EBS Benefits Consulting RFP

2023 Broker Request for Proposal March 31, 2023 Tom McCormick EBS Insurance Brokers, Inc. Newton, MA

Velcro USA Inc. 95 Sundial Avenue Manchester, NH 03103 USA Tel: (+1) 603 669 4880 Dear Augie, On behalf of the entire EBS Team, we are pleased to deliver our response to your request for proposal for brokerage/consulting services for Velcro Companies’ group employee benefit program. We appreciate being included in this initiative and are excited to outline how EBS is still a great fit for Velcro Companies. The EBS team approach provides consistent and exceptional customer service to your teams. EBS will constantly look to added additional resources for our clients in response to changes in the industry and to better meet our clients’ needs. We value your feedback, insight, and direction and look forward to continuing the conversation around what we have outlined in this response. It is my belief that this partnership is built upon open communication between those executing the benefit strategy on both sides of the table, day in and day out. EBS prides itself on becoming an extension of your HR/Benefits Team and work together to deliver the best benefit offerings and experience for your employees. We believe that EBS can provide the most customizable, comprehensive and professional approach for Velcro Companies. As a full-service shop, our clients have come to expect a high level of professionalism from us. As you know, we are staffed by professionals with extensive experience in all areas of employee benefits services. Where we do not have in-house resources, EBS partners with highly successful partner firms like Twelve Points Financial, Globex International and Flores Leave Solutions (to name a few). At EBS, our long-standing clients like the Velcro Companies have come to appreciate our service, as is evidenced by our exceptionally high retention ratio. We thank you for trusting EBS, and we look forward to the continuing the long-lasting partnership. We truly hope that we have an opportunity continue to work together! Sincerely, Tom McCormick Senior Partner, EBS 1

Velcro USA Inc. 95 Sundial Avenue Manchester, NH 03103 USA Tel: (+1) 603 669 4880 QUESTIONNAIRE YOUR COMPANY 1. Briefly describe your firm’s history, background, financial status, and stability EBS was founded as EBS Insurance Brokers, Inc. in 1997 to function as a full-service employee benefits brokerage and consulting firm. Our mission is to understand our clients’ business objectives and goals in order to identify the most competitive employee benefit and retirement plan programs available to support their organization’s best interests. In 2002 we collaborated with 16 other independent firms to form United Benefit Advisors (UBA). UBA is a national association of the top (currently 140) independent employee benefit firms in the country. This UBA membership gives EBS boots on the ground support and resources in all 50 states, access to the largest health plan survey data in the country, product discounts with select vendors, and the ability to share product and marketplace knowledge with like-minded firms. UBA allows us to have a national footprint while maintaining our independence. Today EBS remains one of the last independent brokers in New England and we have continued to grow. We currently have 32 employees boasting over 240 years of experience in the areas of benefits, compliance, legal, wellness, technology, human resources, leave management, and communications. 2. Briefly describe the qualifications of the professionals who will be assigned to our account. Velcro and EBS have enjoyed an amazingly strong ten-plus year relationship. Velcro would continue to receive service from the team of Tom McCormick, Jason Reynolds, and Emily Gay. TOM MCCORMICK Senior Partner [email protected] | 617-658-7116 LinkedIn As Senior Partner at EBS, tom advises clients on all aspects of health and welfare plans, which includes direct oversight of the renewal and marketing process, and the coordination and implementation process of new benefit programs. With over 35 years of expertise as an insurance executive, Tom brings an extensive wealth of knowledge of employee benefit programs for a wide variety of industries. Prior to joining EBS, Tom designed, underwrote, communicated, and implemented all aspects of health and welfare plans for large New England-based organizations at Reliastar Employee Benefits (now Voya Financial). He is a Registered Health Underwriter (RHU) and is certified in Global Benefits Management from the International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans. Tom and his daughters also own shares in the Green Bay Packers that are worth zero money. JASON REYNOLDS Vice President [email protected] | 617-658-7139 LinkedIn As Vice President, Jason provides high-quality benefits consulting expertise to our clients - specifically in the day-to-day operations of their employee benefit programs. 2

Velcro USA Inc. 95 Sundial Avenue Manchester, NH 03103 USA Tel: (+1) 603 669 4880 With an impressive technical background (which has been an incredible asset to clients who struggle to manage and budget for annual health and welfare cost increases), he works closely with them regarding their programs’ financials and provides regular status updates on the funding adequacy of their plans. As a licensed life, accident, and health broker, developing his knowledge and expertise over 20 years, Jason came to EBS from International consulting firms and a New-England based Third Party Administration firm specializing in partially self-funded plans. EMILY GAY Senior Benefit Analyst [email protected] In Emily’s role as a Senior Benefit Analyst with EBS, she is the point of contact for her large group clients for claims resolution and escalation, administrative issues, and other day-to-day questions and concerns. Emily works pre-renewal through open enrollment soliciting proposals and negotiating with carriers and vendors. She also leverages benchmarking data by industry and geographic region to help our clients elevate their total rewards packages for prospective talent. Before joining the EBS team, Emily worked as a Benefit Analyst at another regional broker. Prior to that she spent three years with Harvard Pilgrim Healthcare as a Finance Research Assistant. All Velcro team members have access to our team of in-house experts: SUSAN SONKIN Director of Compliance [email protected] | 617-658-7113 | LinkedIn As the Director of Compliance at EBS, Susan is responsible for helping our clients get ahead and stay proactive in managing compliance issues relevant to state and federal health care regulations such as HIPAA, COBRA, ERISA, Healthcare Reform annual reporting and plan disclosure. She has a particular interest in Cafeteria Plan issues stemming from her experience in administration of medical and dependent care Flexible Spending Accounts for EBS clients. Prior to her role, Susan was an FSA plan administrator where she engaged with both employers and employees to prepare communication materials and plan documents, conducted enrollments, performed non-discrimination tests and adjudicated claims. She has also held positions in account management and human resource outsourcing at EBS, coordinating the implementation of new benefit programs and communicating with plan carriers to resolve administrative and claim issues. Prior to working at EBS, she held positions at Educational Reading Service, and Medical Economics Company. As a licensed life, accident and health broker with multiple distinctions attached to her name, she’s also a member of the New England Employee Benefits Council (NEEBC) and the International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans (IFEBP). 3

