Eastern Alliance Insurance Group Continues Geographic Expansion

LANCASTER, Pa., April 28, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Eastern Insurance Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ: EIHI, "the Company") announced today it has established a satellite office in Richmond, Virginia in support of its subsidiary Eastern Alliance Insurance Group ("Eastern Alliance"), a domestic casualty insurance group specializing in workers' compensation insurance. EIHI also announced that Eastern Alliance has recently appointed several agencies in the New Jersey, Kentucky and Michigan workers' compensation markets in support of its geographic expansion plans.

"The establishment of the Richmond, Virginia satellite office will allow us to better serve and further expand on our client base in the Virginia territory," said Michael Boguski, President and Chief Executive Officer of EIHI. "The newly appointed agency partnerships in New Jersey, Kentucky and Michigan position the Company to expand the Eastern Alliance brand into new operating territories. Both of these initiatives support the Company's strategy to allocate excess capital to its organic growth plan."

Eastern Alliance offers a complete line of workers' compensation products and services, as well as its exclusive ParallelPay® "pay-as-you-go" program. The Richmond, Virginia site is a satellite location of Eastern Alliance's Charlotte, North Carolina-based Southeast regional office, and is being staffed with underwriting, marketing, claims and risk management professionals.

Founded in 1997, Eastern Alliance has become one of the top ten providers of workers' compensation insurance in Pennsylvania, writing casualty insurance products in the state through subsidiaries Eastern Alliance Insurance Company, Allied Eastern Indemnity Company, and Eastern Advantage Assurance Company. Eastern Alliance distributes its products and services through independent insurance agencies. In addition to its Richmond, Virginia and Charlotte, North Carolina offices, Eastern Alliance has offices in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, Wexford, Pennsylvania, Carmel, Indiana, and Franklin, Tennessee.

EIHI operates through its subsidiaries a domestic casualty insurance group specializing in workers' compensation, a third-party claims administration company and a specialty reinsurance company. EIHI's Web address is www.eihi.com. Eastern Alliance's Web address is www.eains.com.

FORWARD LOOKING STATEMENTS

Some of the statements contained in this press release are "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995.  In some cases, you can identify forward-looking statements by terminology such as "may," "will," "should," "expect," "project," "plan," "intend," "anticipate," "believe," "estimate," "predict," "potential" or "continue," the negative of these terms or other terminology.  Forward-looking statements are based on the opinions and estimates of management at the time the statements are made and are subject to certain risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those anticipated in the forward-looking statements, therefore no assurance can be given that management's expectations, beliefs or projections will occur or be achieved or accomplished.  Factors that could affect the Company's actual results include, among others, the fact that our loss reserves are based on estimates and may be inadequate to cover our actual losses; the uncertain effects of emerging claim and coverage issues on our business; the geographic concentration of our business; an inability to obtain or collect on our reinsurance protection; a downgrade in the A.M. Best rating of our insurance subsidiaries; the impact of extensive regulation of the insurance industry and legislative and regulatory changes, a failure to realize our investment objectives; the effects of intense competition; the loss of one or more principal employees; the inability to acquire additional capital on favorable terms; a failure of independent insurance brokers to adequately market our products; and the effects of acts of terrorism or war.  More information about these and other factors that potentially could affect our financial results is included in our Form S-1 Registration Statement, filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and in our other public filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.  Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance upon these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date of this release.  The Company undertakes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements.  This press release also does not constitute an offer to sell, or a solicitation of an offer to buy, EIHI securities.  Such an offer will be made only by means of a prospectus.

SOURCE Eastern Insurance Holdings, Inc.