The Market Events Toolkit Provides Financial Education to Help Quell Investor Anxiety in Turbulent Markets

NEW YORK, April 3, 2008 /PRNewswire/ -- Sudden drops in the world markets and the threat of recession have created a greater need for financial professionals to communicate with their clients and deliver timely information. To help financial institutions and financial professionals provide guidance to calm their clients' fears, Financial Communications, a division of McGraw-Hill Professional, has introduced a line of educational products that will arm financial organizations with customized information that they need to combat investor anxiety in today's volatile market.

"In today's perfect storm of bad financial news -- including a credit crisis, a softening housing market, a slowing economy and a volatile stock market -- investors need level-headed guidance more than ever," notes Sam Stovall, Standard & Poor's chief investment strategist.

"Market events can also unnerve investment professionals," says Lisa Lewin, Financial Communications vice president and general manager. "We have responded to this by creating a set of tools to help financial professionals guide retail investors with timely direction that will keep long term objectives in perspective."

The cornerstone of these products is the Market Alert Toolkit, a print and online subscription service built around topics of market volatility, economic instability, and recession. It presents timely, easy-to-understand, and high impact content that financial professionals can download, customize and integrate into newsletters and websites. The content contains a wealth of commentary, articles, charts, tutorials, and other materials designed to help educate investors on the long-term benefits of riding out short-term volatility or recessionary conditions. It gives financial firms the flexibility to react quickly to any emerging market crisis and also includes sales aids to help financial professionals talk with their clients about relevant market issues. The Toolkit provides materials that will allow organizations to improve their daily, weekly, and monthly communication with their client base and enhance client relationships.

Clients can select to have Market Event Toolkit content delivered as zipped files or can purchase an electronic microsite that includes all Web content pieces integrated into one Web site. The material on the microsite can be customized with a financial institution's branding and disclaimers.

Financial institutions can purchase the content for three-month, six-month, and annual licenses. For more information, please visit http://fc.standardandpoors.com/alert.

About McGraw-Hill Professional:

McGraw-Hill Professional is a leading global provider of print and electronic content and services for the business, technical, and medical communities. Its offerings include reference and certification books for all professional and educational disciplines and online solutions on business and financial, medical and health, engineering, and scientific topics. For more information, visit http://www.mhprofessional.com/

McGraw-Hill Professional is a unit of McGraw-Hill Education, a division of The McGraw-Hill Companies . Founded in 1888, The McGraw-Hill Companies is a leading global information services provider meeting worldwide needs in the financial services, education and business information markets through leading brands such as Standard & Poor's, McGraw-Hill Education, BusinessWeek and J.D. Power and Associates. The Corporation has more than 280 offices in 40 countries. Sales in 2007 were $6.8 billion. Additional information is available at http://www.mcgraw-hill.com/.