Lincoln National Corporation Q1 FY2026 earnings call

Fortifying capital foundation with strong capital levels above buffer and leverage ratio at long-term target. Optimizing operating model by leveraging Bermuda affiliate, optimizing investment strategy, maintaining expense discipline, and investing in digital capabilities. Driving profitable growth across businesses, balancing top line with profitability and capital efficiency, focusing on segments where they can compete beyond price. Group protection had strong quarter with earnings growth and margin expansion. Life insurance saw sales up over 30% year over year driven by core life and executive benefits. Retirement plan services had 26% year-over-year operating income growth with realignment in early stages. Annuities shifted toward balanced, less market sensitive business mix with spread-based products representing 64% of sales

Group protection: First quarter operating income was $112 million, up 11% from $101 million in the prior year quarter, and the margin was 8%, a 60 basis point improvement. Annuities: First quarter operating income of $275 million compared to $290 million in the prior year quarter. Retirement plan services: Delivered a strong quarter with operating income of $43 million, up 26% from $34 million in the prior year quarter. Life insurance: Delivered first quarter operating earnings of $41 million, our strongest first quarter result in five years

Group protection expected to be increasingly meaningful contributor to higher quality earnings profile. Annuities anticipate sequential tailwind from normalization of unfavorable tax-related items and continued growth in spread income. Retirement plan services expect to sustain similar level of year-over-year growth. Life insurance expects modest improvement in mortality in second quarter but alternative investment returns could have variability

Forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties from economic conditions, mortality experience, market conditions, etc. Disability loss ratio affected by factors like paid family leave product incidents and LTD resolution severity. Annuities subject to market risk, variable annuity outflows, and tax-related impacts

Q: Hey, good morning and thank you. Just thinking about the hold code liquidity increased about $150 million sequentially...

A: Hey, good morning. Yeah, good question. So I would say a couple of things...

Q: Hey, thanks. Good morning, everyone. My first question was on disability...

A: Hey, good morning, Ryan. Yeah, good questions. On the first question on PFML...

Q: Good morning. I guess for Ellen, we're seeing or witnessing the first merger of equals in the annuity space...

A: Sure. So I agree with you that we haven't seen an MOE of this size in quite some time...

Q: Good morning. Just two competition questions. So, Ellen, I think you were partly referencing the first one in your answer a few minutes ago...

A: I obviously can't speak to the comment of another peer, but having said that, we know that there are certain pockets of the annuity product segments...