Velcro USA Inc. 95 Sundial Avenue Manchester, NH 03103 USA Tel: (+1) 603 669 4880 JOSIE MARTINEZ Senior Partner & General Counsel [email protected] | 617-658-7122 | LinkedIn As Senior Partner and General Counsel at EBS, Josie advises clients on both legal and compliance-related issues. Her experience in navigating the legislative process and analysis of regulations is a valuable resource to our clients as the complexities of Healthcare Reform continue to change. Having been an attorney for 25 years, Josie brings a breadth of experience as an advisor on risk assessment, business strategy, contract negotiations, government investigations and regulatory compliance. She was recently appointed to the State Ethics Commission by Governor Charlie Baker. He appointed her in 2017 as Chair of his Latino Advisory Commission where she co-leads initiatives that promote economic opportunities, prosperity, and well-being within the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Josie also serves on the Compliance Committee for United Benefit Advisors (UBA) and the Board of The Boston Home and ALPFA-Law (Association of Latino Professionals in Finance and Accounting). CHRISTINA HARROLD Director of HR Technology [email protected] | 617-658-7136 | LinkedIn As the Director of HR Technology at EBS, Christina Harrold specializes in consulting and advising our clients in the enhancement of their current technology or, if appropriate, matching them with the best new technology solutions for their needs. Christina provides support to our clients from the discovery phase through post- implementation where needed. Christina brings more than 20 years of technology and insurance related experience to EBS. Her long-standing roles include Director of Operations and Client Services with an administrative service organization, where she provided oversight and direction to her team to enhance client service, introduce technology solutions and increase client retention. Christina has many years of experience with platforms from all the major technology solutions including ADP, Workday, Ceridian, Ultimate Software and Paylocity. VALERIA TIVNAN Director of Population Health Strategy & Well-being [email protected] | 617-658-7129 | LinkedIn Valeria Tivnan continues EBS’ longstanding mission of providing cutting-edge wellness programs for our clients. She advises our clients on how to develop and execute tactics that bring worksite wellness into their organizations and helps leaders transform employees into knowledgeable healthcare consumers. With over 20 years of experience, her passions lie principally in wellness, disease prevention, and population health management. With two master’s degrees in Education and Public Health, Valeria has provided certification courses for personal trainers through the American College of Sports Medicine and has spoken for the American Diabetes Association, the American Journal of Health Promotion, and the World Research Group. She is an active member of HERO (Health Enhancement Research Organization) where she has contributed on several committees including Health, Productivity and Performance, and Culture of Health and Engagement Committees. She won EBA’s prestigious ‘Wellness Director of the Year’ award in 2017. 4

Velcro USA Inc. 95 Sundial Avenue Manchester, NH 03103 USA Tel: (+1) 603 669 4880 MARAH FUNDER Director of Marketing & Communications [email protected] | 617-658-7141 | LinkedIn Marah manages many of the logistics for our marketing and social media initiatives while simultaneously dedicating most of her time to creating deliverables for our clients to use in their employee education efforts. Marah advises our clients on how to best connect with their unique populations, before drafting, designing, and deploying the discussed benefits-related employee communications. She joined EBS in 2016 with 8 years of management, operations, and social media marketing experience. She blends her graphic design expertise with her marketing and management background to create a full-service experience for EBS clients. CHELSEY COVITZ Underwriting & Analytics Consultant [email protected] | 617-658-7130 | LinkedIn As the Underwriting & Analytics Consultant at EBS, Chelsey is responsible for assisting with new business and retention efforts with emphasis on advising clients on their claims experience and the impact on their rates. Chelsey’s focus is in the areas of medical claims review, claims reporting, underwriting, rate projections, and other financial analysis that helps to educate our clients on the logic behind their current rates and possible solutions to improve them. Chelsey stepped into this role after 4 years as a Senior Benefit Analyst with EBS. Prior to joining EBS, Chelsey worked with Sapers & Wallack as a Benefit Analyst. 3. Discuss any impending changes in your organization that could impact the delivery of services. The only current or impending changes to our organization is that we are actively hiring and creating new roles within our company. We have been steadily growing the team for the past several years and plan to continue to expand our team in the coming years. This growth has allowed us to provide additional services and better support for our clients. As new trends emerge in Health & Welfare EBS can bring on Subject Matter Experts as needed (e.g. Subject Matter Expert on Leave Management). 4. Provide proof that your company carries Errors and Omissions insurance coverage. Please see exhibit A for our proof of Errors and Omissions insurance coverage. YOUR PRACTICE 5. Describe how employee benefits are structured within your firm. We utilize a team approach to service our clients. We have a three person day to day service team that serves as your point of contact and will assist with coverage specific questions, renewals and anything else related to the day to day occurrences with your benefits. Our teams are lead by a Senior Partner who is responsible for managing client relationships, overall strategy and aligning EBS resources to accommodate our clients’ needs. Working alongside the Senior Partner is a consultant that answers client questions, possesses a deep understanding of the clients’ benefit 5

Velcro USA Inc. 95 Sundial Avenue Manchester, NH 03103 USA Tel: (+1) 603 669 4880 programs and works closely with the client to make sure their needs are met. The third person on the day to day team is the Benefit Analyst who supports the client and team by managing renewal requests for proposals, preparing monthly claim reports and managing ad hoc requests for the client. In addition to the day to day service team, each of our clients has access to our team of subject matter experts in the areas of marketing and employee communications, compliance, human resource technology, data analytics and wellness to help them in whichever area they require assistance. These resources are available for consultation in their areas of expertise and once engaged develop one on one relationships with our clients. 6. Describe the proposed team that would work with Velcro Companies and provide information about the qualifications and expertise of each team member, including any related experience. See question 2 in the ‘Your Company’ section above to read the full bios of your EBS service team. 7. How often does your team meet with your clients and for what purposes? Every organization has their own unique set of wants and needs when it comes to their relationship with their broker. Although our strongest relationships are with those clients who really want to be engaged with us and partner with us to manage and improve their current benefit program, we do like to leave it up to the client to determine how often and in what setting they would like to meet with us. Whether our clients prefer in-person meetings quarterly, or phone meetings monthly, we will adapt to what suits your organization best. Whatever type of schedule you determine, you can count on us to be working throughout the plan year to ensure your renewal runs smoothly, your employees are getting the communications they need to understand their benefits offerings, and you are supported in all areas of your benefits programs. Below is a suggested timeline of the plan year – beginning with a kickoff meeting that is held at the beginning of the broker-client relationship, and every year immediately following your renewal. In addition to the suggested meetings below, we meet with our clients throughout the year whenever a situation calls for it. Here’s how we would support our clients throughout the year: Bi-Weekly Benefits Meetings | We feel it is important to keep communications ongoing and monthly meetings are an effective way to make sure EBS and the client are on the same page, pending issues are addressed/resolved and any new issues are identified. In Velcro’s case, Cigna hosts bi-weekly service meetings in which EBS participates. EBS and Velcro use this time as an opportunity to catch up on any open items between EBS and the Velcro team. Quarterly Review Meetings | At the quarterly meetings, EBS comes equipped with your plan- specific data from the current and prior year(s) and we illustrate to you how your overall plan designs are working (or are not working). Data analytics and industry trends play a major role in these meetings. We also use these meetings for educational purposes (e.g., Self-funding 101). Pre-Renewal Meeting | Together, EBS and the client will review benchmark, discuss new and existing product offerings, employee contribution strategies and pre-renewal estimates. This is also an opportunity to discuss funding alternatives and risk tolerance. Renewal Meeting(s) | The renewal process usually takes several meetings/conference calls to move through to completion. During the renewal process, we feel it is important to have a standing weekly check in call to be sure that all deadlines are met and alternatives presented. We will discuss a full negotiation, alternative plan design(s), alternative funding strategies and a strategy for reducing any proposed renewal action. We will also decide on what types of employee 6

