CNO Financial Group

CNO Financial Group, Inc. (formerly Conseco, Inc.; NYSE: CNO) is a financial services holding company based in Carmel, Indiana. CNO's insurance subsidiaries provide life insurance, annuity and supplemental health insurance products to more than four 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.

CNO is currently ranked 608 on the Fortune 1000 with 2014 revenues of $4.1 billion.

In April of 2014 CNO was ranked top 50 most trusted financial institutions by Forbes.

History

CNO was incorporated in 1979 as Conseco, Inc. It began insurance operations in 1982 and became a public company in 1985.

In 1986 Conseco acquired Lincoln Income Life Insurance Company for $29 per share or $32.3 mil. Shearson Lehman Brothers advised Lincoln Income Life Insurance. Earlier, in mid-1985, Lincoln had agreed to be acquired by I.C.H. for $31 per share in cash but the merger couldn't be consummated as the Kentucky Department of Insurance raised objections to certain expenses which Lincoln would have incurred in the merger. Lincoln also received a merger proposal from Redgate in 1985. Satisfied with its recipe for acquiring and improving insurance companies, Conseco stepped up its acquisition efforts in 1986. It purchased Bankers National Life Insurance Company for $118 million, respectively.