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'Ware It's At'

Software can help you handle clients and investments more efficiently. Browse Registered Representative's annual technology guide for programs that contact, plan, analyze and manage.CONTACT MANAGEMENT PROGRAMS* Bill Good Marketing 801/572-1480, 800/678-1480 www.billgood.comGorilla for Windows 9,400 dollars for single user 13,400 dollars for two-broker networkGorilla for Windows is a marketing and

Software can help you handle clients and investments more efficiently. Browse Registered Representative's annual technology guide for programs that contact, plan, analyze and manage.

CONTACT MANAGEMENT PROGRAMS

* Bill Good Marketing 801/572-1480, 800/678-1480 www.billgood.com

Gorilla for Windows 9,400 dollars for single user 13,400 dollars for two-broker network

Gorilla for Windows is a marketing and office-management system with an assortment of prospecting and seminar campaigns, and more than 40 client letters. The referral-tracking system logs referrals given and received from other professionals. Office management materials include organization charts, job descriptions, schedules, hiring questionnaires, confidentiality agreements, pay scales and staff training materials.

* E-Z Data 626/585-3505, 800/777-9188 www.ez-data.com

Client Data System for Windows 699 dollars for single user, plus 360 dollars/year 1,499 dollars for network version, plus 675 dollars/year

Client Data System for Windows is a contact manager with customizable fields, time-management functions, an automatically updated notepad, insurance-policy tracking and a variety of reports. Its word processor interfaces with Microsoft Word. Optional modules include new business for activity reports (199 dollars); investment with eight report options (399dollars); mobile merge for portability (299 dollars); Palm Pilot interface (99 dollars); and transaction download to track portfolios (399 dollars, plus 360 dollars annual service fee).

* FDP Corp. 305/858-8200, 800/337-2677 www.fdpcorp.com

Contact Partner 2000 995 dollars for single user, plus 300 dollars/year 500 dollars for each additional user, plus 150dollars/year

Geared to life insurance and employee benefits professionals, Contact Partner 2000 has a relational database with customizable fields and screens, unlimited notepad entries, referral tracking and filters for marketing campaigns. Lead lists can be imported. It includes more than 80 customizable letters and reports with color graphics. Optional modules include Palm Pilot link (119 dollars), commission tracking (255 dollars) and DST Internet downloads (900 dollars).

* Financial Planning Consultants 513/424-1656, 800/666-1656 www.financialsoftware.com

Text Library System 795 dollars for single user 1,295 dollars for network version

Text Library System is a client- and practice-management program that has a comprehensive planning checklist, more than 1,000 financial articles and 176 client letters. It tracks client mailings; features preformatted interview notes; and offers practice management materials including forms, checklists, fee schedules and operations documents. Optional modules are drip marketing (600 dollars), seminar marketing (399 dollars), compliance (525 dollars), business records (99 dollars) and business planning (250 dollars).

* National Datamax 858/673-3300, 888/673-4180 www.nationaldatamax.com

Client/Asset Management System 1,299 dollars for single user, plus 250 dollars/year 1,899 dollars for two to five users, plus 400 dollars/year

Client/Asset Management System provides an appointment, to-do and callback scheduler, a mail-merge function, and a notepad with archiving. Presentation-quality graphic reports include portfolio monitoring, asset allocation, client position detail, performance summary, investment income and transactions. The program tracks insurance policies and generates reports on commissions, maturity and expiration of investment products.

* North American Software 513/793-2240 www.nasoftware.com

Sales Professional's Helper 345 dollars for desktop version, plus 72 dollars/year (optional) 175 dollars for additional licenses

Sales Professional's Helper is the first tier of a four-tier portfolio-management system. The contact manager features customizable fields and a relational database that stores contact histories. It displays calendar and to-do lists, and sounds automatic alerts for appointments. For target marketing, contacts can be screened on custom criteria to produce prospecting lists. It's also available in a new, browser-based version called Sales Professional's Helper.Com for 445 dollars, plus 225 dollars for additional licenses.

* Scherrer Resources 215/542-5710 www.brokersally.com

Broker's Ally 395 dollars for Standard Level, plus 150 dollars/year 695 dollars for Gold Level, plus 180 dollars/year 995 dollars for Portfolio Management Level, plus 220 dollars/year 1,495 dollars for Advanced Portfolio Management Level, plus 260 dollars/year

Broker's Ally is available in four levels. Standard Level is a contact manager with customizable fields, word processor, posting book, calendar functions, campaign lists for target marketing and mail-merge capabilities. Gold Level provides a custom report generator, ASCII data loading, sales tracking system, more than 100 sales scripts and 20 prospecting letters. Portfolio Management Level adds portfolio valuation reports, portfolio size ranking, largest positions ranking and transition detail reporting. Advanced Portfolio Management Level offers multicurrency features for international portfolios, and performance reports for three-, five- and 10-year growth.

