NEW YORK (Standard&Poor's) June 19, 2002--Standard&Poor's said today it assigned its single-'A'-minus counterparty credit rating to Unitrin Inc. (Unitrin) reflecting Unitrin's extremely strong capitalization, conservative financial leverage, strong diverse business positions in several niche markets, and very strong operating performance in the life/health and consumer finance divisions, offset by continued weak earnings from property/casualty insurance operations. The outlook is stable. Standard&Poor's also said it took rating actions on various insurance subsidiaries of Unitrin. The counterparty credit and financial strength ratings on the core life/health insurance companies, led by United Insurance Co. of America, were lowered to single-'A'-plus from double-'A'-minus and the outlook was revised to stable from negative. The counterparty credit and financial strength
