Fitch Ratings Affirms Ratings Of Hartford Life, Inc.

Business Editors

CHICAGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--May 31, 2002

Fitch Ratings has affirmed all fixed income ratings of Hartford Life, Inc. (HLI), including the 'A+' senior debt rating and the 'AA+' insurer financial strength ratings assigned to the primary life insurance subsidiaries listed below. The Rating Outlook is Stable.

HLI is the intermediate holding company for the life insurance operations of the Hartford Financial Services Group (HFSG). HFSG's operations also include property/casualty insurance. Both the life and property/casualty insurance operations maintain leading market positions, diverse operating profiles and solid financial positions. Today, Fitch also affirmed its ratings related to HFSG's debt and preferred securities and property/casualty operations.

HLI's ratings are supported by its growing earnings, diverse business lines, solid asset quality, stable liability structure and expanding capital base. Hartford Life maintains leading market positions in variable annuities, group benefits and variable life, in addition to large operations in the government-employee pension market, structured settlements and corporate-owned life insurance. Sales and earnings across all business units have demonstrated excellent growth. HLI successfully integrated the individual life and annuity operations of Fortis that it acquired in 2001. The company again reported strong financial results for the year despite the difficult market for its variable annuity business during the past two years.

The credit quality of the bond portfolio quality remains high, despite the recent high profile financial struggles of a number of companies. Writedowns in 2001 and 2002 by HLI have not been out of line with those undertaken by others in the insurance industry, particularly when measuring incurred asset writedowns to HLI's overall general account and surplus position. HLI continues to report very low exposure to below investment grade bonds (BIGs) relative to its capital and surplus

Fitch's primary concerns for HLI include the company's concentration in highly competitive markets, many of which build assets under management to grow profitability. As a result, many of HLI's competitors include banks and mutual funds. Fitch recognizes that HLI's largest presence in the asset accumulation market is in the variable annuity business, a market where the organization has excellent market share and expense advantages relative to other annuity sellers. Hartford Life's diverse product lines and multi-channel distribution strategies insulate it from the volatility of any one product.

HLI's operating leverage, as measured by the ratio of adjusted liabilities to adjusted surplus, has shown an improving trend over the past five years to approximately 9 times (x) from 10.5x. Fitch views this level of operating leverage as very good, given the mix of business sold by HLI.

HLI's capital base is solid and benefits from strong fixed-charge coverage levels. The debt structure has a good mix of shorter and longer-term maturities and the company has great flexibility for financing alternatives. Financial leverage at HLI remains within Fitch's expectations, with consolidated adjusted debt (including partial equity for the preferred securities) to total capital at approximately 20% at March 31, 2002. Fitch anticipates that the debt and preferred earnings coverage will be above 8 times at HLI for 2002. Additionally, Fitch expects consolidated debt-to-capital and trust preferred-to-capital to remain below 20% and 15%, respectively, for the HFSG organization.

Ratings Affirmed:

Hartford Life, Inc.

--long-term issuer 'A+';

--short-term issuer 'F1';

--senior debt 'A+';

--commercial paper 'F1'.

Hartford Life Capital I & II

--trust preferred securities 'A'.

Affirmed Insurer Financial Strength Ratings:

--Hartford Life & Accident Insurance Co. 'AA+';

--Hartford Life Insurance Co. 'AA+';

--Hartford Life & Annuity Insurance Co. 'AA+'.