CKFR Checkfree Corp (MM)

ATLANTA, Ga. and NEW YORK, Oct. 18 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Managed Account Solutions Booth #7 -- CheckFree Corporation (NASDAQ:CKFR) today announced that Charles Schwab & Co., Inc., one of the top investment firms in the U.S., has released eight mutual fund wrap portfolios via CheckFree APL(SM). A CheckFree customer since 1992, Schwab has expanded its deployment of CheckFree APL as a result of the robust architecture and proven flexibility and scalability of the platform. CheckFree APL will power portfolio management and monitoring services for Schwab Managed Portfolios. According to Cerulli Associates, mutual fund advisory assets have grown 153 percent from 2002 to 2006. Assets under management in mutual fund advisory products grew from $130 to $319.5 billion in that time period. By launching Schwab Managed Portfolios on CheckFree APL, Schwab can leverage the extensive CheckFree APL functionality to design, monitor and adjust diversified portfolios of mutual funds in response to market changes and deliver the service to customers at a net cost of 50 bps, one third the program fee of similar offerings. The integration of CheckFree APL enables Schwab money managers to create sophisticated trading strategies in an automated and scalable manner, providing clients with a comprehensive investment lifecycle to support individual expansion to the next generation of investment services. Launched in July, 2006, Schwab Managed Portfolios (http://www.schwab.com/smp) includes four taxable and four non-taxable wrap products with ready-made investment strategies ranging from moderately conservative to aggressive. Ongoing advisory services are also provided to deliver consistent guidance and tailored services to clients. CheckFree APL provides the scalability and flexibility to enable Schwab financial consultants to rapidly add accounts to the enterprise-wide platform. "The success of Schwab Managed Portfolios highlights a natural progression in the use of the CheckFree platform to support the future of investment services, from separately managed accounts to unified managed households and beyond," said Michael Gianoni, executive vice president and general manager at CheckFree Investment Services. "CheckFree APL has enabled Schwab to introduce an enterprise-wide service that delivers additional choices to clients without the need for additional support personnel." CheckFree APL delivers an innovative, advanced Separately Managed Accounts platform that provides remote processing services to sponsor firms, money managers and financial advisors for the automation of investment management, trading, portfolio performance and investor reporting. CheckFree's platform enables approximately 100 of the top Wall Street sponsor firms and 150 separate account managers to interface with each other, and operate in a straight-through processing environment. Institutional money managers also use CheckFree APL to enter and maintain account data, manage trades and measure portfolio performance. About Charles Schwab The Charles Schwab Corporation (NASDAQ:SCHW) is a leading provider of financial services, with more than 330 offices and 6.8 million client brokerage accounts, 529,000 corporate retirement plan participants, 180,000 banking accounts, and $1.3 trillion in client assets. Through its operating subsidiaries, the company provides a full range of securities brokerage, banking, money management and financial advisory services to individual investors and independent investment advisors. Its broker-dealer subsidiary, Charles Schwab & Co., Inc. (member SIPC, http://www.sipc.org/ ), offers a complete range of investment services and products including an extensive selection of mutual funds; financial planning and investment advice; retirement plan and equity compensation plan services; referrals to independent fee-based investment advisors; and custodial, operational and trading support for independent, fee-based investment advisors through its Schwab Institutional division. The Charles Schwab Bank, N.A. (member FDIC) provides banking and mortgage services and products. The company's other operating subsidiaries include U.S. Trust Corporation (member FDIC) and CyberTrader(R), Inc. (member SIPC, http://www.sipc.org/ ). More information is available at http://www.schwab.com/. About CheckFree (http://www.checkfreecorp.com/) Founded in 1981, CheckFree Corporation (NASDAQ:CKFR) provides financial electronic commerce services and products to organizations around the world. CheckFree Electronic Commerce solutions enable thousands of financial services providers and billers to offer their customers the convenience of receiving and paying their household bills online or in person through retail outlets. CheckFree Investment Services provides a broad range of investment management solutions and outsourced services to hundreds of financial services organizations, which manage about $1.4 trillion in assets. CheckFree Software develops, markets and supports software applications that are used by financial institutions to process more than two-thirds of the 14 billion Automated Clearing House transactions in the United States. The division also provides operational risk management, financial messaging, corporate actions, and regulatory compliance software to more than 1,500 organizations across the globe. Certain of the Company's statements in this press release are not purely historical, and as such are "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These include statements regarding management's intentions, plans, beliefs, expectations or projections of the future. Forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties, including without limitation, the various risks inherent in the Company's business, and other risks and uncertainties detailed from time to time in the Company's periodic reports filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended June 30, 2006 (filed September 8, 2006). One or more of these factors have affected, and could in the future affect the Company's business and financial results in future periods, and could cause actual results to differ materially from plans and projections. There can be no assurance that the forward-looking statements made in this press release will prove to be accurate, and issuance of such forward-looking statements should not be regarded as a representation by the Company, or any other person, that the objectives and plans of the Company will be achieved. All forward-looking statements made in this press release are based on information presently available to management, and the Company assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements. DATASOURCE: CheckFree Corporation CONTACT: Media, Judy DeRango Wicks, +1-678-375-1595, or , or Investor, Tina Moore, +1-678-375-1278, or , both of CheckFree Corporation Web site: http://www.checkfreecorp.com/ http://www.schwab.com/ http://www.schwab.com/smp http://www.sipc.org/

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