Service is used to determine when you are eligible to participate in the Plan, the amount of the Company contributions, and when you are vested in your account.

A year of service is a 12-month period of service beginning on the first of the month in which you began working at Mercer HR Services or any of its affiliates such as Mercer, Putnam Investments (if you were employed by Mercer HR Services as of August 3, 2007) or Marsh & McLennan Companies, Inc. and the 12-month period beginning on each anniversary of that date. This twelve-month period is called your employment year. Generally, two or more periods of service together may add up to 12 months. Also, if you leave salaried employment and are rehired as a salaried employee within 12 months, you will receive credit for your period of absence.

If you transfer to hourly employment, you will be credited with a year of service for any employment year in which you complete 1,000 hours of service. For this purpose you will be credited with 190 hours of service for any month in which you worked as a salaried employee during an employment year in which you transfer between salaried and hourly employment. You will earn one hour of service for each hour worked for any month in which you worked solely as an hourly employee.

If you are an hourly employee and then transfer to salaried status, you will be credited with a year of service for the year of the transfer if you earn at least 1,000 hours of service in the employment year. Thereafter, you will earn a year of service for each employment year during which you remain a salaried employee.

You may also in other circumstances be eligible for service credit for service prior to the time you became an eligible salaried employee under the Plan if you were initially hired by the Company as an hourly (or, solely for the purposes of determining eligibility and vesting service under the Plan as a leased employee) and you subsequently become a salaried employee.

If you are or were a participant in the Putnam Retirement Plan, the MMC 401(k) Savings & Investment Plan, or the MMC Retirement Plan, you will be credited with service under the Plan for periods before you became a Plan participant equal to the years and partial years of vesting service that were credited to you under the plan(s) in which you are or were a participant.

If you terminate from salaried employment and are rehired as a salaried employee within 12 months, you will receive service credit for your period of absence (your prior service will be restored to you). If you terminate from hourly employment, and are rehired, you will not receive credit for any period of absence.

If you are absent for military service or other uniformed service covered by the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act (USERRA), and you return to work within the period required by USERRA, then your period of absence for such military service will be counted as service for all purposes under the Plan. If you are on an approved leave of absence (other than for military service or disability) that is more than 12 months in duration, you will not be credited with service after the first 12 months of the leave.