Conseco
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Conseco | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Type | Public |
| Founded | 1979 |
| Headquarters | Carmel, Indiana |
| Industry | Financial services |
| Products | Insurance |
| Revenue | 4.3 billion USD (2005) |
| Website | www.conseco.com |
Conseco (NYSE: CNO), originally Security Life of Indiana, is a financial services organization based in Carmel, Indiana. Conseco's insurance subsidiaries provide life insurance, annuity and supplemental health insurance products to more than 4 million customers in the United States. These products are distributed through independent agents, career agents and direct to customers through television advertising and direct mail.
Conseco is currently ranked 503 on the Fortune 1000 with 2007 revenues of $4.5 billion.
[edit] History
Conseco was incorporated in 1979, began insurance operations in 1982 and became a public company in 1985. Conseco (though not its subsidiary insurance companies) entered Chapter 11 reorganization in 2002 and emerged nine months later in 2003.
In 1998, Conseco purchased the former Greentree Financial, one of the largest financiers of mobile homes, in an attempt to diversify into consumer financial services. That attempt ended with the divestiture of GreenTree in 2003, and Conseco is now solely focused on the insurance industry.
In late 2001 the Conseco Inc. (CNO) stock on the NYSE crashed to an all time low of only $0.45 per share. This was all in part to the $8 billion debt that the company had accrued over the previous few years. The company fired CEO Stephen Hilbert and filed Chapter 11 Bankruptcy. They then hired the new chairman R. Glenn Hilliard, who was able to put together a legal staff that was in turn able to persuade the judge to lowering the debt amount to a mere $1.4 billion compared to the before $8 billion. Consistent with most Chapter 11 Bankruptcy procedures, the previous common stock was canceled prior to new shares being issued to secured debt holders.
In May 2006, William Kirsch resigned as CEO and was succeeded by C. James Prieur on 7 September 2006, also a member of Conseco's board of directors. Prieur was Chief Operating Officer at Sun Life Financial prior to accepting the position at Conseco.
Conseco played a pivotal role in the current structure of the credit default swap market. The restructuring settlement option was shown in 2000 to have major flaws when the bank debt of Conseco Finance was restructured, triggering CDS settlements even though the restructuring was not detrimental to investors. This led to the creation of a more restrictive restructuring definition.
Conseco is the parent company of Bankers Life and Casualty Company and Colonial Penn.
Conseco operates Conseco Data Services Pvt Ltd., a software company in Hyderabad, India, located in Jubilee Hills near KBR Park.
