Western & Southern Enters Pension Risk Transfer Business

CINCINNATI – Oct. 20, 2015 – Western & Southern Financial Group, Inc. (Western & Southern) has entered the pension risk transfer market with the introduction of a new guaranteed single premium group annuity called PensionAssist from subsidiary Western-Southern Life Assurance Company (Western & Southern Life). PensionAssist allows plan sponsors to replace pension benefits paid to pension participants with annuity payments from Western & Southern Life.

The company marked its entry into the pension risk transfer market in August with a $14.7 million transaction placed through Buck Consultants at Xerox, covering about 280 retired participants from an Ohio manufacturing company.

“PensionAssist is a great opportunity for Western & Southern to enter the pension risk transfer market, which reached $3.8 billion in the 2^nd quarter of 2015 according to LIMRA’s June 2015 report,” said Dave DiMartino, Western & Southern’s assistant vice president. “Our financial strength, longevity and deep experience with life insurance and financial planning products and services make us the ideal partner for companies throughout the country that may wish to explore this option.”

With Western & Southern’s PensionAssist, plan sponsors will:

• reduce or eliminate the uncertainty and impact of plan volatility on the company balance sheet,

• free up plan time so the participating company can focus more on its core business activities,

• reduce the need for additional resources as the complexity of regulation increases, and

• provide guaranteed cash flows for pension participants.

For more information about PensionAssist, consultants should contact Dave DiMartino at (513) 361-6769 or email [email protected].

About The Western and Southern Life Insurance Company (Western & Southern Life)
The Western and Southern Life Insurance Company, and its wholly owned subsidiary Western-Southern Life Assurance Company (both known as Western & Southern Life), are members of Western & Southern Financial Group (Western & Southern) and offer life insurance, interest-sensitive life insurance, fixed annuities, retirement strategies and personalized needs analysis for individuals, families and businesses in the middle-income market. It serves customers through 165 field offices nationwide, plus WSLife.com and a state-of-the-art call center known as the Client Relationship Center. The company is a 2015 Top 100 Military Friendly® Employer and Military Friendly® Spouse Employer. For financial tools, career opportunities and product information, see WSLife.com.

About Western & Southern Financial Group

Founded in Cincinnati in 1888 as The Western and Southern Life Insurance Company, Western & Southern Financial Group, Inc. (Western & Southern), a Fortune 500 company, is now the parent company of a group of diversified financial services businesses. Its assets owned ($43 billion) and managed ($26 billion) total $69 billion as of June 30, 2015. Western & Southern is one of the strongest life insurance groups in the world. Its six life insurance subsidiaries (The Western and Southern Life Insurance Company, Western-Southern Life Assurance Company, Columbus Life Insurance Company, Integrity Life Insurance Company, The Lafayette Life Insurance Company and National Integrity Life Insurance Company) maintain very strong financial ratings and a Comdex Ranking* of 96. Other member companies include Eagle Realty Group, LLC; Fort Washington Investment Advisors, Inc.¹; IFS Financial Services, Inc.; Peppertree Partners LLC¹; Touchstone Advisors, Inc.¹; Touchstone Securities, Inc.²; W&S Brokerage Services, Inc.²; and W&S Financial Group Distributors, Inc. For more information on the Western & Southern family of companies, visit www.westernsouthern.com. Western & Southern is the title sponsor of the Western & Southern Open (www.wsopen.com), a premier event in the U.S. Open Series played each August by the world’s top-ranked professional male and female tennis players.

* Lafayette Life has a 97 Comdex Ranking.

1 A registered investment advisor.

2 A registered broker-dealer and member FINRA/SIPC.

For current ratings, please visit http://www.westernsouthern.com/industry.asp.