Exhibit 99.1
NEWS
For Release Immediate
Contacts (News Media) Tony Zehnder, Corporate Communications
312.396.7086
(Investors) Daniel Murphy, Investor Relations
317.817.2893
Conseco Studying Systems and Operational Solution from Long Term Care Group
Carmel, Ind., July 12, 2007 - Conseco, Inc. (NYSE: CNO) said today that it is
analyzing the benefits of a systems and operational solution provided by Long
Term Care Group, Inc. (LTCG) for certain back-office functions of its
closed-block long term care business.
Under the proposal being considered, which includes the outsourcing of certain
functions:
o Long Term Care Group would assume responsibility for the customer call
center, and the processing of continuing claims and other transactions
for the 170,000 policies of Conseco's closed-block LTC business. LTCG
would migrate these policies to its administration systems, and the
Conseco employees currently performing these functions would become
employees of LTCG.
o For the closed block policies, Conseco would retain responsibility for
adjudicating initial claims, handling claim appeals, and financial
reporting. The Conseco employees currently performing these functions
would remain with the company.
o Conseco would retain all the affected policies on its books, and would
also retain responsibility for all processing functions related to the
LTC policies issued by Conseco's Bankers Life and Casualty LTC
business.
Conseco CEO C. James Prieur said, "Improving the performance of Conseco's
closed-block LTC business is a key corporate priority, and we are already using
LTCG's services in our effort to improve processes. This additional arrangement
could allow us to move our closed-block policies more rapidly to a superior
administration system, enabling us to do a better job managing this business and
serving our customers. It would also allow us to further focus Conseco's
technical resources where they can drive maximum value for customers and
shareholders. We expect to complete our due diligence and make our decision by
early fall."
Long Term Care Group, Inc. is the country's largest long term care
administrator, providing services to over 30 long term care insurers including
eight of the top 10. The company offers comprehensive policy administration
including application processing, premium billing, customer service and claims
and care management. In addition, LTCG has a robust consulting practice
specializing in product development, risk management, compliance and actuarial
services. Under its Nation's CareLink brand, LTCG provides a full range of both
telephonic and face-to-face assessments utilizing its nationwide network of
nurses. With almost 1,000 employees and over 1,000,000 policies under
management, LTCG is headquartered in Eden Prairie, Minnesota, and has
operational centers in the Twin Cities, Nashville and Orlando.
-more-
Conseco (2)
July 12, 2007
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. For more information, visit Conseco's web site at
www.conseco.com.
Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Statements. Our statements, trend
analyses and other information contained in this press release relative to
markets for Conseco's products and trends in Conseco's operations or financial
results, as well as other statements, contain forward-looking statements within
the meaning of the federal securities laws and the Private Securities Litigation
Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements typically are identified by the
use of terms such as "anticipate," "believe," "plan," "estimate," "expect,"
"project," "intend," "may," "will," "would," "contemplate," "possible,"
"attempt," "seek," "should," "could," "goal," "target," "on track," "comfortable
with," "optimistic" and similar words, although some forward-looking statements
are expressed differently. You should consider statements that contain these
words carefully because they describe our expectations, plans, strategies and
goals and our beliefs concerning future business conditions, our results of
operations, financial position, and our business outlook or they state other
"forward-looking" information based on currently available information.
Assumptions and other important factors that could cause our actual results to
differ materially from those anticipated in our forward-looking statements
include, among other things: (i) our ability to obtain adequate and timely rate
increases on our supplemental health products including our long-term care
business; (ii) mortality, morbidity, usage of health care services, persistency,
the adequacy of our previous reserve estimates and other factors which may
affect the profitability of our insurance products; (iii) changes in our
assumptions related to the cost of policies produced or the value of policies
inforce at the Effective Date; (iv) our ability to achieve anticipated expense
reductions and levels of operational efficiencies including improvements in
claims adjudication and continued automation and rationalization of operating
systems; (v) performance of our investments; (vi) our ability to identify
products and markets in which we can compete effectively against competitors
with greater market share, higher ratings, greater financial resources and
stronger brand recognition; (vii) the ultimate outcome of lawsuits filed against
us and other legal and regulatory proceedings to which we are subject; (viii)
our ability to remediate the material weakness in internal controls over the
actuarial reporting process that we identified at year-end 2006 and to maintain
effective controls over financial reporting; (ix) our ability to continue to
recruit and retain productive agents and distribution partners and customer
response to new products, distribution channels and marketing initiatives; (x)
our ability to achieve an upgrade of the financial strength ratings of our
insurance company subsidiaries as well as the potential impact of rating
downgrades on our business; (xi) the risk factors or uncertainties listed from
time to time in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission; (xii)
regulatory changes or actions, including those relating to regulation of the
financial affairs of our insurance companies, such as the payment of dividends
to us, regulation of financial services affecting (among other things) bank
sales and underwriting of insurance products, regulation of the sale,
underwriting and pricing of products, and health care regulation affecting
health insurance products; (xiii) general economic conditions and other factors,
including prevailing interest rate levels, stock and credit market performance
and health care inflation, which may affect (among other things) our ability to
sell products and access capital on acceptable terms, the returns on and the
market value of our investments, and the lapse rate and profitability of
policies; and (xiv) changes in the Federal income tax laws and regulations which
may affect or eliminate the relative tax advantages of some of our products.
Other factors and assumptions not identified above are also relevant to the
forward-looking statements, and if they prove incorrect, could also cause actual
results to differ materially from those projected. All written or oral
forward-looking statements attributable to us are expressly qualified in their
entirety by the foregoing cautionary statement. Our forward-looking statements
speak only as of the date made. We assume no obligation to update or to publicly
announce the results of any revisions to any of the forward-looking statements
to reflect actual results, future events or developments, changes in assumptions
or changes in other factors affecting the forward-looking statements.
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