Velcro USA Inc. 95 Sundial Avenue Manchester, NH 03103 USA Tel: (+1) 603 669 4880 communications you will need to arm your employees with all their benefits information in an easily digestible way so your open enrollment runs smoothly. Senior Leadership/Benefits Committee Renewal Meeting | EBS will follow your lead as to our involvement in Senior Leadership renewal meetings. We understand that all companies make decisions differently. EBS will be there to support you with reports, PowerPoint presentations, and supporting details. If a “seat at the table” is warranted, EBS will gladly provide in-person attendance at these meetings. Some of our clients have EBS lead this meeting while others prefer to have us there in support. Open Enrollment | During the pre-renewal and renewal meetings, we will discuss a strategy of how to best support you during your open enrollment period. Every client’s needs are different, but typically we offer support via open enrollment communication materials, creative communication decision support tools and onsite support during employee meetings. AdHoc Meetings, as needed | During a plan year there are many reasons to have in-person meetings. Whatever the reason, EBS is here to meet your needs. We want clients to consider us an extension of their HR Department and as such, we are always accessible. Monthly Wellness Meetings | EBS wellness team meets monthly with Velcro’s wellness team to help strategize, implement programs, help measure success and support with marketing materials. The current Velcro/EBS meeting schedule is to meet on as needed but each year there is a Post- Open Enrollment meeting, Claims Analytics meeting, Pre-Renewal Strategy meeting, several Renewal Meetings, monthly Wellness meetings, as well as participation in most of the employee Open Enrollment meetings. 8. Describe what makes your firm uniquely qualified to work on our account. EBS is an independently owned firm that can be nimble and flexible with customer needs and requests, but has abundant resources we can deploy to make sure we are meeting our clients’ goals for their benefit programs. We feel we have three distinguishing characteristics that give us a competitive advantage when compared to other employee benefit firms: A Senior Leadership-Driven Approach | A key differentiator that continues to set us apart is the structure of our service model. Each and every one of our clients works directly with a Senior Partner whose team is committed to providing the best service in the industry. Each Senior Partner will oversee the direct execution of cost-containment, communication, technology, wellness, and compliance tactical plans. This benefits our clients because they have a direct line of communication to someone in a leadership position with our company that will be overseeing their coverage and making sure they are having a positive experience. The Senior Partner also has direct access to leadership with the insurance carriers and other vender partners. United Benefits Advisors | EBS recognized years ago that our clients needed a broader national perspective for their employees. EBS helped to form United Benefit Advisors (“UBA”) (www.ubabenefits.com) in 2002. UBA is a national association of the top independent employee benefit firms in the country. The selection process for member firms is based upon a distinct set of rigorous qualifications. Member firms must be leaders in their geographic region with a required size of clients, number of employees, revenue and demonstrated business management practices. UBA comprises the second largest organization of employee benefit advisors in the United States with approximately 140+ participating member firms. UBA pools the resources of its members together to: (1) share product and marketplace knowledge; (2) provide key trend data and analysis to all members; (3) jointly research and purchase technology and benefit related services (e.g., 7

Velcro USA Inc. 95 Sundial Avenue Manchester, NH 03103 USA Tel: (+1) 603 669 4880 actuarial, legal, etc.) for our firms and our clients; and (4) support a united, national workforce. This national collaboration helps to provide EBS clients with deep industry knowledge, broad geographic market insight, cutting edge benefit tools, technology, and strategies. Please see exhibit B for a map of UBA Member firms. A Complement of Subject Matter Experts | Because no single person can be an expert in all areas, we use an “expert team approach”, bringing together those most knowledgeable in an array of critical disciplines and service areas to provide clients with up-to-date professional advice. To maximize the highly valued strategic oversight delivered by our senior partners, we support them with a robust team of subject matter experts who can uniquely focus on aspects of legal, compliance, technology and wellness. This unique circle of support allows our clients to have a single point of contact (their team lead), and direct access to this team of experts. 9. What types of training programs does your firm provide to its employees? EBS begins training our new employees during the onboarding phase. The first week after an employee joins our team is spent educating them on our culture, our goal of creating “Raving Fans” with our clients, how we are structured and where they fit into our organization. At the conclusion of this process, our new team members have a solid understanding of our purpose, what we as a firm are trying to accomplish and how they fit in to our plan of creating a positive 8

Velcro USA Inc. 95 Sundial Avenue Manchester, NH 03103 USA Tel: (+1) 603 669 4880 experience for our clients. On an ongoing basis, we have several methods we use to train our team: Bi-Monthly Training Sessions | We typically have two training sessions per month in various forms covering everything from product knowledge, carrier specific information, industry knowledge and overall business skills like public speaking, business etiquette and how to communicate effectively. The sessions are usually offered in a classroom setting, roundtable or lunch and learn format. This schedule has remained in place during the current pandemic by providing training on a virtual format. On-Line Courses | Our Employees are assigned on-line training courses through UBA and Zywave’s Learn platform. UBA sessions are geared towards product specific information like self- funded medical, stop loss, disability concepts and unique carrier-specific offerings. We use Zywave’s Learn platform to issue training on topics like Sexual Harassment, Diversity & Ethics, Employee Success, and overall Workplace Safety. Monthly Team Meetings | One of the main goals of our monthly team meetings is for EBS’ subject matter experts to update and educate our team on the latest and greatest updates in the areas of compliance, technology, wellness, employee communications and leave management. This allows our team to current on the latest developments and recognize situations where one of our subject matter experts could be brought in to help a client with a current situation. Continuing Education Tuition | EBS also offers financial support to employees interested in pursuing continuing education in their field – typically in CEBS certifications, insurance licensing, and CE accreditation hours, although subject matter experts take a broader educational approach to their respective fields. EBS Mentors | We have an established mentor program where we connect our less experienced employees with one of the more experienced team members to provide coaching and feedback. Being able to bounce ideas of someone, discuss a challenging situation and get a different perspective is very rewarding and helpful for all involved. 10. How does your firm recognize and celebrate employees’ successes? We have a dynamic, collaborative and supportive environment at EBS which encourages and leads to team members sharing kudo received from clients or praise for one another for a job well done. We recognize these successes in our weekly re-cap in Slack and at monthly team meetings when we are all together for our monthly meeting. EBS also has a variable compensation model which financially rewards team members who exceed expectations. 11. Provide an example of how your firm is taking a leadership role within the industry. EBS has always tried to stay one step ahead of our clients’ needs by listening closely to the dialogues happening within the industry and being proactive in identifying what is on the horizon for our clients. This allows us to proactively identify and deploy resources our clients need and be a leader in our industry. We do this by maintaining seats on the board of several carriers, constantly listening to how our clients’ needs are changing, and participating in several human resources organizations like SHRM, Perks and DisruptHR. Over time, we have evolved our team as the needs of employers, employees and regulatory requirements have changed and added valuable resources. As compliance needs became more difficult to navigate alone, we added our Director of Compliance; as more and more employers began to see the correlation between productivity and well-being, we added our Director of Population Health Strategy & Well-being; as technology progressed, we added our Director of HR 9

