4.03.2007 - 11:59pm ET

(CSRwire) OAKLAND, CA - April 3, 2007 - Good news for current … and would be … socially responsible investors! The one-year performance numbers are in for Progressive Asset Management's "Progressive Track Investments™" (PTI), the first comprehensive portfolio suite that is both socially screened and tracks existing benchmark indexes for most major asset classes. For the full year ended March 31, 2007, the data show that an equal-weighted allocation among the seven model portfolios would have missed their blended benchmark by only 31 basis points.*

Progressive Asset Management (PAM) Director of Business Development Phil Kirshman, CFA, CFP, said: "In my opinion, these first-year performance tracking numbers tell a powerful story: It is possible to do robust social screening, track major benchmarks and still deliver the kind of solid performance that fiduciary-level investors need to see. We believe this sends a strong message to foundations, endowments, trust account managers, and other investors who seek SRI solutions, but want to closely track well-known benchmarks and achieve diversification across all the major asset classes."

The seven PTI benchmark-tracking portfolios by asset class and benchmark are as follows: large-cap growth (S&P/Citigroup 500 Growth Index); large-cap value (S&P/Citigroup 500 Value Index); mid-cap growth (S&P/Citigroup 400 Growth Index); mid-cap value (S&P/Citigroup 400 Value Index); small-cap growth (S&P/Citigroup 600 Growth Index); small-cap value (S&P/Citigroup 600 Value Index); and international (MSCI EAFE Index).

The seven PTI portfolios are screened on social and environmental grounds by Progressive Asset Management and then optimized by Sausalito, CA-based Aperio Group, which uses factor-modeling techniques to replicate index benchmark performance. Each PTI portfolio seeks to track the financial performance of a specific market benchmark as closely as possible. Each PTI portfolio may hold up to 150 individual securities, permitting broad diversification within its asset class.

Under the PTI program Investment Advisers are free to choose among the PTI portfolios in any combination for their clients for a single, all-inclusive advisory fee. An account can hold just one portfolio or any combination of more than one portfolio - up to and including all seven. This flexibility means that PTI portfolios could serve as the "core" of an investor's equity portfolio or “round out” an existing portfolio.

Progressive Track Investments accounts may be held at Vienna, Va.-based FOLIOfn. FOLIOfn is an innovative online securities firm that provides a unique advisor platform, FOLIOAdvisorsm, offering fully integrated, model-driven, portfolio and practice management services. Additionally, FOLIOAdvisor provides an industry-leading performance tracking feature permitting each model, and customer folio, to be compared graphically to any benchmark the investor chooses.

Since the portfolios are held in separate accounts, PTI provides advisors and their clients an opportunity to vote share proxies to support their values, if they so choose. FOLIOfn offers an online proxy voting tool allowing advisors and/or their clients to conveniently vote share proxies online. Coupled with PAM's proprietary Shareholder Alert Service™, investors in the PTI program have unparalleled shareholder activism opportunities.

In its SRI screening process, PAM excludes from consideration for investment any companies that manufacture tobacco, alcohol, firearms or nuclear weapons. Progressive Asset Management also excludes companies that: have meaningful revenues from gambling; have known operations with repressive governments such as the Sudan or Burma; or have significant military-related contracts with the U.S. Government. For all remaining companies, PAM applies a proprietary social ratings system that rewards companies that perform well in relation to their industry competitors on the following criteria: environmental responsibility; human rights and diversity issues; employee relations; product and worker safety issues; community impact; and corporate behavior & governance issues.

For accounts of $1 million and above, investors have the option to use Aperio and PAM to create index-tracking portfolios based on client-directed social screening criteria and index benchmarks of their own choosing.

ABOUT PAM

Progressive Asset Management, Inc. (http://www.progressiveassetmanagement.com/) was the first independent full-service investment brokerage in the US to specialize in socially responsible investing (SRI). Since 1987, PAM has developed innovative investment initiatives and products in the SRI arena, including their proprietary Shareholder Alert Service™, which supports investors who wish to track upcoming proxy votes in which they may participate. PAM also provides social screening services to third party money management firms. Progressive Asset Management, Inc. is an NASD/SIPC member and a registered investment advisor.

Aperio Group, LLC is a registered investment advisor acting in a sub-advisory capacity for Progressive Track Investments™. FOLIOfn, through its wholly-owned, registered clearing broker-dealer subsidiary, FOLIOfnInvestments, Inc. (member, NASD/SIPC), offers an integrated brokerage and technology platform featuring its patented, state-of-the-art Folio trading capability, as well as execution, clearance and settlement services.

S&P/Citigroup and MSCI Indexes are trademarks created by Citigroup, Inc., The McGraw Hill Companies, Inc., and/or Morgan Stanley Capital International, none of which are affiliated with Progressive Asset Management or Progressive Track Investments™ .

* Performance figures reported come from sources believed to be reliable but are unaudited and not guaranteed for accuracy. Returns are reported gross of expenses. Expenses are based on the size of the account. The client’s return will be reduced by advisory, custodial and any other fees that may be incurred in the management of its account. Past performance is no guarantee of future results.

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