* Springwater Software 315/656-4634, 800/354-1548 www.springwatersoftware.com

Peak98 300 dollars, plus 95 dollars/year 65 dollars for additional users

Developed in Microsoft's Access97, Peak98 is a contact- and portfolio-management system. The contact manager displays the client's investments and can automatically call the client, print a letter and envelope or send an e-mail. Portfolio reports include pie charts, internal rate of return, position, basis and realized gains. It also features automatic data downloads from DST, Schwab and others.

FINANCIAL PLANNING PROGRAMS

* Blaze SSI Corp. 732/223-5575 www.blazessi.com

Distribution Planner 500 dollars/workstation, plus 250 dollars/year

Distribution Planner educates clients about the income and tax consequences of retirement planning options. Its features include reports on IRS minimum distributions, federal tax implications, value payouts and alternative retirement benefit forms. Reports illustrate distribution requirements, payment options and tax implications for user-selected income distribution types.

* Brentmark Software 407/306-6160, 800/879-6665 www.brentmark.com

Charitable Financial Planner 349 dollars, plus 99 dollars/year

Charitable Financial Planner handles split-interest charitable transfers such as charitable remainder trusts, lead unitrusts, annuity trusts, farm/residence remainders, pooled income funds and gift annuities.

Estate Planning QuickView 249 dollars, plus 59 dollars/year

Estate Planning Quick View presents a comparison of eight major disposition plans for each spouse. QuickView quickly finds which estate planning strategy provides the most for clients and their families.

Estate Planning Tools 349 dollars, plus 99 dollars/year

Estate Planning Tools offers more than 50 different models in eight areas. Most of the models include presentation graphics.

Investment Scenario Generator 299 dollars

Investment Scenario Generator calculates the optimum balance between fixed-rate investments for income and investments in stocks for growth. The methodology results in an individualized approach to retirement planning.

IRS Factors Calculator 99 dollars, updates priced when released

IRS Factors Calculator figures the values of annuities, life estates and remainders, and replaces the IRS' Alpha and Aleph volumes.

Minimum Distributions Calculator 49 dollars

Minimum Distributions Calculator handles required minimum distribution rules.

Pension and Roth IRA Analyzer 449 dollars, plus 129 dollars/year

The Pension and Roth IRA Analyzer evaluates various strategies of taking distributions from traditional IRAs, Roth IRAs and qualified pension plans. It can calculate up to four alternatives simultaneously for varying types of distributions.Pension Distribution Calculator149 dollars Pension Distribu tion Calculator handles required minimum distribution rules in detail, including the hybrid method.

PFP Notebook 695 dollars, plus 199 dollars/year

PFP Notebook takes a real world approach to personal financial planning. It uses a step-by-step modular system to address areas such as risk management, investments, education funding, estate planning and income tax.

Roth IRA Conversion Analyzer 249 dollars plus 99 dollars/year

Roth IRA Conversion Analyzer focuses on Roth IRA conversions (1998 or later years). The analyzer handles any type or required minimum distributions (with life expectancy methods of automatic refiguring, term certain or hybrid) for ordinary IRAs.

Roth IRA Conversion Calculator 49 dollars

Roth IRA Conversion Calculator handles conversions from traditional to a Roth IRA.

* Cheshire Software 800/734-6734 www.cheshire.com

Financial Planning Suite 1,799 dollars, plus 600 dollars/year The suite includes all of the following seven programs.

Asset Allocation Planner 399 dollars, plus 120 dollars/year

Asset Allocation Planner allows a rep to examine a client's current and proposed investment portfolio to determine an optimal asset mix. Planner contains a risk tolerance questionnaire, historical data for seven asset categories and efficient frontier curves for several time periods.

Distribution Planner 299 dollars, plus 90 dollars/year

Distribution Planner compares distribution options from qualified accounts to help determine the best strategy for the client. It compares taxation options for a lump-sum distribution, including rollover, ordinary income, five-year and 10-year forward averaging. It illustrates account balances and payouts on a year-by-year basis.

Education Planner 199 dollars, plus 60 dollars/year

Education Planner determines how much money your clients will need to save for college. It features a database of tuition costs at 300 colleges, tuition inflation rates and can accommodate up to six children per plan.

Estate and Trust Planner 499 dollars, plus 150 dollars/year

Estate and Trust Planner aids in developing tax-reduction strategies for clients through gifting, trusts and life insurance. It illustrates common estate planning trusts including marital, credit shelter, QTIP and life insurance. It features separate inputs for client, spouse and joint accounts. Assets can be broken down into 13 categories.

Life Insurance and Disability Planner 499 dollars, plus 150 dollars/year

Life Insurance and Disability Planner assesses the life insurance needs of clients. It has the capability to analyze survivor income needs including mortgage, education and expenses. It can incorporate income from Social Security, pensions and retirement accounts as well as determine future tax liability.

Net Worth and Cash Flow Planner 199 dollars, plus 60 dollars/year

Net Worth and Cash Flow Planner determines if a client has positive or negative cash flow and evaluates a client's financial condition. It can recalculate net worth based on current security prices.

