UnumProvident Corporation Declares Quarterly
Dividend of $0.075 Per Share of Its Common Stock

CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. — On Oct. 16, 2006, the Board of Directors of UnumProvident Corporation (NYSE: UNM) declared a quarterly dividend of $0.075 per share of its Common Stock (which shall be equivalent to $0.0548 per share for shares of Common Stock of Provident Companies, Inc. which have not yet been exchanged), to be paid on Nov. 17, 2006, to stockholders of record on Oct. 30, 2006.

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About UnumProvident
UnumProvident (www.unumprovident.com) is the largest provider of group and individual income protection insurance, and one of the leading providers of employee benefits products and services, in the United States and the United Kingdom. Through its subsidiaries, UnumProvident insures more than 21 million people and provided $6 billion in total benefits to customers in 2005.

Safe Harbor Statement
A "safe harbor" is provided for "forward-looking statements" under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Statements in this press release, which are not historical facts, are forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in the forward-looking statements. These risks and uncertainties include such general matters as general economic or business conditions; events or consequences relating to terrorism and acts of war; competitive factors, including pricing pressures; legislative, regulatory, or tax changes; and the interest rate environment. More specifically, they include fluctuations in insurance reserve liabilities, projected new sales and renewals, persistency rates, incidence and recovery rates, pricing and underwriting projections and experience, retained risks in reinsurance operations, availability and cost of reinsurance, level and results of litigation, rating agency actions, regulatory actions and investigations, negative media attention, the level of pension benefit costs and funding, investment results, including credit deterioration of investments, and effectiveness of product and customer support. For further information of risks and uncertainties that could affect actual results, see the sections entitled "Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Statements" and "Risk Factors" in UnumProvident's Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2005, and subsequently filed Form 10-Q. The forward-looking statements are being made as of the date of this press release and UnumProvident expressly disclaims any obligation to update any forward-looking statement contained herein.