STATE STREET RESEARCH AWARDED NEW INSTITUTIONAL BUSINESS FROM NEW ENGLAND FINANCIAL

New England Zenith Fund is the mutual fund vehicle that provides investmentoptions to the variable life and variable annuity products of New EnglandFinancial and its affiliates. State Street Research will be responsible formanaging approximately $565 million in fixed income assets-$315 million inbonds and $250 million in money markets. Through New England Zenith Fund,New England Financial and its affiliates offer a diversified selection ofinvestment options managed by a variety of money managers in its line ofvariable products, which are distributed through a national network ofregistered representatives. New England Zenith Fund had $5.3 billion inassets as of July 31, 2001.

"New England Zenith Fund represents an enormous opportunity topartner with our affiliated firms to penetrate the variable annuity andvariable life markets," said Chris Abbott, Executive Vice President, Head ofInstitutional Marketing and Client Service Group for State Street Research."We are excited to capitalize on this opportunity and further reinforce ourpresence in the subadvisory marketplace."

"State Street Research represents the kind of quality money managementexpertise we want to offer to our clients," added John Guthrie, VicePresident of Investment Management at New England Financial.MetLife owns both New England Financial and State Street Research. NewEngland Financial is a national provider of insurance and investmentproducts and services. The 165-year-old company is headquartered in Bostonand operates out of most major cities across the country.

State Street Research & Management Company, with a money management historydating back to 1924, is one of the nation's first investment managementorganizations. The Boston-based firm is a subsidiary of MetLife, one of theworld's largest financial services companies. As of July 31, 2001, StateStreet Research managed $50 billion in assets, of which over $31 billionrepresented institutional clients and $19 billion represented mutual fundand variable annuity portfolios. The firm manages money for 10 of the 15largest U.S. corporate pension plans (as reported in the 2001 MoneyManagement Directory), union programs, public employee pension plans, mutualfunds for over 576,000 shareholder accounts, as well as individually managedaccounts for affluent investors. The firm's Institutional Web site addressis www.ssrinstitutional.com.

# # #