equity accounts and for comparison purposes is measured against the Russell 2500 Index. The product typically has fewer than 100 holdings and a predicted tracking error target range of 5% – 8% vs. Russell 2500. The Optimized SMID Core Composite was created on December 15, 2010. The Optimized SMID Core Composite’s inception date is 10/31/07. This composite was renamed on September 30, 2012 to better reflect the true strategy of the product. Formerly, the composite was named “Optimized Mid Cap Core vs. S&P Midcap Composite”. This composite changed its benchmark on September 30, 2012 from the S&P Midcap to the Russell 2500 because the latter benchmark better represents the investable universe of the product.

Results are based on fully discretionary accounts under management, including those accounts no longer with the firm. Past performance is not indicative of future results. The composite maintains a significant cash flow policy. A significant cash flow has been defined as any client requested cash withdrawal where we must execute trades to generate the requested cash. We will remove the cash from the account the  day we raise the cash; therefore, significant cash flows out of an account will be treated as a temporary account and the member account will remain in the composite.

The U.S. Dollar is the currency used to express performance. Returns are presented gross and net of management fees and include the reinvestment of all income. Net of fee performance was calculated using actual management fees. Policies for valuing investments, calculating performance, and preparing GIPS reports are available upon request. The management fee schedule for the composite is as follows: First $50mm: 60 bps; Next $50mm: 50 bps; Over $100mm: 40 bps

Fees are charged to clients on a quarterly basis. Fees are calculated as a percentage of assets under management and vary based upon the type of product and the total amount of assets under management. The percentage fee is expressed terms of basis points (“BPS”) for our products. One hundred basis points equal 1%. All fees are negotiable.

The three-year annualized standard deviation measures the variability of the composite gross returns and the benchmark returns over the preceding 36-month period.

Internal dispersion presented is an equal-weighted standard deviation of annual gross returns of those portfolios that were in the composite for the entire year. For those years when less than six portfolios were included in the composite for the full year, no dispersion measure is presented.