Actually it only passed the first record of SMITH III*JAMES. But with a slight modification, it works great!
Thanks!

		xreturn=BETWEEN(UPPER(LEFT(insured.po_name,;
	   	IIF(AT(" ",STRTRAN(insured.po_name," ","*",1)) > 0,AT(" ",STRTRAN(insured.po_name," ","*",1))-1,;
        	IIF(AT("*",STRTRAN(insured.po_name," ","*",1))> 0,AT("*",STRTRAN(insured.po_name," ","*",1))-1,;
        	LEN(insured.po_name))))),;
			UPPER(xfrom),UPPER(xto))

>May not be faster but is is shorter, possibly more convoluted, but I think it does the same thing. If you are trying to determine if the last name is between 2 values ignoring case and last name will be always be followed by space or * or will be only the last name.
>
>

>*!* Assumes set exact on
>RETURN BETWEEN(UPPER(LEFT(insured.po_name,;
>        IIF(AT(" ",insured.po_name) > 0,AT(" ",insured.po_name)-1,;
>        IIF(AT("*",insured.po_name)> 0,AT("*",insured.po_name)-1,;
>        LEN(insured.po_name))))),;
>	UPPER(xfrom),UPPER(xto))
>
>

>
>
>>We are searching records for any condition using a from and to condition. Records are stored like so:
>>
>>SMITH*JAMES
>>SMITH III*MICHAEL
>>SMITH JR*JOHN
>>SMITHERMAN*PETER
>>
>>I must account for the user entering from: SA to: SMITH or from: SMITH to: SMITH, or from: A to: Z, etc. SMITH to SMITH should NOT include SMITHERMAN...
>>
>>The below code works (If exact is on and near is off), but can it be faster?
>>
>>

>>xreturn=.T.  && include this record, .f. if record does not meet condition
>>  IF !EMPTY(xfrom) OR !EMPTY(xto)
>>    IF ALLTRIM(UPPER(xfrom))=ALLTRIM(UPPER(xto))
>>      IF ALLTRIM(UPPER(xfrom)) $ LEFT(UPPER(LEFT(STRTRAN(insured.po_name," ","*",1),;
>>          AT("*",STRTRAN(insured.po_name," ","*",1))-1)),LEN(ALLTRIM(UPPER(xfrom)))) ;
>>          .AND. UPPER(LEFT(STRTRAN(insured.po_name," ","*",1),;
>>          AT("*",STRTRAN(insured.po_name," ","*",1))-1));
>>          <= UPPER(ALLTRIM(xto))
>>        ? po_name+ "    YES a match"
>>        xreturn = .T.
>>      ELSE	&& not a match
>>        ? po_name+"    NO not a match"
>>        xreturn = .F.
>>      ENDIF
>>    ELSE
>>      *--TCH 08/13/2003 * for  SMITH III*JAMES, etc
>>      *IF !BETWEEN(UPPER(LEFT(insured.po_name,AT("*",insured.po_name)-1)),xfrom,xto)
>>      IF !BETWEEN(UPPER(LEFT(STRTRAN(insured.po_name," ","*",1),;
>>          AT("*",STRTRAN(insured.po_name," ","*",1))-1)),xfrom,xto)
>>        xreturn = .F.
>>      ENDIF
>>    ENDIF
>>  ENDIF
>>