AmerUs Life Holdings Completes Executive Stock Purchase Program.

DES MOINES, Iowa--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 23, 1999--AmerUs Life Holdings, Inc. (NYSE:AMH) today announced that members of its management team, including all of its seven executive officers, purchased $25 million of the company's securities in market purchases. The plan was implemented to more closely align management's interests with the company's financial performance.

The 49 executives who are participating in the voluntary program took out full-recourse personal loans to purchase the company's common shares and adjustable conversion-rate equity security (ACES) units. These market purchases were made between February 10, 1999 and March 18, 1999. The securities purchased under the program represent 735,597 shares or approximately 2.9 percent and 444,500 units or approximately 10.4 percent of the company's Class A common shares and ACES units outstanding, respectively.

The purchases were financed by five-year personal loans from a financial institution to the company's management at market interest rates. Participants in the program are fully liable for any losses, as well as for the repayment of the loan when it comes due. The company has guaranteed the repayment of the loans only in the event of default.

"The high level of management participation in this program demonstrates management's long-term commitment to our company and our confidence in the company's future prospects," said Roger K. Brooks, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer. "Our management team is clearly focused on activities that will enhance the financial performance of the company. It will also encourage even greater commitment and teamwork toward achieving our long-term goals."

Unlike stock option plans and other traditional incentive plans, the executives who participate in the stock purchase plan completed today place their own financial resources at risk by investing their own money.

AmerUs Life Holdings, Inc. is an Iowa corporation located in Des Moines, Iowa, engaged through its subsidiaries in the business of marketing, underwriting and distributing individual life insurance and annuity products in 49 states, the District of Columbia and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Its wholly-owned subsidiaries include AmerUs Life Insurance Company, Delta Life Corporation, and its operating subsidiary, Delta Life and Annuity Company, and AmVestors Financial Corporation, located in Topeka, Kansas, with two wholly-owned operating subsidiaries -- American Investors Life Insurance Company and Financial Benefit Life Insurance Company.

As of December 31, 1998, AmerUs Life Holdings' total assets were $10.4 billion and shareholders' equity totaled $850.2 million, including FAS 115.