Fitch Boosts Transparency of Its North American Life Insurer Ratings.

CHICAGO -- Fitch Ratings said today that it is implementing new ratings standards for the North American Life Insurance Sector that will add greater transparency to the agency's ratings. Fitch's new methodology released in a special report entitled 'Insurance Industry: Global Notching Methodology,' delineates the impact of default risk, and recovery given default, on ratings.

The implementation of the new ratings standards is being done concurrently for most insurance sectors globally, and follows the publication of an exposure draft of the noted methodology report on Dec. 14, 2005 and a market feedback period. A summary of the major areas of feedback, and Fitch's responses, can be found in the report 'Responses to Feedback on Insurance Industry Notching Methodology' also published today and available on the Fitch Ratings web site at www.fitchratings.com.

The new ratings methodology is designed to add greater transparency to Fitch's insurance industry ratings. This is accomplished by more clearly assessing the effect of default risk and recovery given default on ratings. Specifically, the new ratings standards clearly distinguish how default and recovery risk is influenced by various insurance regulatory standards around the world, and varying treatments with respect to policyholder preference and payment restrictions between an operating company and holding company.

As part of the new methodology Fitch is assigning a new Issuer Default Rating (IDR) to essentially all debt issuing entities rated by Fitch. The IDR is a pure measure of default risk at the entity level. Fitch believes that the distinction between the IDR and unsecured senior debt rating provides significant value added information for investors not previously available. A list of newly assigned IDRs for the North American Life Insurance Sector appears near the bottom of this release.

The relationship between life insurer's IDRs and existing senior unsecured debt ratings is primarily dependent on characteristics of the regulatory jurisdictions and environments in which the debt issuing holding companies and subsidiary life insurance companies operate.

The adoption of the new notching methodology resulted in the upward revision in the debt rating of one U.S. life insurer, which was due to the recognition of the relative recovery characteristics between trust preferred securities, subordinated debt and perpetual preferred stock.

Greater details on Fitch's new guidelines governing notching of issue ratings relative to the IDR, as well as the notching between Insurer Financial Strength Ratings (IFS) at an operating company level and debt ratings at a holding company level are available in the noted methodology report.

All rating changes being made today in implementing the new ratings guidelines are being designated as 'revisions', as opposed to upgrades or downgrades. This is being done to make clear that the rating change is driven by a methodology change, as opposed to a change in Fitch's views on the fundamental credit profile of the entity or its rated issues.

The following ratings experienced upward revisions upon implementation of the new guidelines:

AmerUs Group Co.

--7.25% US$50 million perpetual preferred stock revised to 'BBB-' from 'BB+'.

AmerUs Capital I

--8.85% US$86 million trust preferred securities due Feb. 1, 2027 revised to 'BBB-' from 'BB+'.

The following table contains IDRs assigned upon implementation of the new methodology.

AFLAC, Inc.

--Issuer Default Rating (IDR) 'AA-';

--Rating Outlook Stable.

Allstate Corporation (The)*

--Issuer Default Rating (IDR) 'AA-';

--Rating Outlook Stable.

American Equity Investment Life Holding Company*

--Issuer Default Rating (IDR) 'BB';

--Rating Outlook Stable.

American Financial Group, Inc.

--Issuer Default Rating (IDR) 'A-';

--Rating Outlook Stable.

Ameriprise Financial Inc.

--Issuer Default Rating (IDR) 'A';

--Rating Outlook Stable.

AmerUs Group Co.

--Issuer Default Rating (IDR) 'BBB+';

--Rating Outlook Stable.

Indianapolis Life Insurance Company

--Issuer Default Rating (IDR) 'A-';

--Rating Outlook Stable.

Assurant, Inc.

--Issuer Default Rating (IDR) 'BBB+';

--Rating Outlook Stable.

AXA Financial, Inc.

--Issuer Default Rating (IDR) 'AA-';

--Rating Outlook Stable.

AXA Equitable Life Insurance Company 

--Issuer Default Rating (IDR) 'AA-';

--Rating Outlook Stable.

MONY Life Insurance Company

--Issuer Default Rating (IDR) 'AA-';

--Rating Outlook Stable.

Cincinnati Financial Corp.

--Issuer Default Rating (IDR) 'AA-';

--Rating Outlook Stable.

Conseco, Inc.

--Issuer Default Rating (IDR) 'BB+';

--Rating Outlook Stable.

Delphi Financial Group, Inc.

--Issuer Default Rating (IDR) 'BBB+';

--Rating Outlook Stable.

Genworth Financial Inc.

--Issuer Default Rating (IDR) 'A+';

--Rating Outlook Stable.

Great American Financial Resources, Inc.

--Issuer Default Rating (IDR) 'A-';

--Rating Outlook Stable.

Great-West Lifeco, Inc.

--Issuer Default Rating (IDR) 'AA-';

--Rating Outlook Stable.

Canada Life Financial Corporation

--Issuer Default Rating (IDR) 'AA-';

--Rating Outlook Stable.

GWL&A Financial Corporation

--Issuer Default Rating (IDR) 'AA-';

--Rating Outlook Stable.

Canada Life Insurance Company

--Issuer Default Rating (IDR) 'AA';

--Rating Outlook Stable.

Great-West Life Assurance Company

--Issuer Default Rating (IDR) 'AA';

--Rating Outlook Stable.

Hartford Financial Services Group, Inc.

--Issuer Default Rating (IDR) 'A+';

--Rating Outlook Stable.

Hartford Life, Inc.

--Issuer Default Rating (IDR) 'A+';

--Rating Outlook Stable.

