Lincoln Financial Group Retirement Plan Services Announces Enhancements to Its Lincoln DirectorSM Program

Lincoln Financial Group’s (NYSE: LNC) Retirement Plan Services business announces enhancements to its Ibbotson Insight Series investment lineup available in the Lincoln DirectorSM employer-sponsored retirement plan program. The new lineups are designed to provide small market plan sponsors and their advisors with more flexibility in both fund and lineup selection, help small market plan sponsors meet their fiduciary responsibilities, and offer their participant population a valuable retirement plan benefit. The Ibbotson Insight Series now offers three preset lineups and, for plans looking to select their own funds, more than twice as many investment options. The investment lineups address the individual investment preferences of participants based on an employer’s workforce demographics and can also include target-date and Qualified Deferred Investment Alternative (QDIA) investment options.

“With the Ibbotson Insight Series, the Lincoln Director program provides small market employers with a retirement plan offering tailored to meet the needs of its participant base,” said Chuck Cornelio, President, Retirement Plan Services, Lincoln Financial Group. “This enhancement underscores Lincoln’s commitment to the small market and gives employers a way to optimize their retirement program offering in a way that helps meet the diverse needs of their organizations and boost participants’ retirement readiness.”

The three enhanced workforce fund lineups vary by complexity and investment preference and are distinguished by the number of investment options, percentage of equity options, number of alternative strategies and investment mandates. Workforce profiles are used to help plan sponsors and advisors determine the investment lineup that best matches their organization’s workforce characteristics, including financial literacy, investment experience, sponsor-driven education efforts, participant engagement, time horizon and investment preferences.

The types of investment approaches now available through the Lincoln Director program include:

• Workforce – An option constructed of three investment lineups – Ibbotson Fundamental, Ibbotson Standard and Ibbotson Extended–that includes a predetermined set of investment options based on workforce profile characteristics, and is designed to meet the needs of varying employee populations while offering 3(21) or 3(38) fiduciary services for the plan sponsor.
• Choice – An option that allows the plan sponsor and advisor to select investment options from predetermined asset categories defined by Ibbotson. This lineup closely models the Workforce lineup, but allows the plan sponsor additional flexibility to select specific funds while still receiving fiduciary services.
• Custom – These lineups are available for plan sponsors who would like to select their own investment options from the full investment universe without any limitations. Ibbotson fiduciary services are not available with this lineup.

The Ibbotson Insight Series provides investment options that span asset classes and style categories to help give participants an effective balance between risk and return as well as an opportunity to develop long-term strategies for savings. With the Workforce and Choice options, Ibbotson, a registered investment advisor and wholly owned subsidiary of Morningstar, Inc., can act as a 3(21) or 3(38) fiduciary in selecting and monitoring investment lineups.

“The enhancements in the Lincoln Director program help small market plan sponsors meet their fiduciary responsibilities and better prepare their plan participants for retirement,” said Michael Conte, Small Market Business Leader, Product and Solutions Management, Retirement Plan Services. “The new workforce approaches provide our sponsors with an offering that can be customized to fit the needs of any plan demographic, and will continue to provide the same level of expertise and service they have come to know from Lincoln.”

About Lincoln Financial Group’s Retirement Plan Services:

For more than 60 years, Lincoln Financial’s Retirement Plan Services (RPS) business has been helping savers boost their retirement readiness through employer-sponsored plans. Our distribution force of more than 400 professionals, including institutional and wholesale distribution channels and advisor-based sales teams, work to provide plan sponsors with retirement plans that not only meet the unique needs of their plan participants but also align with sponsors’ total rewards strategies and help recruit and retain top talent. RPS Retirement Consultants, available onsite, online and by phone, develop long-term one-on-one relationships with savers to help motivate them to take actions that lead to better retirement outcomes. RPS offers personalized services, solutions and education to help plan participants get to and through retirement. The business serves approximately 1.4 million participants through 22,000 plan sponsors with $54 billion in assets under management as of June 30, 2014.

About Lincoln Financial Group

Lincoln Financial Group provides advice and solutions that help empower Americans to take charge of their financial lives with confidence and optimism. Today, more than 17 million customers trust our retirement, insurance and wealth protection expertise to help address their lifestyle, savings and income goals, as well as to guard against long-term care expenses. Headquartered in Radnor, Pennsylvania, Lincoln Financial Group is the marketing name for Lincoln National Corporation (NYSE:LNC) and its affiliates. The company had $216 billion in assets under management as of June 30, 2014. Learn more at: www.LincolnFinancial.com.

About Ibbotson Associates

Ibbotson Associates, Inc. is a registered investment advisor and wholly owned subsidiary of Morningstar, Inc. It is part of the Morningstar Investment Management group, which creates custom investment solutions that combine award-winning research and global resources with proprietary Morningstar data. With approximately $169 billion in assets under advisement and management as of June 30, 2014, Morningstar Investment Management provides comprehensive retirement, investment advisory, and portfolio management services for financial institutions, plan sponsors, and advisors around the world.

Lincoln DirectorSM group variable annuity (contract form 19476 and state variations) is issued by The Lincoln National Life Insurance Company, Fort Wayne, IN, and distributed by Lincoln Financial Distributors, Inc., a broker-dealer. Group variable annuity is a long-term investment product designed particularly for retirement purposes. Group annuities contain both investment and insurance components and have fees and expenses, including administrative and advisory fees. Optional features may be available for an additional charge. The annuity’s value fluctuates with the market value of the underlying investment options, and all assets accumulate tax-deferred. Withdrawals may carry tax consequences, including possible tax penalties.

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