Dean Copeland joins Provident Companies as executive vice president and general counsel.

CHATTANOOGA, Tenn.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 12, 1997--Provident Companies, Inc. (NYSE:PVT) has announced that F. Dean Copeland has joined the company as executive vice president and general counsel. He will report to Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer J. Harold Chandler, and manage all legal activities in the Chattanooga and Worcester, Mass. locations.

Copeland has practiced with Alston & Bird, one of Atlanta's largest law firms, for 30 years, 26 years as a partner. He has represented major corporations in a wide range of legal matters, and he is highly regarded for his expertise in corporate, acquisition and securities law.

A 1961 graduate of The University of Mississippi with special distinction, Copeland went on to earn a second B.A. degree in jurisprudence from Oxford University, which he attended on a Rhodes Scholarship. In 1965 he completed his LL.B. degree at the Yale University School of Law. He served as adjutant of the U.S. Army's Judge Advocate General's School from 1966 to 1967.

He is a member of the American Law Institute, the American Bar Association and the State Bar of Georgia, where he was active as an officer and committee chair, in recent years serving as chairman and a member of the Executive Committee, and chairman of the Financial Institutions Subcommittee.

In making the announcement, CEO Chandler said, "Dean Copeland has served as our outside counsel over the past three years, and has been involved in all of our strategic and restructuring activities over this period. I am extremely pleased that he has now joined our senior management team. His contributions, I am confident, will extend well beyond his primary legal specialities as we continue to strategically align Provident for greater growth and opportunity for all our employees, producers and shareholders."

CONTACT: Provident Companies, Inc., Chattanooga

Tom White, 423/755-8996