Summary of LINCOLN NATIONAL CORP

Item 7. Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results
of Operations
The following Management's Discussion and Analysis ("MD&A") is intended to help the reader understand the results of operations and financial condition of Lincoln National Corporation and its consolidated subsidiaries ("LNC," "Lincoln" or the "Company" which also may be referred to as "we," "our" or "us") as of December 31, 2008, compared with December 31, 2007, and the results of operations of LNC in 2008 and 2007, compared with the immediately preceding year. On April 3, 2006, LNC completed its merger with Jefferson-Pilot Corporation ("Jefferson-Pilot"). Beginning on April 3, 2006, the results of operations and financial condition of Jefferson-Pilot, after being adjusted for the effects of purchase accounting, were consolidated with LNC. The financial information presented herein for the year ended December 31, 2006, reflects the accounts of LNC for the three months ended March 31, 2006, and the consolidated accounts of LNC and Jefferson-Pilot for the remainder of 2006. The MD&A is provided as a supplement to, and should be read in conjunction with, our consolidated financial statements and the accompanying notes to the consolidated financial statements ("Notes") presented in "Item 8. Financial Statements and Supplementary Data," as well as "Item 1A. Risk Factors" above.
In this report, in addition to providing consolidated revenues and net income
(loss), we also provide segment operating revenues and income (loss) from operations because we believe they are meaningful measures of revenues and the profitability of our operating segments. Income (loss) from operations is net income recorded in accordance with United States of America generally accepted accounting principles ("GAAP") excluding the after-tax effects of the following items, as applicable:
• Realized gains and losses associated with the following ("excluded realized gain (loss)"):

• Sale or disposal of securities;

• Impairments of securities;

• Change in the fair value of embedded derivatives within certain reinsurance arrangements and the change in the fair value of related trading securities;

• Change in the fair value of the embedded derivatives of our guaranteed living benefits ("GLB") within our variable annuities net of the change in the fair value of the derivatives we own to hedge the changes in the embedded derivative;

• Net difference between the benefit ratio unlocking of Statement of Position ("SOP") No. 03-1, "Accounting and Reporting by Insurance Enterprises for Certain Nontraditional Long-Duration Contracts and for Separate Accounts" ("SOP 03-1") reserves on our guaranteed death benefit ("GDB") riders within our variable annuities and the change in the fair value of the derivatives excluding our expected cost of purchasing the hedging instruments; and

• Changes in the fair value of the embedded derivative liabilities related to index call options we may purchase in the future to hedge contract holder index allocations applicable to future reset periods for our indexed annuity products as required under Statements of Financial Accounting Standards ("SFAS") No. 133, "Accounting for Derivative Instruments and Hedging Activities" ("SFAS 133") and SFAS No. 157, "Fair Value Measurements" ("SFAS 157").

• Income (loss) from the initial adoption of changes in accounting principles;

• Income (loss) from reserve changes (net of related amortization) on business sold through reinsurance;

• Losses on early retirement of debt, including subordinated debt;

• Losses from the impairment of intangible assets; and

• Income (loss) from discontinued operations.

Operating revenues represent GAAP revenues excluding the pre-tax effects of the following items, as applicable:
• Excluded realized gain (loss);

• Amortization of deferred gains arising from the reserve changes on business sold through reinsurance; and

• Revenue adjustments from the initial impact of the adoption of changes in accounting principles.

Operating revenues and income (loss) from operations are the financial performance measures we use to evaluate and assess the results of our segments. Accordingly, we report operating revenues and income (loss) from operations by segment in Note 23. Our management and Board of Directors believe that operating revenues and income (loss) from operations explain the results of our ongoing businesses in a manner that allows for a better understanding of the underlying trends in our current businesses because the excluded items are unpredictable and not necessarily indicative of current operating fundamentals or future performance of the business segments, and, in many instances, decisions regarding these items do not necessarily relate to the operations of the individual segments. Operating revenues and income (loss) from operations do not replace revenues and net income as the GAAP measures of our consolidated results of operations.

