S&P Comments on Kemper Investors Life Insurance Co.Business Editors NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 8, 2003 Standard & Poor's--Standard & Poor's Ratings Services Ratings Service A company, such as Moody's or Standard & Poor's, that rates various debt and preferred stock issues for safety of payment of principal, interest, or dividends. said today that its 'A+' counterparty credit and financial strength ratings on Kemper Investors Life Insurance Co. (KILICO KILICO Kemper Investors Life Insurance Company ) remain on CreditWatch with negative implications. This update follows the announcement by the company's parent, Zurich Financial Services Zurich Financial Services Group is a major financial services group based in Zurich, Switzerland. Global operations North America The US consumer market is served primarily by Farmers Insurance Group the third largest personal lines property & casualty insurance (ZFS (1) (Zettabyte File System) A distributed file system from Sun that was added to OpenSolaris in 2005 and Solaris 10 in 2006. With support for 128 bits, compared to 64 for NTFS and other contemporary file systems, storage capacity is unlimited for all practical ), that it has completed its transaction with Bank One Corp. to sell Federal Kemper Life Assurance Co. (FKLA), Zurich Life Insurance Co. of America (ZLICA), and other related subsidiaries to Bank One. On May 30, 2003, Standard & Poor's affirmed its 'A+' counterparty credit and financial strength ratings on FKLA and ZLICA, and the outlook on these two companies is negative. Through FKLA, Bank One has assumed-- through reinsurance The contract made between an insurance company and a third party to protect the insurance company from losses. The contract provides for the third party to pay for the loss sustained by the insurance company when the company makes a payment on the original contract. --most lines of business currently underwritten by KILICO. ZFS has retained the KILICO legal entity and certain variable annuity Variable Annuity An insurance contract in which, at the end of the accumulation stage, the insurance company guarantees a minimum payment. The remaining income payments can vary depending on the performance of the managed portfolio. and bank owned life insurance contracts. "The ratings on KILICO remain on CreditWatch negative because they need to be reassessed in light of the company's developing profile," said Standard & Poor's credit analyst Kevin Ahern. KILICO is expected to remain strongly capitalized and will diversify its operational profile through reinsurance of a significant portion of Farmers New World Life Insurance Co.'s fixed annuity Fixed Annuity An insurance contract in which the insurance company makes fixed dollar payments to the annuitant for the term of the contract, usually until the annuitant dies. The insurance company guarantees both earnings and principal. business. Standard & Poor's continues to assess KILICO's role as the primary vehicle for ZFS's U.S. annuity business, especially in the context of KILICO's concentration in equity-based liabilities, which exposes KILICO to some revenue and earnings volatility. Standard & Poor's continues to hold discussions with ZFS and Farmers New World Life Insurance Co. to assess KILICO's strategic importance within its operation relative to ZFS's remaining U.S. life insurance operations. These discussions are expected to be completed by the middle of September. At that time, Standard & Poor's will determine the ultimate rating level. Ratings List Kemper Investors Life Insurance Co. Counterparty credit rating A+/WatchNeg/-- Financial strength rating A+/WatchNeg Complete ratings information is available to subscribers of RatingsDirect, Standard & Poor's Web-based credit analysis system, at www.ratingsdirect.com. All ratings affected by this rating action can be found on Standard & Poor's public Web site at www.standardandpoors.com; under Credit Ratings in the left navigation bar A set of buttons or graphic images typically in a row or column used as a central point that link you to major topic sections on a Web site. If the navigation bar is a single graphic image with multiple selections, it is known as an imagemap. See imagemap. , select Credit Ratings Lists. Standard & Poor's ratings appear alphabetically. Copyright 2003, Standard & Poor's Ratings Services |
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