GBU Life Content & Grammar Guidelines

GBU Financial Life Custom Stylebook 501(c)(3) Always use parenthesis for the "c" and "3."

AM/PM Rule All dates/times in written GBU literature should be formatted as H:MM AM or H:MM PM. Written out, looks like ... 11 AM and 12:30 PM.

Capital convention for GBU program names.

Capitalize the company and program names, but do not capitalize the program type.

For example: G<--BU Y<--outh L<--eaders p<--rogram.

Capitalizations for job titles If a title follows a person's name, it should be lowercase. However, if the title precedes the person's name or includes a proper noun (e.g., a geographical location), it should be capitalized.

Capitalize Bullets in a List Following a Colon Example: The types of personal information we collect and share depend on the product or service you have with us. This information can include the following information: • S<--ocial Security Number and name, address and date of birth • A<--ssets and income • W<--ire transfer instructions and financial information

Commas between adjectives and adverbs Use a comma to separate adjectives or adverbs that modify the same word. Modifiers that reference the same word need commas separating them if there are two or more and if you could sensibly put the word "and" between them. "It's a tall,<-- impressive building." "The unusual,<-- heavy box was strangely shaped."

Community Grant Awards The GBU Foundation Community Grant (singular) Awards.

Dates Formatting If a date has already occurred (in the past), it does not need the day of the week included. For example, if Monday, September 30, 2024, has already passed at the time of writing, you can simply list it as "September 30, 2024."

District Names Formatting According to Scribendi and moving forward, whenever we write out a GBU district name, please use the "em" dash (alt + 0151) with spaces before and after the dash.

Example: "District 45 — Altoona, Pennsylvania"

Eliminate spaces before and after en dashes but keep for em dashes It is normal practice for hyphens (en dash) not to have spaces before or after them (example: self-explanatory wording). Dashes are a great way to break up a sentence. It is the preference of the company and the powers-that-be to remove spacing before and after when using "en" dashes but keeping them for "em" dashes in written works. (i.e., text-more text vs. text – more text).

Ellipsis ... (Rules) Add a space before and after each ellipsis ( ... )

ET, PT, CT, etc. - Timezones The correct way to list the time zone is “ET” not “EST.”

Fixed Index Annuity (FIA) Approved Definitions *NOTE* as of 9/12/24, this information may have changed. Please seek information from the product marketing/customer experience team before proceeding.

Participation (Par) rate: this is the percentage that the account will earn at the end of the term (either annually or biennially) Fixed Interest Rate: This is the interest rate on the fixed interest strategy option.

This was previously referred to as the declared interest rate. If you come across declared interest rate in any materials, it should be changed. This may also be mentioned as Fixed Interest Rate strategy or a fixed interest rate option. If you see

fixed interest rate account anywhere, please bring it to my attention as we are not supposed to refer to it as an account.

Booster fee: this is also referred to as the Enhanced Participation Rate fee and the Contract fee. We should use “Booster fee” in all materials to describe this feature.

However, please note the technical name of the rider that allows for the booster fee option is called the Enhanced Participation Rider and the booster fee is referred to as a contract fee in the disclosure and contract.

Selling features: The selling features are listed in their preferred order on the product sheets. If we are listing selling features, we should always list them in that order.

Font Family Discrepancy Rule For articles in The Reporter, we can use any fonts for the articles. However, for stand-alone pieces, we need to stick to specific guidelines. For design pieces, we use Raleway for headers and Roboto for body text. For all other files, forms and fillable fields formatted by IT, we use Verdana for headers and Arial for body text.

Fraternals It is okay to use the word “fraternals” for internal or industry (fraternal industry) specific documents or presentations but preferable to say, "fraternal organization" or "fraternal industry." “Fraternal” should not be capitalized unless it is the first word in a sentence or part of an organization’s name.

GBU Address Always list as: GBU Life or GBU Financial Life or The GBU Foundation 4254 Saw Mill Run Blvd.

Pittsburgh, PA 15227

GBU Insured Member or Social Member Avoid saying "Fully Insured" when talking about a life insurance or member with an annuity as it implies that they are covered in insurance other than life insurance.

GBU Life.

GBU Life is how the company name should be displayed at all times. GBU cannot stand alone without “Life” following it. This goes for body copy, disclosures, etc.

GBU Life Member Community This styling for anytime we reference our online member community.

GBU member or membership.

Always lowercase 'member' when referring to our 'GBU members.' The same applies to 'districts' when referring to GBU districts without a specific district number. However, if a district number is included, 'District' should be capitalized.

GBU/our Society Bill Hunt's preference to capitalize (but only when referencing our Society and not "society" as a whole).

GBU's four Community Pillars — Wellness, Education, Charitable Giving and Hometown Hero Support Formatted like this anywhere we talk about it.

GBU Youth Leaders program Program is not part of the official "program" name for GBU Youth Leaders; therefore, it is to be lowercased whenever listing "GBU Youth Leaders program."

Home Office Board of Directors requested to capitalize.

Italicize tangible names of a piece of content.

The only thing we italicize are titles of tangible books/publications, blog posts, videos really anything that is a piece of content that you can hold in your hands. We do not italicize the names of intangible titles such as program or product names.

Job Titles

Approved job titles to use in all marketing pieces: Chief Executive Officer — William W. Hunt Sr. VP/Chief Financial Officer — Mark Cloutier Sr. VP/Chief Operating Officer — Wil Lombardi Sr. VP/Chief Marketing Officer — Lesley B. Mann Sr. VP of Administration — Deborah Morgan AVP of Compliance and Human Resources — Antoinette Blair Continue the list...

Log into vs. log in to "In" and "to" should be written as two separate words (i.e., "Log in to the GBU Life Member Community")

Oxford commas Remove in GBU materials when listing (i.e., this, that[x]and the other thing).

Re: Document Headlines Lesley has requested that all official documents have headlines and other section titles always as sentence-case capitalization. Reference Convert Case | Convert upper case to lower case, lower case to upper case and more! for an easy way to check if your titles are title case.

Registered trademarks "®" It only needs used one time in our copy, preferably in a header or toward introductory content. Leave it out on all subsequent references to the mark.

Rule for URLs Always bold format URLs in all of our pieces. (i.e., gbu.org).

Seasons should be lowercased. (i.e., spring 2023)

Spacing after headings and subheads ALWAYS have LESS spacing after headings and subheads than before them. This ties the heading/subheading into the text below it.

The GBU Foundation At Lesley's request, we should include the word 'the' before 'GBU Foundation' whenever we mention it. 'The' does not need to be capitalized unless it is at the beginning of a sentence.

The GBU Foundation Scholarships and Grants All capitalized when listed together.

VIP Perks! by Entertainment® Approved formatting when referencing this program.