Retirement Planner 499 dollars, plus 150 dollars/year

Retirement Planner is for all stages of retirement planning from the accumulation of assets to wealth maximization in retirement. It takes into account investments, projected investment contributions, pensions, Social Security, cash flows, expenses, IRAs annuities and rates of return. It can also calculate minimum distributions or automatically calculate federal tax liability.

* Emerging Information Systems 204/943-3474 www.naviplan.com

NaviPlan Extended and Standard 1,295 dollars, purchased together NaviPlan Extended 1,000 dollars

NaviPlan Extended is a cash-flow-based financial planning program that takes into consideration interaction among income, liabilities, taxation and asset allocation. NaviPlan Extended provides current financial needs analysis, retirement planning, estate planning, education funding, detailed tax planning and insurance needs analysis.

NaviPlan Standard 500 dollars

NaviPlan Standard is a goal-based planning tool that provides current financial needs analysis, retirement planning, estate planning, education funding, insurance needs and basic tax planning.

* FDP Corp. 305/858-8200, 800/337-2677 www.fdpcorp.com

Finpack 2000 595 dollars, plus 195 dollars/year 300 dollars each additional user, plus 65 dollars/year

Finpack 2000 analyzes and illustrates a client's need for life, disability and equity products. The system features needs analysis, financial statements, estate planning and financial calculations utilities. It also offers Internet access, a comprehensive support library and presentation graphics. The integrated system allows users to switch between financial and estate plans without re-entering client information.

* Financeware 877/566-4786 www.aasim.com

AASim (Asset Allocation Simulation Software) 495 dollars, plus 250 dollars/year

AASim allows financial advisers to create, customize and test financial plans for their clients. The software uses "Monte Carlo" simulation, a forecasting method that utilizes random numbers to model market and life-span uncertainty. AASim helps in the selection of a strategic investment mix by illustrating both return and risk while measuring the probability of meeting an investment objective.

* Financial Planning Consultants 513/424-1656, 800/666-1656 www.financialsoftware.com

ProPlan 795 dollars, plus 95 dollars/month 1,295 dollars for network version

ProPlan is a comprehensive planning program that shows from four to 10 years of detailed cash flow, tax and net worth for clients. Features include investment planning, education funding, retirement plan projections, estate liquidity analysis and survivor income planning among others. The cost includes a three-day training session for two people.

* Financial Profiles 800/237-6335 www.profiles.com

Profiles+ 1,195 dollars, plus 700 dollars/year

Profiles+ includes the financial profiles system, the business profiles system, an operator's manual, a sales guide, 10 Profiles+ comprehensive fact finders, 10 financial profiles pocket brochures, a presentation binder and multimedia training guide. A 60 dollar preview version includes most Profiles+ material for a 60-day trial.

First Financial Software 800/719-8761 www.fplan.com

FPLAN Professional Advisor+ 395 dollars, plus 10 dollars/month

FPLAN Professional Advisor+ has two retirement modules: pre-retirement and post-retirement. The program is both modular and integrated with a questionnaire for each module. Core modules include net worth, life insurance, estate liquidity analysis, education funding and more. Specialty modules include long-term care analysis and an IRA conversion calculator among others.

Quick-Pro 95 dollars

Quick-Pro is a planning tool designed for quick, basic analysis. This software includes eight integrated modules and downloadable updates from the Internet and e-mail technical support.

* Frontier Analytics 858/552-1268 www.frontieranalytics.com

AllocationMaster 495 dollars, plus 99 dollars/quarter

Allocation Master helps an adviser develop a portfolio for clients. It includes client risk profiling, portfolio optimization, financial forecasting, implementation planning and rebalancing analysis.

FactMaster 395 dollars, plus 99 dollars/quarter

FactMaster provides tools to generate hypothetical model portfolios, as well as analyze historical performance, investment style and investment suitability. It produces graphics and professional-looking reports.

* Harvest-Time 800/397-1456 www.retirementplanning.com

Harvest-Time 695 dollars, plus 250 dollars/year

Harvest-Time is an illustrative tool that calculates cash flow in retirement and automatically shows tax bracket changes.

* Ibbotson Associates 800/758-3557 www.ibbotson.com

EnCorr Allocator 1,500 dollars, plus 1,000 dollars/year

EnCorr Allocator helps brokers implement target allocation with managers and benchmarks; determine the mix of mutual funds or managers that closely replicates a given benchmark; and incorporate factors such as minimum investment needed to enter a fund.

EnCorr Analyzer 2,000 dollars, plus 1,250 dollars/year

EnCorr Analyzer enables brokers to build asset allocation strategies in order to analyze historical capital markets, money managers and mutual fund data.

EnCorr Attribution 7,000 dollars, plus 4,500 dollars/year

EnCorr Attribution enables brokers to monitor funds, managers and portfolio decisions; evaluate a money manager's style over time; view managers' historical averages; and rank performance against competitors.

