LINCOLN NATIONAL CORP
For the period ended Dec 31, 2025. Filed Feb 19, 2026.
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FY2025 · Filed Feb 19, 2026
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Results of Life Insurance
Details underlying the results for Life Insurance (in millions) were as follows:
| For the Years Ended December 31, | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 2024 | 2023 | |
| Operating Revenues | |||
| Insurance premiums (1) | $1,072 | $1,149 | $1,162 |
| Fee income | 2,765 | 2,715 | 3,010 |
| Net investment income | 2,446 | 2,321 | 2,729 |
| Operating realized gain (loss) | (4) | (6) | (6) |
| Other revenues (2) | 163 | 69 | 12 |
| Total operating revenues | 6,442 | 6,248 | 6,907 |
| Operating Expenses | |||
| Benefits and policyholder liability remeasurement | 3,846 | 3,893 | 4,583 |
| Interest credited | 1,170 | 1,194 | 1,290 |
| Commissions and other expenses (2) | 1,312 | 1,266 | 1,265 |
| Total operating expenses | 6,328 | 6,353 | 7,138 |
| Income (loss) from operations before taxes | 114 | (105) | (231) |
| Federal income tax expense (benefit) | (3) | (42) | (72) |
| Income (loss) from operations | $117 | $(63) | $(159) |
(1)Includes term insurance premiums, which have a corresponding partial offset in benefits and policyholder liability remeasurement for changes in reserves. The decrease in insurance premiums in 2025 was driven by the expiration of a 10-year assumed reinsurance treaty in the first quarter of 2025, which has a corresponding offset in benefits and policyholder liability remeasurement.
(2)For information on amortization of deferred gain (loss) on business sold through reinsurance, see Note 1 in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2024.
Income from operations for this segment increased due primarily to the following:
Higher net investment income, net of interest credited, driven by higher investment income on alternative investments, growth in investments and moderate spread expansion.
Higher fee income driven by higher deferred front-end loads (“DFEL”) amortization.
Lower benefits and policyholder liability remeasurement driven by improved mortality due to lower claims incidence, partially offset by the impact from our annual assumption review and aging of the block.
Lower commissions and other expenses, net of amortization of deferred loss on business sold through reinsurance, driven by expense management and a reduction in expenses associated with reserve financing due to restructuring certain captive reinsurance subsidiaries in the fourth quarter of 2025.
See “Summary of Critical Accounting Estimates – Annual Assumption Review” above for information on the impacts from our annual assumption review.
Effective October 1, 2023, we entered into reinsurance agreements with Fortitude Re to reinsure liabilities under certain blocks of in-force UL with secondary guarantees and MoneyGuard®. See Note 7 for more information on the transaction.
For information on interest rate spreads and interest rate risk, see “Part I – Item 1A. Risk Factors – Market Conditions – Changes in interest rates and sustained low interest rates may cause interest rate spreads to decrease, impacting our profitability, and make it more challenging to meet certain statutory requirements,” “Part I – Item 1A. Risk Factors – Market Conditions – Increases in interest rates and sustained higher interest rates may negatively affect our profitability, capital position and the value of our investment portfolio and may also result in increased contract withdrawals and surrenders” and “Part II– Item 7A. Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures About
Market Risk – Interest Rate Risk.” For information on the interest rate environment, see “Introduction – Executive Summary – Industry Trends – Interest Rate Environment” above.
Insurance premiums relate to traditional products and are a function of the rates priced into the product and insurance in force. Insurance in force, in turn, is driven by sales, persistency and mortality claims.