Velcro USA Inc. 95 Sundial Avenue Manchester, NH 03103 USA Tel: (+1) 603 669 4880 Technology; as organizations realized their employees were not understanding what all of their benefits mean, we added our Director of Marketing & Communications. EBS also makes continued investments in technology platforms that help us in the areas of claim analytics, benefit administration, actuarial analysis and pharmacy informatics to insure we have state of the art resources for us to better deliver our services to our clients. We have also partnered with some independent consultants to assist our clients with some more specific issues that come up from time to time – we have access to a Pharmacy Consultant as well as a Compensation Consultant. We will keep adding experts to the team and partnering with consultants as the needs of our clients continue to change. 12. What size clients does your firm generally support? What is the median and average employee size of your clients? As a firm we currently have 207 clients. The Velcro service team manages 12 clients, with an average size of 1150 employees. This team manages many of EBS’ most complex and largest clients, which have a concentration of our self-funded clients. 13. How do you structure your team resources based on client size? All of our resources are available to every EBS client regardless of size. 14. Describe your experience with clients with multiple locations in multiple states and countries. What percentage of your clients are companies based outside of the U.S.? What percentage of your clients has international operations (operations in the U.S. and other countries)? We have extensive experience working with clients who have a widespread employee base, including international employees. Currently 33% of the clients within the Velcro service team have international operations. We support clients nationally and internationally with the following resources: National Support | We provide boots-on-the-ground support in all 50 states by leveraging our UBA partnership, outlined in question 8 of the above ‘Your Practice’ section. International Support | EBS partners with two companies that help us manage international clients and employees: Globex and Globalization Partners. It has been our experience that this partnership with local, domestic subject matter experts has been extremely effective to assist our clients on a global basis. Within all domestic brokerage/consultant operations there can be a disconnect between the domestic office that leads the engagement and the “international” office that may assist with global efforts. Having a global partner here in the United States that spearheads this initiative allows our clients access, customization, accountability, and a true partner to manage global benefit needs and initiatives. Globex | Through our seventeen-year partnership with Globex International, we have access to a broad range of international benefits brokerage capabilities in 160 countries and jurisdictions worldwide. Founded in 1993, Globex International is an international employee benefits, insurance and risk management consulting firm for brokers and agents, providing their customers with an in-house international department or resource, which brings international capabilities and expertise to their operations and customers. Key benefits include: 10

Velcro USA Inc. 95 Sundial Avenue Manchester, NH 03103 USA Tel: (+1) 603 669 4880 • A dedicated team whose members have over 200 years of international brokerage, consulting, and underwriting experience. • Access to worldwide network of 300 “partner” brokers and correspondents, spanning 160 countries outside the United States. • Access to a wide range of international employee benefits consulting and brokerage services. • Effective program implementation and ongoing management utilizing their worldwide network and proprietary technology platform. A key feature of the Globex approach towards international employee benefits is that they have built relationships with a network of “best of class” independent brokers/consultants around the world. In addition to meeting local licensing requirements, these brokers are expected to maintain appropriate levels of professional liability/E&O coverage and comply with Globex service standards. However, Globex is not simply a network of overseas offices. The true difference between Globex and other providers is that they do not specifically promote their network. Their aim, first and foremost, is to work with selected providers to construct the most appropriate solutions for the needs of multinational companies. This has its foundation in fully understanding the exposures presented by the company’s worldwide operations together with an understanding of their corporate philosophy. Armed with this information, they can design and market a tailor-made solution to the customer’s requirements. Because they are not tied to an owned network, they have the flexibility to select the local brokers who are best suited to your particular needs, rather than being forced to utilize a certain broker just because they have the same name on their door. This can be crucial in certain situations. For example, if you have a small office with only a handful of employees, we have the flexibility to choose a local broker who is willing and able to provide superior service for small groups or individuals. This approach ensures the highest level of consistency of servicing levels from country to country, centrally managed by their global team. Please see exhibit C for a sample of a Global Benefits Assessment. Globalization Partners | Globalization Partners helps engage and manage a global workforce without legal complexities and unpredictable costs. Under this model, any international employees would be part of the Globalization Partners global professional employer organization with their payroll, tax filings, and country-specific laws regulated by Globalization Partners. 15. Describe any current or recent relationships you've had with Velcro Companies or in a global context. EBS is the current broker of Velcro Companies’ benefits program. 16. Why do clients leave your organization? At EBS we have a lot of strong, long-standing relationships with our clients. However, we do occasionally lose clients, and it is typically because: - The company is sold and/or acquired by a larger company and moves onto the benefit plan of the acquiring company. 11

Velcro USA Inc. 95 Sundial Avenue Manchester, NH 03103 USA Tel: (+1) 603 669 4880 - A new benefits decision maker is hired, and brings in a broker they had from a their prior organization. 17. What is your method or process in place to gauge client satisfaction? With many of our clients we use our Vendor Scorecard to track the quality of service and administration of vendors, including EBS. We would solicit feedback on a quarterly or semi-annual basis. The results would be presented to vendor partners to ensure every issue is noticed - although if an issue comes up between, we’ll work as a liaison between the client and the vendor to find a resolution. This scorecard is not currently in place with Velcro. Velcro and EBS have the type of relationship where if there is an issue of any type it is addressed immediately to find a resolution. for our sample Vendor Scorecard. This can be deployed at any point. In Please see exhibit D addition, carriers/vendors will be present as needed during regular check-in meetings with Velcro. 18. What is your service philosophy? Our service philosophy is to provide more than just the routine day-to-day support expected from our clients. As benefit plans and administration have become more complex over the past several years, we see our role as being educators to our clients when we advise them on the latest products, trends, regulations, and solutions that can impact our customers’ experience. Over the years the Velcro team has firsthand experience of EBS’ boutique, non-standard approach to customer service. As an extension of the Benefits Team, EBS has been there to conduct employee meetings, search for and find new vendor partners (no one will forget implementing Cigna in record time), providing compliance guidance & filings, communication guides & one-off custom pieces, partnering with the wellness person, assisting with complicated member claim issues, changing out voluntary benefits carriers, aligning the stop loss and administration renewals, performing a dependent audit, providing benchmarking data, etc. The collaborative nature of the relationship is at the top of the EBS book of business. 19. If your firm is selected, how would you propose we transition our account? As the in-force broker we would not need to transition your account, however we would propose that we connect immediately to discuss how we can better support Velcro Companies. EXPERTISE 20. Describe your approach to supporting our programs throughout the plan year. If we remain your broker, we will continue providing the following program support: Benefit Plan Review | We would perform a full analysis of the current level of benefits including the current insurance company/vendor relationships, the level of benefits in place, the current funding method of the benefits and the historical changes that have occurred. After our review and conversations on the vision you have for your benefits, we can begin to look at any potential changes to your programs and the timing of those changes. Service Calendar | Once we have had a chance to discuss your benefit program with you and evaluate your current level of benefits, then we can put a plan in place for the coming year to identify action items and milestones. We will establish a regular monthly meeting schedule with you and identify other relevant meetings throughout the year based on areas of need identified as important to you. We feel having regular meetings is important so we can keep a running dialogue with you on your benefit programs, keep you up to date on any developments with your programs 12