Horace Mann Educators Corporation

--Issuer Default Rating (IDR) 'BBB+';

--Rating Outlook Stable.

Jackson National Life Insurance Company

--Issuer Default Rating (IDR) 'AA-';

--Rating Outlook Stable.

Jefferson-Pilot Corp.

--Issuer Default Rating (IDR) 'AA';

--Rating Watch Negative.

Lincoln National Corporation 

--Issuer Default Rating (IDR) 'A+';

--Rating Outlook Stable.

Manulife Financial Corporation

--Issuer Default Rating (IDR) 'AA';

--Rating Outlook Stable.

Manufacturers Life Insurance Co. (The)

--Issuer Default Rating (IDR) 'AA';

--Rating Outlook Stable.

John Hancock Financial Services

--Issuer Default Rating (IDR) 'AA';

--Rating Outlook Stable.

John Hancock Life Insurance Company

--Issuer Default Rating (IDR) 'AA';

--Rating Outlook Stable.

Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Company 

--Issuer Default Rating (IDR) 'AA+';

--Rating Outlook Stable.

MetLife, Inc.

--Issuer Default Rating (IDR) 'A+';

--Rating Outlook Stable.

Metropolitan Life Insurance Company

--Issuer Default Rating (IDR) 'AA-';

--Rating Outlook Stable.

Minnesota Life Insurance Company

--Issuer Default Rating (IDR) 'AA-';

--Rating Outlook Stable.

Nationwide Financial Services, Inc.

--Issuer Default Rating (IDR) 'A';

--Rating Outlook Stable.

NLV Financial Corporation

--Issuer Default Rating (IDR) 'A-';

--Rating Outlook Stable.

New York Life Insurance Company 

--Issuer Default Rating (IDR) 'AA+';

--Rating Outlook Stable.

Ohio National Financial Services Inc.

--Issuer Default Rating (IDR) 'A';

--Rating Outlook Stable.

Ohio National Life Insurance Company

--Issuer Default Rating (IDR) 'A+';

--Rating Outlook Stable.

OneAmerica Financial Partners, Inc.*

--Issuer Default Rating (IDR) 'A';

--Rating Outlook Negative.

American United Life Insurance Company

--Issuer Default Rating (IDR) 'A+';

--Rating Outlook Negative.

Pacific LifeCorp

--Issuer Default Rating (IDR) 'A+';

--Rating Outlook Stable.

Pacific Life insurance Company

--Issuer Default Rating (IDR) 'AA-';

--Rating Outlook Stable.

Phoenix Companies, Inc. (The)

--Issuer Default Rating (IDR) 'A-';

--Rating Outlook Stable.

Phoenix Life Insurance Company

--Issuer Default Rating (IDR) 'A';

--Rating Outlook Stable.

Principal Financial Group, Inc.

--Issuer Default Rating (IDR) 'A+';

--Rating Outlook Stable.

Principal Financial Services, Inc.

--Issuer Default Rating (IDR) 'A+';

--Rating Outlook Stable.

Principal Life Insurance Company

--Issuer Default Rating (IDR) 'AA-';

--Rating Outlook Stable.

Protective Life Corporation

--Issuer Default Rating (IDR) 'A';

--Rating Outlook Stable.

Prudential Financial, Inc.

--Issuer Default Rating (IDR) 'A+';

--Rating Outlook Stable.

Prudential Insurance Company of America

--Issuer Default Rating (IDR) 'AA-';

--Rating Outlook Stable.

Security Mutual Life Insurance Company of New York 

--Issuer Default Rating (IDR) 'BBB+';

--Rating Outlook Stable.

Sun Life Financial Inc.*

--Issuer Default Rating (IDR) 'AA-';

--Rating Outlook Stable.

Sun Life Assurance Co. of Canada

--Issuer Default Rating (IDR) 'AA-';

--Rating Outlook Stable.

StanCorp Financial Group

--Issuer Default Rating (IDR) 'A';

--Rating Outlook Stable.

Torchmark Corporation

--Issuer Default Rating (IDR) 'A+';

--Rating Outlook Stable.

Transamerica Corporation

--Issuer Default Rating (IDR) 'AA';

--Rating Outlook Stable.

Union Central Life Insurance Company 

--Issuer Default Rating (IDR) 'BBB';

--Rating Outlook Stable.

UnumProvident Corporation

--Issuer Default Rating (IDR) 'AA';

--Rating Outlook Stable.

Western & Southern Financial Group, Inc.

--Issuer Default Rating (IDR) 'AA';

--Rating Outlook Stable.

Finally, all long-term Issuer and short-term issuer ratings previously assigned in the Life Insurance Sector are withdrawn.

The new methodology has not been implemented for the American International Group, Inc. (AIG) for which nontraditional notching was used under the prior methodology, and for which Fitch plans to complete an updated analysis of the issuer prior to implementation of the new methodology. Fitch expects to have the new methodology in place for AIG by March 31, 2006.

Fitch will postpone implementation of the new methodology for the insurance operations of the bancassurance group ING Groep N.V. This group will be assessed in terms of the new methodology within the next few weeks following the release of a report on the assessment and assignment of IDRs to bank holding companies.

Fitch's rating definitions and the terms of use of such ratings are available on the agency's public site, www.fitchratings.com. Published ratings, criteria and methodologies are available from this site, at all times. Fitch's code of conduct, confidentiality, conflicts of interest, affiliate firewall, compliance and other relevant policies and procedures are also available from the 'Code of Conduct' section of this site. Issuers denoted with a (*) did not participate in the rating process other than through the medium of their public disclosure.