Lincoln National Corporation

This article is about the insurance and asset management company. For investment banking firm, see Lincoln International.
Lincoln National Corporation
Public
Traded as NYSE: LNC
S&P 500 Component
Industry Insurance, Asset management
Founded 1905
Headquarters Radnor, Pennsylvania, United States
Key people
 Dennis R. Glass, President & CEO
Total assets Increase $255.2 billion (2015)[1]
Total equity Increase $15.7 billion (2014)
Website Lincoln Financial Group

Lincoln National Corporation is a Fortune 250 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.

LNC was organized under the laws of the state of Indiana in 1968, and maintains its principal executive offices in Radnor, Pennsylvania.[2] The company traces its roots to its earliest predecessor founded in 1905.

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.

Operations

LNC divides operations into four business segments: 1) Annuities, 2) Life Insurance, 3) Retirement Plan Services, 4) Group Protection. The principal Lincoln subsidiaries are

At June 30, 2013, LNC had consolidated assets of $223 billion and consolidated shareholders’ equity of $13.3 billion.

History

Founding and early history

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. 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 he 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

Many of the jewels of Lincoln National Corporation have been shed in recent years. 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.[3] In Philadelphia Lincoln was headquartered in the West Tower of Centre Square in Center City.[4]

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."[5]

In 2007 the company moved 400 employees, including its top executives, to Radnor Township from Philadelphia.[3]

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 1968 from the merger of Jefferson Standard Insurance (founded 1907) and Pilot Life Insurance (founded 1903). The two companies' association actually dated to 1945, when Jefferson Standard bought majority control of Pilot Life.

Lincoln Financial also acquired Jefferson-Pilot's television and radio operations, which were renamed Lincoln Financial Media. The group owns 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 , 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.

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. Delaware Investments was integrated into Macquarie's global asset management arm, Macquarie Funds Group effective January 5, 2010.[6]

Insurance patent

Lincoln National is the owner of U.S. Patent 7,089,201, “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.[7]

In September 2006, Lincoln filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Transamerica Life Insurance Company for allegedly infringing its insurance patent.[8] A similar lawsuit was filed against Jackson National Life in October 2007.[9]

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.[10]

Insurable Interest Litigation

After almost three years of contentious litigation in the federal and New York courts ending in 2010, the New York Court of Appeals required Lincoln to honor its contractual obligations under a $10 million life insurance policy insuring the life of New York attorney Arthur Kramer, one of the founding partners of the New York City law firm Kramer Levin Naftalis & Frankel.[11] Although Mr. Kramer's death occurred after the two year incontestability period stated in the policy and despite the fact that Lincoln had collected hundreds of thousands of dollars of insurance premiums, Lincoln nevertheless sought to have the New York Court of Appeals overturn over 100 years of precedent and public policy in New York that requires insurance companies to pay death benefits once a policy has been in force for two years.[12]

The New York Court of Appeals in Kramer also rejected Lincoln's alternative argument that an insurance policy that is obtained by an insured with the intent to re-sell the policy to investors violated the New York State insurable interest statute and therefore is void. If Lincoln had been successful in these arguments, it would have been able to deny the payment of death benefits under hundreds of insurance policies it knowingly issued to insureds who wished to avail themselves of the life settlement market.[13]

Lincoln was represented in its unsuccessful litigation in the Kramer case by Stephen C. Baker, Charles J. Vinicombe and Michael J Miller of the Philadelphia law firm of Drinker, Biddle & Reath. These same three attorneys also represented Lincoln in unsuccessful litigation in California to attempt to void insurance policies that were issued to insureds who intended to have them resold to investors.[14] The latter case, otherwise known as the Teren decision, was especially embarrassing to Drinker Biddle & Reath since Lincoln was eventually required to pay a $20 million death benefit under an insurance policy that would have been voided by the court if the filing of Lincoln's lawsuit to rescind the policy hadn't missed the two-year incontestability filing deadline by two weeks.

Affiliations

Lincoln Financial Group is the grand sponsor of the National Forensic League and its National Speech and Debate Tournament.

See also

References

  1. ↑ http://www.forbes.com/global2000/list/3/#header:assets_sortreverse:true
  2. ↑ "Corporate." Lincoln National Corporation. Retrieved on August 24, 2009.
  3. 1 2 Blumenthal, Jeff. "Lincoln sells Delaware Investments." Philadelphia Business Journal. Wednesday August 19, 2009. Modified Thursday August 20, 2009. Retrieved on August 24, 2009.
  4. ↑ "Contact Us." Lincoln National Corporation. June 22, 2000. Retrieved on August 24, 2009.
  5. ↑ http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0EIN/is_2002_August_13/ai_90327918/
  6. ↑ Macquarie Group acquires Delaware Investments from Lincoln National, Jan 2010
  7. ↑ Lincoln National Corp 2006 10k SEC filing
  8. ↑ David G. Luettgen, “Foley Sponsors Conference on Business Method Patents for the Financial Services Industry”, Sept. 12, 2006
  9. ↑ Lincoln National Life Insurance Company v. Jackson National Life Insurance Company, case 1:2007cv00265, October 30, 2007
  10. ↑ KAREN MRACEK "Patent case ruling to cost Transamerica $13 million", Des Moine Register, Feb 19, 2009
  11. ↑ Kramer v. Phoenix Life Insurance Company, 15 N.Y. 3rd 829 (2010)
  12. ↑ Id.
  13. ↑ Id.
  14. ↑ Lincoln Life & Annuity Company of New York v. Berck, No. No.37-2008-00083905-CU-CO-CTL (Cal. Ct. App. May 17, 2011);Lincoln National Life Insurance Co. v. Gordon R.A. Fishman Irrevocable Trust, 638 F. Supp. 2d 1170 (C.D. Cal. 2009)

External links

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