EX-3 2 exhibit31.txt EXHIBIT 3.1 Exhibit 3.1 AMENDED AND RESTATED CERTIFICATE OF INCORPORATION OF CONSECO, INC. ARTICLE ONE The name of the Corporation is Conseco, Inc. ARTICLE TWO The address of the Corporation's registered office in the State of Delaware is 2711 Centerville Road, Suite 400, Wilmington, DE 19808. The name of its registered agent at such address is Corporation Service Company. ARTICLE THREE The nature of the business or purposes to be conducted or promoted is to engage in any lawful act or activity for which corporations may be organized under the General Corporation Law of the State of Delaware. ARTICLE FOUR Section 1. Authorized Shares. The total number of shares of capital stock which the Corporation has authority to issue is 8,265,000,000 shares, consisting of: (a) 265,000,000 shares of Preferred Stock, par value $.01 per share ("Preferred Stock"); and (b) 8,000,000,000 shares of Common Stock, par value $.01 per share ("Common Stock"). The Preferred Stock and the Common Stock shall have the rights, preferences and limitations set forth below. Section 2. Preferred Stock. The Preferred Stock may be issued from time to time and in one or more series. The Board of Directors of the Corporation is authorized to determine or alter the powers, preferences and rights, and the qualifications, limitations and restrictions granted to or imposed upon any wholly unissued series of Preferred Stock, and within the limitations or restrictions stated in any resolution or resolutions of the Board of Directors originally fixing the number of shares constituting any series of Preferred Stock, to increase or decrease (but not below the number of shares of any such series of Preferred Stock then outstanding) the number of shares of any such series of Preferred Stock, and to fix the number of shares of any series of Preferred Stock. In the event that the number of shares of any series of Preferred Stock shall be so decreased, the shares constituting such decrease shall resume the status which such shares had prior to the adoption of the resolution originally fixing the number of shares of such series of Preferred Stock subject to the requirements of applicable law. Section 3. Common Stock. (a) Dividends. Except as otherwise provided by the Delaware General Corporation Law or this Amended and Restated Certificate of Incorporation (the "Certificate"), the holders of Common Stock, subject to the rights of holders of any series of Preferred Stock, shall share ratably in all dividends as may from time to time be declared by the Board of Directors in respect of the Common Stock out of funds legally available for the payment thereof and payable in cash, stock or otherwise and other distributions, whether in respect of liquidation or dissolution (voluntary or involuntary) or otherwise after payment of liabilities and liquidation preference on any outstanding Preferred Stock. (b) Preemptive Rights. No holder of Common Stock shall have any preemptive rights with respect to the Common Stock or any other securities of the Corporation, or to any obligations convertible (directly or indirectly) into securities of the Corporation whether now or hereafter authorized. (c) Voting Rights. Except as otherwise provided by the Delaware General Corporation Law or this Certificate and subject to the rights of holders of any series of Preferred Stock, all of the voting power of the stockholders of the Corporation shall be vested in the holders of the Common Stock, and each holder of Common Stock shall have one vote for each share held by such holder on all matters voted upon by the stockholders of the Corporation. Section 4. Limitations on Voting Rights. Notwithstanding the voting rights granted to holders of Common Stock and Preferred Stock (collectively, the "Stock") elsewhere in this Certificate or in any certificate of designations with respect to Preferred Stock, the voting rights of any Stock held by any holder as of the effective date of the Reorganizing Debtors' Joint Plan of Reorganization pursuant to Chapter 11 of the United States Bankruptcy Code, dated March 18, 2003, as amended from time to time shall be automatically reduced, with respect to any particular stockholder vote or action by written consent, to the extent, if any, required to avoid a presumption of control arising from the beneficial ownership of voting securities under the insurance statutes or regulations applicable to any direct or indirect insurance company subsidiary of the Corporation, provided that no such reduction shall (without such holder's written consent) reduce such voting rights (i) by more than the minimum amount required to reduce such voting rights to less than 10% of the aggregate voting rights of all Stock entitled to vote or consent with respect to such vote or action, or (ii) to