ALLSTATE INSURANCE COMPANY

On 11/10/1999, ALLSTATE INSURANCE COMPANY announced an important change in its sales methods. It said that it wanted to start selling its automobile and homeowners insurance lines, along with other coverage, via telephone and the Internet. It would not, it said, be abandoning its traditional strategy of selling through a force of 15,200 agents, but that it would accelerate the move toward making those agents over into independent contractors associated with the company, rather than their being direct employes of the company. The common stock of ALLSTATE CORPORATION, the parent of ALLSTATE INSURANCE COMPANY, closed on the New York Stock Exchange today at US$30.50, up US$0.625 or 2.09% from its previous close.