{{short description|American insurance and investment management company}} {{about|the insurance and asset management company|the investment banking firm|Lincoln International}} {{More citations needed|date=October 2025}} {{Use mdy dates|date=October 2025}} {{Use American English|date=October 2025}} {{Infobox company | name = Lincoln National Corporation | logo = | image = File:Lincoln National Insurance Company.jpg | trade_name = Lincoln Financial Group | type = Public | traded_as = {{ubl|{{NYSE|LNC}}|S&P 600 component}} | industry = {{ubl|Insurance|Asset management}} | founded = {{Start date and age|1905}} | founder = Perry Randall | hq_location = {{nowrap|Radnor, Pennsylvania, U.S.}} | key_people = Ellen Cooper (president & CEO) | products = | revenue = {{increase}} US$19.230 billion (''Fiscal Year Ended December 31, 2021'')<ref name=AnnualR2021>{{cite web|title=Lincoln National Corporation 2021 Full Year Financial Result |url= https://www.sec.gov/ix?doc=/Archives/edgar/data/0000059558/000005955822000008/lnc-20211231x10k.htm#ConsolidatedBalanceSheet |website=sec.gov |accessdate=27 November 2022|date=31 December 2021}}</ref> | operating_income = {{increase}} US$1.638 billion (''Fiscal Year Ended December 31, 2021'')<ref name=AnnualR2021 /> | net_income = {{increase}} US$1.405 billion (''Fiscal Year Ended December 31, 2021'')<ref name=AnnualR2021 /> | assets = {{increase}} US$387.301 billion (''Fiscal Year Ended December 31, 2021'')<ref name=AnnualR2021 /> | equity = {{decrease}} US$20.272 billion (''Fiscal Year Ended December 31, 2021'')<ref name=AnnualR2021 /> | num_employees = 11,000+ (2022) | website = {{URL|lincolnfinancial.com}} }}
'''Lincoln National Corporation''' is a ''Fortune'' 200 American holding company, which operates multiple insurance and investment management businesses through subsidiary companies. '''Lincoln Financial Group''' is the marketing name for LNC and its subsidiary companies.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Lincoln Financial Group rules, regulations and disclaimers|url=https://www.lfg.com/public/legal/terms|access-date=2020-09-08|website=lfg|language=en}}</ref>
LNC was organized under the laws of the state of Indiana in 1968, and maintains its principal executive offices in Radnor, Pennsylvania.<ref>"[http://www.lfg.com/LincolnPageServer?LFGPage=/lfg/lfgclient/cus/corp/index.html Corporate] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090828105407/http://www.lfg.com/LincolnPageServer?LFGPage=%2Flfg%2Flfgclient%2Fcus%2Fcorp%2Findex.html |date=2009-08-28 }}." Lincoln National Corporation. Retrieved on August 24, 2009.</ref> The company traces its roots to its earliest predecessor founded in 1905.{{Citation needed|date=January 2020}}
In addition, LNC is the naming rights sponsor of Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia, home field of the Philadelphia Eagles of the National Football League.
==History== {{More citations needed section|date=August 2009}}
===Founding and early history=== thumb|The iconic sign on Lincoln's former corporate headquarters in downtown Fort Wayne, Indiana Lincoln traces its origin to June 12, 1905, in Fort Wayne, Indiana, as the Lincoln National Life Insurance Company. Four men were initially founders of the organization, with an Attorney Daniel Ninde becoming the largest stockholder and first CFO for the company, according to Ninde family history. Daniel Ninde was educated as a Midshipman at the Naval Academy in Annapolis, MD. He descended from a local Fort Wayne family raising a number of Circuit Court Judges. Great Uncle Harry Ninde's farm is now downtown Fort Wayne. It is believed that the four founding men all worked at Lincoln National in one way or another. They bought a smaller insurance company located in North Dakota and needed to pass a 6-month residency requirement to complete the sale. They then bought a furnished home located in that state and spent the next six months on weekends playing poker for its furnishings. Daniel Ninde's family still owns a large oriental rug he won in a card game there. Manager Perry Randall, a Fort Wayne attorney and entrepreneur, suggested the name "Lincoln," arguing that the name of Abraham Lincoln would powerfully convey a spirit of integrity. In August, 1905 Robert Todd Lincoln provided a photograph of his father, along with a letter authorizing the use of his father's likeness and name for company stationery and advertising.
