Ellen Cooper, the chief executive officer of Lincoln Financial, today told securities analysts that the company may change its annuity sales mix this year.
The market for registered index-linked annuity contracts has soared. Lincoln increased its own RILA sales 51% between the fourth quarter of 2024 and the fourth quarter of 2025, to $1.9 billion.
But, in the RILA market, "customer demand continues to expand alongside increasingly competitive dynamics," Cooper said.
Lincoln wants to focus on markets where it can use unusual product features to get high returns, and the company now sees "greater longer-term growth opportunity in fixed annuities," Cooper said. "We expect our fixed annuity account values to increase relative to 2025. Within the fixed annuity category, we see attractive growth opportunities in fixed indexed annuities, where differentiated crediting rate strategies and product features support our return objectives and allow us to compete beyond price."
Lincoln streamed the call live and posted a recording on its website.
What it means: Some RILA issuers are taking a different approach to pricing than others.
Annuity vocabulary: Traditional fixed-rate annuities offer a set rate of return.
Fixed indexed annuities protect the owner's principal and can tie increases in rates to the performance of investment indexes.
Traditional variable annuities are registered with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and need not protect a customer's principal. They can tie the crediting rate to the performance of investment funds.
RILA contracts are registered with the SEC, need not protect the customer's principal, and can tie the crediting rate to the performance of one or more investment indexes.
The earnings: Lincoln is reporting $754 million in net income for the latest quarter on $4.9 billion in revenue, compared with $1.7 billion in net income on $5.1 billion in revenue for the year-earlier quarter.
Adjusted income from operations, which excludes fluctuations in the value of the company's assets and benefits promises, increased to $445 million, from $343 million.
Overall individual annuity sales increased to $4.9 billion, from $3.7 billion.
Ellen Cooper. Credit: Dave Moser
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