CHICAGO, June 27 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Bermuda's reign as the undisputed global leader among captive domiciles is being challenged by U.S. companies that are increasingly leaning toward onshore domiciles for their captive insurance companies -- that is among the findings of Aon's new Global 1500 (G1500) research report on captives and their owners. (Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20041215/CGW049LOGO) The latest Aon report indicates that the gap between onshore and offshore captive growth in the Americas has narrowed. While Bermuda remains the domicile of choice for the G1500 (with over a quarter of all G1500 captives), Bermuda's biggest growth as a captive domicile was between 1995 and 2000. Between 2000 and 2005 Bermuda grew by just 21%, whereas Vermont grew by 60%. Large U.S. companies clearly more often favor establishing an onshore U.S. captive -- about two-thirds of U.S. parented captives established in the last five years have been based in U.S. onshore domiciles. Among the domiciles within the U.S., Vermont has been and continues to be the location of choice. The Green Mountain State has more than four times the number of G1500 captives as all the other U.S. onshore domiciles combined. Hawaii is the next most popular with 20 captives, followed by New York, Arizona and South Carolina. Findings show that U.S. companies account for more than a third of the G1500 and account for nearly half of all captives owned. Of the ten G1500 companies with five or more captives, seven have their parent companies in the U.S. The research also highlights that contrary to popular belief, the captive market remains underdeveloped with over half (53%) of the current global 1500 companies not currently owning a captive. The outcome is that insurance buyers within the world's largest companies are failing to achieve a better quality of cover as well as cost savings of typically 10-15%, through economies of scale, efficient use of capital, leverage and more efficient use of senior management time. Sectors missing an opportunity include manufacturing and communications, where 55% and 62% respectively do not have captives. Even sectors that have greater take-up still show room for growth. For example, 44% of the largest financial and insurance companies and 39% of mining companies still do not use captives. Andrew Tunnicliffe, group managing director, Business Development, Aon Global Risk Consulting, said, "The report shows that growth in the captive market is not slowing down -- there is still a long way to go before companies are truly managing risk effectively. The message to some specific sectors such as financial services, communications and retail trade is clear -- you are missing out on significant cost savings by not using captives as part of your risk management program. The captive market is set to grow further. G1500 companies currently have 1,061 captives, as the benefits of captives become clear, I believe that this figure will rise to at least 1,200 by the year 2010." About Aon Aon Corporation (http://www.aon.com/) is a leading provider of risk management services, insurance and reinsurance brokerage, human capital and management consulting, and specialty insurance underwriting. There are 43,000 employees working in Aon's 500 offices in more than 120 countries. Backed by broad resources, industry knowledge and technical expertise, Aon professionals help a wide range of clients develop effective risk management and workforce productivity solutions. For more information Al Orendorff 312-381-3153 http://www.aon.com/newsroom This press release contains certain statements related to future results, or states our intentions, beliefs and expectations or predictions for the future which are forward-looking statements as that term is defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements are subject to certain risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from either historical or anticipated results depending on a variety of factors. Potential factors that could impact results include: general economic conditions in different countries in which we do business around the world, changes in global equity and fixed income markets that could affect the return on invested assets, fluctuations in exchange and interest rates that could influence revenue and expense, rating agency actions that could affect our ability to borrow funds, funding of our various pension plans, changes in the competitive environment, our ability to implement restructuring initiatives and other initiatives intended to yield cost savings, our ability to execute the stock repurchase program, our ability to obtain regulatory or legislative changes to permit continuous sales of our supplemental Medicare health product, changes in commercial property and casualty markets and commercial premium rates that could impact revenues, changes in revenues and earnings due to the elimination of contingent commissions, other uncertainties surrounding a new compensation model, the impact of investigations brought by state attorneys general, state insurance regulators, federal prosecutors, and federal regulators, the impact of class actions and individual lawsuits including client class actions, securities class actions, derivative actions, ERISA class actions, the impact of the analysis of practices relating to stock options, the cost of resolution of other contingent liabilities and loss contingencies, and the difference in ultimate paid claims in our underwriting companies from actuarial estimates. Further information concerning the Company and its business, including factors that potentially could materially affect the Company's financial results, is contained in the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20041215/CGW049LOGO http://photoarchive.ap.org/ DATASOURCE: Aon Corporation CONTACT: Al Orendorff of Aon Corporation, +1-312-381-3153, Web site: http://www.aon.com/

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