Press Releases

Carmel, Indiana, September 1, 2004 -- Conseco, Inc. (NYSE:CNO) today announced that Steven M. Stecher has joined the company as executive vice president, operations and information technology, of Conseco Insurance Group.

Conseco President and CEO Bill Kirsch said, "We recruited Steve as a person whose experience and skill set closely match the company's needs. He is an important addition to our team and we look forward to a long and successful relationship."

"I'm excited to be joining Conseco," Stecher said. "The company has made tremendous progress over the past year, and I look forward to helping it become a premier financial services company."

Stecher has more than 18 years of experience in information technology, operations, marketing and management consulting in the insurance and financial services industries. For the past two years, he served as senior vice president and chief information officer for ORIX Financial Services.

From 1997 to 2002, he held several management positions with ING Americas, the U.S./Canada/Latin America unit of international financial services/insurance company ING Groep. Stecher spent his last year at ING as head of shared services, with responsibility for providing ING Americas units with human resources, corporate applications support, IT infrastructure, procurement and accounts payable and other services, through a staff of more than 1,000 employees and an operating budget of more than $300 million. He previously served as chief information officer for all of ING America's operations.

Stecher's insurance industry experience also includes seven years with Equitable/AXA, where he held management positions in marketing, agency operations and brokerage sales management. He has also served as an associate in the insurance group at Perot Systems, program director of insurance services at IDC, and director of strategic planning and research in the insurance and healthcare units at EDS.

Stecher reports to Mike Hone, chief operating officer of Conseco Insurance Group. "Steve's extensive experience with insurance industry business strategy, operating systems and procedures, together with his proven skills in developing and implementing complex organizational change, will be enormously helpful in our effort to implement systems simplification and build a "best-practice" back office to support our agents and customers," Hone said.

Stecher earned a B.A. degree in economics and finance from the University of Texas (Dallas), and a M.A. degree in management from National University (San Diego).

Conseco Insurance Group is one of Conseco's two main insurance businesses and comprises the Conseco insurance companies based in Carmel. These companies specialize in life insurance, supplemental health insurance and annuity products, serving middle-income Americans through a nationwide network of independent insurance agents. Conseco Insurance Group has more than 2.5 million policies in force.

Conseco, Inc.'s insurance companies help protect working American families and seniors from financial adversity: Medicare supplement, long-term care, cancer, heart/stroke and accident policies protect people against major unplanned expenses; annuities and life insurance products help people plan for their financial futures.

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