Corporate Plan Sponsors Rate Equity Compensation Plan Administration Service Providers

Corporate Plan Sponsors Rate Equity Compensation Plan Administration Service
Providers
Corporate plan sponsors rate satisfaction with equity compensation plan
administrators and commercial systems - Bank of America Merrill Lynch and
Transcentive's Express Options are highest rated

PRINCETON, N.J., Nov. 3 /PRNewswire/ -- Group Five, a corporate services
research company, today announced results of its annual study of plan sponsor
opinions of services provided by commercial equity compensation plan
administrators and commercial plan administration systems. The study had 567
plan sponsors participating -- representing 1,582 equity compensation plans
including stock options, restricted stock, stock purchase, performance shares,
and stock appreciation rights. The study is the only independent forum for
corporate clients to make their opinions and priorities known to service
providers. The annual study included the largest providers of outsourced plan
administration services and commercial systems for internal plan
administration. The highest rated plan administrator was Bank of America
Merrill Lynch with an overall satisfaction rate of 77% favorable for full
service plan administration and the highest rated commercial system was
Transcentive's Express Options with a 69% favorable rating. E*TRADE received a
94% satisfaction rating for their co-sourced plan administration, the highest
for partial outsourced administration services. Morgan Stanley Smith Barney
received the highest loyalty rating with 86% of their clients willing to
recommend MSSB as a plan administrator.

"Overall plan sponsor satisfaction with outsourced plan administration
services increased 14 percentage points over last year which is especially
significant given the difficulties in the financial services industries," said
Jack Sunday, chief executive officer, Group Five. "Over the past 5 years there
has been a steady improvement in plan sponsor satisfaction. The higher
satisfaction ratings have been driven by improved services to plan sponsors as
well as plan participants resulting from major information technology
investments by the service providers."

The most important element of plan sponsor satisfaction with outsourced stock
plan administration is the easy and timely availability of accurate plan
information on both the individual and company level via a robust web-based
system. More specifically, the ability to generate standard and custom reports
via the web and the responsiveness of the account support team is what
differentiates the highest rated administrators from the others.

"Corporate plan sponsors continue to look to Group Five for objective and
reliable information on Equity Compensation Plan Administration services,"
said Kathy Huston, research director, Group Five. "This is our 9th Equity
Compensation Plan Administration Study and the participation of plan sponsors
increases each year which is indicative of the value plan sponsors place on
the research."

Group Five is a consulting and customer research firm located in Princeton,
New Jersey. The firm is best known for its consulting and research expertise
in equity compensation plan administration and transfer agent services.

No advertising or other promotional use can be made of the information in this
release without the express prior written consent of Group Five, Inc.

SOURCE Group Five

Kathy Huston, +1-609-924-4554, info@groupfiveinc.com