Eastern Insurance Holdings Enters Tennessee Workers' Compensation Market

LANCASTER, Pa., April 1 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Eastern Insurance Holdings, Inc. (Nasdaq: EIHI) announced today it has established a satellite office in Tennessee in support of its subsidiary Eastern Alliance Insurance Group (EAIG), a domestic casualty insurance group specializing in workers' compensation insurance.

EAIG received regulatory approval to write casualty insurance products in Tennessee in June 2009, through subsidiaries Eastern Alliance Insurance Company, Allied Eastern Indemnity Company, and Eastern Advantage Assurance Company. EAIG provides a complete line of workers' compensation products and services, as well as its exclusive ParallelPay® "pay-as-you-go" premium payment option.

EAIG expanded into several Southeastern states in June 2007, opening a full-service regional office in Charlotte, North Carolina in February 2008. The Nashville, Tennessee site is a satellite location of the Charlotte regional office, and is being staffed with marketing, underwriting, claims and risk management professionals. The Company has appointed seven new Tennessee agencies to date in support of this expansion initiative.

Bruce Eckert, Chief Executive Officer of EIHI, said, "One of EIHI's strategic initiatives is to actively pursue opportunities to allocate our excess capital through strategic acquisitions and organic geographic expansion.  We believe the Tennessee expansion of our workers' compensation business presents our shareholders with the right financial and operational opportunity to allocate that capital and extend the Eastern Alliance brand into new territories." 

Since its founding in 1997, EAIG has become one of the top ten providers of workers' compensation insurance in Pennsylvania, later expanding into Delaware and Maryland. In addition to its Mid-Atlantic and Southeast regional offices, EAIG opened a Midwest regional office in Indianapolis, Indiana, with EIHI's acquisition of Employers Security Holding Company in September 2008. EAIG distributes its products and services through independent insurance agencies.

EIHI operates through its subsidiaries a domestic casualty insurance group specializing in workers' compensation, a domestic accident and life insurance company, a third-party claims administration company and a specialty reinsurance company. EIHI has regional offices in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, Charlotte, North Carolina, and Indianapolis, Indiana. EIHI's Web address is www.easterninsuranceholdings.com. EAIG'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.