Depending upon particular client’s needs and goals, it may be appropriate for a client of the Savides Group, a group within the Private Wealth Management Department of Robert W. Baird & Co. Incorporated (“Baird”), to maintain brokerage accounts, accounts for which Baird acts as investment adviser or both. Baird’s and the Savides Group’s brokerage services and investment advisory services are governed by different laws and regulations and also different terms and conditions in a client’s agreements with Baird. As a result, Baird’s and the Savides Group’s legal duties and contractual obligations to a client may differ depending upon whether Baird and the Savides Group are providing investment advisory or brokerage services to a client’s account.

Although brokerage services and investment advisory services are available to all Savides Group clients, depending upon each client’s particular needs and goals, the Savides Group believes that an investment advisory relationship is generally most appropriate for its clients.

When Baird acts as an investment adviser for a client’s account, Baird and the Savides Group owe certain duties imposed by the Investment Adviser’s Act of 1940, as amended (the “Adviser’s Act”). These duties and obligations include, among others, the following:

• Baird and the Savides Group owe a client a fiduciary duty and are required to act in the best interest of a client when providing investment advisory services.
  
• Baird and the Savides Group must act with utmost care and good faith when dealing with advisory clients.
  
• Baird and the Savides Group has a duty to seek to obtain “best execution” of transactions for clients participating in discretionary advisory programs.
  
• Baird and the Savides Group must avoid or disclose to clients material conflicts of interest.
  

If a client has one or more brokerage accounts and one or more investment advisory accounts, Baird will provide both brokerage services and advisory services to the client. A client should understand that the fact that client has an investment advisory account does not mean that Baird has fiduciary obligations to the client when providing brokerage services or handling the client’s brokerage accounts.

It is important for a client to understand that fiduciary obligations arising under the Advisers Act are separate and distinct obligations from fiduciary obligations that may arise under separate bodies of law, such as the Employee Retirement Income Security Act or the Internal Revenue Code. A client should refer to the client’s agreements with Baird for more specific information about Baird’s particular obligations to the client.

Detailed information about the investment advisory programs and services that Baird and the Savides Group make available to a client, including the terms, conditions, fees, expenses, risks and potential conflicts of interest associated with those programs and services, is included in a client’s investment advisory agreement with Baird and in Baird’s Form ADV Part 2A Brochure for the applicable investment advisory program or service.

For more information regarding brokerage and investment advisory services at Baird, you are encouraged to contact a member of the Savides Group visit www.rwbaird.com/disclosures and reference the section titled “Understanding Brokerage and Investment Advisory Relationships” in the document titled “Important Account Disclosures.”