the extent that such holder's acquisition of control or deemed acquisition of control of the direct and indirect insurance company subsidiaries of the Corporation has been approved 2 under, or is exempt from the approval requirements of, all insurance statutes and regulations applicable to the direct and indirect insurance company subsidiaries of the Corporation. ARTICLE FIVE The Corporation is to have perpetual existence. ARTICLE SIX Except as otherwise provided in this Certificate (including any duly authorized certificate of designation of any series of Preferred Stock), Directors shall be elected in accordance with the procedures and requirements prescribed by the Bylaws of the Corporation. Elections of directors need not be by written ballot unless the Bylaws of the Corporation shall so provide. ARTICLE SEVEN Subject to any rights of the holders of any series of Preferred Stock pursuant to a duly authorized certificate of designation to elect additional Directors under specified circumstances, the number of directors which shall constitute the Board of Directors shall initially be established at seven and, thereafter, shall be fixed from time to time by resolution adopted by the affirmative vote of a majority of the total number of Directors then in office. ARTICLE EIGHT In furtherance and not in limitation of the powers conferred by statute, the Board of Directors is expressly authorized to make, alter, amend or repeal the Bylaws of the Corporation. ARTICLE NINE Section 1. Limitation of Liability. (a) To the fullest extent permitted by the Delaware General Corporation Law as it now exists or may hereafter be amended (but, in the case of any such amendment, only to the extent that such amendment permits the Corporation to provide broader indemnification rights than permitted prior thereto), and except as otherwise provided in the Corporation's Bylaws, no Director of the Corporation shall be liable to the Corporation or its stockholders for monetary damages arising from a breach of fiduciary duty owed to the Corporation or its stockholders. (b) Any repeal or modification of the foregoing paragraph by the stockholders of the Corporation shall not adversely affect any right or protection of a Director of the Corporation existing at the time of such repeal or modification. 3 Section 2. Right to Indemnification. Each person who was or is made a party or is threatened to be made a party to or is otherwise involved (including involvement as a witness) in any action, suit or proceeding, whether civil, criminal, administrative or investigative (a "proceeding"), by reason of the fact that he or she is or was a Director, officer or employee of the Corporation or a wholly owned subsidiary of the Corporation or, while a Director, officer or employee of the Corporation or a wholly owned subsidiary of the Corporation, is or was serving at the request of the Corporation or a wholly owned subsidiary of the Corporation as a Director, officer, employee, partner, member, manager, trustee, fiduciary or agent of another corporation or of a partnership, joint venture, limited liability company, trust or other entity or enterprise, including service with respect to an employee benefit plan (an "indemnitee") shall be indemnified and held harmless by the Corporation to the fullest extent authorized by the Delaware General Corporation Law, as the same exists or may hereafter be amended (but, in the case of any such amendment, only to the extent that such amendment permits the Corporation to provide broader indemnification rights than permitted prior thereto), against all expense, liability and loss (including attorneys' fees, judgments, fines, excise taxes or penalties and amounts paid in settlement) reasonably incurred or suffered by such indemnitee in connection therewith and such indemnification shall continue as to an indemnitee who has ceased to be a Director, officer, employee, partner, member, trustee, fiduciary or agent and shall inure to the benefit of the indemnitee's heirs, executors and administrators; provided, however, that the Corporation shall indemnify any such indemnitee in connection with a proceeding (or part thereof) initiated by such indemnitee only if such proceeding (or part thereof) was authorized by the Board of Directors of the Corporation. The right to indemnification conferred in this Section 2 of this ARTICLE NINE shall be a contract right and shall include the obligation of the Corporation to pay the expenses incurred in defending any such proceeding in advance of its final disposition (an "advance of expenses"); provided, however, that, if and to the extent that the Delaware General Corporation Law requires, an advance of expenses incurred by an indemnitee in his or her capacity as a Director or officer shall be made only upon delivery