LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Conseco
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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.
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Conseco is a leading company in the sector of Life insurance, Heath insurance and annuities. Originally titled as Security Life of Indiana the enterprise was established in 1979. The firm has its headquarters in Carmel, Indiana. Conseco claims to serve all its customers through their well weaved distribution channels, which incorporates independent agents and career agents.
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The Green Tree acquisition stirred up numerous questions, including whether Conseco had too much debt and whether Green Tree, which had a past of dubious accounting practices, was growing too rapidly--25 to 30 percent a year--and providing loans to high-risk borrowers. The company's stock decline ... led to a deficit of collateral on company-guaranteed loans used by Conseco executives to purchase Conseco stock. Questions persisted, and in late 1999 Conseco announced plans to pare debt and slow growth. The company said it would divest of non-core assets, and it sold seven percent of its stock to private investment firm Thomas H. Lee Company for $478 million.
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Conseco has a particular marketing emphasis on retirement products, including a series of television commercials that show bizarre ways of funding retirement. The newest commercial, Wendt said, shows Grandma arriving unexpectedly at her children's home in a bag.
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Conseco enjoys one of the largest sales forces of independent agents and brokers in the industry - licensed agents who are a variable expense, commission only, not a fixed salary of captive agent expense. Conseco has consolidated its three separate product-based insurance units - Life insurance, Supplemental Health Insurance, and Annuities - into one business unit. Leading the new combined unit is Liz Georgakopolos who joined Conseco in 2000 as president of its supplemental health business. Georgakopolos previously had operating responsibility for the Long-Term Care insurance business at Travelers Insurance Company. She holds an MBA from Harvard and worked several years for the Boston Consulting Group (BCG).
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In 1998 Conseco hoped to continue its growth and strong financial performance. To meet these goals, Conseco in March agreed to acquire Green Tree Financial Corporation, a diversified financial services company that offered home equity and home improvement loans, financing packages for the purchases of recreational vehicles and equipment, and credit cards. Green Tree was best known... as the leading U.S. lender for mobile home purchases. Green Tree was Conseco's first acquisition not related to insurance, and it was also the largest of Conseco's acquisitions--Conseco reportedly paid about $6 billion in stock for Green Tree. Conseco claimed the acquisition was a perfect fit, as both companies served the same target market, but many industry observers were skeptical, and Conseco's stock took a plunge. Not only did the company's stock fall about 15 percent upon announcement of the acquisition agreement, but it continued to drop; from a high of $58.12 a share in April 1998, Conseco stock dropped to about $20 a share in late 1999.
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