Velcro USA Inc. 95 Sundial Avenue Manchester, NH 03103 USA Tel: (+1) 603 669 4880 and educate you on the latest and greatest trends we are seeing in the industry. The Service Calendar will include, among other things, monthly claims reporting, pre-renewal and renewal meetings, training (if requested), a compliance review and wellness assessment. Subject Matter Experts | EBS will introduce the appropriate EBS subject matter expert throughout the year depending on what goal related item we are working on. Aside from your day-to-day service team, you will also have direct access to our in-house subject matter experts in the areas of compliance, wellness, HR technology and employee communications. These resources are available at a moment’s notice to help any EBS client achieve their long-term goals. 21. Do you have a process in place for tracking communication between you and your client? EBS utilizes a customer relationship management system called Brokerage Builder. One of the many capabilities Brokerage Builder provides our service teams with is the ability to store all communications, written and oral, with our clients and vendors. This gives us the ability to refer to past correspondence when needed. 22. How do you manage vendor relationships? EBS manages vendor relationships in a couple of different ways. Through our daily interactions with our vendors, we are able to build relationships with these vendors that allow us to stay up to date on the latest trends and product offerings, create acceptable working conditions, and identify strengths and weaknesses of the vendors. All observations and developments are shared with our team at each EBS monthly team meeting. In addition, EBS’ Senior Vice President of Operations, Jim Stott, is responsible for vendor management. Jim is the contact for all existing and new vendors we work with and meets with all vendors to determine if they are a good fit for EBS our clients, and to educate the team on their capabilities. Part of Jim’s duties (along with the Senior Partner) are to educate the team on new products/services and intervene in situations where a client of EBS is not receiving the level of service we feel they should be. EBS has a long-standing working relationship with virtually all major national and regional insurance carriers. In the case of a small regional vendor or carrier, EBS would lean upon our local UBA partner for influence and guidance. UBA also sponsors monthly calls with national insurance carriers for updates to their product offerings. 23. In your opinion, what are the two major challenges companies our size face and how will your firm help meet these challenges? While we acknowledge that each client’s specific challenges are unique, we think the primary challenges for an employer like Velcro are: • Containing healthcare cost increases • Leave Management (Sick Leave, FMLA and LTD) Healthcare Costs | EBS is highly effective at helping clients meet corporate business objectives and health and welfare cost targets. We rely on a combination of creative plan designs, proprietary benchmarking data, unique tools, underwriting expertise, and strong payer negotiating experience to deliver the most cost-effective solutions for our clients. We leverage provider payment methodology expertise to further analyze possible solutions, so our clients are receiving cutting edge information upon which to make decisions. In addition, we can leverage advantaged vendor pricing through our United Benefits Advisors (UBA) partnership. We will also review and determine the feasibility and effects of “carve-out” programs such as Behavior Management and Prescription Drugs. Over the past several 13

Velcro USA Inc. 95 Sundial Avenue Manchester, NH 03103 USA Tel: (+1) 603 669 4880 years EBS has successfully negotiated the Cigna Prescription Benefit Manager (PBM) contract to lower Velcro’s net prescription spend. Successful analysis and marketing of the stop loss contract has also given the cost to the lowest cost possible. The Velcro USA medical renewal history is summarized below. It includes the Velcro initial and final renewal percentage change as well as a comparison to the United Benefit Advisors (UBA) annual health plan survey results. The UBA final percentage is after negotiations, plan/carrier changes and cost shifts to employees. The Velcro final percentage has been consistently below UBA final and without any significant Velcro plan design changes. We are proud that throughout EBS’ time consulting for Velcro, the annual medical renewals have remained in single digits. Along with the partner driven team, we have been able to utilize Valeria Tivnan, our Director of Population Health & Wellbeing, and the data we receive from Decision Master Warehouse on our client’s claims experience to make an impact on our client’s healthcare costs. By identifying which kinds of claims are higher than the industry norm, digging into find the cause of the higher-than-normal claims and developing a strategy on how to correct the claims incidence, we are making an impact to our clients’ bottom line. Leave Management | Handling leaves, including paid sick leave and leaves associated with the Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA) is a daunting task. A large physician’s group, such as the PO, often benefit from the Leave Management capabilities provided by a third party, such as a disability carrier. EBS will provide and analyze your current leave program and provide recommendations that will meet your business needs, increase productivity/reduce time off, 14

Velcro USA Inc. 95 Sundial Avenue Manchester, NH 03103 USA Tel: (+1) 603 669 4880 and potentially reduce overall costs. This is why three years ago EBS hired a full time subject matter expert in the leave space. We have since partnered with Lindsay Lloyd at Flores Leave Solutions. LINDSAY LLOYD Flores Leave Consultants [email protected] | 414-395-0480| LinkedIn Lindsay is our dedicated leave management specialist at Flores Leave Solutions. EBS partners with Lindsay and her team at Flores Leave Solutions to provide our clients with direct access to a dedicated leave specialist. This resources is to support our clients in their various leave-related compliance needs, including various state leave laws and federal laws. This Subject Matter Expert is not for actual leave administration services but rather an advocate to assist with developing, understanding, and advocating regarding leaves. 24. Describe your process for negotiating renewals. Be prepared to share examples of your success in negotiating renewals. The key to negotiating the best possible renewal for Velcro is a detailed understanding of Velcro’s long term benefit goals, current plan designs, claims experience and nature of business. EBS has been there every step of the way since 2009 honing the benefits philosophy while keeping an eye on the financials. At times we collectively decide to market the in-force plans due to a financial, service or plan design need, EBS manages the request for proposal process and subsequent negotiations with carriers. Negotiating the rates with the carriers is one of our core competencies due to three major factors: (1) Established Relationships | Our tenure as a reputable broker has allowed us to develop strong relationships with all of the major carriers. This provides us with tremendous value when negotiating renewals on both new and existing business. (2) Claims Analysis Tools | We deploy a number of claims analytical tools that give us a remarkable amount of data to use in our negotiating efforts. The DMW data we receive on claims experience and the Claros actuarial tool we use to model and predict rates provides us with solid data that can be leveraged in our negotiations with carriers. Rather than relying on the carriers to provide us with all the data to make a decision, we are able to bring additional data to support or dispute the proposed carrier renewal. (3) Underwriters on EBS Team | EBS currently has 7 former underwriters on our team that have underwritten new and renewal business on medical and ancillary products. This expertise has proved to be very valuable for our clients when we are working on renewals as we know the process and how the coverages are priced Current Client Examples of Renewal Negotiations: Example #1: Self-Funding | We have an in-force client that we started our relationship with in August of 2018 when they had 4 different entities, 14 lines of coverage amongst them and 15 unique vendors in force. Needless to say, their lives were difficult from an administrative standpoint and their benefit costs were extremely high. We worked with the group to consolidate their benefit plans into 1 common offering for all employees that had only 4 lines of coverage and 5 unique vendors for their January 1st renewal cycle. This included extensive financial 15