Ibbotson Fund Strategist 600 dollars, plus 600 dollars/year

Ibbotson Fund Strategist determines a mutual fund's behavior compared with its stated objective for more than 5,000 of the largest U.S. mutual funds using returns-based style analysis. It includes descriptive tables and graphs highlighting the fund's style and performance over time in a one-page fund fact sheet.

Ibbotson Portfolio Strategist 1,050 dollars, plus 800 dollars/year

Ibbotson Portfolio Strategist helps determine the asset mix that offers the best chance of achieving the highest return for a given risk level. The program evaluates investor behavior using Ibbotson's risk-tolerance questionnaire and considers client's needs and objectives, constraints and tax situations.

* Investment Technologies 212/724-7535 www.invest-tech.com

The Expert Allocator for Windows 4,000 dollars/year

The Expert Allocator for Windows is an asset allocation program that determines and measures portfolio risk and return, and correlations of past performances.

The Expert Performance Analyst 2,000 dollars/year

The Expert Performance Analyst graphically measures portfolio risk for skewed return distributions and compares results with downside risk analysis.

The Expert Portfolio Advisor Price determined by various needs

The Expert Portfolio Advisor is an Internet-delivered asset allocation program for participants of 401(k) plans. Program capabilities include asset forecasts, asset advice and a risk-assessment instrument.

* Kettley Publishing Co. 800/777-3162 www.kettley.com

Back Room Technician 239 dollars, plus 95 dollars/year

Back Room Technician provides brokers with a library of 440 reports covering concepts related to estate, retirement, business, charitable and financial planning.

Back Room Technician Live! 299 dollars, plus 110 dollars/year

Back Room Technician Live! is an enhancement to Back Room Technician that features 28 calculators, such as projected costs of education, net-worth statements, cash-flow statements, future value, present value and taxable portion of Social Security.

Business Quick-Plan 229 dollars

Business Quick-Plan enables brokers to input finances over a five-year period and demonstrate the commonly accepted methods of valuing a business.

Charitable Quick-Plan 199 dollars

Charitable Quick-Plan demonstrates the six common charitable strategies with charts. The strategies are CLATs, CLUTs, CRATs, CRUTs, charitable gift annuities and pooled income funds.

Estate Cost Estimator 229 dollars

Estate Cost Estimator presents the estate in a current versus proposed scenario. This enables a broker to create a balance sheet of individual assets, growth rates, ownership and liabilities.

Estate Quick-Plan 179 dollars

Estate Quick-Plan is a presentation tool designed to demonstrate a client's estate tax problems. The program illustrates several methods of settling estates such as liquidating assets, selling investments and using insurance.

Retirement Quick-Plan 179 dollars

Retirement Quick-Plan illustrates the advantages of cash-value life insurance as a supplement to traditional accumulation strategies. It compares a life insurance proposal with up to four alternatives.

* Leimberg & LeClair 610/527-5216 www.leimberg.com

Financial Analyzer II 99 dollars, plus 29 dollars/year

Financial Analyzer II, which will be available during the second quarter of this year, is a financial planning calculator that does more than 50 essential financial computations in order to solve a client's investment, finance or mortgage problems.

NumberCruncher 349 dollars, plus 99 dollars/year

NumberCruncher is a financial planning tool that computes and gives brokers more than 50 instant illustrations of private annuities, charitable remainder and lead trusts, GRATs, QPRTs, and other estate and financial planning concepts.

QuickView 249 dollars, plus 59 dollars/year

QuickView is an estate planning program with flow charts and graph-based software that instantly illustrates what dispositive strategy can reduce taxes to the lowest possible amount and provide the highest amount for heirs.

* LifeGoals.com Corp. 503/885-0200, 888/326-0006 www.lifegoals.com

LGX Financial Planning Software 795 dollars, plus 44 dollars/month

LGX Financial Planning Software enables brokers to dial up or dial down the complexity of a plan. Clients view dynamic graphs that change in real time as variables are adjusted. Exactness is achieved by the asset-based projection of each asset individually throughout the lifetime of the client. Brokers also have the ability to vary the liquidation order of assets to achieve optimum use of tax-deferred investments.

* Lumen Systems 800/233-3461

Financial Planning Professional for Windows 1,995 dollars single user, plus 650 dollars/year 2,850 dollars network version, plus 950 dollars/year

Financial Planning Professional for Windows features in-depth plans that provide clients with extensive detail. The program design enables data entry directly into analysis forms for immediate results. Areas of analysis include net worth, investments, insurance, business valuation, estate planning and tax planning.

* MasterPlan Financial Software 707/451-8985, 800/229-5080 www.masterplanner.com

MasterPlan 1,995 dollars single user 2,495 dollars network version

MasterPlan analyzes every aspect of a client's present and future financial status, including education fund analysis, retirement fund analysis, estate and trust planning, and asset allocation.

* Mobius Group 919/549-0444, 800/662-4874 www.mobiusg.com

M-Preps 700 dollars single user 900 dollars network version

M-Preps produces as many as 50 reports quantifying the accumulation and depletion of capital needed for retirement. Asset allocation integrates with extensive on-screen modeling to analyze alternatives.

