The Municipal Division of George K. Baum & Company comprises four main departments:

• Public Finance Department

George K. Baum & Company's public finance professionals provide investment banking services to municipalities, state governments, colleges and universities, special districts, hospitals, and other issuers of taxable and tax-exempt municipal securities.

The firm's Public Finance Department employs public finance bankers, quantitative analysts, credit analysts, bond election professionals and communications specialists, as well as a large support staff. We maintain 17 public finance offices in cities coast to coast and have done work for clients in almost every state in the nation.

George K. Baum & Company focuses on a number of sectors, including housing (single and multifamily), higher education, independent schools, k-12 education, transportation, utilities, healthcare and stadiums/recreation. Our Specialty Finance Groups are made up of professionals offering specialized expertise in each of these focus industries.

• Underwriting / Syndication Department

With a reputation for strong pricing performance and a track record for execution in difficult markets, George K. Baum & Company has established itself as a proven leader in underwriting municipal securities.

Our Underwriting/Syndication Department is responsible for pricing new issues, developing syndicates to distribute new negotiated issues, and forming syndicates to purchase competitive issues. We employ some of the industry's most experienced and skilled underwriting/syndicate specialists who, unlike our competitors, spend considerable time educating investors about the issues we underwrite. These efforts are particularly important when our firm is offering complex financings.

• Sales and Trading Department

George K. Baum & Company maintains trading desks in Denver and Kansas City, and sales offices in Boston, Denver, Kansas City and Philadelphia. Our institutional salespeople and traders focus exclusively on the distribution of taxable and tax-exempt municipal securities. They serve all levels of investors, including bond funds, insurance companies, investment advisers, trust departments, commercial banks, corporations and retail investors.

In addition to playing a critical role in the new issues our firm underwrites, our sales and trading professionals also play an important role in providing secondary market liquidity to investors. In the past 10 years (1996-2005), George K. Baum & Company has traded more than $38 billion of municipal securities in the secondary market.

• Research Department

George K. Baum & Company's Financial & Economic Research Department is one of the most progressive in the municipal finance industry. Professionals within the department work closely with our public finance bankers to develop comprehensive credit rating strategies and presentations, credit reports, salient features documents and post-sale pricing documents. They also collaborate with the firm's sales and trading professionals to perform portfolio credit reviews and to maintain the firm's proprietary performance trading model.