Velcro USA Inc. 95 Sundial Avenue Manchester, NH 03103 USA Tel: (+1) 603 669 4880 analysis, modeling and carrier negotiations resulting in converting medical and dental to self- funded arrangements and carving out prescription drugs to Express Scripts to achieve significant savings and greater flexibility. In addition to the benefit consolidation, we also recommended and helped implement a new HRIS system to improve their administration and enrollment process and supported the rollout of the revamped benefit offering by creating open enrollment communications, interactive benefit guides and did a road show conducting employee education sessions. The result was a wildly successful implementation with the employees receiving their new ID cards and financial spending account debit cards in hand before January 1st and the human resources team enjoying a much smoother enrollment process. The targeted goal was to save between $940,000 to $1.4 million or $11,474 PEPY to $9,402 PEPY, but the actual savings for the 2019 plan year was $1,117,965 in medical spend with the PEPY cost projected at $9,811. Example #2: RX Carve Out | We had a client with a pharmacy carve in option with their in force medical carrier. The client had a limited benefits budget and was experiencing consistent pharmacy cost increases year over year. EBS recommended carving out their pharmacy program to gain control of clinical programing, take advantage of better contract terms and guaranteed discounts and rebates. We introduced Confidio, our Pharmacy Consulting partner, to execute the Pharmacy RFP. Confidio found the best discount and rebate guarantees in the market, supported the implementation of the new PBM and performed a six month and annual reconciliation to be sure that the PBM met all contract performance guarantees. The end result was EBS’ client realized a 30% cost reduction in their pharmacy spend resulting in an annual savings of $260,000. 25. Describe your underwriting and actuarial resources. The Underwriting & Analytics Consultant, Chelsey Covitz, has been with EBS for six years. As a Subject Matter Expert, Chelsey’s sole responsibility is to analyze claim data, understand underwriting formulas, and develop client reporting capabilities. Chelsey assists credible EBS clients over 100 lives with their claims analysis to get insights into their plan cost-drivers and medical and Rx trends. She is heavily involved in the renewal strategy analysis, incorporating our actuarial resources to assist in budgeting for self-insurance, developing projections for future years based on various plan design contracts, and providing risk analysis for those considering self- insurance and those already self-insured. EBS currently uses software from Zywave and Claros Analytics to assist with plan management. Zywave’s Decision Master Warehouse (DMW) allows us to benchmark our clients’ experience against companies of similar size in the same industry, dig deep into claims experience to uncover the cause of higher-than-normal claims experience, and put a plan in place to manage costs moving forward. for a sample DMW Report. Please see exhibit E Claros Analytics’ Health Benefits Consulting Suite (HBCS) allows us to model health plan designs, evaluate the impact of plan changes, simulate employee enrollment, set budget rates based on experience and perform predictive modeling of employee migration between plans. HBCS has 3 Components: • Actuarial Assistant: Provides detailed modeling of health plan design and allows for side-by- side comparisons of benefit designs • Risk Decision Support: Provides analysis of the risk/reward at various stop loss thresholds and aggregate insurance corridors and displays the probability of experiencing an aggregate claim • Experience and Migration Predictive: Provides robust experience analysis, simulation of 16

Velcro USA Inc. 95 Sundial Avenue Manchester, NH 03103 USA employee enrollment in medical plans and setting budget rates Tel: (+1) 603 669 4880 Please see exhibit F for an overview of Claros Analytics. These resources coupled with the combined experience of Tom McCormick and Jason Reynold provide clients with boundless insight into the pricing of health plans. Both are trained in underwriting. In cases where we need a more robust actuarial project completed, we have a relationship with Jay Miniati Actuarial Services. Jay and his team are a full-service actuarial firm that can perform any financial projection project we have in a timely fashion. EBS was introduced to Jay through a relationship Velcro had with Jay who performed the reserve calculations. Now Jay is an integral part of the EBS team as an ad hoc Subject Matter Expert. 26. Describe your experience supporting clients with mergers and acquisitions, including the due diligence process, and integrating the acquired company’s benefits plans with the client’s benefit plans, communications to employees, etc. This team has a sub-specialty of M&A due diligence work. Many of our clients grow through acquisition. One client completed five acquisitions in one calendar year. EBS can produce a mergers & acquisition report outlining Gross and Net costs, areas of concern and side-by-side plan comparisons. We can also evaluate employee contribution impact to the employer and employee and assist with the integration of the acquired company’s benefit programs. We use local and national benchmarking data effectively illustrate how the target firm’s plans, costs and contributions fit into the client’s current benefits ecosystem. EBS can provide support during Union negotiations as needed. 27. Describe any special analysis that you would provide to help manage our programs. We often have been asked to create a “special project” detailing area specifics, average co-pays, and industry trends. We can use all the information and resources available to us to customize a report or document detailing the most specific area of concern, slicing the data to only include industry, size, and location-relevant responses. 28. Describe your experience managing employee claims escalation. From time to time, EBS is required to intervene on issues that arise when working with data reports and claims reports. Although sometimes the information and issues seem overwhelming for the clients, we feel confident in our ability to manage, control, and resolve any claim issues with the help of our vendor account support teams. We have several EBS personnel with work experience at some of the largest insurance companies that has given us insight into how to handle claim escalations and how to get favorable results for our clients. We also have strong relationships with all the insurance carriers we work with that help us when we need to get involved on a claim. 29. Describe your experience assisting clients with complicated administrative issues and fostering positive resolution. From time to time, EBS is required to intervene on behalf of our clients when working with claims and administrative issues. To resolve this quickly and to foster a positive resolution, we draw on our strong carrier and vendor relationships and rely on our EBS team members who have prior experience on the carrier or vendor side of the relationship. We currently have six team members with experience working for regional and national insurance carriers in sales, service, underwriting and operational capacities. Regardless of the issue, we’ve achieved 17

Velcro USA Inc. 95 Sundial Avenue Manchester, NH 03103 USA Tel: (+1) 603 669 4880 great success by leveraging these relationships and our team to achieve positive results for our clients. SPECIAL SERVICES 30. Describe your standard package of employee communications services. Please provide samples. Most of our clients request a benefit guide, benefit summary, and open enrollment communications from us. For clients who are looking for ongoing communication support and custom communications, our in-house Director of Marketing and Communications, Marah Funder, is available to help you strategize, design, and deploy employee education. Please see exhibit G for an overview of Marah’s capabilities, and see exhibit H to view some samples of content, as well as some ready-to-share communications you can disseminate to your employees. 31. Describe services you offer to support employee surveys and/or focus groups. Your EBS service team can collaborate with Marah to build employee surveys and provide a comprehensive analytics report. EBS also assists clients with focus groups. In 2022, Valeria Tivnan assisted a large technology client by developing and deploying 21 focus groups to gauge the status of employee mental health and morale. In this situation we also vetted an outside resource to assist in the administrative burden of such a large undertaking. Results of this focus group initiative was presented to senior leaders and was instrumental to this client’s growth and retention and engagement of its employees. 32. Describe services you provide to assist with benefits benchmarking. Through our UBA partnership, EBS has access to one of the largest health plan surveys in the country. We can benchmark our clients’ plan design and costs against other companies across the country on a national, regional, state and group size basis and suggest plan design changes based on our analysis. Competitive benchmarking ensures two main variables in a company’s employee benefit offering: • Are we offering too much and overpaying for talent? • Are we offering too little and losing employees to the competition? 18