* MoneyStar 512/328-2595, 888/611-3092 www.moneystar.com

LifeScript 775 dollars and up

LifeScript is an interactive financial planning and modeling tool that enables brokers to graphically chart a client's investment goals and resources on a timeline so they develop a road map for the future. The program prepares charts according to life events, such as buying a home, having a baby, buying a car and college tuition.

* Money Tree 541/929-2140 www.moneytree.com

Easy Money for Windows 750 dollars, plus 250 dollars/year

Easy Money for Windows is a comprehensive financial planning program used to perform asset allocation exercises. It includes tools for calculating a client's net worth, cash flow, retirement needs, insurance needs, education funding needs, estate tax and liquidity.

Golden Years 750 dollars, plus 250 dollars/year

Golden Years is a retirement projection program that calculates cash flow, assets, income tax (based on IRS tables and indexes) and net worth over a 52-year period. It produces reports for clients with varying degrees of detail and sophistication, from a one-page summary to a 35-page report.

Retirement Solutions 400 dollars, plus 100 dollars/year

Retirement Solutions features nine specialized programs: lump-sum distribution, 72(t) income options, retirement capital projection, qualified plan illustration, IRA break-even, cost-of-waiting, elderly tax planner and pension maximization. Retirement Solutions now also includes a "Monte Carlo" simulation engine.

Silver Retirement Planner 100 dollars, plus 25 dollars/year

Silver Retirement Planner is for quick retirement projections, such as before-and-after asset allocation pie charts. It features seven reports including net worth, asset groups and insurance needs as well as a "what if" feature.

* Ocaso Software Co. 877/622-7600 www.ocaso.net

2nd1/2 Software 700 dollars, plus 140 dollars/year

2nd1/2 software generates full-color presentation reports for retirement and estate planning professionals on a range of options. Areas covered include minimum and early 72(t) options for multiple plans; IRA rollover analysis; qualified and nonqualified distributions to insurance, charity, charitable remainder trusts and charitable lead trusts; and lump-sum distributions of employer securities.

* OSI Software 800/432-6947 www.osisoftware.com

Trustwise 3.0 189.95 dollars

Trustwise 3.0 is an estate planning program that creates presentations showing clients exactly how much money an estate plan can save them and their beneficiaries. It automatically produces an estate plan profile, graphs showing clients the amount they'll leave to beneficiaries with an estate plan versus without an estate plan, anticipated probate fees and estate tax projections.

* PhilanthroTec 800/332-7832 www.ptec.com

The Charitable Scenario 1,895 dollars, plus 595 dollars/year

The Charitable Scenario program offers the ability to calculate the following: charitable remainder unitrust, charitable remainder annuity trust, immediate and deferred gift annuity, pooled income fund, life estate agreement, charitable lead trust annuity, charitable lead unitrust, outright gifts and bargain sales.

The Deduction Calculator 145 dollars, plus 50 dollars/year

The Deduction Calculator calculates all major planned giving techniques and operates on even the smallest notebook computers using only 405KB of RAM.

The Remainder Trust Marketing System 695 dollars, plus 300 dollars/year

The Remainder Trust Marketing System demonstrates the advantages of charitable remainder trusts (unitrust and annuity trusts) over noncharitable techniques such as keeping or selling assets. It includes all of the same reports and graphs as The Charitable Scenario.

* Sawhney Systems 609/987-5000, 888/729-4639 www.sawhney.com

ExecPlan 1,995 dollars single user, plus 695 dollars/year 2,490 dollars network version, plus 695 dollars/year

ExecPlan produces more than 125 reports, including financial profiles, cash management simulation, investment planning, capital needs analysis in case of death or disability, retirement planning, estate planning for each spouse and education funding analysis. It also offers unlimited "what if" flexibility, linked files and file-import capabilities.

* Scherrer Resources 215/542-5710 www.brokersally.com

The Broker's Ally Financial Planner 495 dollars

The Broker's Ally Financial Planner has core modules including budget analysis, net worth assessment, education funding for up to five children, estate liquidity, disability insurance, retirement analysis, life insurance, economic assumptions and a questionnaire for clients.

* Sequoia Retirement Services 310/859-1961

Estate Registry 20 dollars

Estate Registry uses a client's assets and liabilities to create a personal balance sheet and income statement then produces annuitized financial projections for the client's retirement years. The ability to change income and expenses allows for unlimited "what if" scenarios.

* Specialty Software 541/758-5690 www.proaxis.com/~rwi/spsw.htm

The Financial Manager 85 dollars

The Financial Manager includes 23 financial planning modules that can be used individually or collectively. It includes retirement and estate planning, tax-deferred versus taxable savings illustrations, estimated income needs, college planning, IRA/tax-deferred investment projections, tax breakdowns, annuity comparisons versus taxable investments, life insurance needs and a "vanishing mortgage" illustrator.

