Background on your right to receive electronic communications
HOLDRS represent an investor's undivided beneficial ownership in the common stock or ADRs of specified companies. Accordingly, owners of HOLDRS have the right to receive all shareholder disclosure materials and proxy materials distributed by the issuers of the underlying securities.
Where permitted by the issuer, you may elect to receive these shareholder disclosure and proxy materials by email rather than traditional, physical mail. This can save you the inconvenience of receiving numerous physical annual reports and proxies in the mail. This also saves the issuer printing and postage costs.
Electing to receive your communications electronically still enables you to review all of the documents that you would have otherwise received through traditional mail and gives you the ability to exercise all of your corporate governance rights electronically.
Enrollment
By clicking in the box below, you will be linked to Investor Communication Services (ICS). ICS is run by Automated Data Processing, Inc. (ADP), which serves as agent for participant banks and broker-dealers. Through ICS you will be able to elect to receive electronic shareholder disclosure and proxy materials for securities held in a particular brokerage account, including the underlying securities represented in HOLDRS. It is important to note that this is a global consent (also known as an "all or nothing consent") and thus does not allow you to elect to receive only certain materials electronically. You may terminate your election to receive electronic shareholder disclosure and proxy materials at any time through ICS.
Enrollment with ICS is free and you will never be billed for the service. In order to enroll you will be required to provide ICS with certain information, including an email address and the account number of the brokerage account that you wish to enroll.
Enrollment with ICS is a two-part process. After providing the information requested on the ICS website, you will receive a single Verification Letter through traditional mail that will contain a control number and instructions to return to the ICS website to complete the enrollment.
Email notification
ICS will send you notice by email each time a participating issuer of a security held in your account distributes shareholder material. This notice, in turn, will include a PDF or HTML version of the shareholder communication or will direct you to a specific website where the shareholder information can be viewed. The notice will also provide you with instructions as to how to vote your proxy, if applicable.
When issuers do not permit electronic delivery
Some issuers may not elect to provide their shareholders with electronic communications. You will continue to receive traditional, paper-based mail from these companies, regardless of your election.
Changing your email address and undeliverable emails
If ICS is ever unable to send you an email notification (either because you have changed your email address or the email is otherwise undeliverable) with respect to a particular shareholder communication, ICS will instead mail you paper-based notification of the location of the electronically-based shareholder communication and a hard copy Voting Instruction Form. This notification will also request that you to re-enroll in the ICS website if you wish to continue to participate in the electronic delivery program. If you do not re-enroll in the service, you will receive all future shareholder communications through the traditional mail.
http://www.holdrs.com/holdrs/main/index.asp?Action=Proxies
