A press release issued by Fitch on June 5, 2009 regarding downgrades of Torchmark included the following statement:

"The downgrade reflects Fitch's ongoing review of TMK's statutory capital, its exposure to the current financial market turmoil and the expectation of continued investment deterioration in 2009 and 2010."

With respect to these issues, the Company notes the following:

Investment portfolio

At May 31, 2009, bonds at amortized cost were $9.4 billion, 91% of invested assets. Net unrealized losses at May 31, 2009 were approximately $1.7 billion; $500 million lower than they were at the end of the first quarter. All bonds not previously impaired are current as to interest payment and none are in default.

While the Company has the capacity to absorb impairments at historically high default rates and still maintain adequate statutory capital, management does not expect to incur that level of impairment.

Credit Issues

Fitch's press release also included the following: "Fitch notes that as of March 31, 2009 TMK had $100 million of debt due in August and $274 million of commercial paper outstanding. Given the challenging conditions of the credit markets, the company may have difficulty rolling over the maturing commercial paper."

Since March 31, 2009, the Company has reduced commercial paper (CP) outstanding by $41 million to a total of $233 million at June 5, 2009.

Due to the downgrade of the CP rating from F1 to F2, the Company will no longer qualify to issue CP in the Commercial Paper Funding Facility (CPFF). At June 5, 2009, Torchmark had a total of $35 million of CP outstanding in the CPFF, all of which matures on June 29, 2009.

Although Torchmark won't have access to the CPFF, management is confident that the Company will be able to continue to issue CP in the public market based on current discussions with CP dealers and recent issuance of CP in the public market by other companies not eligible for the CPFF.

If for some unforeseen reason Torchmark couldn't issue CP in the public market, the Company has ample liquidity to retire both the $233 million of CP and the $99 million of debt maturing in August.

-- At the end of the first quarter of 2009, the Company estimated that it

had $242 million of free cash flow available at the parent company for

the remainder of the year. At June 5, 2009, the parent company had $166

million of that cash on hand.