Velcro USA Inc. 95 Sundial Avenue Manchester, NH 03103 USA Tel: (+1) 603 669 4880 33. Describe how you support the ongoing professional development of your clients. We extend free, monthly webinars to our clients from UBA on various benefits-related topics. These webinars provide 1 CE credit and clients are provided a discount code to access these at 19

Velcro USA Inc. 95 Sundial Avenue Manchester, NH 03103 USA no cost. Tel: (+1) 603 669 4880 In 2022 we started the Emerging HR Peer Leader group, which aims to aid the professional development of all our HR contacts. This group provides webinars, training, and networking resources to everyone who participates. EBS is also sponsor of several HR events throughout the year. 34. Describe any additional services offered by your company that may be of interest to Velcro Companies. As the benefits world has become more complex, we have realized we need to offer our clients resources in the following areas: Retirement Services | EBS partners with Twelve Points as a retirement resource we recommend to our clients. Twelve Points can work with our clients to make sure their current retirement offering is sufficient for their employee population and competitive with other options in the market. Compensation | EBS has partnered with David Weaver from HR & Compensation Group to provide any compensation needs our clients have. We found compensation was an area of concern for our clients over the last several years and David has provided great insight and assistance to the clients he has been introduced to. Most recently, David’s expertise proved to be very valuable to our clients when the new equal pay legislation was introduced in Massachusetts. Executive Benefits | EBS partners with Chris Allen of Caliber Benefits to offer our clients a full suite of executive life and long-term disability products. Audit Services | Through our partnership with United Benefit Advisors, EBS can offer discounted dependent and/or claim audit services. Pharmacy Solutions | EBS has access to a Clinical Pharmacist that can help with assist us with PBM and claims analysis, reviewing formulary and costs and identifying clinical and financial efficiencies. CORPORATE WELLNESS 35. Describe your company’s support for corporate wellness initiatives? We have an in-house wellness team to support your corporate wellness initiatives. Our Director of Population Health Strategy and Well-being, Valeria Tivnan, will perform an annual and ongoing assessment of both internal and external resources to assist you with your corporate wellness goals. One thing most everyone can agree on today is that the cost of healthcare is too high. While we cannot completely control the cost of premiums or claims, we can do our part by educating our clients and their populations on how to be more knowledgeable healthcare consumers and implement behaviors that have a positive impact on claims. This is where our Director of Population Health Strategy and Well-Being, Valeria Tivnan, comes in. Val’s role is multi-faceted, and she will immediately become embedded in your team’s philosophy. 20

Velcro USA Inc. 95 Sundial Avenue Manchester, NH 03103 USA Tel: (+1) 603 669 4880 Once your wellness program has been established, Val will continue to monitor the effectiveness of the initiatives, pivoting where needed to ensure longevity. She will utilize Decision Master Warehouse to view your organization’s detailed claims experience, analyzing the data in a report that provides you with a breakdown of the costliest health issues within your organization. From there, Val works with you to develop solutions (where possible) to these cost drivers. Val is supported by our Wellness Coordinator, Megan Mattox. Throughout the year, you can deploy different wellness perks to enhance your benefits programs with Val’s help: • Book a Lunch & Learn with Val, where she’ll coordinate a healthy lunch delivery and walk your employees through 45 minutes of guided meditation and mindfulness training, burnout prevention education, nutrition facts, and more; • Treat your employees to in-office chair massages during a busy time of the year and let Val provide you with vetted and highly recommended vendors; • Provide your team with healthy meals delivered to the office weekly, onsite or virtual workouts, onsite eye exams, nutritionist consultations, or sessions with a financial advisor – all with the help of Val’s and EBS’ resources. Ultimately, Val’s goal is to maximize your well-being program spend while engaging as many employees in your organization as possible. Val will work with you to develop and implement strategies based on your specific employee population and budget to help improve the health and wellbeing of your employees. 36. Describe any programs that you provide to your clients that foster employee wellness. You can view the scope of our wellness services in the EBS Wellness Toolbox. LEGISLATIVE / COMPLIANCE 37. How do you support your clients in ensuring their employee benefits programs remain compliant with all federal and state laws AND international laws? Our in-house Director of Compliance, Susan Sonkin, is tasked with staying current on all state and federal regulations that may impact our clients. Susan has been with EBS for over 23 years and is a Certified Employee Benefit Specialist (CEBS), Registered Health Underwriter (RHU), Registered Employee Benefits Consultant (REBC), and Chartered Life Underwriter (CLU). Susan is directly available to our clients to provide compliance support in the areas of ERISA, HIPAA, COBRA, Section 125, FMLA, ACA, and more. Our in-house General Counsel and Senior Partner, Josie Martinez, works closely with Susan Sonkin to draft compliance alerts and employee notices. We provide clients with access to Flores Leave Solutions, who provide guidance around both state-specific leave laws like MA PFML, as well as federal leave laws. We use Globex and/or Globalization Partners to ensure our clients benefit programs are compliant with all applicable international laws. Finally, we provide clients free access to Zywave’s Client Portal, which is a resource center on all HR-related issues with sample forms, checklists, videos, regulatory updates and tools needed for your organization to remain compliant with local and national laws and regulations. 21

