Nature of Operations and Basis of Presentation

9 Months Ended

Sep. 30, 2024

Organization, Consolidation and Presentation of Financial Statements [Abstract]

Nature of Operations and Basis of Presentation

Nature of Operations

Lincoln National Corporation and its subsidiaries (“LNC” or the “Company,” which also may be referred to as “we,” “our” or “us”) operate multiple insurance businesses through four business segments: Annuities, Life Insurance, Group Protection and Retirement Plan Services. In addition, we include financial data for operations that are not directly related to our business segments in Other Operations. The collective group of businesses uses “Lincoln Financial Group” as its marketing identity. Through our business segments, we sell a wide range of wealth accumulation, wealth protection, group protection and retirement income products and solutions. These products primarily include variable annuities, fixed annuities (including indexed), registered index-linked annuities (“RILA”), universal life insurance (“UL”), variable universal life insurance (“VUL”), linked-benefit UL and VUL, indexed universal life insurance (“IUL”), term life insurance, group life, disability and dental and employer-sponsored retirement plans and services. For more information on our segments and the products and solutions we provide, see Note 16.

Basis of Presentation

The accompanying unaudited consolidated financial statements are prepared in accordance with United States of America generally accepted accounting principles (“GAAP”) for interim financial information and with the instructions for the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q, including Article 10 of Regulation S-X. Accordingly, they do not include all of the information and notes required by GAAP for complete financial statements. The information contained in the Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements included in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2023 (“2023 Form 10-K”), should be read in connection with the reading of these interim unaudited consolidated financial statements.

Certain GAAP policies, which significantly affect the determination of financial condition, results of operations and cash flows, are summarized in our 2023 Form 10-K.

In the opinion of management, these statements include all normal recurring adjustments necessary for a fair presentation of the Company’s results. Interim results for the nine months ended September 30, 2024, are not necessarily indicative of the results that may be expected for the full year ending December 31, 2024. All material inter-company accounts and transactions have been eliminated in consolidation.

Certain amounts reported in prior periods’ consolidated financial statements have been reclassified to conform to the presentation adopted in the current period. Effective in the third quarter of 2024, we collapsed the amortization of deferred gain (loss) on business sold through reinsurance line item, reclassifying the deferred gain amortization to other revenues and presenting the amortization of deferred loss within commissions and other expenses. For prior periods, the amortization of deferred gain (loss) on business sold through reinsurance is presented on a net basis within other revenues.

We present disaggregated disclosures in the Notes below for long-duration insurance balances, applying the level of aggregation by reportable segment as follows:


Reportable Segment			Level of Aggregation
Annuities			Variable Annuities
			Fixed Annuities
			Payout Annuities
Life Insurance			Traditional Life
			UL and Other
Group Protection			Group Protection
Retirement Plan Services			Retirement Plan Services

The variable annuities level of aggregation includes RILA products, which are indexed variable annuities. The fixed annuities level of aggregation represents deferred fixed annuities. We have excluded amounts reported in Other Operations from our disaggregated disclosures that are attributable to the indemnity reinsurance agreements with Protective Life Insurance Company (“Protective”) and Swiss Re Life & Health America, Inc (“Swiss Re”) as these contracts are fully reinsured, run-off institutional pension business in the form of group annuity and the results of certain disability income business.

Sale of Wealth Management Business

On May 6, 2024, we closed the previously announced sale of all of the ownership interests in the subsidiaries of the Company that comprise the Company’s wealth management business to Osaic Holdings, Inc., a Delaware corporation (“Osaic”), pursuant to the Stock Purchase Agreement entered into between LNC and Osaic on December 14, 2023 (the “Agreement”). Pursuant to the Agreement, the Company sold its ownership interests in the following subsidiaries: Lincoln Financial Securities Corporation, Lincoln Financial Advisors Corporation, California Fringe Benefit and Insurance Marketing Corporation, LFA, Limited Liability Company and LFA Management Corporation (collectively, the “Wealth Management Business”). We received $723 million in cash, inclusive of a post-closing adjustment during the third quarter of 2024, and recognized a $545 million pre-tax realized gain for the nine months ended September 30, 2024, net of transaction expenses. Transaction expenses for the three and nine months ended September 30, 2024, of $2 million and $37 million, respectively, were reported in commissions and other expenses on the Consolidated Statements of Comprehensive Income (Loss). The sale provided approximately $650 million of statutory capital benefit. For more information, see Note 17.