Pre-Paid Legal Services Announces 2008 2nd Quarter Membership and Recruiting
Results
ADA, Okla., July 1 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Pre-Paid Legal Services, Inc.
(NYSE: PPD), reported new memberships produced and new sales associates
enrolled for the 2008 second quarter. During the 2nd quarter of 2008, new
sales associates enrolled decreased 31.6% compared to the second quarter of
2007. Memberships produced decreased by 8.0% while new membership fees
written decreased by 7.1% and our active membership base increased 0.5%
compared to the comparable period of the previous year.
On a sequential quarterly basis, new associates enrolled increased 1.2%;
new memberships produced decreased 4.1%, new membership fees written decreased
1.7% and our active membership base decreased by 320 memberships.
Three Months Ended
New Memberships: 6/30/2008 3/31/2008 6/30/2007
New legal service membership sales 127,804 131,862 138,083
New "stand-alone" IDT membership sales 6,642 8,337 8,082
Total new membership sales 134,446 140,199 146,165
New "add-on" IDT membership sales 82,623 81,263 92,382
Average Annual Membership fee $329.44 $321.47 $326.04
Active Memberships:
Active legal service memberships at end
of period 1,481,051 1,481,531 1,484,414
Active "stand-alone" IDT memberships at
end of period (see note below) 85,588 85,428 75,156
Total active memberships at end of
period 1,566,639 1,566,959 1,559,570
Active "add-on" IDT memberships at end
of period (see note below) 658,365 641,997 587,550
New Sales Associates:
New sales associates recruited 26,102 25,800 38,175
Average enrollment fee paid by new sales
associates $98.93 $94.71 $44.65
Average Membership fee in force:
Average Annual Membership fee $300.46 $298.54 $295.98
Note -- reflects 4,454 net transfers from "add-on" status to "stand-alone"
status during the quarter
Our total active membership fees in force increased approximately 2.0%
during the last year and continue our trend of increasing our membership fees.
Membership persistency rate (defined as the number of memberships in force at
the end of a 12 month period as a percentage of the total of memberships in
force at the beginning of such period, plus new memberships sold during such
period) was 73.3% for the 12 month period ended June 30, 2008 an increase from
the 72.7% for the 12 month period ended June 30, 2007.
Our second quarter 2008 corporate finance focus has again been on share
repurchases. During the 2nd quarter, we returned $14.9 million to
shareholders through the repurchase of 343,409 shares of common stock, at an
average per share price of $43.33. Since April 1999, we have returned
$390.2 million to shareholders through the purchase of 13.3 million shares,
average price of $29.30 per share, and $17.1 million in dividends for a
combined total of $407.3 million representing more than 115 percent of our net
earnings during the same timeframe.
We anticipate announcing our 2008 second quarter financial results on
July 28, 2008 after the market closes. The Company will conduct a conference
call to present the second quarter results on Wednesday, July 30, 2008, at
8:30 a.m. Eastern Time. The conference call will be webcast on the investor
relations' page of http://www.prepaidlegal.com. Questions may be submitted
prior to the call via email to investor@pplsi.com.
About Us -- We believe our products are one of a kind, life events legal
service plans. Our plans provide for legal service benefits provided through
a network of independent law firms across the U.S. and Canada, and include
unlimited attorney consultation, will preparation, traffic violation defense,
automobile-related criminal charges defense, letter writing, document
preparation and review and a general trial defense benefit. We have an
identity theft restoration product we think is also one of a kind due to the
combination of our identity theft restoration partner and our provider law
firms. More information about us and our products can be found at our
homepage at http://www.prepaidlegal.com.
Forward-Looking Statements
Statements in this press release, other than purely historical
information, regarding our future plans and objectives and expected operating
results, dividends and share repurchases and statements of the assumptions
underlying such statements, constitute forward-looking statements within the
meaning of Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. The
forward-looking statements contained herein are based on certain assumptions
that may not be correct. They are subject to risks and uncertainties incident
to our business that could cause actual results to differ materially from
those described in the forward-looking statements. These risks and
uncertainties are described in the reports and statements filed by us with the
Securities and Exchange Commission, including (among others) those listed in
our Form 10-K, Form 10-Q and Form 8-K, and include the risks that our
membership persistency or renewal rates may decline, that we may not be able
to continue to grow our memberships and earnings, that we are dependent on the
continued active participation of our principal executive officer, that
pending or future litigation may have a material adverse effect on us if
resolved unfavorably to us, that we could be adversely affected by regulatory
developments, that competition could adversely affect us, that we are
substantially dependent on our marketing force, that our stock price may be
affected by short sellers, that we have been unable to increase our employee
group membership sales and that our active premium in force is not indicative
of future revenue as a result of changes in active memberships from
cancellations and additional membership sales. Please refer to pages 14 and
15 of our 2007 Form 10-K and pages 7 and 8 of our March 31, 2008 Form 10-Q for
a more complete description of these risks. We undertake no duty to update
any of the forward-looking statements in this release.
SOURCE Pre-Paid Legal Services, Inc.
Steve Williamson of Pre-Paid Legal Services, Inc., +1-580-436-1234
