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LINCOLN NATIONAL CORP

For the period ended Dec 31, 2025. Filed Feb 19, 2026.

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A company's yearly report to the SEC, with audited financial statements. It is the fullest account a company gives of its business, its finances and the risks it sees.

FY2025 · Filed Feb 19, 2026

LNC$42.77-0.5%Stored close · as of Nov 10, 2026

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Contents

Results of Life Insurance

Details underlying the results for Life Insurance (in millions) were as follows:

For the Years Ended December 31,
202520242023
Operating Revenues
Insurance premiums (1)$1,072$1,149$1,162
Fee income2,7652,7153,010
Net investment income2,4462,3212,729
Operating realized gain (loss)(4)(6)(6)
Other revenues (2)1636912
Total operating revenues6,4426,2486,907
Operating Expenses
Benefits and policyholder liability remeasurement3,8463,8934,583
Interest credited1,1701,1941,290
Commissions and other expenses (2)1,3121,2661,265
Total operating expenses6,3286,3537,138
Income (loss) from operations before taxes114(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,
202520242023
Fee Income
Cost of insurance assessments$2,139$2,104$2,300
Expense assessments1,4781,4061,495
Surrender charges393332
DFEL:
Deferrals(1,221)(1,114)(1,075)
Amortization332287258
Impact from annual assumption review(2)(1)–
Total fee income$2,765$2,715$3,010
For the Years Ended December 31,
202520242023
Sales by Product
IUL/UL$119$100$119
MoneyGuard®12412898
VUL9285132
Term5766100
Executive Benefits2655993
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,
202520242023
Account Balances (1)
General account$21,486$21,452$21,403
Separate account28,09523,32020,088
Total account balances$49,581$44,772$41,491
In-Force Face Amount
UL and other$362,312$363,950$365,938
Term insurance702,280714,362722,620
Total in-force face amount$1,064,592$1,078,312$1,088,558
For the Years Ended December 31,
202520242023
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,
202520242023
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)386
Surplus investments (2)194153153
Other investments (3)400312224
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,
202520242023
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 benefits2,5652,6362,693
Change in secondary guarantee life insurance product
reserves:
Change in reserves370393751
Impact from annual assumption review16520172
Change in MoneyGuard® reserves:
Change in reserves636573524
Impact from annual assumption review(4)5337
Change in traditional product reserves:
Change in reserves65141202
Impact from annual assumption review(129)(84)(11)
Other benefits (1)178161215
Total benefits and policyholder liability remeasurement$3,846$3,893$4,583
Death claims per $1,000 of in-force2.402.432.49

(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,
202520242023
Commissions and Other Expenses
Commissions$474$461$571
General and administrative expenses541563617
Expenses associated with reserve financing9596102
Taxes, licenses and fees144135150
Total expenses incurred1,2541,2551,440
DAC and VOBA deferrals(553)(543)(671)
Total expenses recognized before amortization701712769
DAC and VOBA amortization:
Amortization509503492
Impact from annual assumption review2––
Amortization of deferred loss on business sold
through reinsurance (1)9647–
Other intangible amortization444
Total commissions and other expenses$1,312$1,266$1,265
DAC and VOBA Deferrals
As a percentage of sales84.2%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.

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