In 1928, LNC president Arthur Hall hired Dr. Louis A. Warren, a Lincoln scholar, and in 1929, LNC acquired one of the largest collections of books about Abraham Lincoln in the United States. The Lincoln Museum in Fort Wayne was the second largest Lincoln museum in the country. The Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum in Springfield, Illinois is now the world's largest museum dedicated to the life and times of Abraham Lincoln, after the closing of the Fort Wayne Lincoln Museum June 30, 2008.
Ian Rolland started with Lincoln in 1956, and became president of Lincoln National Life in 1977. When Rolland retired in 1998, new president Jon A. Boscia moved LNC to Philadelphia and started using the Lincoln Financial Group name for marketing. Lincoln National Life, the largest subsidiary, and the Lincoln Museum remained in Fort Wayne.
===1990–2007=== Lincoln Reinsurance was the first US reinsurance company; it was sold to Swiss Re in 2001. K&K Insurance Specialties was the first to insure events like NASCAR races; it was sold to Aon in 1993. Safeco bought American States, a property/casualty insurance business because Lincoln was primarily in life/health. However, LNC even sold a block of disability income business to MetLife in 1999, as it narrowed its focus.
Lincoln moved its headquarters from Indiana to Philadelphia in 1999.<ref name="DelInv">Blumenthal, Jeff. "[http://www.bizjournals.com/philadelphia/stories/2009/08/17/daily18.html Lincoln sells Delaware Investments]." ''Philadelphia Business Journal''. Wednesday August 19, 2009. Modified Thursday August 20, 2009. Retrieved on August 24, 2009.</ref> In Philadelphia Lincoln was headquartered in the West Tower of Centre Square in Center City.<ref>"[https://web.archive.org/web/20000622021431/http://www.lfg.com/f_contct.htm Contact Us]." Lincoln National Corporation. June 22, 2000. Retrieved on August 24, 2009.</ref>
Lincoln Financial was naming rights sponsor for the 2000 Rugby League World Cup which was held in England.
Lincoln Financial Group purchased the Administrative Management Group, Inc. based in Arlington Heights, Illinois in August 2002. Previously, AMG was a strategic partner of LFG for four years, providing recordkeeping services for the Lincoln Alliance product, a turnkey solution for "employer retirement and employee benefit programs, including investment choices, recordkeeping, plan design, compliance and employee retirement counseling and education."<ref>{{Cite news|title=Lincoln Buys RK Firm|url=https://www.plansponsor.com/lincoln-buys-rk-firm/?layout=print|last=Schneyer|first=Fred|date=August 13, 2002|access-date=June 4, 2020|work=PlanSponsor|publication-date=January 8, 2003|quote=turnkey solutions for employer retirement and employee benefit programs, including investment choices, recordkeeping, plan design, compliance and employee retirement counseling and education.}}</ref>
In 2007, the company moved 400 employees, including its top executives, to Radnor Township from Philadelphia.<ref name="DelInv" />
===Jefferson-Pilot acquisition=== Following the acquisition of Jefferson-Pilot Corporation in March 2006, Lincoln Financial acquired group life, disability, and dental insurance divisions. Jefferson-Pilot Corporation was a Fortune 500 company based in Greensboro, North Carolina, founded in 1986 from the merger of Jefferson Standard Insurance (founded 1907 by Charles W. Gold and Pleasant D. Gold, Jr., sons of Pleasant Daniel Gold) and Pilot Life Insurance (founded 1903). The two companies' association actually dated to 1945, when Jefferson Standard bought majority control of Pilot Life; Jefferson Standard had previously bailed Pilot out in the 1930s.<ref>{{cite news|page=A4|url=https://www.genealogybank.com/newspaper-clippings/pilot-older-jefferson-more-associated-greensboro/kyvtveyhldpmmwvnyfxgbomijupjlrpg_wma-gateway017_1677125431507|first=Jack|last=Scism|title=Pilot older, but Jefferson more associated with Greensboro|work=Greensboro News & Record|date=August 5, 1986}}</ref> The Pilot Life headquarters built in the 1920s and located at 5300 High Point Road, "a careful replication of the governor's mansion built in 1767 in New Bern," was nominated to the National Register of Historic Places in 2022, when Clachan Properties of Richmond, Virginia, was buying the property to develop apartments.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://greensboro.com/news/local/former-pilot-life-hq-in-sedgefield-looks-like-mansion-from-1700s-its-nominated-for-spot/article_a2c42688-bb5e-11ec-b707-279e18995582.html|title=Historic designation sought for landmark|last=Caranna|first=Kenwyn|work=News and Record|date=April 14, 2022}}</ref> The 1986 merger marked the retirement of the Pilot Life brand, most notably the end of its "Sail with the Pilot" jingles, which had been heavily associated with Atlantic Coast Conference college basketball and had been heard on television since 1958.