The Board has declared an extraordinary cash dividend of $2.00 per Common Share, payable on September 14, 2007, to shareholders of record at the close of business on August 31, 2007. The Board approved a new authorization for the Company to repurchase up to 100 million of its Common Shares over the course of the next 24 months. This authorization is in addition to approximately 8.3 million shares that remain available for repurchase under the Board's April 2006 share repurchase authorization. The Company anticipates offering for sale approximately $1 billion of hybrid debt securities in the near future. The specific terms of the debt securities, if they are offered, and other important information concerning the Company and the offering will be set forth in filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including a registration statement, prospectus and prospectus supplement, among other documents.

ECM Achievement Award: Unitrin Direct And Optical Image

Optical Image Technology, Inc. (OIT), creator of the DocFinity suite of workflow and document management software, announcd that Unitrin Direct, in conjunction with OIT, is the winner of the 2007 IASA Technology Achievement Award. This award, presented by the Insurance Accounting and Systems Association (IASA), was presented during the IASA 2007 Educational Conference and Business Show, held in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Ian Zimmerman, Unitrin Directs Director of Underwriting, and OITs Vice President of Sales and Marketing, James Thumma, were on hand to accept the award during IASAs annual business luncheon.

Unitrin Direct was looking to support its overall goal of becoming a leading direct auto insurer by scaling processes and optimizing support functions. The joint project between OIT and Unitrin Direct was to implement an enterprise-wide digital organization of their corporate information and to re-engineer their business processes by using workflow to horizontally align disparate silos of information stored within a variety of departments.

TAURUS advertising built on safety

* Ford debuts advertising for the new 2008 Ford Taurus this week. Ads will appear in print, online, and on radio and television.

* The Taurus is priced thousands of dollars less than its closest competitors.

* New Taurus features more than 500 engineering changes, making it more distinctive, quieter, faster and safer.

* Taurus is rated safest full-size car in America, based on both NHTSA five-star crash test ratings and IIHS Top Safety Pick for models with optional AdvanceTrac.

DEARBORN, Mich. Safety is at the cornerstone of the new integrated advertising campaign to promote the 2008 Ford Taurus. The ads highlight recent endorsements from the National Highway Traffic Safety Association and the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.

In the first television ad, We Know which debuts June 18, a father watches his son progress from going for his first bike ride, helmet and all, to getting behind the wheel of his first car.