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Press ReleasesWestfield Capital Management Adds Governance Capabilities to Investing WorkstationIW Financial's Workstation is first to seamlessly integrate corporate practices and governance data for efficient use by investment professionals PORTLAND, Maine, February 16, 2006 — Westfield Capital Management has added corporate governance to its existing IW Financial Workstation applications, the firm announced today. First introduced in the fourth quarter of 2005, IW Financial's Governance Workstation uses data provided by The Corporate Library to provide investment managers with the ability to quickly evaluate governance practices as part of the investment decision making process. Westfield Capital is a current user of IW Financial's Corporate Practices Workstation, which gives investment managers the ability to include client-specified guidelines on corporate practices and social concerns in constructing discretionary investment portfolios. "The IWF Workstations gives us the flexibility to accommodate a diverse client base with a wide range of social and suitability as well as governance concerns," stated Kimberly Clark, assistant vice president at Westfield. Clark noted that a significant number of the firm's clients currently place some type of restrictions on portfolio holdings, based on social, ethical, environmental or other suitability concerns. "More and more investors want to be comfortable with the stocks they own in their portfolios, and they are looking for this screening capability from the asset managers they select. We view the IWF Workstation as giving us an information advantage in screening portfolio holdings for these clients." Governance features include more than 50 data points "The last few years have demonstrated very plainly that poor governance practices can be costly," stated Sam Pierce, chief executive officer at IW Financial, in making the announcement. "Environmental and social concerns are also hitting the radar screen as potential risk factors for many investors. By integrating the delivery of these two functions, we give the portfolio manager a highly efficient way to screen for potential issues." Governance features available on the IWF Workstation platform include more than 50 data points across nine categories including board independence, CEO compensation, auditing practices, and shareholder rights. The applications unique ability to generate comparative ratings based on user or client defined criteria allows asset managers to quickly examine corporate governance issues using a single standard based on "expert" opinion or from multiple user-defined perspectives. IW Financial's Workstation platform represents a new stage in implementing investment strategies that integrate corporate practices and corporate governance. On the corporate practices side, IW Financial's applications allows users to identify investments that are aligned with client concerns about a range of characteristics that includes environmental policies, animal testing, human rights, labor relations, alcohol, gambling, contraceptives, tobacco, and adult entertainment issues, without limiting a manager's ability to deliver favorable returns. The Workstation combines research on these 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. About IW Financial ###
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  Dan Porter Mike MacMillan or |
©2008 IW Financial - All rights reserved.
IW Financial software is protected by U.S. software patent number 7,003,503.
Other patent applications are pending.