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Beginning with the quarter ended June 30, 2008, we changed our definitions of segment operating revenues and income from operations to better reflect: the underlying economics of our variable and indexed annuities that employ derivative instruments to hedge policy benefits; and the manner in which management evaluates that business. Our change in the definition of income from operations is primarily the result of our adoption of SFAS 157 during the first quarter of 2008 (See Note 2). Under the fair value measurement provisions of SFAS 157, we are required to measure the fair value of these annuities from an "exit price" perspective, (i.e., the exchange price between market participants to transfer the liability). We, therefore, must include margins that a market participant buyer would require as well as a factor for non-performance risk ("NPR") related to our credit quality. We do not believe that these factors relate to the economics of the underlying business and do not reflect the manner in which management evaluates the business. The items that are now excluded from our operating results that were previously included are as follows: GLB net derivatives results; indexed annuity forward-starting option; and GDB derivatives results. For more information regarding this change, see our current report on Form 8-K dated July 16, 2008.
We continue to exclude the effects of any realized gain (loss) on investments from segment operating revenues and income from operations as we believe that such items are not necessarily indicative of current operating fundamentals or future performance of the business segments, and, in many instances, decisions regarding these items do not necessarily relate to the operations of the individual segments.
We believe that our new definitions of operating revenues and income (loss) from operations will provide investors with a more valuable measure of our performance because it better reveals trends in our business. See "Realized Gain
(Loss)" below for more information about these items. Certain reclassifications have been made to prior periods' financial information. Included in these reclassifications is the change in our definition of segment operating revenues and income (loss) from operations as discussed above. In addition, we have reclassified the results of certain derivatives and embedded derivatives to realized gain (loss), which were previously reported within insurance fees, net investment income, interest credited or benefits. The associated amortization expense of deferred acquisition costs ("DAC") and value of business acquired ("VOBA") (previously reported within underwriting, acquisition, insurance and other expenses), deferred sales inducements ("DSI") (previously reported within interest credited), deferred front-end loads ("DFEL") (previously reported within insurance fees) and changes in contract holder funds (previously reported within benefits) have also been reclassified to realized gain (loss). See "Basis of Presentation" in Note 1 for details.
FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS - CAUTIONARY LANGUAGE Certain statements made in this report and in other written or oral statements made by LNC or on LNC's behalf are "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 ("PSLRA"). A forward-looking statement is a statement that is not a historical fact and, without limitation, includes any statement that may predict, forecast, indicate or imply future results, performance or achievements, and may contain words like: "believe," "anticipate," "expect," "estimate," "project," "will," "shall" and other words or phrases with similar meaning in connection with a discussion of future operating or financial performance. In particular, these include statements relating to future actions, trends in our businesses, prospective services or products, future performance or financial results and the outcome of contingencies, such as legal proceedings. LNC claims the protection afforded by the safe harbor for forward-looking statements provided by the PSLRA. Forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially from the results contained in the forward-looking statements. Risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to vary materially, some of which are described within the forward-looking statements, include, among others:
• Continued deterioration in general economic and business conditions, both domestic and foreign, that may affect foreign exchange rates, premium levels, claims experience, the level of pension benefit costs and funding and investment results;

• Continued economic declines and credit market illiquidity could cause us to realize additional impairments on investments and certain intangible assets, including goodwill and a valuation allowance against deferred tax assets, which may reduce future earnings and/or affect our financial condition and ability to raise additional capital or refinance existing debt as it matures;

• Uncertainty about the impact of the U.S. Treasury's Troubled Asset Relief Program ("TARP") on the economy, and LNC's ability to participate in the program;

• Legislative, regulatory or tax changes, both domestic and foreign, that affect the cost of, or demand for, LNC's products, the required amount of reserves and/or surplus, or otherwise affect our ability to conduct business, including changes to statutory reserves and/or risk-based capital ("RBC") requirements related to secondary guarantees under universal life and variable annuity products such as Actuarial Guideline 43 (also known as "VACARVM"); restrictions on revenue sharing and 12b-1 payments; and the potential for U.S. Federal tax reform;

• The initiation of legal or regulatory proceedings against LNC or its subsidiaries, and the outcome of any legal or regulatory proceedings, such as: adverse actions related to present or past business practices common in businesses in which LNC and its subsidiaries compete; adverse decisions in significant actions including, but not limited to, actions brought by federal and state authorities and extra-contractual and class action damage cases; new decisions that result in changes in law; and unexpected trial court rulings;

