Press Releases

Eaton Vance Selects IWF Workstation for Investment Counsel Group

Software gives firm's Investment Counsel Group a powerful tool for including a client's corporate practices guidelines in selecting securities for managed accounts

PORTLAND, Maine, August 3, 2004 — Eaton Vance Management (EVM), a subsidiary of Eaton Vance Corp. (NYSE: EV), has selected IW Financial's IWF Workstation to give its Investment Counsel Group the ability to include client-specified corporate practice guidelines in constructing investment portfolios, it was announced today. Eaton Vance Corp. is a leading asset management firm with approximately $88 billion in assets under management. The Investment Counsel Group provides comprehensive wealth management solutions to high-net-worth individuals and families, and oversees approximately $3.5 billion in such client assets.  

"More and more investors are interested in taking advantage of some form of screening for corporate practices and social concerns as they construct their portfolios," said G. West Saltonstall, vice president and director of the Investment Counsel Group. "With the IWF Workstation, we enhance our ability to meet the individual requirements of our clients in a very efficient, cost-effective manner. We view this as a great tool for further personalizing our portfolios."

The IWF Workstation represents the next stage in implementing investment strategies that take into account the performance impact of corporate practices, providing asset managers with a dynamic tool for evaluating companies and analyzing the interaction between corporate behavior and financial returns. The software allows users to screen in or screen out companies and sectors based on a range of characteristics that includes environmental policies, animal testing, human rights, labor relations, alcohol, gambling, contraceptives, tobacco, and board issues.  

The Workstation combines research on corporate practices and emerging risk factors with client-specified investment guidelines to help advisors evaluate the investment suitability of more than 2,000 publicly-traded equity securities. Portfolio managers can quickly and easily access new information that falls outside of traditional financial analysis, including narrative commentary on a company's practices. With this information at hand, the manager is positioned to identify investment opportunities and build portfolios, while closely adhering to all applicable investment guidelines.    

"There is a growing body of evidence that corporate practices have a direct impact on long-term shareholder value," said Sam Pierce, chief executive officer at IW Financial. "Our software gives users the ability to both include and exclude companies based on client preferences, creating the kind of highly individualized portfolios that high-net-worth investors in particular have come to expect."

Pierce noted that an increasingly large pool of professionally managed assets is subject to some kind of screening based on a wide range of corporate practices. From 1995 to 2003, assets in this category grew by more than 240 percent to $2.16 trillion, according to a report published in 2003 by the Social Investment Forum.    

About IW Financial
Founded in 2000, IW Financial is a leading provider of technology solutions that enable financial professionals to manage risk, differentiate their services, and strengthen relationships with clients. IW Financial's proprietary technology eliminates the perceived conflict between investors' ethical standards and portfolio returns by making it easy to incorporate important non-financial criteria into the investment process. IW Financial offers its software to the market through the IWF Workstation, designed for money management professionals, and the IWF Advisor, created for financial advisors and broker/dealer networks.

IW Financial is based in Portland, Maine. For more information, visit www.iwfinancial.com.

About Eaton Vance Corp.
Eaton Vance Corp. is a Boston-based investment management firm whose stock trades on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol EV.  Eaton Vance and its affiliates managed $88.1 billion in assets on June 30, 2004, for more than 100 investment companies as well as individual and institutional accounts, including those of corporations, hospitals, retirement plans, universities, foundations and trusts.

Dan Porter
VP of Marketing
IW Financial
207-773-2333

Mike MacMillan or
Elizabeth Rumble
MacMillan Communications
212-473-4442
info@macmillancom.com