Details underlying fee income, sales, net flows, account balances and in-force face amount (in millions) were as follows:
| For the Years Ended December 31, | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 2024 | 2023 | |
| Fee Income | |||
| Cost of insurance assessments | $2,139 | $2,104 | $2,300 |
| Expense assessments | 1,478 | 1,406 | 1,495 |
| Surrender charges | 39 | 33 | 32 |
| DFEL: | |||
| Deferrals | (1,221) | (1,114) | (1,075) |
| Amortization | 332 | 287 | 258 |
| Impact from annual assumption review | (2) | (1) | – |
| Total fee income | $2,765 | $2,715 | $3,010 |
| For the Years Ended December 31, | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 2024 | 2023 | |
| Sales by Product | |||
| IUL/UL | $119 | $100 | $119 |
| MoneyGuard® | 124 | 128 | 98 |
| VUL | 92 | 85 | 132 |
| Term | 57 | 66 | 100 |
| Executive Benefits | 265 | 59 | 93 |
| Total sales | $657 | $438 | $542 |
| Net Flows | |||
| Deposits | $6,203 | $5,102 | $5,385 |
| Withdrawals and deaths | (2,368) | (1,941) | (1,767) |
| Net flows | $3,835 | $3,161 | $3,618 |
| Policyholder Assessments | $5,450 | $5,517 | $5,476 |
| As of December 31, | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 2024 | 2023 | |
| Account Balances (1) | |||
| General account | $21,486 | $21,452 | $21,403 |
| Separate account | 28,095 | 23,320 | 20,088 |
| Total account balances | $49,581 | $44,772 | $41,491 |
| In-Force Face Amount | |||
| UL and other | $362,312 | $363,950 | $365,938 |
| Term insurance | 702,280 | 714,362 | 722,620 |
| Total in-force face amount | $1,064,592 | $1,078,312 | $1,088,558 |
| For the Years Ended December 31, | |||
| 2025 | 2024 | 2023 | |
| Average General Account Balances (1) | $21,343 | $21,400 | $30,606 |
(1) Net of reinsurance ceded.
Fee income relates only to interest-sensitive products and includes cost of insurance assessments, expense assessments and surrender charges. Both cost of insurance and expense assessments can have deferrals and amortization related to DFEL. Cost of insurance and expense assessments are deducted from our policyholders’ account balances. These amounts are a function of the rates priced into the product and premiums received, face amount in force and account balances.
Sales are not recorded as a component of revenues (other than for traditional products) and do not have a significant effect on current quarter income from operations but are indicators of future profitability. Sales volumes can fluctuate given large case sizes within Executive Benefits.
Sales in the table above and as discussed above were reported as follows:
UL, IUL and VUL – first-year commissionable premiums plus 5% of excess premiums received;
MoneyGuard® linked-benefit products –MoneyGuard (UL) and MoneyGuard Market Advantage SM(VUL), 150% of commissionable premiums;
Executive Benefits – insurance and corporate-owned UL and VUL, first-year commissionable premiums plus 5% of excess premium received, and single premium bank-owned UL and VUL, 15% of single premium deposits; and
Term – 100% of annualized first-year premiums.
We monitor the business environment, including but not limited to the regulatory and interest rate environments, and make changes to our product offerings and in-force products as needed, and as permitted under the terms of the policies, to sustain the future profitability of our segment.
| For the Years Ended December 31, | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 2024 | 2023 | |
| Net Investment Income | |||
| Fixed maturity AFS securities, mortgage loans on real | |||
| estate and other, net of investment expenses | $1,849 | $1,848 | $2,346 |
| Commercial mortgage loan prepayment and bond | |||
| make-whole premiums (1) | 3 | 8 | 6 |
| Surplus investments (2) | 194 | 153 | 153 |
| Other investments (3) | 400 | 312 | 224 |
| Total net investment income | $2,446 | $2,321 | $2,729 |
| Interest Credited | $1,170 | $1,194 | $1,290 |
(2)Represents net investment income on the required statutory surplus for this segment and includes the effect of investment income on alternative investments for such assets that are held in the portfolios supporting statutory surplus versus the portfolios supporting product liabilities.
(3)Includes primarily net investment income earned on our alternative investments portfolio. See “Consolidated Investments – Alternative Investments” below for more information on alternative investments.
