Castle Argyle a California Non Profit Benefit Corporation

“This 990 was prepared by the accounting department in the home office of be.group. It was reviewed by the controller and the vice president/chief financial officer, then made available to each voting member of the board of directors on august 1, 2016 by uploading it to a dropbox folder and providing a secure link to the folder and its contents to each member of the board of directors.”

“Pursuant to company policy hr-101, management employees and board of directors are asked, on an annual basis, to acknowledge and declare any potential conflicts of interest during their employment with be.group by completing the "questionnaire regarding policy on conflict of interest and disclosure of certain interests". This policy is enforced and maintained by the human resources department of the be.group corporate office.”

“Castle argyle does not directly pay these individuals, however as compensation is part of the management fees, castle argyle is able to rely on the reasonableness due to be.group's compensation policy below: a. Compensation for the company's ceo is based on comparability data received from an independent consultant who is familiar with the compensation practices of similar companies in the nonprofit senior housing and services industry. On an annual basis, the executive committee of the board of directors (in its capacity as compensation committee) reviews and discusses the compensation data with the ceo and others as deemed necessary. A compensation survey was conducted in conjunction with the ceo search in 2009. When setting compensation for 2014, the board of directors believed that this study was still valid and used it as a basis for setting modest salary increases for the ceo and senior management, after giving due consideration to the incentive compensation plan. Based on those discussions, and pursuant to california law, the executive committee makes a recommendation for the ceo base compensation to the full board. B. Base compensation for the company's senior management is determined by a salary survey conducted by an independent consultant with expertise in the compensation practices of similar companies in the nonprofit senior housing and services industry. This survey was conducted in conjunction with the ceo search in 2009. When setting compensation for 2014, the board of directors believed that this study was still valid and used it as a basis for setting modest salary increases for the ceo and senior management, after giving due consideration to the incentive compensation plan. Pursuant to california law the executive committee makes a recommendation for the ceo base compensation to the full board and provides the ceo with recommended ranges in which to adjust the base compensation for the other members of senior management. Seven of eight members of the executive committee and fifteen of seveteen voting members of the board members of the board, are independent persons. Contemporaneous summary minutes of all executive committee meetings are maintained. In addition, based on input from independent consultants, the executive committee, in consultation with the ceo, establishes criteria to be met for purposes of any incentive compensation that might be paid out. See note on schedule j for more information about incentive payments.”

“Our organization makes its financial statements available to the public in several ways. They are available in our annual filing of form 990 which the public can access through the internet at such sites as guidestar.org and foundation center (http://tfcny.fdncenter.org/990s/990search/esearch.php). The website www.thebegroup.org displays our contact information, which the public can use to obtain the address and phone number to make the request for any of this information by telephone, mail, or email. Be.group and its affiliates does not make our governing documents and conflict of interest policy available to the public.”

“The number of hours for ceo and cfo represent time spent on this organization and all related organizations.”

“All of our board members are independent volunteers. During fiscal year 2014-2015, the board and its committees met on a quarterly basis, not weekly. Thus, the estimated average hours per weeks reported in column b is an attempt to spread out on a weekly basis the estimated amount of time spent during the year on board or committee matters for the organization and all related organizations.”

“The be.group's board of directors has delegated an audit committee to the oversight and review of the audited financial statements and make recommendation to all the voting members of the board. During fiscal year 2014-2015, there were no changes by the audit committee in their process of reviewing the audited financial statements or their selection of the independent auditors.”

“The organization does not maintain donor advised funds.”