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Technology Stocks : CheckFree Holdings Corp. (CKFR), the next Dell, Intel? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: StocksMan who wrote (20224)	4/12/2004 1:20:09 PM
From: StocksMan	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 20297

CheckFree Investment Services and Placemark Investments Launch New Unified Managed Account Offering Monday April 12, 12:24 pm ET Firms Form a Partnership to Offer Next Generation Unified Managed Account Capabilities to Separate Account Program Sponsors BOSTON and JERSEY CITY, N.J., April 12 /PRNewswire/ -- Placemark Investments today announced a strategic marketing relationship with CheckFree Investment Services, a division of CheckFree Corporation (Nasdaq: CKFR - News). Under the relationship, CheckFree will offer Placemark's Overlay Portfolio Management (OPM) services to CheckFree's new and existing CheckFree APL clients as a means to enable next generation open architecture Unified Managed Account (UMA) products. Placemark and CheckFree will also jointly develop a more tightly integrated interface between Placemark's overlay portfolio management system and CheckFree's MSP accounting system to deliver greater operational efficiencies and product capabilities to sponsors. Working with Checkfree and Placemark, sponsors will be able to easily implement UMA products that incorporate multiple unaffiliated separate account managers, mutual funds, ETFs, and other registered products to deliver a complete custom asset allocation that considers tax situations and risk tolerances unique to each client. CheckFree and Placemark have already partnered together on multiple successful UMA implementations. As an overlay portfolio manager, Placemark works with program sponsors to create and run UMA programs. Placemark's OPM offering incorporates a wide range of services including product development, manager recruiting and integration, and ongoing discretionary investment management services. Placemark utilizes the portfolio accounting, trade and custody system interfaces provided by CheckFree APL, and employed by sponsors, to administer their separate account programs. "We rely on the systems infrastructure of program sponsors to deliver these next generation products, and CheckFree's MSP module is the leading system our clients use for these services," said Lee Chertavian, chairman and chief executive officer of Placemark Investments. "They've already solved many of the operational and technology integration problems inherent in offering open-architecture UMA products, and working together we will be able to deliver unparalleled efficiencies and product capabilities in the future." Through 2004, CheckFree and Placemark anticipate jointly developing increased functionality in their product offerings, including greater automation of cash management, reduction of the numbers and types of reconciliations between Placemark's and CheckFree's systems, and the automatic execution of certain CheckFree APL functions by Placemark, previously performed by program sponsors. These product innovations will allow both firms to reduce the operating costs that program sponsors could incur in administering open architecture UMA programs, while also enabling all of the tax and risk customization capabilities inherent in Placemark's overlay portfolio management process. "We've always been impressed by Placemark's overlay management capabilities, and feel that improved integration between both systems will enable our clients to unlock the potential these next generation products have to offer program sponsors, their advisors and clients," stated Alex Marasco, executive vice president and general manager of CheckFree Investment Services. CheckFree and Placemark already have three major separate account program sponsors signed up under the new relationship, and anticipate rolling out new open architecture UMA programs to several additional sponsors starting in the summer of 2004. The first version of the integrated service offering was rolled out in late 2002, and has successfully been used to deliver open architecture UMA programs to multiple financial institutions, leveraging over 60 model portfolios provided by more than 35 investment managers. These customers and future customers of the partnership will be beneficiaries of the ongoing investments made by CheckFree and Placemark in the integration of their systems. Placemark is incorporating over 40 new styles and investment management firms into their investment process based on the needs of specific program sponsors, and anticipates developing additional money manager relationships for program sponsors as new programs are launched throughout 2004. Program sponsors that work with CheckFree and Placemark on the development of new UMA programs have complete control over the asset allocations, product mixes, product features, and participating investment managers within their own UMA program. . . biz.yahoo.com