<ref>{{cite news|pages=A15, [https://www.genealogybank.com/newspaper-clippings/scism/tvrlcsndmqangkxuppwgjpsklopsnbkf_wma-gateway010_1677115626900 A16]|url=https://www.genealogybank.com/newspaper-clippings/ship-pilot-ads-turns-last-port/sloawaihdakftvhlyrfccmliqqonhlmf_wma-gateway011_1677125528837|first=Jack|last=Scism|date=August 10, 1986|title=Ship of Pilot ads turns into last port|work=Greensboro News & Record}}</ref> The insurance operations would continue to be headquartered in what became the Lincoln Financial Building.<ref>{{cite news|title=Goodbye JP, Hello Lincoln National|last=Barron|first=Richard |work=News and Record|date=April 1, 2006}}</ref>
Lincoln Financial also acquired Jefferson-Pilot's television and radio operations, which were renamed Lincoln Financial Media. Jefferson Standard Insurance put WBTV in Charlotte on the air on Channel 3 in 1949. At the time, Jefferson Standard Insurance also had a 16.5% interest in the Greensboro News Company, licensee of WFMY, which signed on from Greensboro two months after WBTV.{{citation needed|date=March 2024}} Jefferson Standard had purchased WBT radio from CBS in 1945.<ref>{{cite news|title=Crutchfield Becomes Chamber President|last=Frye|first=George|work=The Charlotte Observer|date=December 9, 1970|page=1B}}</ref> Jefferson Standard Broadcasting Co. was a subsidiary of Jefferson-Pilot Corp.<ref>{{cite news|title=J-P Buys Texas Newspaper|work=The Charlotte Observer|date=November 22, 1970|page=9B}}</ref> when in 1970 the media interests were folded into a new subsidiary, Jefferson-Pilot Communications, still owned by the insurance company. The broadcasting subsidiary acquired several other radio and television stations across the country, with WBTV serving as the company's flagship station.{{citation needed|date=April 2022}} The group owned 18 radio stations in Miami, Florida; San Diego, California; Denver, Colorado; and Atlanta, Georgia. It also owned WBTV, the CBS affiliate in Charlotte; WCSC-TV, the CBS affiliate in Charleston, South Carolina and WWBT, the NBC affiliate in Richmond, Virginia. In June 2007, the company publicly announced it would explore a sale of this division, and hired Merrill Lynch to assess its strategic options. It was announced on November 12 that Raycom Media purchased the three TV stations,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6500245.html|title=Raycom Grabs Lincoln Financial Stations|publisher=Broadcasting Cable|first=Michael|last=Malone|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071116024218/http://www.broadcastingcable.com/article/CA6500245.html|date=November 12, 2007|archive-date=November 16, 2007|access-date=October 5, 2017}}</ref> including its sports production division, which was the co-holder to football and basketball games in the Atlantic Coast Conference with Raycom and sole rightsholders to the Southeastern Conference until 2009, when ESPNPlus and CBS Sports acquired the rights. The Raycom Sports brand was merged with LFS as of January 1, 2008.
Though billed as a merger of equals, the merged company carries the LNC name, operates from the LNC offices, with current LNC stockholders holding 61% of the stock, and current LNC directors controlling the new board. The insurance division is based in Greensboro, North Carolina.
===Liberty Mutual Acquisition=== On January 19, 2018, Lincoln Financial Group announced that it entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Liberty Life Assurance Company of Boston from Liberty Mutual Insurance Group. Upon completion of the transaction, Lincoln Financial retained Liberty’s Group Benefits business and reinsured Liberty’s Individual Life and Annuity business to Protective Life Insurance Company.
=== Recent activity === Lincoln purchased Newton County Loan and Savings in order to restructure as a bank holding company and qualify for Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) funding.
In January 2009, Lincoln sold its Delaware Investments subsidiary to Macquarie Group.<ref>{{cite news |last1=McFarland |first1=Lyndal |title=Macquarie to Acquire Delaware Investments |url=https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB125065237765942259#:~:text=MELBOURNE%20%2D%2D%20Macquarie%20Group%20Ltd,for%20the%20Australian%20investment%20bank. |access-date=4 June 2020 |work=Wall Street Journal |date=August 20, 2009}}</ref> Delaware Investments was integrated into Macquarie's global asset management arm, Macquarie Funds Group effective January 5, 2010.
