American Equity Declares Annual Cash Dividend of $0.12 on Common Stock and Share Repurchase Program of 10M Shares

American Equity Investment Life Holding Company AEL, a leading underwriter of index and fixed rate annuities, today announced that its Board of Directors has declared an annual cash dividend of $0.12 per share to owners of its common stock. This is a 20% increase from the $0.10 annual dividend declared on November 18, 2010. This marks the thirteenth consecutive year a cash dividend has been declared and the eighth year in a row that the Company has increased its cash dividend. The dividend will be payable on December 16, 2011 to shareholders of record as of December 2, 2011. There are 63,432,435 shares of common stock outstanding as of November 16, 2011. SHARE REPURCHASE PROGRAM The Board of Directors has also approved a share repurchase program, effective immediately. Under the program, American Equity is authorized to repurchase up to 10,000,000 shares of its common stock at any time during the next 24 months. The repurchases will be made on the open market, through privately negotiated transactions or otherwise. The timing of such transactions will depend on a variety of factors, including market conditions and share price.