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• Changes in interest rates causing a reduction of investment income, the margins of LNC's fixed annuity and life insurance businesses and demand for LNC's products;

• A decline in the equity markets causing a reduction in the sales of LNC's products, a reduction of asset-based fees that LNC charges on various investment and insurance products, an acceleration of amortization of DAC, VOBA, DSI and DFEL and an increase in liabilities related to guaranteed benefit features of LNC's variable annuity products;

• Ineffectiveness of LNC's various hedging strategies used to offset the impact of changes in the value of liabilities due to changes in the level and volatility of the equity markets and interest rates;

• A deviation in actual experience regarding future persistency, mortality, morbidity, interest rates or equity market returns from LNC's assumptions used in pricing its products, in establishing related insurance reserves and in the amortization of intangibles that may result in an increase in reserves and a decrease in net income, including as a result of stranger-originated life insurance business;

• Changes in GAAP that may result in unanticipated changes to LNC's net income;

• Lowering of one or more of LNC's debt ratings issued by nationally recognized statistical rating organizations and the adverse impact such action may have on LNC's ability to raise capital and on its liquidity and financial condition;

• Lowering of one or more of the insurer financial strength ratings of LNC's insurance subsidiaries and the adverse impact such action may have on the premium writings, policy retention, profitability of its insurance subsidiaries and liquidity;

• Significant credit, accounting, fraud or corporate governance issues that may adversely affect the value of certain investments in the portfolios of LNC's companies requiring that LNC realize losses on such investments;

• The impact of acquisitions and divestitures, restructurings, product withdrawals and other unusual items, including LNC's ability to integrate acquisitions and to obtain the anticipated results and synergies from acquisitions;

• The adequacy and collectibility of reinsurance that LNC has purchased;

• Acts of terrorism, war or other man-made and natural catastrophes that may adversely affect LNC's businesses and the cost and availability of reinsurance;

• Competitive conditions, including pricing pressures, new product offerings and the emergence of new competitors, that may affect the level of premiums and fees that LNC can charge for its products;

• The unknown impact on LNC's business resulting from changes in the demographics of LNC's client base, as aging baby-boomers move from the asset-accumulation stage to the asset-distribution stage of life; and

• Loss of key management, portfolio managers in the Investment Management segment, financial planners or wholesalers.

The risks included here are not exhaustive. Other sections of this report, LNC's quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, current reports on Form 8-K and other documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC") include additional factors that could impact LNC's business and financial performance, including "Item 1A. Risk Factors," "Item 7A. Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures About Market Risk" and the risk discussions included in this section under "Critical Accounting Policies and Estimates," "Consolidated Investments" and "Reinsurance," which are incorporated herein by reference. Moreover, LNC operates in a rapidly changing and competitive environment. New risk factors emerge from time to time, and it is not possible for management to predict all such risk factors.
Further, it is not possible to assess the impact of all risk factors on LNC's business or the extent to which any factor, or combination of factors, may cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in any forward-looking statements. Given these risks and uncertainties, investors should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements as a prediction of actual results. In addition, LNC disclaims any obligation to update any forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances that occur after the date of this report.
INTRODUCTION
Executive Summary We are a holding company that operates multiple insurance and investment management businesses through subsidiary companies. Through our business segments, we sell a wide range of wealth protection, accumulation and retirement income products and solutions. These products include institutional and/or retail fixed and indexed annuities, variable annuities, universal life insurance ("UL"), variable universal life insurance ("VUL"), linked-benefit UL, term life insurance, mutual funds and managed accounts.
On July 21, 2008, we announced the realignment of our segments under our former Employer Markets and Individual Markets businesses into two new businesses - Retirement Solutions and Insurance Solutions. For information on our 2008 segment realignment, see "Part I - Item 1. Business - Overview."

