How does Caring Transitions provide assistance during the operation of the franchised business?

During the operation of the franchised business, we will:

• (1) Provide you with assistance via telephone, email, office visits, and Web-based programs to the extent we deem necessary. (Franchise Agreement § 6.1).
• (2) Provide you with such other materials, information and assistance as we may deem necessary. (Franchise Agreement § 6.1).

Franchise System Meetings. We may hold regional and/or national meetings with our support personnel and franchisees to discuss sales techniques, service procedures, personnel issues, and marketing methods, and to introduce new management tools, marketing programs, and promotional items. (Franchise Agreement § 7.21). You must attend all meetings we designate as mandatory, which presently includes national meetings. We may charge reasonable registration fees for these meetings. Currently, the registration fee for the national meeting is approximately $650 per person. We will charge you the attendance fee if you do not attend a required meeting or if you register for any meeting and do not attend. All expenses, including travel and lodging, are your responsibility.

Office Visits. Although not required to do so by the franchise agreement, we may, in our discretion, visit your office from time to time in order to provide additional operational support. Presently we do not charge you a fee for such office visits, but we reserve the right to require you to reimburse us for the cost of our travel to your office and for related expenses. (Franchise Agreement § 7.19).

Web Site. Although we are not required to do so by the franchise agreement, we maintain a Web site to promote our franchisees' services and the sale of our franchises and to provide contact information for Caring Transitions locations. (Franchise Agreement § 11.9). We may include your franchise contact information on a separate page on our Web site paid for by the national branding fund and on which you would be required to keep your contact information current at all times. We also may provide you with a Web site that we may require you to use in connection with the franchised business; we would retain ownership of any such Web site and would reserve the right to modify, revise, or cancel the Web site at any time. You may not establish your own Web site, Web page, blog, advertisement, or link on or to the Internet (including social networking Web sites or services such as Facebook, Twitter, etc.) or other similar services using our trademarks or otherwise in connection with the franchised business, without our prior written consent. We will provide you with an e-mail address containing our domain name, which you are required to use for all electronic communications with us and for the franchised business.

Advertising Cooperatives. We may establish, change, dissolve, or merge local or regional marketing and advertising cooperatives in geographical areas with two or more Caring Transitions franchises. (Franchise Agreement § 11.11). Advertising cooperatives may be established for areas covered by advertising media relevant to particular geographic markets, Metropolitan or Micropolitan Statistical Areas, our industry or industry segment, or our advertising strategies, in our discretion. If we establish an advertising cooperative in an area, each franchise within the cooperative area must join and contribute to the cooperative each month. Your cooperative contribution will not be credited toward your national branding fee. Either we or the cooperative will determine the amount of your monthly contribution, but it cannot exceed 3% of your Gross Receipts unless a majority of the cooperative members agree on a higher contribution. The members of each cooperative will be responsible for its administration, subject to our approval. Each member of an advertising cooperative will have one vote per franchise. Each cooperative will operate from written governing documents and must prepare monthly financial statements, all of which will be available for its members' review. Each franchisor-owned location in an area in which an advertising cooperative has been established will contribute to the cooperative on the same basis as other members of that cooperative. As of the date of this disclosure document, we have not established any advertising cooperatives.

We will have independent access to information relating to the franchised business that will be generated and stored in your Computer System via the Internet and accounting applications described above. There are no other contractual limits on our right to access the information and data stored on your computer system. You are contractually required to upgrade or update your computer system if we require it during the term of the franchise. There are no contractual limitations on the frequency or cost of any update or upgrade. We are not obligated to provide or assist you in obtaining the computer system, although we will provide you with the name of one or more vendors from whom you may purchase the equipment.

You are required to use certain data management reporting software program(s). The cost is $600 for the first year, which is included in the table in Item 7 of this disclosure document.

Source: Item 11 — FRANCHISOR'S ASSISTANCE, ADVERTISING, COMPUTER SYSTEMS AND TRAINING (FDD pages 22–29)