Continuing a tradition of innovation that began with the birth of Quicken 20 years ago, Quicken 2004 redefines financial management for today's connected world. Users can now receive the insight that software can provide with the ease of logging into a bank Web site. A completely redesigned investments area provides a place where every investor can easily answer the key questions about their portfolio.

American consumers are facing a struggling economy, an uncertain job market, and reduced retirement savings. Though the consumer need for financial insight and organization is greater than ever, less than 30 percent of personal computer-owning households use personal finance software. "Setting up an account in personal finance software was too difficult and it required too much work to keep the data up to date," said Kevin Reeth, director of Quicken product management. "We threw out the old model and completely redesigned the set up process in an effort to make personal finance software so easy that everyone could use it."

Hit The Ground Running
With Express Setup, Intuit has virtually eliminated the time and effort required to input financial data into software. Before Quicken 2004, users had to gather paper bank statements and spend hours manually entering balances and account information before seeing any benefit - such as a pie chart of their spending. Express Setup solves this problem by leveraging the widespread Internet connectivity of consumers.

By simply entering the name of their bank, an ID name and PIN number, consumers can automatically download their recent financial activity for all accounts held at that bank into Quicken. Their account will be set up and their balance will match the current bank balance. Now, it only takes minutes to get started, there's no need to reconcile, and Quicken does all of the work. Express Setup works with more than 2,000 participating banks, brokerages, credit card and 401(k) providers.

Further reducing the time and effort associated with getting started, Express Setup instantly categorizes the majority of your transactions and provides a pie chart of your spending for you. This chart that once took hours of time to create or months of diligent tracking to produce, now provides insight in minutes.

Stay On Top Of Investments With Ease
Quicken spoke to financial experts and customers and narrowed down the list of questions that provide insight into investments to a critical few: "How are my investments doing over time and against the market?" "What's driving my performance?" "Is my portfolio properly diversified?" "Am I invested in top-performing funds?" "What's my net worth?" Quicken 2004 has completely redesigned its investments area to provide at-a-glance answers to these key questions.

"With a growing number of customers taking a 'do-it-yourself' approach to financial management," said Reeth. "Quicken 2004 enables customers to gain insight and make better-informed decisions about their portfolio, without the hassle of an onerous set up process."

Mergers, stock-splits, and dividend payments are just a few activities that make setting up an investment account more complex than a cash flow account. With Quicken 2004, investors no longer have to track the detailed history of each investment account during set up.

Express Setup enables investors to obtain an aggregate view of their entire portfolio from participating brokerage, IRA, 401(k), and mutual fund accounts in just minutes, simply by telling Quicken where the account is held and entering an ID and PIN. The latest quotes, recent news and alerts pertaining to the user's portfolio are also automatically downloaded during Express Setup.

The completely redesigned investing center in Quicken 2004 can help investors feel more confident about their portfolio. By consolidating an entire portfolio in Quicken, investors have the unique ability to gain insight into the total value of their portfolio, its performance over time, and identify under-performing stocks or funds. In addition, investors can see the average annual return of their portfolio versus key market benchmarks and verify that their asset allocation is appropriately diversified and matches the target they've set. Mutual fund insights keep investors informed of Morningstar RatingTM changes, hidden fees and the after-tax performance of their funds. If a rating has declined, access to Quicken.com is available to research other funds in the same category.

"Financial advisors agree that one of the simplest ways to protect a portfolio from risk is through asset allocation and diversification," said Reeth. "If their portfolio is well diversified, an investor can sleep better at night knowing their long-term financial plan won't be taken off course by a downturn in any one sector."

Monitoring Net Worth
The February 2003 Quicken Fiscal Literacy Survey found that people who knew their net worth were much more likely to know whether or not they would have to delay their retirement. "What you don't know can hurt you," said Reeth. "If you don't know what you have today, how will you know that you're not on track for the future and need to take action."

The change in net worth is a key indicator of one's overall financial situation. Yet the same Fiscal Literacy survey showed that 4.5 million high-income households don't even know their net worth because it's too difficult and time consuming to figure out.

Quicken 2004 makes it easy for customers to track their net worth through a new Financial Overview Center. With all accounts set up in Quicken, the software will automatically create the charts and graphs that provide insight into this important indicator of financial health.

"More people have bought Quicken than all other personal finance software combined," continued Reeth citing July 2003 research from NPD Group/NPD Techworld. "We feel that it's our intense focus on solving customer problems that has enabled us to be so successful. We are thrilled to be celebrating the 20th anniversary of Quicken by offering consumers a product that is one of the best versions we have ever made."

Product Availability and Pricing
Quicken 2004 will be widely available in retail stores on Aug. 20, 2003. On the Net: Quicken Products site: http://www.Quicken2004.com. Suggested retail prices:

* Intuit rebate available for previous owners of Quicken software.