Torchmark Corporation Elects New Directors and Declares Dividend

October 26, 2005

Torchmark Corporation (NYSE: TMK) announced today that M. Jane Buchan of Corona Del Mar, California and Robert W. Ingram of Tuscaloosa, Alabama have been elected to its Board of Directors.

Jane Buchan, 41, is the Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director of Pacific Alternative Asset Management Company, LLC of Irvine, California. A graduate of Yale University, she holds M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in business economics/finance from Harvard University.

Robert Ingram, 57, is the Senior Associate Dean and Ross-Culverhouse Chair in the Culverhouse College of Commerce at The University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, Alabama where he has served on the faculty since 1985. A certified public accountant, he holds a Ph.D. in accounting from Texas Tech University.

Also at its October 26, 2005 meeting, the Torchmark Board of Directors declared a quarterly dividend of $.11 per share on all of the outstanding common stock of the Company held of record as of the close of business of the Company's transfer agent on January 5, 2006. The dividend will be paid on February 1, 2006.

Torchmark Corporation is an insurance holding company specializing in protection life and supplemental health insurance for "middle income" Americans marketed through multiple distribution channels including direct response, and exclusive and independent agencies. Subsidiary Globe Life And Accident is a nationally recognized direct-response provider of life insurance and is known for its administrative efficiencies. United American has been a nationally recognized provider of Medicare supplement health insurance since 1966. Liberty National Life, one of the oldest traditional life insurers in the Southeast, is the largest life insurer in its home state of Alabama. American Income Life is nationally recognized for providing supplemental life insurance to labor union members.

SOURCE Torchmark Corporation

CONTACT: Joyce Lane, Vice President, Investor Relations of Torchmark Corporation, +1-972-569-3627, or fax, +1-972-569-3282, or jlane@torchmarkcorp.com

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