A portion of the investment income earned for this segment is credited to policyholder accounts. Statutory reserves will typically grow at a faster rate than account balances because of reserve requirements. Investments allocated to this segment are based upon the statutory reserve liabilities and are affected by various reserve adjustments, including financing transactions providing relief from reserve requirements. These financing transactions lead to a transfer of investments from this segment to Other Operations. We expect to earn a spread between what we earn on the underlying general account investments and what we credit to our policyholders’ accounts. Investment income partially offsets the earnings effect of the associated growth of our policy reserves. Commercial mortgage loan prepayments and bond make-whole premiums and investment income on alternative investments can vary significantly from period to period due to a number of factors, and, therefore, may contribute to investment income results that are not indicative of the underlying trends.
Details underlying benefits and policyholder liability remeasurement (dollars in millions) were as follows:
| For the Years Ended December 31, | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 2024 | 2023 | |
| Benefits and Policyholder Liability Remeasurement | |||
| Death claims direct and assumed | $5,994 | $5,960 | $5,412 |
| Death claims ceded | (2,617) | (2,734) | (2,097) |
| Reserves released on death | (812) | (590) | (622) |
| Net death benefits | 2,565 | 2,636 | 2,693 |
| Change in secondary guarantee life insurance product | |||
| reserves: | |||
| Change in reserves | 370 | 393 | 751 |
| Impact from annual assumption review | 165 | 20 | 172 |
| Change in MoneyGuard® reserves: | |||
| Change in reserves | 636 | 573 | 524 |
| Impact from annual assumption review | (4) | 53 | 37 |
| Change in traditional product reserves: | |||
| Change in reserves | 65 | 141 | 202 |
| Impact from annual assumption review | (129) | (84) | (11) |
| Other benefits (1) | 178 | 161 | 215 |
| Total benefits and policyholder liability remeasurement | $3,846 | $3,893 | $4,583 |
| Death claims per $1,000 of in-force | 2.40 | 2.43 | 2.49 |
(1)Includes primarily long-term care claims and life surrender benefits.
Benefits for this segment include claims incurred during the period in excess of the associated reserves for its interest-sensitive and traditional products. In addition, benefits include the change in secondary guarantee, linked-benefit and term life insurance product reserves. These reserves are affected by changes in expected future trends of assessments and benefits causing remeasurements. Generally, we experience higher mortality in the first quarter of the year due to the seasonality of claims.
| For the Years Ended December 31, | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 2024 | 2023 | |
| Commissions and Other Expenses | |||
| Commissions | $474 | $461 | $571 |
| General and administrative expenses | 541 | 563 | 617 |
| Expenses associated with reserve financing | 95 | 96 | 102 |
| Taxes, licenses and fees | 144 | 135 | 150 |
| Total expenses incurred | 1,254 | 1,255 | 1,440 |
| DAC and VOBA deferrals | (553) | (543) | (671) |
| Total expenses recognized before amortization | 701 | 712 | 769 |
| DAC and VOBA amortization: | |||
| Amortization | 509 | 503 | 492 |
| Impact from annual assumption review | 2 | – | – |
| Amortization of deferred loss on business sold | |||
| through reinsurance (1) | 96 | 47 | – |
| Other intangible amortization | 4 | 4 | 4 |
| Total commissions and other expenses | $1,312 | $1,266 | $1,265 |
| DAC and VOBA Deferrals | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| As a percentage of sales | 84.2% | 124.0% | 123.9% |
(1)The amortization of deferred loss on business sold through reinsurance pertains to the fourth quarter 2023 reinsurance transaction. See Note 7 for additional information.
Commissions and other expenses that result directly from and are essential to the successful acquisition of new or renewal business are deferred to the extent recoverable. For our interest-sensitive and traditional products, DAC and value of business acquired (“VOBA”) are amortized on a constant level basis over the expected term of the related contracts using the groupings and actuarial assumptions consistent with those used for calculating the related policyholder liability balances.
The text of this filing, as the company filed it with the SEC, without its images or exhibits. This is not investment advice.