State Street and Wharton Study Reveals New Insight into Effective Communications between Advisors and Clients

Business Wire, June 8, 2007

BOSTON -- State Street Global Advisors (SSgA), the investment management arm of State Street Corporation (NYSE: STT) and Knowledge@Wharton, the online research and business analysis journal of the Wharton School, today announced the latest report in their collaborative Evolutionary Wealth Management(SM) research series titled, Bridging the Trust Divide: Advisor Best Practices for Communicating Value and Discussing Fees.

Bridging the Trust Divide is designed to provide financial advisors with practical ideas and intelligence for creating more satisfying and long-lasting relationships with their clients. It is based on a simultaneous survey of 500 high-net worth investors and 366 financial advisors, a follow-up focus group on investors' thoughts about advisors, and insights from Wharton faculty, advisors, and industry experts.

According to the report, fees are an area of miscommunication between advisors and clients. Nearly all of the advisors surveyed (95%) indicated they discuss their fees with clients, yet just 61% of investors said their advisor initiates fee discussions with them, and less than half (43%) understand their advisor's fee structure "completely" or "fairly well."

"The evolution of the financial advisory business and growth of fee-based relationships during the past decade has fundamentally changed the relationship between advisors and their clients," said Gary MacDonald, vice president at State Street Global Advisors. "Advisors must respond to the paradigm shift by adapting their communications skills to effectively convey the value they provide in a way that instills trust and security."

Financial intermediaries can access the report by registering as a financial professional and downloading at www.ssgafunds.com.

About State Street Global Advisors

State Street Global Advisors, the investment management arm of State Street Corporation, delivers investment strategies and integrated solutions to clients worldwide across every asset class, investment approach and style. With US$1.8 trillion in assets under management as of March 31, 2007, State Street Global Advisors has investment centers in Boston, Hong Kong, London, Milan, Montreal, Munich, Paris, Singapore, Sydney, Tokyo and Zurich, and offices in 25 cities worldwide. For more information, visit State Street Global Advisors at www.ssga.com.

About Knowledge@Wharton and the Wharton School

Knowledge@Wharton (http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/) is a free biweekly online resource that captures knowledge generated at the Wharton School through such channels as research papers, conferences, books, and interviews with faculty on current business topics, and distributes that knowledge online to a global business audience. The Knowledge@Wharton network includes more than 900,000 subscribers and contains more than 2,000 articles and research papers in its database, with more added every week.

The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania -- founded in 1881 as the first collegiate business school -- is recognized globally for intellectual leadership and ongoing innovation across every major discipline of business education. The most comprehensive source of business knowledge in the world, Wharton bridges research and practice through its broad engagement with the global business community. The school has more than 4,600 undergraduate, MBA, executive MBA, and doctoral students; more than 8,000 annual participants in executive education programs; and an alumni network of more than 81,000 graduates.