to the Corporation of an undertaking, by or on behalf of such indemnitee, to repay all amounts so advanced if it shall ultimately be determined by final judicial decision from which there is no further right to appeal that such indemnitee is not entitled to be indemnified for such expenses under this Section 2 or otherwise. ARTICLE TEN Section 1. Classification of Directors. At each annual meeting of stockholders, directors of the Corporation shall be elected to hold office until the next succeeding annual meeting and until their successors have been duly elected and qualified; except that if any such election shall be not so held, such election shall take place at a stockholders' meeting called and held in accordance with the Delaware General Corporation Law. Section 2. Removal. Subject to the rights, if any, of the holders of any series of Preferred Stock to remove directors (with or without cause) and fill the vacancies thereby created (as specified in any duly authorized certificate of designation of any series of Preferred Stock), (i) prior to the second annual meeting of stockholders, no Director may be removed from office without cause and without the affirmative vote of the holders of a majority of the voting power of the then outstanding shares of capital stock entitled to vote generally in the election of Directors 4 voting together as a single class and (ii) thereafter, a Director may be removed with or without cause with the affirmative vote of the holders of a majority of the voting power of the then outstanding shares of capital stock entitled to vote generally in the election of Directors voting together as a single class; provided, however, that if the holders of any class or series of capital stock are entitled by the provisions of any duly authorized certificate of designation to elect one or more Directors, such Director or Directors so elected may be removed with or without cause by the vote of the holders of a majority of the outstanding shares of that class or series entitled to vote. Section 3. Vacancies. Subject to the rights of the holders of any series of Preferred Stock to remove Directors and fill the vacancies thereby created (as specified in any duly authorized certificate of designation of any series of Preferred Stock), vacancies occurring on the Board of Directors for any reason may be filled by vote of a majority of the remaining members of the Board of Directors, although less than a quorum, at any meeting of the Board of Directors or by the stockholders. A person so elected by the Board of Directors to fill a vacancy shall hold office until the next succeeding annual meeting of stockholders of the Corporation and until his or her successor shall have been duly elected and qualified. ARTICLE ELEVEN Meetings of stockholders may be held within or without the State of Delaware, as the Bylaws may provide. The books of the Corporation may be kept (subject to any provision contained in the statutes) outside of the State of Delaware at such place or places as may be designated from time to time by the Board of Directors or in the Bylaws of the Corporation. ARTICLE TWELVE The stockholders of the Corporation may take any action by written consent in lieu of a meeting. Subject to the rights of the holders of any series of Preferred Stock as specified in any duly authorized certificate of designation, special meetings of stockholders of the Corporation may be called only by the Board of Directors pursuant to a resolution adopted by the affirmative vote of the majority of the total number of directors then in office, by the chairman of the Board of Directors or the chief executive officer of the Corporation, or by the secretary of the Corporation upon request in writing of the stockholder or stockholders holding of record at least 25% of the voting power of the issued and outstanding shares of stock of the Corporation entitled to vote at such meeting. ARTICLE THIRTEEN The Corporation expressly elects not to be governed by Section 203 of the Delaware General Corporation Law. 5 ARTICLE FOURTEEN The Corporation shall not issue any class of non-voting equity securities unless and solely to the extent permitted by Section 1123(a)(6) of the United States Bankruptcy Code (the "Bankruptcy Code") as in effect on the date of filing this Certificate with the Secretary of State of the State of Delaware; provided, however, that this ARTICLE FOURTEEN: (a) will have no further force and effect beyond that required under Section 1123(a)(6) of the Bankruptcy Code; (b) will have such force and effect, if any, only for so long as Section 1123(a)(6) of the Bankruptcy Code is in effect and applicable to the Corporation; and (c) in all events may be amended or eliminated in accordance with applicable law from time to time in effect. * * * * * *