Conseco Further Reduces 2002 Debt

01/16/02 - Conseco, Inc. (NYSE:CNC) today updated its report of 2002 public debt repurchases, announcing that since the company's December 6, 2001 report, it has repurchased an additional $34 million of 2002 maturities.

On December 6, the company reported that it had repurchased $232 million of the 2002 maturities since June 30, 2001. Since then, an additional $34 million of Conseco Finance public debt has been repurchased. These additional repurchases bring the total amount of 2002 maturities retired early to $266 million, $148 million for Conseco, Inc. and $118 million for its subsidiary Conseco Finance Corp. This amount is 30% of all Conseco and Conseco Finance public debt due in 2002.

The company confirmed that these transactions have all occurred at a discount to face value, but it has not disclosed the average discount.

The Conseco, Inc. public debt is a single issue that matures in October. Of teh remaining $296 million of Conseco Finance public debt, approximately $125 million matures in June; the balance matures in September.

Note on forward-looking statements: All statements, trend analyses and other information contained in this release and elsewhere (such as in filings by Conseco with the Securities and Exchange Commission, press releases, presentations by Conseco or its management or oral statements) relative to markets for Conseco’s products and trends in Conseco’s operations or financial results, as well as other statements including words such as “anticipate”, “believe”, “plan”, “estimate”, “expect”, “intend”, “should”, “could”, “goal”, “target”, “on track”, “comfortable with” and other similar expressions, constitute forward-looking statements under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause actual results to be materially different from those contemplated by the forward-looking statements. Such factors include, among other things: (1) general economic conditions and other factors, including prevailing interest rate levels, stock and credit market performance and health care inflation, which may affect (among other things) Conseco’s ability to sell its products, its ability to make loans and access capital resources and the costs associated therewith, the market value of Conseco’s investments, the lapse rate and profitability of policies, and the level of defaults and prepayments of loans made by Conseco; (2) Conseco’s ability to achieve anticipated synergies and levels of operational efficiencies; (3) customer response to new products, distribution channels and marketing initiatives; (4) mortality, morbidity, usage of health care services and other factors which may affect the profitability of Conseco’s insurance products; (5) performance of our investments; (6) changes in the Federal income tax laws and regulations which may affect the relative tax advantages of some of Conseco’s products; (7) increasing competition in the sale of insurance and annuities and in the finance business; (8) regulatory changes or actions, including those relating to regulation of financial services affecting (among other things) bank sales and underwriting of insurance products, regulation of the sale, underwriting and pricing of products, and health care regulation affecting health insurance products; (9) the outcome of Conseco’s efforts to sell assets and reduce, refinance or modify indebtedness and the availability and cost of capital in connection with this process; (10) actions by rating agencies and the effects of past or future actions by these agencies on Concseco’s business; and (11) the risk factors or uncertainties listed from time to time in Conseco’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

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Contact:		Conseco, Inc.
		(News Media) Mark Lubbers, 317/817-4418