* Unger Software Corp. 888/864-3776 www.methuselah.com

Methuselah 2000 39 dollars/month standard 69 dollars/month advanced

Methuselah 2000 presents more than 40 graphs showing assets available, education expenses, retirement needs, family lifetime needs (retirement and estate planning), qualified distributions and minimum required distribution analysis, Social Security benefits, survivor's capital needs in current and future years, and estate planning in flow charts and graphs.

* Wilson Associates International 800/480-3888 www.wilsonintl.com

Power Optimizer 395 dollars, plus 192 dollars/quarter

Power Optimizer analyzes risk/return and performance characteristics of multiasset or multisecurity portfolios; finds optimal portfolio mixes; runs a variety of "what if" scenarios; and compares portfolios against databases of 300 asset classes, 10,000 mutual funds, 8,000 stocks, 8,000 variable annuity accounts and 2,000 closed-end funds.

Ramcap 395 dollars, plus 100 dollars/quarter

Ramcap is a portfolio modeling program that analyzes risk/return and performance characteristics of existing or proposed investment portfolios. It features customized reports, understandable tables and graphic illustrations for college funding analysis and retirement planning reports. A more sophisticated Ramcap Gold version is available.

Xpress 195 dollars, plus 83 dollars/quarter

Xpress is an entry-level asset allocation program designed primarily for sales presentations. It includes an internal questionnaire for establishing risk/reward parameters and limited asset allocation capabilities.

INVESTMENT ANALYSIS PROGRAMS

* Burlington Hall Asset Management 609/585-5856 www.laportesoft.com

LaPorte Software for Windows 4,600 dollars/year

LaPorte Software for Windows offers monthly updates to more than 1,100 indexes. It features data maintenance, investment or manager search capabilities, portfolio construction, custom-designed graphics and investment analysis. Brokers can run searches using 105 statistical measures. Databases include hedge funds, managed futures funds, mutual funds, U.S. money managers and investment indexes.

* Mobius Group 919/549-0444, 800/662-4874 www.mobiusg.com

M-Search Investment Manager Database Single site use--3,500 dollars with annual update, 5,000 dollars with quarterly update or 5,600 dollars with two updates/quarter. Options--600 dollars/year for print output, 4,000 dollars for style analysis, 500 dollars for style analysis print output and 3,000 dollars for narratives.

M-Search Investment Manager Database features qualitative and quantitative data on more than 1,300 investment management firms and 5,000 composites. Users can create custom portfolios; export data, graphs and tables; as well as create, save, edit and print presentation-quality reports. It offers Modern Portfolio theory statistics, style analysis to assess style and performance of managers, and narratives for in-depth qualitative information on each investment management association and its products.

M-Vest Asset Allocation System Single site use--3,500 dollars Historical returns data sets--750 dollars for U.S. basic, 3,000 dollars for U.S. standard, 3,000 dollars for emerging markets, 5,000 dollars for major markets and 9,000 dollars for global markets. Additional sets available.

M-Vest Asset Allocation System provides the necessary tools to develop asset allocation models using Vestek Systems' expected returns forecasts. It offers a variety of historical returns data sets, multiple methods to assess risk tolerance and access to returns on more than 5,500 private investment manager composites.

* Morningstar 800/735-0700 www.morningstar.com

Principia Pro for Closed-End Funds Principia Pro for Mutual Funds Principia Pro for Stocks Principia Pro for Variable Annuities/Life Each module--495 dollars/year with monthly updates, 295 dollars/year with quarterly updates or 95 dollars/year with annual updates.

Principia Pro allows users to combine stocks, mutual funds, variable annuities/life and closed-end funds into a single client portfolio. It offers tools for building, testing and monitoring client portfolios, as well as providing research, comparison and presentation reports in the investment business.

Principia Pro Plus for Mutual Funds 895 dollars/year with monthly updates 595 dollars/year with quarterly updates 295 dollars/year with annual updates

Principia Pro Plus for Mutual Funds offers the same functions as Principia Pro for Mutual Funds as well as advanced analysis, fund manager profiles, Morningstar analyst reviews and industry commentaries.

* National Datamax 858/673-3300, 888/673-4180 www.nationaldatamax.com

Mutual Fund Manager 50 dollars setup fee 25 dollars/month with monthly updates 50 dollars/quarter with quarterly updates

Mutual Fund Manager covers more than 11,000 equity, bond and money market mutual funds. It provides performance data and 70 data fields for each fund. Additional features include single-page monitor reports, side-by-side comparisons, build-your-own analyses, portfolio comparisons, hypotheticals and color graphics.

Variable Annuity Manager 50 dollars setup fee 25 dollars/month with monthly updates 50 dollars/quarter with quarterly updates

The Variable Annuity Manager provides searchable performance data on 6,500 variable annuities, variable life and life subaccounts with more than 70 different data fields provided for each subaccount. Users can also generate individual subaccount monitor reports, side-by-side comparisons, portfolio comparisons, index comparisons for benchmarking, color graphics and printed reports.

