Exhibit 99.1

news

For Release    Immediate


Contacts       (News Media) Jim Rosensteele, SVP, Corporate
                     Communications 317.817.4418
               (Investors) Tammy Hill, SVP, Investor Relations 317.817.2893


                Conseco Announces Closing Agreement with the IRS

Carmel, Ind., September 13, 2004 - Conseco, Inc. (NYSE: CNO) announced today
that, pursuant to its application for a pre-filing examination, it has reached a
closing agreement with the Internal Revenue Service ("IRS") on the tax treatment
of the loss on its investment in Conseco Finance Corp. ("CFC"). Under the terms
of the closing agreement, the IRS has agreed with the company's conclusion that
the loss should be treated as an ordinary loss for tax purposes, and also agreed
that the amount of the loss before reduction of tax attributes, as a result of
cancellation of indebtedness income, is $6.7 billion. The IRS did not examine
the tax attribute reduction amount. The increased amount of the loss, over and
above the original estimate of $5.4 billion, relates to the allocation of the
unused net operating losses between CFC and the Company.

This agreement means that future qualifying taxable income can be offset by the
loss on CFC. As described in more detail in our June 30, 2004 Form 10-Q, the IRS
did not address the question of whether the loss should be treated as a life
insurance loss as part of the pre-filing examination. The examination also did
not address the Code Section 382 limitation described in our Form 10-Q.

Conseco CEO Bill Kirsch said, "We are pleased that, as expected, the IRS has
confirmed that our loss on CFC is ordinary and not capital, and at a dollar
amount at least in line with our original expectations."

Conseco Inc.'s insurance companies help protect working American families and
seniors from financial adversity: Medicare supplement, long-term care, cancer,
heart/stroke and accident policies protect people against major unplanned
expenses; annuities and life insurance products help people plan for their
financial futures.


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