American Equity Announces Third Quarter 2008 Sales and Schedules Earnings Release, Conference Call and Webcast

Business Wire, Oct 3, 2008

WEST DES MOINES, Iowa -- In light of the uncertainty overhanging the U.S. and worldwide capital markets, American Equity Investment Life Holding Company (NYSE:AEL) is announcing third quarter 2008 sales and certain other information prior to its release of third quarter 2008 earnings which will occur after the close of market on Wednesday, November 5, 2008. The third quarter earnings release and financial supplement will be posted on the American Equity website (www.american-equity.com) at that time.

AEL's annuity sales in the third quarter of 2008 totaled $571.8 million, bringing year-to-date sales to $1.7 billion for the first nine months of 2008, compared to $1.6 billion for the same period in 2007, an increase of 6%. As a part of its Producer Forum program involving a series of 2-day home office meetings with AEL sales agents, the company has held 24 meetings during 2008 involving nearly 500 agents from all over the United States. Many of these agents are top selling agents of at least $1 million in annual sales and as such are "Gold Eagle" members entitled to participate in the Company's agent's stock option plan and other special incentives. The Producer Forums are one of the ways the company communicates with its field force about significant issues including the current national financial crisis as well as Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC") Proposed Rule 151A.

Concerning the costs of hedging the annual index credits on AEL's index annuity business, the average cost of options AEL purchased during the third quarter of 2008 remained below 3.20% despite the spike up in the CBOE Volatility Index ("VIX") during the last two weeks of September. In contrast, such options costs averaged above 3.50% for the same period in 2007. As a result the company has taken no action to reduce applicable participation and cap rates on its index annuities during 2008, and in fact increased certain rates in June 2008. AEL will continue to closely monitor the VIX and options costs to determine whether such a rate cut should be implemented in order to maintain the cost of money on index annuities within the company's budget.

Concerning its common stock repurchase program, AEL suspended purchases of its common stock on August 4, 2008. Under this program, which was initiated in November 2007, AEL has purchased 3.4 million shares at an average cost of $8.57 per share. The Company does not presently anticipate making additional purchases under this program before it expires in November 2008.

Concerning SEC Proposed Rule 151A (which would require registration of most index annuity products and securities licensing of sales agents), the comment period for the Proposed Rule expired September 10, 2008. As of that date, approximately 2,400 comments had been sent to the SEC of which approximately 90% were in opposition to the Rule. The SEC has continued to accept and post comments received after the deadline. On September 23, 2008 AEL co-hosted a Congressional fly-in in Washington D.C. in which the Coalition for Indexed Products (a Coalition of nine companies co-chaired by AEL and Old Mutual) and a group of national marketing organizations representing the Coalition companies met with nearly 80 members of Congress in an all-day event. The purpose of the meetings was to urge the members to contact the SEC with their concerns that the Proposed Rule is unnecessary since index annuity sales are already heavily regulated by state insurance departments and would restrict consumer choice at a time when access to principal-protected products like fixed index annuities should be carefully guarded.

EARNINGS CONFERENCE CALL

AEL will hold a conference call to discuss third quarter 2008 earnings on Thursday, November 6, 2008, at 10 a.m. CST. The conference call will be webcast live on the Internet. Investors and interested parties who wish to listen to the call on the Internet may do so at www.american-equity.com.

The call may also be accessed by telephone at 1-866-713-8307, passcode 22461740 (international callers, please dial 1-617-597-5307). An audio replay will be available shortly after the call on AEL's website. An audio replay will also be available via telephone through November 27, 2008, by calling 1-888-286-8010, passcode 27418323 (international callers will need to dial 1-617-801-6888).

ABOUT AMERICAN EQUITY

American Equity Investment Life Holding Company, through its wholly-owned operating subsidiaries, is a full-service underwriter of a broad line of annuity and insurance products with a primary emphasis on the sale of fixed-rate and index annuities. The company's headquarters are located at 5000 Westown Parkway, West Des Moines, Iowa, 50266. The mailing address of the company is: P.O. Box 71216, Des Moines, Iowa, 50325. For more information, visit our website www.american-equity.com.