COLUMBUS, Ga. - October 27, 2004 - AFLAC's Information Technology (IT) Division has earned a Level 3 rating from the Carnegie Mellon Software Engineering Institute (SEI) for the organization's Capability Maturity Model for Software (CMM) framework for software development processes. AFLAC achieved the rating just 21 months after implementing the CMM.

Created in 1984 by the U.S. Department of Defense to ensure consistency in the quality of software acquired from outside vendors, the SEI is now a federally funded research and development center that helps companies improve their software engineering capabilities in both product development and maintenance. In the past decade, it has expanded to become a standard of measurement for software among many industries in countries worldwide.

"Our team continually strives to exceed the goals we set for new software to improve the way we interact with our customers," said Jim Lester, senior vice president and CIO. "Reaching this level - and reaching it much faster than anticipated - validates the systems and processes we have worked so hard to put in place."

AFLAC began the process for CMM certification in January 2003. Under the direction of Anne German, vice president of Application Services, a team led by Dan Adkins, senior manager for SQA, set an aggressive objective to formalize standards and procedures among all departments within the IT Division following CMM guidelines. While the team's initial goal was to attain Level 2 certification this year, the results of the independent assessment by TeraQuest Metrics showed that AFLAC has surpassed Level 2 and reached Level 3, an achievement that on average takes 41 months.

AFLAC Incorporated (NYSE: AFL) is an international holding company. A Fortune 500 company, AFLAC insures more than 40 million people worldwide. It is a leading writer of insurance products marketed at the worksite in the United States, offering policies to employees at more than 309,000 payroll accounts. The company insures one out of four Japanese households and is the largest life insurer in Japan in terms of individual insurance policies in force. In January 2004, AFLAC was included in Fortune magazine's list of the "100 Best Companies to Work For in America" for the sixth consecutive year. Also in January 2004, AFLAC was named to Forbes magazine's "Platinum 400 List of America's Best Big Companies" for the fifth consecutive year. In March 2004, Fortune magazine included AFLAC in its annual listing of 'America's Most Admired Companies." AFLAC's Internet address is www.aflac.com.

Contact:

Dave Watson
AFLAC
(706) 243-5420
dwatson@aflac.com