* Overlap 800/683-7527 www.overlap.com

Overlap Mutual Fund Portfolio Analysis 48 dollars single edition 150 dollars yearly subscription with quarterly updates

Overlap software provides three analysis functions for mutual fund portfolio construction. Equity Analysis compares mutual funds and reports percentage of stocks held in common; Select Analysis enables users to quickly locate funds with equity holdings that are either similar to or dissimilar from another fund; and Sector Analysis compares mutual funds in 10 economic sectors.

* Scherrer Resources 212/542-5710 www.brokersally.com

Broker's Ally Bond Calculator 295 dollars

Broker's Ally Bond Calculator is a fixed-income investment calculator that enables users to analyze bond swaps; compute cash requirements for purchase or cash proceeds from sales; calculate yields; and determine which bonds provide the best after-tax yield.

* Steele Systems 800/237-8400, ext. 729 www.mutualfundexpert.com

Steele Mutual Fund Expert, Pro Plus System 399 dollars/year with quarterly updates 599 dollars/year with monthly updates

Steele Mutual Fund Expert offers S&P data on 11,900 funds and 90 market indexes. Its features include comprehensive data on performance, risk measures, ratings, rankings, fees and management information as well as portfolio composition. The program enables users to identify funds to meet individual criteria.

* Value Line 800/535-8760 www.valueline.com

Mutual Fund Survey for Windows 345 dollars/one year with weekly updates 545 dollars/two years with weekly updates 745 dollars/three years with weekly updates

Mutual Fund Survey for Windows includes capabilities for viewing, sorting, screening, graphing and preparing reports on more than 9,500 funds. It also offers NASD-compliant reports, hypothetical investment illustrations and advanced portfolio analytics, including Stress-Tester, style attribution and filtering. It features more than two dozen reports and graphs, including risk/reward, performance holdings and asset allocation. A 50 dollar three-month trial is available.

* Wiesenberger 800/232-2285 www.wiesenberger.com

Investment View 690 dollars/year for first database with quarterly updates or 940 dollars/year with monthly updates 990 dollars/year for second database with quarterly updates or 1,240 dollars/year with monthly updates 1,190 dollars/year for third database with quarterly updates or 1,440 dollars/year with monthly updates 1,390 dollars/year for fourth database with quarterly updates or 1,640 dollars/year with monthly updates

Investment View enables users to sort and filter nearly 200 data items to find suitable investment choices. Working with open-end mutual funds, variable annuities, variable life, closed-end funds and indexes, the software offers data back to each security's inception. It also features a variety of planning calculators, hypothetical illustrations and NASD-compliant reports.

Blueprint 395 dollars plus cost of Investment View

Blueprint provides an online questionnaire to determine clients' risk tolerance with recommendations for prebuilt portfolios or customized portfolios. The software offers charts and graphs to illustrate key investment strategies as well as portfolio and asset growth.

IRA Analyst 99 dollars/year

IRA Analyst, available in Windows and Internet versions, compares the pros and cons of a traditional IRA to a Roth IRA. It displays interactive "what if" scenarios for changing variables such as tax rate during retirement, retirement age and investment returns.

* Wilson Associates International 800/480-3888 www.wilsonintl.com

Analytics 125 dollars/year or 35 dollars/quarter

Analytics provides tools to review, analyze, search and sort asset classes, mutual funds, stocks, variable annuities and closed-end funds over any time period and in any economic environment independent of and relative to any other security or index. It also provides factor and style analysis and risk/return characteristics and finds securities that match or exceed performance characteristics established for portfolio benchmarks.

Scan Data 50 dollars/year or 15 dollars/quarter

Scan Data sorts and reviews information on 300 asset classes, 10,000 mutual funds, 8,000 stocks, 8,000 variable annuities and 2,000 closed-end funds. The information includes assets under management, historical performance, rankings among all funds and peer groups, P/E ratios and front-end loads.

PORTFOLIO MANAGEMENT PROGRAMS

* Advent Software 800/727-0605 www.advent.com

Advent Office 3,900 dollars and up

Advent Office automates a range of investment management functions, including portfolio management, trading and reconciliation processing. The suite encompasses portfolio and relationship management, portfolio accounting and reporting, trading and order management, automated reconciliation and more.

* Captools Co. 800/826-8082 www.captools.com

Captools Professional Investor 999 dollars for Level 1, plus $400 dollars/year 1,999 dollars for Level 2 with up to three users, plus 800 dollars/year

Captools Professional Investor delivers AIMR-compliant ROI performance reporting. It generates alpha, beta, standard deviation and correlation statistics versus market indexes. It also offers automatic tax-lot accounting with tax estimates. Tax tables can be tailored for each portfolio. Reports can be customized and data from various Web sites can be downloaded. Trials for 60 days are also available.

* Coros Technologies 310/455-4216 www.calstate.com/coros

ADAM 495 dollars and up

ADAM (Automated Diversified Asset Manager) is a portfolio management system that tracks all types of investments regarding margins, tax-lot accounting, unmanaged assets and accrued interest. The program generates more than 50 types of reports and summaries, and provides AIMR-compliant, time-weighted ROI reporting. All components are updated automatically. Many brokerage and clearing house interfaces are included. Product enhancements are anticipated.

