Aetna Announces Annual Meeting and Other Actions

Aetna (NYSE: AET) today announced that its shareholders elected all of the company’s 12 nominees to the Aetna Board of Directors, in each case satisfying the company’s majority vote standard. In addition, shareholders ratified the appointment of the company’s independent registered public accountants, approved the proposed amendment of the Aetna Inc. 2010 Stock Incentive Plan to increase the number of shares authorized to be issued under the Plan and approved the proposed Aetna Inc. 2011 Employee Stock Purchase Plan.

In separate non-binding advisory votes, shareholders also approved the compensation paid to Aetna’s named executive officers for 2010 and resolved that Aetna’s shareholders should have an advisory vote each year on the compensation of Aetna’s named executive officers.

Shareholders also rejected a shareholder proposal to implement cumulative voting in the election of directors and approved a shareholder proposal requesting the company’s Board of Directors to adopt a policy requiring an independent, non-executive chairman of the Board. The Board takes seriously the views of shareholders as expressed through the voting process, and it will consider the implications of the independent chairman vote at a future meeting this year.

In addition, the Board of Directors announced the following actions:

Declaration of a quarterly cash dividend of $0.15 per share on the company’s common stock. The dividend was declared on May 20, 2011, and is payable on July 29, 2011 to shareholders of record at the close of business on July 14, 2011.
Authorization for the company to repurchase up to an additional $750 million of its common stock from time to time. This authorization is in addition to the approximately $315 million of repurchase authority available under Aetna’s prior authorization. The company intends to continue buying shares in the open market from time to time. At March 31, 2011, Aetna had approximately 380 million shares outstanding.

About Aetna

Aetna is one of the nation’s leading diversified health care benefits companies, serving approximately 33.8 million people with information and resources to help them make better informed decisions about their health care. Aetna offers a broad range of traditional, voluntary and consumer-directed health insurance products and related services, including medical, pharmacy, dental, behavioral health, group life and disability plans, and medical management capabilities and health care management services for Medicaid plans. Our customers include employer groups, individuals, college students, part-time and hourly workers, health plans, governmental units, government-sponsored plans, labor groups and expatriates. For more information, see www.aetna.com and Aetna's Annual Report at www.aetna.com/2010annualreport.

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