Lincoln National's

The retirement plan marketplace is very competitive and is comprised of many providers with no one company dominating the market for all products. As stated above, we compete in the small, mid and large markets. We compete with numerous other financial services companies. The main factors upon which entities in this market compete are distribution channel access and the quality of wholesalers, investment performance, cost, product features, speed to market, brand recognition, financial strength ratings, crediting rates, client service and client compliance and fiduciary services.

The life insurance industry is very competitive and consists of many companies with no one company dominating the market for all products. As of the end of the latest year for which data is available, there were 868 life insurance companies in the U.S. and U.S. territories, according to the American Council of Life Insurers.

The Life Insurance segment primarily targets the affluent to high net worth markets, defined as households with at least $1 million of financial assets. For those individual policies we sold, the average face amount (excluding MoneyGuard® products) was approximately $1 million and average first year premiums paid were approximately $20,000. The Life Insurance segment competes primarily on product design and customer service. With respect to customer service, management tracks the speed, accuracy and responsiveness of service to customers’ calls and transaction requests. Further, management tracks the turnaround time and quality for various client services such as processing of applications. Additional competitive factors relevant to the Life Insurance segment include product breadth, speed to market, underwriting and risk management, financial strength ratings and extent of distribution network.

The group protection marketplace is very competitive. Principal competitive factors include particular product features, price, quality of customer service and claims management, technological capabilities and financial strength ratings. In this market, the Group Protection segment competes with a limited number of major companies and selected other companies that focus on these products.