The Hartford and Protective Form Joint Venture to Offer Term Life Insurance Quotes Online

SIMSBURY, Conn., April 18 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- The Hartford Financial Services Group, Inc. and Protective Life Corporation , through wholly owned subsidiaries, have formed Life Alliance, LLC, a new online joint venture to help broker-dealers, banks and other distributors meet their customers' term life insurance needs.

Life Alliance, LLC created the Insurance Online Network(TM) (ION), a Web- based platform designed to make it easier and quicker for financial professionals to provide their clients with quotes on term life insurance from multiple carriers, from the convenience of their own desktops. ION also provides financial professionals with links to the quoting insurance companies.

ION will be available through several broker-dealers and banks. ION is a free service available to distributors of financial service products, offering a new cost-effective alternative to other "pay to play" online quote systems.

"The choices available to consumers in today's life insurance marketplace continue to expand. The ION system will help put us in the forefront of this trend," said Michael Kalen, executive vice president of The Hartford's Individual Life Division. "This new venture will provide a value-added service for financial professionals and their clients in selecting term life insurance."

"The ION system revolutionizes how life insurance is transacted in the financial services industry -- it is a game-changing platform," said John Deremo, senior vice president of Protective Life Insurance Company's Life and Annuity Division (Protective Life). "We have placed the power of choice in the hands of brokers -- it is just a single click away."

ION will provide quotes on 10- and 20-year term life policies from Hartford Life and Annuity Insurance Company and 10-, 15-, 20- and 30-year term life policies from Protective. Available face amounts start at $100,000. Eventually, ION may provide quotes from participating carriers on other product offerings such as permanent life insurance, including variable universal life, universal life and whole life products.

Financial professionals can use ION to generate quotes for term life insurance from multiple carriers based on information about the client's age, requested coverage amount, gender, risk class, and coverage period. There are no medical questions asked at the time a quote is requested. Once a consumer selects a quote, the financial professional electronically submits the information to the carrier for underwriting and processing.

A tele-interviewer from the selected carrier will contact the consumer to gather medical and financial information. An automated system will compile all the information, transfer it to a formal life insurance application, and forward it to an underwriter. Online status information, from underwriting to policy issue, is available to financial professionals via the carriers' websites.

"The ION system sets a new standard on how easily financial professionals and their customers can do business with insurance carriers," The Hartford's Kalen said. "At The Hartford, we continually work to streamline our processes to make it easier for more people meet their financial security needs."

"We developed ION collaboratively to help provide financial services firms an unparalleled level of service and ease of use unrivaled in the insurance industry today," Protective's Deremo said. "We believe ION will set the standard by which other quotation systems are measured on convenience, product selection and ease of use."

Protective Life Corporation, parent company of Protective Life Insurance Company, provides financial services through the production, distribution and administration of insurance and investment products throughout the United States. It has annual revenues of approximately $2.0 billion and assets of $27.2 billion.

The Hartford is one of the nation's largest financial services and insurance companies, with 2004 revenues of $22.7 billion. The company is a leading provider of investment products, life insurance and group benefits; automobile and homeowners products; and business property-casualty insurance.

The Hartford is The Hartford Financial Services Group, Inc. and its subsidiaries, including the issuing companies of Hartford Life Insurance Company and Hartford Life and Annuity Insurance Company.

Term life insurance policies are issued by Hartford Life and Annuity Insurance Company and Protective Life Insurance Company/Protective Life and Annuity Insurance Company.

Neither The Hartford nor Protective Life nor their agents or employees provide tax or legal advice. As with all matters of a tax or legal nature, your clients should consult their own tax or legal counsel for advice.

Some of the statements in this release may be considered forward-looking statements as defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. The Hartford cautions investors that these forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance, and actual results may differ materially. Investors should consider the important risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ. These important risks and uncertainties include those discussed in The Hartford's Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, The Hartford's 2004 Annual Report on Form 10-K and the other filings The Hartford makes with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The Hartford assumes no obligation to update this release, which speaks as of the date issued.

  Contact(s):
   David Potter                       Eric Miller
   The Hartford                       Protective Life
   860-843-8993                       800-628-6390
   david.potter@hartfordlife.com      eric.miller@protective.com