FIRM BACKGROUND
Van Strum & Towne, Inc., a San Francisco-based investment counseling firm, provides investment management services to individuals, endowments, foundations, and corporate pension and profit sharing accounts. The firm is registered under the Investment Advisers Act of 1940 and is a charter member of the Investment Counsel Association of America.

ORIGINAL FOUNDING IN 1927
Van Strum & Towne was originally founded in 1927 by Kenneth S. Van Strum and Herbert S. Towne. Kenneth Van Strum was one of the first members of the investment community to recognize that ownership of common stocks could be a valuable means of preserving purchasing power. He published the book "Investing in Purchasing Power" in 1925 and was the originator of "The Trader" column in Barron's Weekly. The more than seventy-five years of the firm's investment counseling experience has spanned both adverse and prosperous times - and we have weathered exposure to extremes in financial market confidence.

Van Strum & Towne is an independent investment management firm; it has no brokerage, banking or underwriting affiliations. Ownership is vested with the firm's officers and directors, and income is derived solely from fees for investment management services.