Archimedes Systems Partners With 529 Solutions To Provide Decision-Making Tools To BISYS® Clients

Joint Venture Makes College Central™ a Potent Education Funding Application, Complementing BISYS’ Retirement Central™ Product
     
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Waltham, MA - May 12, 2004 - Archimedes Systems, Inc., has announced the launch of several of its education funding tools through 529 Solutions’ College Central™ platform - now available to customers served by BISYS Retirement Services.

According to Mary Nickeson, Director of Client Services at Archimedes, “College Central brings to bear the combined best thinking of our teams, giving financial planners and consumers alike the tools with which to answer complex questions such as, What will college cost our family? How much more should we save and through which vehicles? How does the 529 Plan in my state compare to others? What are the tax implications of saving for college using one plan versus another? What are the best college saving and financing solutions given my situation?

Archimedes and 529 Solutions bring a powerful set of college planning tools, data, and content to College Central that is unparalleled in the marketplace. Among the key tools are Archimedes’ College Savings Planner, allowing families to model their college funding goals and strategies; its 529 State Tax Deduction Calculator, helping users determine the state tax benefits associated with 529 contributions; and 529 Solutions’ 529 Professor, helping users select the best 529 plan for them.

The College Central application strategically complements BISYS’ proprietary Retirement Central™ application, which is designed to seamlessly integrate with financial services organizations’ existing Web sites and provide retirement-related planning tools and educational information.

Christopher Guarino, president of BISYS Retirement Services, said, “We are now uniquely positioned to support the asset generation and retention strategies of our financial services clients with innovative online applications for college and retirement saving programs. Enabling our clients to more efficiently support consumers’ two primary savings needs with comprehensive educational resources and sophisticated planning tools further demonstrates our ability to consistently support dynamic market trends and demands with leading-edge products and services.”

According to Robert Shipley, president of 529 Solutions, “The College Central technology and its intuitive tools are a natural extension of BISYS’ Retirement Central application, and incorporate many of the powerful customization options that are the hallmark of the Retirement Central application. Consumer demand for professional assistance with college savings decisions is continually growing, and last year’s exorbitant tuition increases and the availability of multiple tax-favored savings plans created even more confusion.”

About BISYS Retirement Services
BISYS (NYSE: BSG) is the nation’s largest independent administrator and recordkeeper for small and mid-size retirement plans, offering every component of a sophisticated retirement plan infrastructure, including prototype plan design and maintenance, plan administration, forms and documents, customized marketing and sales support materials, reference resources, a toll-free help line for ongoing access to industry expertise and assistance, Web-based planning tools and content, staff training and development, and a turnkey administration and recordkeeping solution for Individual(k) plans. Through its relationships with 40 institutional clients, BISYS’ technology-driven retirement services support more than 18,000 company-sponsored 401(k) plans, representing approximately 1.5 million eligible employees. BISYS also supports approximately 400,000 employers and four million IRA holders with ERISA documents and related support services, and trains approximately 12,000 retirement industry professionals annually. Additional information is available at www.bisys.com.

About 529 Solutions
529 Solutions, the leading provider of consolidated 529 plan information and marketing tools, is a service of Specialized Investments Group, Inc., based in Raleigh, N.C. Servicing banks and credit unions, broker-dealers, universities, affinity marketing firms, Internet marketing companies, employers, and financial service providers nationwide, 529 Solutions provides objective, current information on each state’s 529 tuition savings plan(s) through top faculty at N.C. State University’s College of Management. For more information about 529 Solutions, visit its Web site at www.529solutions.com.

About Archimedes Systems, Inc.
Archimedes Systems builds and delivers personalized education and decision-making tools for the financial services and employee benefits communities. For over 20 years, Archimedes’ staff has helped plan vendors and sponsors by providing printed and Web-enabled tools that generate personal financial plans, 401(k) proposals, comprehensive employee benefit statements and personalized enrollment and post-enrollment decision-support analyses. In the college funding market, Archimedes is a leading provider of Sec. 529 decision support tools, combining key financial calculations and content to provide robust solutions to financial professionals and individual investors. Financial service marketers, plan sponsors and benefit consultants can visit www.archimedes.com to learn more about Archimedes’ products and services.

     
 

 

Editorial Contacts:

Mary Nickeson
781-647-1110
mary@archimedes.com
For 529 Solutions
Jeff Risk
jrisk@529solutions.com
 
For BISYS Retirement Services
Kevin Clark
kevin.clark@bisys.com

 

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