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Lincoln National Corporation: From Mid-Single Digits to Upper-8% Margins—What Supplemental Health and Persistency Gains Could Unlock Next!

Lincoln Financial’s recent earnings call focused on their third-quarter 2025 performance, emphasizing both the strategic and operational progress that contributed to their financial results. This marks the fifth consecutive quarter of year-over-year growth in adjusted operating income, demonstrating the momentum behind Lincoln Financial’s strategic initiatives. From a positive perspective, Lincoln Financial highlighted impressive growth within several of its business segments. The Annuities business saw a robust increase in sales, reaching $4.5 billion, marking the fourth consecutive quarter of improved performance. This was bolstered by a diversified new business mix and strong market demand for their spread-based products, including fixed annuities and Registered Index-Linked Annuities (RILA). Importantly, Lincoln has shifted to fully retaining flows from fixed sales, which is expected to improve spread-based earnings over time. The Life Insurance segment also showed significant improvement, with a year-over-year rise in operating earnings.