* Financial Computer Support 301/533-1900 www.dbcams.com

dbCAMS+ for Windows 1,495 dollars single user, plus 1,200 dollars/year

A Windows program, dbCAMS+ combines portfolio management and contact management. It delivers asset allocation and portfolio balancing features. Reports include time-weighted and internal rates of return. Reports meet AIMR, SEC and NASD standards, and feature color charts and graphs. Data can be exported for use in Morningstar Principia Pro. Product enhancements can be downloaded from the Internet.

* FundVest 877/288-FUND www.fundvest.com

FundPro 2020 299.99 dollars single user 499.99 dollars up to five users

FundPro 2020 delivers integrated technical analysis and portfolio management for mutual funds, stocks and indicators. Up to 1,000 portfolios and an unlimited number of issues, each with up to 71/2 years of historical data can be monitored. Each ranking report can have up to eight columns of data including percent changes, RSI, stochastic oscillators, volatility and more.

* Hamilton Software 303/221-3820, 800/733-9607 www.hamiltonsoftware.com

The Investor's Accountant 395 dollars

This DOS-based program manages and evaluates an unlimited number of portfolios. It measures portfolio performance and investment strategy results using internal and time-weighted ROI. It also monitors performance, moving averages and price/volume, comparing individual securities and portfolios with market trends. Reports include asset allocation, realized and unrealized gain/loss, and projected income. A demo program can be downloaded.

* Mobius Group 919/549-0444, 800/662-4874 www.mobiusg.com

M-Watch 2,000 dollars/year, plus 12.50 dollars/month per portfolio

M-Watch is a 32-bit Windows-based system for performance reporting and tracking. It calculates time-weighted and dollar-weighted ROI; analyzes risk on an absolute and market-relative basis; and analyzes current and historical asset class and subasset class allocations. Data on 125 market indexes can be accessed and others can be added. Numerous presentation-quality reports can be generated, and data can be transferred to other applications.

* National Datamax 858/673-3300, 888/673-4180 www.nationaldatamax.com

ProSource 99 dollars, plus 79 dollars/month 1,299 dollars, plus 109 dollars/month for Premier version

ProSource is a contact- and portfolio-management system that downloads client transactions and positions, plus pricing data from clearing firms and more than 90 mutual fund and variable annuity families. The program integrates information into client portfolios to create position and activity reports. The Premier version generates client portfolio reports with graphics, performance reports, and maturity and expiration reports.

* North American Software 513/793-2240 www.nasoftware.com

Broker's Helper 795 dollars, plus 144 dollars/year (optional)

Broker's Helper is a multilevel contact, portfolio and schedule management system. The basic system offers scheduling, target marketing campaigns and includes a word processor with mail-merge. Broker's Helper Advanced (995 dollars) adds a client information and portfolio management system. It offers time-weighted portfolio performance reporting, customized reporting and hypotheticals. Investment Advisor's Helper (1,595 dollars) adds asset allocation for block trading, portfolio modeling and performance reporting by a variety of measures. New Internet-based versions of each level are available.

* Performance Technologies 800/528-9595 www.centerpiece.com

Centerpiece 3,495 dollars, maintenance fee varies

Centerpiece combines accounting, client reporting and performance tracking. It includes more than 70 report formats with integrated graphics and compares performance to custom-blended indexes that reflect portfolio-specific asset allocation policy. Reps can automatically import client data from a variety of brokerage firms and mutual fund companies. The Enhanced Reporting Module adds several graphs and multireport packaging.

* PowerAssist Technologies 604/669-0169 www.power-assist.com

Accessor Portfolio Manager Can6,495 dollars, plus Can500 dollars/year

Accessor Portfolio Manager combines portfolio and contact management with a back office transaction database and mutual fund database. The automated software provides consolidated and plan-by-plan reporting on client asset holdings. It identifies percentage and types of funds held and analyzes individual client portfolios relative to Bell Charts portfolios. It features an asset allocator and rebalances a book with a single button feature.

* RAM Technologies 905/795-9222 www.ramsoft.com

Portfolio Tracker 2.2b 599 dollars, plus 199 dollars/year

Portfolio Tracker 2.2b is a contact and portfolio management database designed for financial professionals. It maintains a transaction history for all accounts, calculates annualized returns on investments and produces client performance reports that include asset allocation graphs. The database handles multicurrency accounts and features global updating of stocks, mutual funds and limited partnership values.

* Reuters 800/521-2475, ext. 8515 www.brokersnotebook.com

Broker's Notebook 995 dollars, plus 250 dollars/year

Broker's Notebook enables reps to manage and price portfolios, keep track of client information and produce personalized mailings. The program prepares up-to-the-minute portfolio reports including a holdings summary, account appraisal for a series of accounts, and asset allocation reports by sector and industry. It also tracks transaction information, including gains and losses, and provides comparative portfolio performance summaries.

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