Conseco Turnaround Memo No. 4.

Business Editors

INDIANAPOLIS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 29, 2000

The attached "Turnaround Memo No. 4" from Conseco (NYSE:CNC) CEO Gary C. Wendt was posted on Conseco's web site for shareholders and/or electronically distributed to them today.

Turnaround Memo No. 4

To: Conseco Shareholders

From: Gary Wendt, Chairman & CEO

Date: November 29, 2000

Far and away the biggest news since my last update is A.M. Best's decision on November 7 to upgrade our rating to A-. The loss of this rating in mid-June had prompted the following kinds of conclusions from various analysts:

July 28: "The A.M. Best rating is of particular importance as

94% of all life insurance, 96% of all annuities and 84% of all

health insurance is sold by companies with an A- rating or

better."

September 28: "... we suspect that CNC will need to

demonstrate continued progress in its stabilization plan

before ratings upgrades would be rewarded."

November 1: " ... we caution investors about assuming that (an

upgrade to A-) will occur by the end of 1Q01."

So, securing the upgrade this quickly was a very welcome event.

Shortly after joining Conseco, I identified three near-term goals: (1) restructure the bank debt; (2) implement a business model at Conseco Finance to produce cash instead of use it; and (3) restore the A- Best rating. With the recovery of the A- rating, Phase 1 of the Conseco turnaround is clearly on track.

As we noted in our 3rd quarter earnings release, the loss of this rating for nearly four months did depress sales of annuities and life insurance products and put some pressure on insurance margins. Now, however, we are positioned to start 2001 with no ratings impediment to sales or earnings.

Let me update you on a few other Turnaround developments that have occurred since our 3rd quarter earnings release.

1. Cash generation and debt repayment. As you know, our

Restoration Plan calls for the retirement of $2 billion in

debt. In September, we repaid $650 million of bank debt. On

December 15, we will retire $132 million in public debt. These

two repayments alone will reduce Conseco's annual interest

expense by approximately $68 million. Fully diluted and after

tax, that is approximately 11 cents per common share!

Progress continues on the sale or monetization of non-core

assets. We expect to announce the sale of one of our assets in

the next 10 days.

But, please also keep in mind that the original list of assets

to be monetized was a conservative list at conservative

valuations. Conseco is a large and vibrant company with a

short-range motto of "Cash is King." You should expect that we

will be generating cash from sources not anticipated when we

put our asset list together last summer. Just last week, we

recovered $30 million from Lehman Brothers as a refund of a

deposit against anticipated fees during the company's attempt

to sell Conseco Finance in the spring. The transaction has no

net effect on the income statement or balance sheet, but it is

a "new" source of cash for debt repayment.

Recent press articles about two of the assets we are in the

process of selling probably caught your attention. A quick

word on each:

-- Tritel has completed its merger with Telecorp with analysts giving positive
reports on the combination. (Conseco holds 17.18 million shares of the merged
entity, TLCP.) This asset is scheduled for sale later in 2001.

-- Our effort to realize maximum value for the Argosy gambling boat continues
to wind through the courts. Recently, the Illinois Supreme Court ordered that
Argosy may not halt our actions in Indiana, where our pleadings are pending.
Given the vast valuation differences between the majority owner and ourselves,
we think enforcing our contracts in the courts is in Conseco's interests.

2. Insurance Restructuring. In my last Turnaround Memo, I

described the "de-layering" of Conseco's management structure.

The second phase of restructuring our insurance operations is

shifting staff responsibilities from the corporate level to

the business operating level. We have been moving rapidly

during the past month to move these key business professionals

into positions at the operating level. So far, we have moved

approximately 400 accounting, finance, actuarial, marketing,

compliance and market conduct staff from corporate staff to

positions in operating businesses.

A large centralized bureaucracy at the parent company level is

a bad idea. My experience is that high returns and high

quality will be achieved when business staffs are as close to

the front lines as possible.

3. Brand awareness. I thought you would be interested in the

following information just in. In its target markets,

Conseco's brand has reached a record 65% (October '00)

awareness level, up from just 8% in February '98. The study

was conducted in October by Communicus (CCS), a third party

research firm that also monitors brands for IBM, Quaker Oats,

and BMW. The study measured awareness, favorability, purchase

intent, reputation and other factors. Conseco continues to

make steady progress on all fronts. Interestingly, there is no

indication that our target market, middle income Americans,

has been affected at all by news of this past year's

difficulties at Conseco.

4. Investor Briefing. On December 14 we will host an investor

briefing here in Indianapolis. We will use this occasion to

release earnings guidance for 2001. That information will be

publicly released simultaneously. The briefing will begin at

10:30 a.m. and end at 12:30 p.m., followed by lunch here at

our conference center. Obviously our focus is on prospective

investors in Conseco, but we will be pleased to accommodate as

many current shareholders as possible. Contact our investor

relations department for more information.

As usual, please feel free to share your comments and

questions. We will continue to answer them directly or in

future Turnaround Memos.

World Wide Web http://www.conseco.com

Investor Hotline 800.4.CONSECO

Fax-on-Demand 800.344.6452

Note on forward-looking statements: All statements, trend analyses and other information contained in this release and elsewhere (such as in filings by Conseco with the Securities and Exchange Commission, press releases, presentations by Conseco or its management or oral statements) relative to markets for Conseco's products and trends in Conseco's operations or financial results, as well as other statements including words such as "anticipate," "believe," "plan," "estimate," "expect," "intend," "should," "could," "goal," "target," "on track," "comfortable with," "optimistic" and other similar expressions, constitute forward-looking statements under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause actual results to be materially different from those contemplated by the forward-looking statements. Such factors include, among other things: (1) 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) Conseco's ability to sell its products, its ability to make loans and access capital resources and the costs associated therewith, the market value of Conseco's investments, the lapse rate and profitability of policies, and the level of defaults and prepayments of loans made by Conseco; (2) Conseco's ability to achieve anticipated synergies and levels of operational efficiencies; (3) customer response to new products, distribution channels and marketing initiatives; (4) mortality, morbidity, usage of health care services and other factors which may affect the profitability of Conseco's insurance products; (5) performance of our investments; (6) changes in the Federal income tax laws and regulations which may affect the relative tax advantages of some of Conseco's products; (7) increasing competition in the sale of insurance and annuities and in the finance business; (8) regulatory changes or actions, including those relating to 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; (9) the outcome of Conseco's efforts to sell assets and reduce, refinance or modify indebtedness and the availability and cost of capital in connection with this process; (10) actions by rating agencies and the effects of past or future actions by these agencies on Conseco's business; and (11) the risk factors or uncertainties listed from time to time in Conseco's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.