Aetna Life Insurance Now Offering Expedited Payment And Access To Funeral Planning

HARTFORD, Conn., July 08, 2010 — Aetna (NYSE: AET) today announced the addition of expedited claims payment and funeral planning available to its life insurance customers. These new funeral planning services provide access to knowledgeable advisors 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, extensive funeral planning tools and cost-savings services. Members and their beneficiaries can get help making decisions about difficult and costly issues at the end of life. In addition, Aetna now offers expedited claims payment if beneficiaries need an immediate death benefit to pay for funeral costs. These enhancements join Aetna’s full suite of options available to its life insurance customers of all sizes.  

Aetna also offers the Aetna Life Essentials^SM program with all life insurance plans to give members and beneficiaries access to financial advice and legal services. Aetna Life Essentials also offers discounts on fitness center memberships, fitness equipment, hearing and vision services as well as personalized counseling services from a licensed social worker for employees and beneficiaries who are suffering from disabilities or dealing with a serious medical condition.

"Our customers are looking to us to provide value-added services aimed at protecting and rewarding talented employees," said Scott Beeman, head of Aetna Life Insurance. "Life insurance is an important part of the benefits package our customers offer their employees, so providing more than just benefit payouts is critical. Our offerings provide information and access to resources on a variety of issues including funeral costs, financial advice, estate planning and legal services. These services can truly make a difference for consumers at a time when they need it most."

The funeral planning services, offered through Everest Funeral Package, LLC*, a nationwide funeral planning and concierge service, provide:

• 24X7 Advisor Assistance to discuss funeral planning issues with consumers, including choosing a funeral home, finding a cemetery, purchasing a casket and others.
• PriceFinder Research Reports to help consumers compare costs at local funeral homes. The PriceFinder database is the only nationwide database of funeral home prices.

Online Planning Tools, including the “10 Key Decisions” and “My Wishes” planning guides. The personal information consumers enter into these tools is stored and maintained in a secure data warehouse.

In addition, this new offering also provides resources for families after the member has passed away. They include:

• Family Assistance and Plan Implementation – Advisors work with the family to understand their wishes and then communicate the personal funeral plan to the funeral home, providing 24-hour assistance throughout the funeral process.
• Negotiation Assistance – Advisors gather pricing information and present it to the family in an easy-to-read format; they negotiate funeral service pricing with local funeral homes; and help the family compare prices of caskets and other products or services.
  

About Aetna
Aetna is one of the nation's leading diversified health care benefits companies, serving approximately 36.1 million people with information and resources to help them make better informed decisions about their health care. Aetna offers a broad range of traditional and consumer-directed health insurance products and related services, including medical, pharmacy, dental, behavioral health, group life and disability plans, and medical management capabilities and health care management services for Medicaid plans. Our customers include employer groups, individuals, college students, part-time and hourly workers, health plans, governmental units, government-sponsored plans, labor groups and expatriates. For more information, see www.aetna.com and Aetna's Annual Report at www.aetna.com/2009annualreport/.

*Everest Funeral Package, LLC (Everest) is not affiliated with Aetna and is not a provider of insurance services. Everest and its affiliates have no affiliation with Everest Re Group, Ltd., Everest Reinsurance Company or any of their affiliates.