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Our individual products and services are distributed primarily through brokers, planners, agents and other intermediaries with sales and marketing support provided by approximately 750 wholesalers within Lincoln Financial Distributors ("LFD"), our wholesaling distributor. Our Insurance Solutions - Group Protection segment distributes its products and services primarily through employee benefit brokers, third party administrators ("TPAs") and other employee benefit firms with sales support provided by its group and retirement sales specialists. Our retail distributor, Lincoln Financial Network, offers proprietary and non-proprietary products and advisory services through a national network of approximately 7,400 active producers who placed business with us within the last twelve months.
Within our Retirement Solutions - Annuities segment, our Lincoln SmartSecurity® Advantage, with its one-year reset feature, including the Lifetime withdrawal benefit introduced in 2006, and five-year reset feature, contributed to our growth with elections of these riders totaling 21% of deposits in 2008. We also offer a patented annuity product feature, i4LIFE®, which we introduced a few years ago to meet the needs of baby-boomers for retirement income as they enter the retirement phase of their life cycle. The i4LIFE® Advantage product offers a guaranteed income benefit ("GIB") rider, which can be elected to provide a floor to the amount of income available from the annuity during retirement. In 2008, elections of i4LIFE® were $2.3 billion, a decrease of $177 million over 2007. Additionally, in 2006, we introduced 4LATER® to meet the needs of baby-boomers who are not ready for retirement but are ready to plan for it. In 2008, deposits of 4LATER® were approximately $774 million. We also offer a fixed indexed annuity, which offers upside growth from equity markets with fixed return protection.
Our Retirement Solutions - Defined Contribution segment provides us the platform to benefit from the movement in the marketplace by employees away from the traditional defined benefit pension plans towards voluntary defined contribution plans, such as 401(k)s and 403(b)s, and the increase in voluntary group life and disability has also provided for a convergence of distribution strategies. We also believe that the Pension Protection Act of 2006 ("PPA") will benefit the Retirement Solutions business. Our oldest block of business in our Retirement Solutions - Defined Contribution segment is experiencing significant negative net flows, and a substantial increase in new deposit production will be necessary to maintain earnings at current levels.
In our Insurance Solutions - Life Insurance segment, we are in a competitive marketplace, especially related to life insurance products with secondary guarantees. This product requires us to maintain risk management and pricing discipline, which is especially important in the competitive environment. Sales of insurance products with such guarantees comprised 68% of our life insurance sales in 2008. The statutory reserving requirements for these products are such that it is necessary for us to utilize capital market solutions to manage the level of reserves held in our domestic life insurance companies. As a result, as discussed in "Review of Consolidated Financial Condition - Liquidity and Capital Resources - Sources of Liquidity and Cash Flow" below, we completed transactions that enabled us to release approximately $300 million of capital in 2007 and approximately $240 million in the fourth quarter of 2008 from one of our insurance subsidiaries under Actuarial Guideline 38 ("AG38").
As our businesses and products are complex, so is the manner in which we derive income. For a discussion on how we derive our revenues, see our discussion in results of operations by segment below.
Current Market Conditions
During 2008, the capital markets continued to experience high volatility that affected both equity market returns and interest rates. In addition, credit spreads widened across asset classes and reduced liquidity in the credit markets. October 2008 marked the worst equity market returns in 21 years. The price of our common stock declined during the fourth quarter of 2008 to close at $18.84 on December 31, 2008, as compared to $42.81 on September 30, 2008, and during that time it traded at a low of $4.76. The National Bureau of Economic Research, a panel of economists charged with officially designating business cycles, announced that a U.S. recession began in December of 2007. Analysts expect the downturn to last through the first half of 2009 and unemployment to continue to increase until early 2010. Earnings in 2009 will continue to be unfavorably impacted by the significant decline in the equity markets during 2008. Due to these challenges, the capital markets had a significant effect on our segment income (loss) from operations and consolidated net income for 2008. Furthermore, although the fourth quarter is normally the strongest in terms of sales for our Insurance Solutions - Life Insurance segment, it was somewhat muted in 2008. In the face of these capital market challenges, we continue to focus on building our businesses through these difficult markets and beyond by developing and introducing high quality products, expanding distribution in new and existing key accounts and channels and targeting market segments that have high growth potential while maintaining a disciplined approach to managing our expenses. The markets impacted primarily the following areas:
Earnings from Assets Under Management
Our asset-gathering segments - Retirement Solutions - Annuities, Retirement Solutions - Defined Contribution and Investment Management - are the most sensitive to the equity markets. We discuss the earnings impact of the equity markets on account values, assets under management and the related asset-based fees below in "Item 7A. Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures About Market Risk - Equity Market Risk - Impact of Equity Market Sensitivity." From the end of 2007 to December 31, 2008, the daily average value of the Standard & Poor's ("S&P") 500 Index® ("S&P 500") decreased 17%. Solely as a result of the equity markets, our assets under management as of December 31, 2008, were down $52 billion from December 31, 2007. Strong deposits over the last year have only helped to partially offset this impact for 2008, compared to 2007. The effect of the negative equity markets on our assets under management in 2008 will continue to dampen our earnings throughout 2009 even if the equity market returns become consistent with our long-term assumptions. Accordingly, we may continue to report lower asset-based fees relative to expectations or prior periods.