Velcro USA Inc. 95 Sundial Avenue Manchester, NH 03103 USA 38. How does your firm assist clients with HIPAA compliance? Tel: (+1) 603 669 4880 Our clients can lean on Director of Compliance, Susan Sonkin, for support with HIPAA compliance. We also use a toolkit from UBA partner Fisher Phillips to ensure we remain HIPAA compliant, and EBS team members receive annual training on HIPAA Compliance and Data Privacy Training. EBS also has a relationship with the law firm Fisher Phillips https://www.fisherphillips.com/ to deploy modular HIPAA training to our clients. This service would be at an additional discounted fee. 39. Describe how your firm maintains client records in a HIPAA secure environment. EBS has adopted policies and procedures to protect and secure Protected Health Information as required under HIPAA and personal information as required under the Massachusetts Data Privacy law. Some examples include: • EBS Employees receive training each year on the proper way to maintain HIPAA related information. • Data backup plan: All servers are backed up every 15 minutes to a raided storage device. Every file is logged and tracked, enabling recovery of files that have been subsequently “saved over”. • Disaster recovery plan: In the event of a disaster, EBS has contracted through United Benefit Advisors with Agility Recovery to ensure minimal downtime and recovery of any data that might be lost in the process, both for electronic and physical data and files. • Limiting physical access to electronic information and our facility through electronic key card access for doors to the workspace, key locks on all cabinets that contain privileged information. • Secured Firewall for all company information, requiring both firewall password access AND individualized user password access. • 90-day user password time-out, requiring a new password that has not been utilized in the past 20 passwords. Passwords also require capitalized, lower case, and unique characters (!, #, &, etc.) to be included in all passwords. • All users can transmit encrypted emails easily from their Outlook desktops using 256-bit Advanced Encryption Standard encryption technology. 40. Describe your in-house legal advisors or outside counsel who provides guidance to you and your clients? Josie Martinez, Senior Partner, is our in-house General Counsel. Fisher Phillips is our preferred external resource on a national basis. EBS also maintains relationships several local New England law firms. 41. Describe methods you employ to disseminate information about current trends and legislation. Please provide examples. EBS Director of Compliance, Susan Sonkin, would provide you with timely compliance alerts and updates. Urgent alerts are disseminated via email as soon as possible. Susan is always a phone call or email away, so you can reach out to her anytime with questions or concerns. Please see exhibit I for an example of a compliance alert. 22

Velcro USA Inc. 95 Sundial Avenue Manchester, NH 03103 USA Tel: (+1) 603 669 4880 42. What services do you offer clients in the preparation of their Form 5500s and Summary Annual Reports? Susan Sonkin assists with Form 5500 document prep, summary annual report prep, and plan document prep. COMPENSATION 43. Describe the options of compensation for your services. EBS has no preferred method of compensation and will work under a commission and/or consulting fee arrangement of your choice. Typically, for a group of similar size to Northeast Arc, we are compensated through the regular commission scale of the carriers but are open to discussion if you would prefer a consulting fee arrangement. The only fees that would be charged to Northeast Arc would be the following: - Any printing and mailing charges. • Certain travel expenses outside New England if required (negotiable). • Pass-through fees for vendors mutually agreed to that are outside the scope of our standard consulting agreement (e.g. Guidespark Communication Services, Jellyvision, etc.). • Claim auditing services if requested. 44. Has your firm been subject to any lawsuits or settlements specific to compensation disclosure or practices within the last five years? No, we have not been the subject of any lawsuits or settlements specific to compensation disclosure or practices within the last five years. 45. What is your firm’s philosophy and practice in making available documentation of the commissions received from insurers? At EBS we pride ourselves on our objective and professional advice. Compensation never impacts the way that we conduct business for our clients. We have always followed a policy of full disclosure of fees and commissions. All EBS clients know the following policies: • EBS will gladly accommodate any request for a detailed accounting of fees, commissions and/or bonuses received. • EBS will continue to maintain and update all standard commission schedules for the insurance companies with whom we have mutual clients. • EBS will continue to seek consistent and fair commission rates so that clients may be better able to compare competitive proposals. • EBS will continue to provide clarity for clients in all negotiations with insurers. • EBS will meet annually with each client to discuss compensation. 46. What is your company’s philosophy and practice on accepting contingency/override compensation from insurers relative to the placement of insurance programs? At EBS we pride ourselves on our objective and professional advice. Compensation never impacts the way that we conduct business for our clients, and we have always followed a policy of full disclosure of fees and commissions. We do accept contingency/override compensation, but we do not let potential contingent commissions impact client decisions. Revenue from contingent commissions makes up less than 10% of total firm revenue. 23

Velcro USA Inc. 95 Sundial Avenue Manchester, NH 03103 USA Tel: (+1) 603 669 4880 47. Describe our right to terminate a contract with you. Is there a minimum contract period? If so, what is it? While there is no minimum contract period, termination by the client requires (90) days’ prior written notice to EBS. In the event Client terminates this Agreement or breaches the terms of the Agreement, EBS shall continue to earn commissions for the services rendered hereunder for a period of ninety (90) days after notice of termination or breach. 48. Based on the information provided and the services requested, what is your proposed annual fee? Please make certain to identify all services included in and excluded from your fees. EBS’ fee is $100,000 per year billed quarterly at $25,000 for services outlined in the Consulting Agreement. This fee has not been increased in several years, EBS would be open to discussions regarding increasing this fee. EBS shall manage the Client's group insurance plans and provide employee benefit advisory services which include: • Medical Plan Management, Renewal and Consulting Services • Dental Plan Management, Renewal and Consulting Services • Life and AD&D Plan Management, Renewal and Consulting Services • Short Term and Long Term Disability Plan Management, Renewal and Consulting Services • Voluntary and Worksite Plan Management, Renewal and Consulting Services • HR Technology Consulting Services • Wellness Program Consulting Services • Compliance Consulting Services (Including Alerts and 5500 and SAR Completion) • HR 360 On-line and Telephonic Human Resource Support and Access • Open Enrollment Support • HSA/HRA/FSA/COBRA Consulting Services 49. Provide three references from current clients of similar size and/or need and complexity to Velcro. For each reference please include: Toast Aimee Snyder 2.5 Years Principal Benefits Specialist 4100 Employees 617-906-6668 All Health & Welfare Plans [email protected] Mental Health Vendor Family Planning Vendor American Tower Corporation Michelle Freeman Two stints as consultants, currently for 5 VP, Compensation and Benefits years but previously for a 12 year period 617-375-7546 1850 Employees [email protected] All Health & Welfare Plans Family Planning Vendor 24

Velcro USA Inc. 95 Sundial Avenue Manchester, NH 03103 USA Tel: (+1) 603 669 4880 WGBH (Boston Public TV/Radio) Jane Holland 850 Employees Director of Benefits All Health & Welfare Plans 617-300-3746 [email protected] 50. Provide three references from former clients of similar size and/or need and complexity to Velcro Companies who each left within the last 12 months. For each reference please include: Acquia Anne McDonough 4 Years Vice President, Global Human Resources & 800 Employees Total Rewards All Health & Welfare Plans 339-987-0878 [email protected] Triumvirate Environmental William Coe 9 Years Vice President of Human Resources 350 Employees 617-715-8954 Self-funded Medical Plans [email protected] Bullhorn Kelly Sheridan 4 Years Vice President HR 620 Employees 508-380-6782617-300-3746 All Health & Welfare Plans Kelly [email protected] PERSONNEL Velcro Companies reserves the right to interview and approve key members of Service Provider’s team (implementation and on-going). INSURANCE CERTIFICATES AND CERTIFICATIONS Service Providers shall deliver any required certificates, including applicable state insurance certificates (e.g., general liability, professional liability/E&O, fidelity bond, etc.) along with specified levels of coverage. USE OF NAME AND LOGO You may use the names and logos of the VELCRO Companies in your response to this RFP and/or in materials prepared for a presentation should your organization be selected for one. However, other use of the names or logos is strictly prohibited without Velcro Company’s written consent. MEDIA RELEASE Any media releases, public announcements, or public disclosures regarding your participation in this RFP process will require prior written approval of Velcro Companies. 25