May 22, 2000 (Berkeley, CA) -- Lumeria Inc. is pleased to announce that Assurant GroupSM, a leading specialty insurer and third-party marketer, has made a strategic investment in the company. Lumeria is an infomediary incubator creating companies that enable people to benefit from a powerful new generation of customized and personalized commerce and content both on the Internet and in the physical world, while letting them protect and control their personal information.

Assurant's member companies will generate over $4.5 billion in gross written premium in 2000. Assurant is part of the international Fortis group, which operates in the fields of insurance, banking and investments, with assets in excess of $400 billion.

At the cutting edge of a major new market trend, Lumeria sets up companies that act as infomediaries - or information intermediaries - for customers engaging in commerce and content transactions. Lumeria CEO Fred Davis describes the company's SuperProfile system as "a revolutionary new platform for infomediaries. The SuperProfile system lets consumers take control of their personal profiles, filter unwanted marketing, learn about things they are interested in, get innovative new services, and increase their buying power."

Davis stresses the importance of the partnership with Assurant: "This strategic relationship with Assurant allows us to blend the innovative marketing technology we've developed with the experience of a financial services powerhouse." Lumeria incubates companies that leverage the SuperProfile system, and it partners with established companies to promote the SuperProfile system as an emerging industry standard that can deliver unprecedented new levels of personalization and customization in both commerce and content without invading the individual's privacy.

In addition to its investment, Assurant's strategic partnership will include sales and marketing consulting to help Lumeria's operating companies partner with Assurant and its customers for business development, marketing, and branding strategies. In addition, the two companies have agreed to undertake a major market research project related to bringing Lumeria's unique brand of personalization, user control, and privacy to a mass consumer audience.

Dodge McFall, Assurant's Senior Vice-President for New Products/eCommerce Business Development, says, "Part of maintaining Assurant's leadership position in the market for specialty insurance is being on the lookout for disruptive technologies that can create paradigm shifts and change marketplaces. Assurant looks forward to working with Lumeria to develop a strategic partnership that can bring the benefits of Lumeria's SuperProfile system to Assurant and our customers in the financial services arena." He adds, "We believe in Lumeria's brand of privacy and customer control because it will drive the industry toward developing a new generation of personalized, trusted services that will ignite the next big boom in eCommerce."

About Assurant Group and Fortis

Assurant Group was created in August 1999 when Fortis, Inc. acquired American Bankers Insurance Group, Miami, Florida, and merged its operations with those of the member companies of Fortis-owned American Security Group, Atlanta, Georgia. Assurant's member companies have more than 110 years of combined experience in the specialty insurance industry, operating in the United States, Canada, Latin America, the Caribbean, Ireland and the United Kingdom.

Both a product developer and underwriter, Assurant markets to consumers on a wholesale basis through strategic partnerships with major financial institutions, retailers, modular housing manufacturers and other entities which provide consumer financing as part of their businesses. Assurant companies enjoy top ratings from A.M. Best Co. and Standard & Poor's. Corporate headquarters are in Atlanta and Miami. To find out more information about Assurant, visit its web site (www.assurant.com).

Fortis, Inc. is a financial services company that, through its operating companies and affiliates, provides specialty insurance and investment products to businesses, associations, financial services organizations and individuals in the United States. The company owns or manages approximately $24 billion in assets. Fortis, Inc. is part of the international Fortis group, which operates in the fields of insurance, banking and investments, with assets in excess of $400 billion. Fortis' listed companies are Fortis (B) of Belgium and Fortis (NL) of the Netherlands (www.fortis.com).

About Lumeria

Lumeria Inc. is an Internet incubator/holding-company focused on the emerging infomediary market. Lumeria provides core technologies, business strategies, marketing services, and other incubation services for the companies it launches. Lumeria's holdings currently include Privacy Place, the online magazine of personal privacy, and DTD.com, the world's largest repository of XML DTDs. Other Lumeria companies under development include Lumeria Ad Network, (a service that allows users to replace the ads they would normally see in their browser with a personalized ad network -- based on their SuperProfile -- that pays users a share of the ad revenue); Linkify (a business productivity and team collaboration "helper app" for individuals, virtual teams and companies); and SafeDisk (secure storage and identity-based sharing of non-web materials such as files, content, and software).

Privately financed, Lumeria Inc. was founded in January 1998 and is based in Berkeley, California. Lumeria's individual investors include Ted Waitt, founder of Gateway; Louis Rossetto, founder of Wired; Waring Partridge, former Executive Vice President of Corporate Strategy for AT&T; and Dick Fredericks, formerly of Montgomery Securities and BankAmerica, who has recently been nominated to the post of U. S. Ambassador to Switzerland. Lumeria's institutional investors include Altamira, a major Canadian investment firm; Tejas Securities, an investment consortium based in Austin, Texas; and Assurant Group, the worlds largest multinational company serving the specialty insurance markets. Lumeria can be reached via its Web site at www.lumeria.com.

Assurant Group is a registered service mark of Fortis, Inc.
Financial data is for the period ending December 31, 1999.