In December 2023, Lincoln sold its wealth management unit to Osaic for an undisclosed amount.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Welsch |first=Andrew |title=Insurer Lincoln National to Sell Wealth Management Unit to Osaic |url=https://www.barrons.com/advisor/articles/lincoln-financial-wealth-sale-osaic-82089457 |access-date=2023-12-15 |website=www.barrons.com |language=en-US}}</ref>
==Operations== LNC divides operations into four business segments: annuities, life insurance, retirement plan services, and group protection.
The principal Lincoln subsidiaries are:
* Lincoln National Life Insurance Company * Lincoln Life & Annuity Company of New York * First Penn-Pacific Life Insurance Company * Lincoln Financial Distributors * Lincoln Financial Advisors * Lincoln Financial Securities<ref>{{Cite web |title=LINCOLN FINANCIAL SECURITIES CORPORATION - FORT WAYNE, IN {{!}} Get The Facts, Find The Best, And Avoid Fraud |url=https://investingreview.org/firm/lincoln-financial-securities-corporation |access-date=2019-06-18 |website=investingreview.org}}</ref>
On December 31, 2016, LNC had consolidated assets under management of $262 billion and consolidated shareholders’ equity of $14.5 billion.{{citation needed|date=March 2021}}
==Insurance patent== Lincoln National is the owner of {{US patent|7089201}}, “Method and apparatus for providing retirement income benefits”. This patent covers methods for administering variable annuities. Lincoln's commercial products that are covered by this patent include their i4LIFE Advantage and 4LaterSM Advantage annuities.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://sec.edgar-online.com/lincoln-national-corp/10-k-annual-report/2007/03/01/Section2.aspx|archive-url=https://archive.today/20120715065655/http://sec.edgar-online.com/lincoln-national-corp/10-k-annual-report/2007/03/01/Section2.aspx|url-status=dead|title=LINCOLN NATIONAL CORP - LNC Annual Report (10-K) PART I|date=15 July 2012|archive-date=15 July 2012|website=edgar-online.com}}</ref>
In September 2006, Lincoln filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Transamerica Life Insurance Company for allegedly infringing its insurance patent.<ref>{{cite press release|url=http://www.foley.com/publications/pub_detail.aspx?pubid=3598|author=David G. Luettgen|title=Foley Sponsors Conference on Business Method Patents for the Financial Services Industry|date=September 12, 2006|publisher=Foley|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070506165540/http://www.foley.com/publications/pub_detail.aspx?pubid=3598 |archive-date=2007-05-06 }}</ref> A similar lawsuit was filed against Jackson National Life in October 2007.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://dockets.justia.com/docket/court-inndce/case_no-1:2007cv00265/case_id-52549/|title=Lincoln National Life Insurance Company v. Jackson National Life Insurance Company et al|website=Justia Dockets & Filings}}</ref>
On Feb. 19, 2009, a jury found the Lincoln patent valid and infringed by Transamerica et al. Damages were assessed at the "reasonable royalty rate" and Transamerica et al. were ordered to pay Lincoln $13 million, or 0.11% of the over $12 billion in assets they had under management by virtue of infringing the patent.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Mraeck |first1=Karen |title=Patent case ruling to cost Transamerica $13 million |url=http://www.desmoinesregister.com/article/20090219/BUSINESS/902190356/1029 |access-date=September 8, 2020 |work=Des Moines Register |date=February 19, 2009 |archive-url=https://wayback.archive-it.org/all/20090221065422/http://www.desmoinesregister.com/article/20090219/BUSINESS/902190356/1029 |archive-date=February 21, 2009 |url-status=dead }}</ref> This verdict was later overturned by the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit finding Transamerica did not infringe Lincoln's patent.
==Affiliations== Lincoln Financial Group is the grand sponsor of the National Forensic League and its National Speech and Debate Tournament.{{Citation needed|date=September 2023}}
==See also== * Lincoln Financial Media—subsidiary of Lincoln National Corporation that owns radio stations in the United States
{{Portal bar|Philadelphia|Companies}}
==References== {{Reflist}}
==External links== {{Finance links | name = Lincoln National Corporation | symbol = LNC | sec_cik = LNC | yahoo = LNC | google = LNC | stockrow = LNC }}
{{Lincoln Financial Group}} {{Philadelphia Corporations}} {{Authority control}}
Category:1905 establishments in Indiana Category:Companies based in Delaware County, Pennsylvania Category:Companies listed on the New York Stock Exchange Lincoln Financial Group Category:Life insurance companies of the United States Category:Radnor Township, Pennsylvania