Valerie Brown Named President of ING Retail Annuities; Patrick Yung Becomes Unit's Chief Marketing Officer

ING (NYSE: ING) has announced that Valerie Brown has been named president of the ING Retail Annuity Market Segment, part of the company's Wealth Management business group. Concurrently, the company appointed Patrick Yung as chief marketing officer of the Retail Annuity business unit.

In her new role, Ms. Brown is responsible for the company's Retail Annuity profit & loss, which includes responsibility for annuity operations for all retail annuity product lines, product development and product management, legal, compliance and marketing. ING Retail Annuity had new sales of more than $10.7 billion in 2007 and more than $50 billion in assets under management as of December 31, 2007. She reports to Kathleen Murphy, chief executive officer of ING U.S. Wealth Management, a leading provider of mutual funds and investment services, retirement plans, and retirement income solutions.

Brown previously was executive vice president of ING U.S. Retail Annuity and Wealth Management, responsible for operations, product management, marketing and legal, while also guiding the strategy for ING's then newly organized Wealth Management platform. Before that, she had served as president of ING Advisors Network, where she helped lead the Network's four independent broker-dealers to four years of record revenue and earnings.

Before joining ING Advisors Network, Ms. Brown served in Amsterdam as chief of staff for ING Group's Executive Committees, Americas and Asia/Pacific. Within ING Americas, she has served as president and chief executive officer, ING Life Direct; executive vice president, Branding; president and chief executive officer, ING Medical Risk Solutions; and executive vice president, Strategic Marketing and Management Development. She is a graduate of Oregon State University and has an MBA from Stanford University.

Additionally, ING Retail Annuities recently named Patrick Yung as the new chief marketing officer for the business. Mr. Yung will have overall management and creative responsibility for all aspects of marketing and communications, supporting product development, marketing compliance activities, and ING's investment platform.

Yung joins ING from ConnectiCare Inc., where he was vice president of marketing and chief of staff with full responsibilities for all aspects of marketing, product development and product management. While in that role, Yung helped ConnectiCare significantly grow revenues and earnings while tripling the size of the retail insurance business. Prior to joining ConnectiCare, Yung worked at UnitedHealth Group as vice president of distribution and account management, after several increasingly responsible positions at that company. While at UnitedHealth, he started the marketing and business development group for the enterprise and led the launch of the company's consumer driven health business. He served as chief of staff to the chief marketing officer at CIGNA Healthcare before that, and he began his career at Deloitte and Touche in the financial services and insurance practice managing key national accounts. Yung is a graduate of the University of California at Santa Barbara and has an MBA from The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

ING Annuities offers a broad range of fixed and variable annuities for pre-retirement wealth accumulation and post-retirement income management, sold though investment professionals.

Variable annuities are long-term insurance contracts designed for investing for retirement. They offer the opportunity to allocate premiums among fixed and variable investment options that have the potential to grow income tax-deferred, until an income stream begins. Annuity income is defined as a series of periodic payments, a part of which may be return of your premium or principal, which is guaranteed by the issuing insurance company for a specified period of time or for the life of the annuitant. Optional benefits and riders are available for an additional cost. Variable insurance products are subject to investment risk, are not guaranteed and will fluctuate in value. In addition, there is no guarantee that any variable investment option will meet its stated objective.

Annuities are issued by ING USA Annuity and Life Insurance Company (Des Moines, IA) and ReliaStar Life Insurance Company of New York (Woodbury, NY). Variable Annuities are distributed by Directed Services LLC. Only ReliaStar Life Insurance Company of New York is admitted, and its products offered, in the state of New York. All are members of the ING family of companies. Note: All guarantees are based on the financial strength and claims paying ability of ING USA Annuity and Life Insurance Company, which is solely responsible for all obligations under its policies.

You should consider the investment objectives, risks and charges, and expenses of the variable annuity and its underlying investment options carefully before investing. The prospectuses for the variable annuity and underlying investment options contain this and other information. You may obtain free prospectuses by calling your financial professional or 800-366-0066. Please read the prospectuses carefully before investing.

In the U.S., the ING family of companies offer a comprehensive array of financial services to retail and institutional clients which include life insurance, retirement plans, mutual funds, managed accounts, alternative investments, direct banking, institutional investment management, annuities, employee benefits, financial planning, and reinsurance. ING holds top-tier rankings in key U.S. markets and serves over 14 million customers across the nation.

ING is a global financial institution of Dutch origin offering banking, insurance and asset management to more than 75 million private, corporate and institutional clients in more than 50 countries. With a diverse workforce of over 120,000 people, ING comprises a broad spectrum of prominent companies that increasingly serve their clients under the ING brand.

For more information, visit www.ing.com

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SOURCE: ING U.S. Financial Services

CONTACT: Chuck Eudy of ING U.S. Financial Services, +1-770-980-5209,
+1-770-490-6420 (mobile), chuck.eudy@us.ing.com

Web site: http://www.ing.com/
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