Obligation of the Parties 2.1 The Fund shall prepare and be responsible for filing with the SEC and any state securities regulators requiring such filing, all shareholder reports, notices, proxy materials (or similar materials such as voting instruction solicitation materials), prospectuses and statements of additional information of the Fund. The Fund shall bear the costs or registration and qualification of its Shares, preparation and filing of the documents listed in this Section 2.1 and all taxes to which an issuer is subject on the issuance and transfer of its shares.
2.2 At least annually, the Fund or its designee shall provide the Company, free of charge, with as many copies of the current prospectus (describing only the Portfolios) for the Shares as the Company may reasonably request for distribution to existing Contract owners whose Contracts are funded by such Shares. The Fund or its designee shall provide the Company, at the Company's expense, with as many copies of the current prospectus for the Shares as the Company may reasonably request for distribution to prospective purchasers of Contracts. If requested by the Company in lieu thereof, the Fund or its designee shall provide such documentation (including a "camera ready" copy of the new prospectus as set in type) and other assistance as is reasonably necessary in order for the parties hereto once each year (or more frequently if the prospectus for the Shares is supplemented or amended) to have the prospectus for the Contracts and the prospectus for the Shares printed together in one document; the expenses of such printing to be borne by the Company. in the event that the Company requests that the Fund or its designee provide the Fund's prospectus in a "camera ready" format, the Fund shall be responsible solely for providing the prospectus in the format in which it is accustomed to formatting prospectuses and shall bear the expense of providing the prospectus in such format (e.g., typesetting expenses), and the Company shall bear the expense of adjusting or changing the format to conform with any of its prospectuses.
2.3 The prospectus for the Shares shall state that the statement of additional information for the Shares is available from the Fund or its designee. The Fund or its designee, at its expense, shall print and provide such statement of additional information to the Company (or a master of such statement suitable for duplication by the Company) for distribution to any owner of a Contract funded by the Shares. The Fund or its designee, at the Company's expense, shall print and provide such statement to the Company (or a master of such statement suitable for duplication by the Company) for distribution to a prospective purchaser who requests such statement.
2.4 The Fund or its designee shall provide the Company free of charge copies, if and to the extent applicable to the Shares, of the Fund's proxy materials, reports to Shareholders and other communications to Shareholders in such quantity as the Company shall reasonably require for distribution to Contract owners.
2.5 The Company shall furnish, or cause to be furnished, to the Fund or its designee, a copy of each prospectus for the Contracts or statement of additional information for the Contracts in which the Fund or its investment adviser is named prior to the filing of such document with the SEC. The Company shall furnish, or shall cause to be furnished, to the Fund or its designee, each piece of sales literature or other promotional material in which the Fund or its investment adviser is named, at least five Business Days prior to its use. No such prospectus, statement of additional information or material shall be used if the Fund or its designee reasonably objects to such use within five Business Days after receipt of such material.
2.6 The Company shall not give any information or make any representations or statements on behalf of the Fund or concerning the Fund or its investment adviser in connection with the sale of the Contracts other than information or representations contained in and accurately derived from the registration statement or prospectus for the Fund Shares (as such registration statement and prospectus may be amended or supplemented from time to time), reports of the Fund, Fund-sponsored proxy statement, or in sales literature or other promotional material approved by the Fund or its designee, except with the written permission of the Fund or its designee.
2.7 The Fund shall not give any information or make any representations or statements on behalf of the Company or concerning the Company, the Accounts or the Contracts other than information or representations contained in and accurately derived from the registration statement or prospectus for the Contracts (as such registration statement and prospectus may by amended or supplemented from time to time), or in materials approved by the Company for distribution including sales literature or other promotional materials, except with the written permission of the Company.
2.8 The Company shall amend the registration statement of the Contracts under the 1933 Act and registration statement for each Account under the 1940 Act from time to time as required in order to effect the continuous offering of the Contracts or as may otherwise be required by applicable law. The Company shall register and qualify the Contracts for sale to the extent required by applicable securities laws and insurance laws of the various states.
2.9 The Company shall be responsible for assuring that any prospectus offering a Contract that is a life insurance contract where it is reasonably probable that such Contract would be a "modified endowment contract," as that term is defined in Section 7702A of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended (the "Code"), will identify such Contract as a modified endowment contract (or policy).
2.10 Solely with respect to Contracts and Accounts that are subject to the 1940 Act, so long as, and to the extent that, the SEC interprets the 1940 Act to require pass-through voting privileges for variable policyowners: (a) the Company will provide pass-through voting privileges to owners of Contracts whose cash values are invested, through the Accounts, in Shares of the Fund; (b) the Fund shall require all Participating Insurance Companies to calculate voting privileges in the same manner and the Company shall be responsible for assuring that the Accounts calculate voting privileges in the manner established by the Fund; (c) with respect to each Account, the Company will vote Shares of the Fund held by the Account and for which no timely voting instructions from Contract or policyowners are received, as well as Shares held by the Account that are owned by the Company for its general account, in the same proportion as the Company votes-Shares held by the Account for which timely voting instructions are received from Contract owners; and (d) the Company and its agents will in no way recommend or oppose or interfere with the solicitation of proxies for Fund Shares held by Contract owners without the prior written consent of the Fund, which consent may be withheld in the Fund's sole discretion.
