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My name is Larry Taylor. I'm President and CEO of Merchants Bonding Company headquartered here in Des Moines, Iowa. We are a Property and Casualty Company specializing in the surety bond line of property and casualty.

We've grown significantly and primarily by attracting and building a great leadership team. And our benefit package is extremely important to be able to do that. And the products that Principal offers have been a significant part of those plans.

We decided strategically to supplement our retirement plans to attract and retain senior-level talent. Primarily, the officer level on up. And what we found was the 401(k) plan on its own, while a very good plan, but on its own, wasn't meeting the long-term needs of that group because of the limitations and regulations with that.

So we did our research, worked with our broker, and decided to supplement that with a non-qualified benefit plan for that group of individuals. The non-qualified plan gives us an opportunity to add to the compensation package to attract and retain people at these levels. And we're in a competitive business, and that's a significant part of competition.

So we've seen this plan evolve and be enhanced over time, over the last 20 years, for a few reasons. One is the corporate funds that go into each individual's account, we've utilized that on an increasing basis for a few reasons. One is to enhance the compensation, the deferred compensation of the individual. But also, what we put in is vested over a period of time.

So if the person chooses to leave our company, they'll be walking away from some of those funds. As we have grown and added associates in the officer and executive level, we've seen more deferred compensation by those individuals go into it. And if you add that with the funds we put into their accounts, it's become very significant. It's a very relevant, important part of our compensation plan.

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