Lincoln National: Boomers Or Bust

Lincoln National Corp. is taking aim at Baby Boomers, according to The Wall Street Journal. President and Chief Operating Officer Dennis Glass, who was the chief executive of Jefferson Pilot until Lincoln took over that company last year, said that after the merger, the company spent a year examining its product line-up, and looking at how to best cater to the 90 million Americans expected to retire in the upcoming decade. Glass suggested the upcoming retirement wave is the most significant demographic event in history. Lincoln National’s focus is not unique among annuity providers, who are all introducing products to cater to retirees and compete for their attention with mutual fund complexes. Merrill Lynch Analyst Edward Spehar predicted in March that the company will continue to capture market share, citing “a function of living benefits features and reinvigorated wholesaling efforts.”  Already, Lincoln National has targeted Boomers with products such as MoneyGuard, which combines long-term care insurance with life insurance, and i4Life, which is a variable annuity that allows certain flexibility when drawing income. Lincoln National combined its variable annuity and life insurance business with the Jefferson-Pilot universal life and fixed annuities products following the $7.5 billion acquisition last year. This week, the company announced plans to launch a unified product portfolio, which will target Boomers who are retired as well as those approaching retirement.  The staff of Money Management Executive ("MME") has prepared these capsule summaries based on reports published by the news sources to which they are attributed. Those news sources are not associated with MME, and have not prepared, sponsored, endorsed, or approved these summaries.