AmerUs Group to Present at the Keefe, Bruyette & Woods 2004 Insurance Conference.

DES MOINES, Iowa -- AmerUs Group Co. (NYSE:AMH), a leading producer of life insurance and annuity products, today announced that Melinda S. Urion, executive vice president and chief financial officer of AmerUs Group, will be presenting at the Keefe, Bruyette & Woods, Inc. Insurance Conference in New York City at 9:30 a.m. ET on September 8, 2004. The presentation will include an overview of AmerUs Group, its strategies, operations and financial results and goals.

Investors may access a webcast of this presentation on AmerUs Group's website, www.amerus.com, under the section titled "For Investors."

Certain statements, trends, estimates, goals, targets or projections made during this presentation may constitute forward-looking statements under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements are subject to factors which may cause actual results to be materially different from those contemplated by the forward-looking statements. Please refer to the Company's, most recent 10-K, 10-Q and Management's Discussion and Analysis (MD&A) for a listing of factors which could cause actual results to differ materially from those contemplated by the forward-looking statements.

AmerUs Group Co. is an Iowa corporation located in Des Moines, Iowa, engaged through its subsidiaries in the business of marketing and distributing individual life insurance and annuity products in 50 states, the District of Columbia and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Its major operating subsidiaries include AmerUs Life Insurance Company, American Investors Life Insurance Company, Inc., Indianapolis Life Insurance Company and Bankers Life Insurance Company of New York.

As of June 30, 2004, AmerUs Group's total assets were $22.1 billion and shareholders' equity totaled $1.4 billion, including accumulated other comprehensive income.