We are committed to providing our clients an excellent customer experience with the highest level of support possible. Whether technical support or customized technology services are needed, our clients can rely on NorthStar Support Services to help with their unique business needs.

Once the Maintenance Agreement is signed, NorthStar provides technical support to its clients' designated staff when they are unable to solve NorthStar-related technology issues. If clients cannot solve functionality or operational issues, NorthStar provides:

• Technical support to its client-designated staff who are NorthStar-trained representatives. NorthStar does not provide direct business-user technical support.
  
  
• Diagnosis and resolution help to client's personnel when client efforts have not solved the issue
  
  
• Support by phone 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. Eastern Time/U.S.A. Monday through Friday (excluding New York Stock Exchange holidays) and by email at support@northstar.com
  
  
• Please refer to you Support Guide for additional support procedures.

NorthStar continually enhances and expands its core offerings while working with clients on customization. Updates to core offerings are generally packaged as NorthStar software product releases.

• Updates to NorthStar core offerings are available to clients at no additional charge.
  
  
• Clients with customizations incur an additional charge for core offering updates since updates generally do not operate with customizations unless additional enhancements or changes are made.

What's the fastest way to create a presentation?
The fastest method for creating a presentation depends on where you are in the NorthStar application. The Create New drop-down list appears on several screens in the application. If you have just logged in, use the Create New list on the Dashboard center, the first screen. If you are already viewing the details of a client portfolio or a prospect, click the Presentations tab and select the process type from its Create New list. In this case, the portfolio is already selected for you, so it saves you a step.

How do I create an investment profile?
An investment profile specifies the investment objectives, assumptions, and constraints that will guide your management of a portfolio. A client's portfolio will likely have different objectives, so you specify the investment profile separately for each portfolio by clicking a portfolio name and entering the information in the Details screen. A prospect has only one portfolio that includes all hearsay accounts and holdings, so you set the Investment profile by clicking the prospect's name.

How do I add an account and holdings to my client?
To add an account managed by our firm, you add the account and its holdings in your portfolio accounting system. The information will be integrated automatically with NorthStar and will appear in the application the next day. You can add an external (hearsay) account and holdings to a client or prospect in NorthStar by clicking the investor's name and entering the information in the Details screen.

What analytic data is displayed for the current asset allocation?
The current asset allocation uses the risk and return data for each holding. If there are any holdings for which risk return data is unavailable, the risk return data for the asset class is used. For example, IBM's risk return data is used if it is available; otherwise, the general risk return data is used for the asset class to which IBM belongs.

Where can I go for more information?
Click the Help link in the upper right corner of any screen to get more information about that screen. You can also browse the table of contents in the help section for additional topics, or use the full-text search to find an exact word or phrase. The glossary in the help section provides a useful reference to terms used in the NorthStar application.