UnumProvident Maintains Lead in Group, Individual Disability Income Protection

June 7, 2005

CHATTANOOGA, Tenn., June 7 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- UnumProvident (NYSE: UNM) maintained its leadership in long-term and short-term group and individual income protection markets, according to the 2004 JHA group and individual disability market surveys.

(Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20030929/CHM022LOGO-a )

For the 29th consecutive year, UnumProvident or one of its predecessor companies led the group income protection industry in both inforce business premium and new sales. In 2004, the company maintained more than $2.6 billion in premium for existing cases and generated approximately $237 million of new sales.

Today UnumProvident is the choice of nearly one of every four employers who offer group disability insurance coverage -- providing income protection disability insurance to more than 11 million American workers.

"The fact that we maintained our market leadership is particularly encouraging during a year in which we brought a greater pricing discipline to the marketplace as we focused on profitability over growth," said Thomas R. Watjen, president and chief executive officer. "Our leadership in this industry and strong customer satisfaction ratings are a testament to the outstanding efforts of our employees and the strong value of the innovative products and services we provide."

UnumProvident also led the individual disability income protection market with $1.4 billion of inforce premium on more than 1 million policies.

The annual JHA disability market surveys track and reports sales and inforce premiums for both traditional and voluntary disability products in the group market, and non-cancelable, guaranteed renewable, and buy-sell individual product lines. JHA, a subsidiary of General Re Life Corporation (a Berkshire Hathaway company) is a disability reinsurance, consulting and market research firm. Through its market research practice and consulting work, JHA is the leading source for information and data about the disability market. For more information, visit http://www.jhaweb.com.

About UnumProvident

UnumProvident (UNM) is the largest provider of group and individual disability income protection insurance in the United States and United Kingdom. Through its subsidiaries, UnumProvident Corporation insures more than 25 million people and paid $5.9 billion in total benefits to customers in 2004. With primary offices in Chattanooga, Tenn., and Portland, Maine, the company employs more than 12,000 people worldwide. For more information, visit http://www.unumprovident.com.

SOURCE  UnumProvident
    -0-                             06/07/2005
    /CONTACT:  Mary Clarke Guenther, Manager, Media Relations of
UnumProvident, +1-423-294-6300, or mguenther@unumprovident.com /
    /Photo:  http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20030929/CHM022LOGO-a
             AP Archive:  http://photoarchive.ap.org
             PRN Photo Desk, photodesk@prnewswire.com/
    /Web site:  http://www.unumprovident.comhttp://www.jhaweb.com /
    (UNM)

CO:  UnumProvident; JHA; General Re Life Corporation; Berkshire Hathaway
ST:  Tennessee
IN:  INS HEA
SU:  SVY

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5993 06/07/200514:00 EDThttp://www.prnewswire.com