State of North Carolina Awards 457(b) Contract to Prudential Retirement

Business Editors/Financial Editors

NEWARK, N.J.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--September 9, 2008--Prudential Financial announced today that the State of North Carolina has renewed its contract with Prudential Retirement to service the NC 401(k) Plan and has chosen Prudential as the new third party service provider for the NC Public Employees’ Deferred Compensation Plan. Under the terms of the agreement, Prudential Retirement will service $5 billion in total combined plan assets and will deliver retirement planning services to approximately 240,000 public employees. Prudential Retirement is a business of Prudential Financial Inc. (NYSE: PRU).

“We are extremely pleased that the State of North Carolina has selected Prudential to help its employees achieve a more secure retirement,” said John Kalamarides, senior vice president, Prudential Retirement. “We are delighted to renew and expand our partnership with the State to offer retirement planning solutions and services that will help participants achieve their long-term financial goals.”

“The State of North Carolina constantly strives to provide the very best supplemental retirement savings options at a very low cost for our teachers and public employees across the state,” said N.C. State Treasurer Richard Moore. “I am pleased that we will be expanding our relationship with Prudential Retirement to offer our members significant cost savings and superior plan services. Combined with our pension fund, this contract will help North Carolina’s public employees prepare for a secure retirement.”

Prudential Retirement delivers retirement plan solutions for public, private, and non-profit organizations. Services include state-of-the-art record keeping, administrative services, investment management, comprehensive employee investment education and communications, and trustee services.

With nearly 85 years of retirement experience, Prudential Retirement helps meet the needs of nearly 3.4 million participants and annuitants. Prudential Retirement has $158 billion in retirement account values as of June 30, 2008.

Prudential Financial, Inc. (NYSE: PRU), a financial services leader with approximately $638 billion of assets under management as of June 30, 2008, has operations in the United States, Asia, Europe, and Latin America. Leveraging its heritage of life insurance and asset management expertise, Prudential is focused on helping individual and institutional customers grow and protect their wealth. The company’s well-known Rock symbol is an icon of strength, stability, expertise and innovation that has stood the test of time. Prudential's businesses offer a variety of products and services, including life insurance, annuities, retirement-related services, mutual funds, investment management, and real estate services. For more information, please visit www.prudential.com.

Retirement products and services are provided by Prudential Retirement Insurance and Annuity Company, Hartford, CT, or its affiliates.

Prudential Retirement, Prudential Financial, PRU, Prudential and the Rock logo are registered service marks of The Prudential Insurance Company of America, Newark, NJ and its affiliates.

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