Aetna Chairman and President Adopt 10b5-1 Plans.

HARTFORD, Conn. -- Aetna (NYSE: AET) announced today that John W. Rowe, M.D., the company's chairman and CEO, intends to exercise a portion of his employee stock options and sell shares in accordance with Rule 10b5-1 under the Securities and Exchange Act of 1934, and the company's policies with respect to insider sales.

In addition, Ronald A. Williams, the company's president, intends to exercise a portion of his employee stock options and sell shares in accordance with Rule 10b5-1.

Rule 10b5-1 permits officers and directors of public companies to adopt predetermined plans for selling specified amounts of stock. The plans may be entered into only when the officer or director is not in possession of material, nonpublic information and may be used to gradually diversify investment portfolios over a period of time.

Under Dr. Rowe's Rule 10b5-1 plan, he will systematically exercise employee stock options and sell 225,000 shares as part of his personal financial planning. These options are held by two grantor-retained annuity trusts ("GRATs") that Dr. Rowe established in 2003 and 2004. This sale represents approximately 10 percent of his current holdings. As a result of new stock options Dr. Rowe has received previously, these exercises and sales under the Rule 10b5-1 plan will not result in a reduction of his overall share count. In prior years, Dr. Rowe adopted similar plans under Rule 10b5-1 as part of systematic financial planning for the benefit of his family.

Under Mr. Williams' Rule 10b5-1 plan, he will systematically exercise employee stock options and sell 200,000 shares as part of his personal financial planning. This represents approximately 11 percent of Mr. Williams' current holdings. As a result of new stock options Mr. Williams has received previously, these exercises and sales under the Rule 10b5-1 plan will not result in a reduction of his overall share count.

As one of the nation's leading providers of health care, dental, pharmacy, group life, disability and long-term care benefits, Aetna puts information and helpful resources to work for its approximately 13.7 million medical members, 11.9 million dental members, 8.4 million pharmacy members and 13.5 million group insurance members to help them make better informed decisions about their health care and protect their finances against health-related risks. Aetna provides easy access to cost-effective health care through a nationwide network of more than 655,000 health care professionals, including over 390,000 primary care and specialist doctors and 3,937 hospitals. For more information, please visit www.aetna.com. (Figures as of December 31, 2004)

(NOTE: On February 10, 2005, Aetna announced a 2 for 1 stock split. Share amounts noted in this press release are stated on a pre-stock split basis.)