Conseco looks to name change for new image

US life and health insurer Conseco
formerly changed its name to CNO Financial Group, Inc on 11
May. 

“The change to CNO Financial Group, Inc
symbolises the enterprise-wide transformation that we have
achieved,” said CEO Jim Prieur.

“In addition, it establishes a unique identity
that investors will recognise and that all our stakeholders will be
able to keep separate from the identities of our principal
insurance companies – Bankers Life, Colonial Penn and Washington
National.”

Conseco is one of the largest life and health
insurers in the US and ranked 18th in 2008 by total revenue,
according to the Insurance Information Institute. In that year
Conseco reported revenue of $4.34bn and total assets of $30.34bn.
In terms of the number of whole life and endowment policies issued
by Conseco in 2008 (135,658), it ranked ninth.  

However, Conseco, which emerged from Chapter 11
bankruptcy in 2003, has not showered itself in glory in recent
years. Its worst moment came in 2008 when it again had a brush with
bankruptcy following reservations expressed by its auditors as to
its viability as a going concern.

The auditors’ reservations followed reporting
of a $406.8m net loss in the fourth quarter of 2008 and a full-year
net loss of $1.08bn, up from a $194m loss in 2007. Disaster was
averted by the renegotiation of terms of Conseco’s senior secured
bank credit facility.

Conseco has undertaken radical restructuring
including a controversial move in 2008 in which it hived off its
long term care insurance unit into an independent trust.

This enabled Conseco to rid itself of a unit
with 142,000 policies in run-off that had over the previous11 years
absorbed $915m.

Seemingly on the recovery road, Conseco/CNO has
been in the black for five consecutive quarters, and in the first
quarter of 2010 reported a net profit of $33.9m, up 38.4% compared
with a net profit of $24.5m in the first quarter of 2009.

Premium income in the first quarter of 2010
fell 13.5% to $3.94bn, however, while return on equity was a lowly
6.3%.

Sign up for our daily news round-up!

Give your business an edge with our leading industry insights.

Sign up