Bret D. Sanders

Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, Inc. engages in the provision of securities regulation, complementary compliance, and technology-based services. Its services include writing and enforcing rules governing the activities of securities firms with brokers, examining firms for compliance with those rules, fostering market transparency, and educating investors. The company was founded in 2007 and is headquartered in Washington, DC.

The Securities Investor Protection Corporation either acts as trustee or works with an independent court-appointed trustee in a missing asset case to recover funds. The statute that created SIPC provides that customers of a failed brokerage firm receive all non-negotiable securities that are already registered in their names or in the process of being registered. Recovered funds are used to replenish SIPC's reserve in the event that the reserve is tapped in the early stages of a liquidation proceeding.

Part of R Corp. Financial, R Bank is a state chartered commercial bank. The company is based in Round Rock, TX.

SMH Capital, Inc. (SMH) is the primary broker subsidiary of Sander Morris Harris Group, Inc. (Nasdaq: SMHG). The firm is headquartered in Houston, Texas with additional offices in Los Angeles and San Francisco. SMH provides a full range of asset and wealth management and investment banking services. The firm also offers institutional equity sales, trading, and research, as well as prime brokerage services for hedge funds and fixed-income securities sales and trading. SMH's research effort is attuned to the Southwest, yet takes a broad, global perspective. The analysts cover companies in six broad sectors, including business services, energy, entertainment and media, financial services, specialty retail-softlines, and technology. They look at industries in a bottom-up way, and get to know company managements in depth, to understand their growth philosophy and their views of how their company fits within their group. SMH's growth strategy is to expand asset management and fiduciary activities and related business by increasing assets under management through acquisitions, internal growth and better coordination between their subsidiaries.

Pinnacle Summer Investments, Inc. provides wealth management services. It services include investment advice, investment management and financial planning. The company was founded by Don A. Sanders in January 2000 and is headquartered in Fairfax, VA.