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Investment Income on Alternative Investments We believe that overall market conditions in both the equity and credit markets caused our alternative investments portfolio, which consists mostly of hedge funds and various limited partnership investments, to under-perform relative to our long-term expectations, and we expect these assets to under-perform at least in the short term. These investments impact primarily our Insurance Solutions - Life Insurance, Retirement Solutions - Annuities and Retirement Solutions - Defined Contribution segments. See "Consolidated Investments - Alternative Investments" for additional information on our investment portfolio. Variable Annuity Hedge Program Results
We offer variable annuity products with living benefit guarantees. As described below in "Critical Accounting Policies and Estimates - Derivatives - Guaranteed Living Benefits," we use derivative instruments to hedge our exposure to the risks and earnings volatility that result from the embedded derivatives for living benefits in certain of our variable annuity products. The change in fair value of these instruments tends to move in the opposite direction of the change in fair value of the embedded derivatives. For 2008, the market conditions noted above negatively affected the net result of the change in the fair value of the living benefit embedded derivative, excluding the effect of our NPR factor, and the change in fair value of the hedging derivatives. The NPR factor used in the calculation of the embedded derivative liability relates to the change in the spreads of our credit default swaps and had a favorable effect on the overall result. These results are excluded from operating revenues and income (loss) from operations.
We also offer variable products with death benefit guarantees. As described below in "Critical Accounting Policies and Estimates - Future Contract Benefits and Other Contract Holder Obligations - Guaranteed Death Benefits," we use derivative instruments to attempt to hedge in the opposite direction of the impact to our associated reserves for movements in equity markets. These results are excluded from income (loss) from operations. Credit Losses, Impairments and Unrealized Losses Related to our investments in fixed income and equity securities, we experienced net realized losses of $1.0 billion for 2008, which included gross write-downs of securities for other-than-temporary impairments of $1.1 billion. Widening spreads during 2008 was the primary cause of a $6.1 billion increase in gross unrealized losses on the available-for-sale fixed maturity securities in our general account. These unrealized losses were concentrated in the investment grade category of investments and demonstrate how reduced liquidity in the credit markets have resulted in a decline in asset values as investors shift their investments to safer government securities, such as U.S. Treasuries. In addition, continued weakness in the economic environment could lead to increased credit defaults, resulting in additional write-downs of securities for other-than-temporary impairments.
Capital Preservation
On October 10, 2008, the Board of Directors approved a decrease in the quarterly dividend on our common stock from $0.415 per share to $0.21 per share for the dividend payable February 1, 2009. On February 24, 2009, the Board of Directors approved a further reduction of the dividend on our common stock from $0.21 to $0.01 per share, which, along with the prior reduction, is expected to add approximately $100 million to capital each quarter. Additionally, we have suspended stock repurchase activity. Both of these changes will favorably impact our capital position prospectively.
As a result of shrinking revenues due to the impact of unfavorable equity markets on our asset management businesses and a reduction in sales volumes caused by the unfavorable economic environment, we have launched initiatives to reduce expenses, including layoffs of staff, that we believe will improve our capital position and preserve profits. See "Results of Other Operations" below for more information on our expense actions. Stimulus Legislation
In reaction to the recession, credit market illiquidity and global financial crisis experienced during the latter part of 2008 and into 2009, Congress . . .