OREANDA-NEWS. S&P Global Ratings said today that it affirmed its ratings on Lincoln National Corp. and its core subsidiaries. The outlook is stable.

"The rating reflects our view of Lincoln's very strong competitive position and very strong financial risk profile, anchored by very strong capital and earnings," said S&P Global Ratings credit analyst Peggy Poon. Our view of Lincoln's competitive position reflects its leading market position in the U. S. life and variable annuity space as well as its top position in long-term care/life insurance combo products via its flagship product MoneyGuard. Lincoln's very strong competitive position is further enhanced by a multichannel distribution network that provides broad access to the insurance market. It enjoys strong results in both retail (via Lincoln Financial Network, with more than 8,500 advisors) and wholesale channels (Lincoln Financial Distributors, with approximately 600 wholesalers).

We revised our view of Lincoln's management and governance to strong from satisfactory. Our revision primarily reflects our favorable view of the company's execution of its stated strategy over the past five years.

The stable outlook on Lincoln reflects our expectation that the group will sustain its very strong competitive position, very strong capital position commensurate with the ratings, and robust enterprise risk management (ERM) capabilities appropriate for its complex risk profile.

We could lower our ratings if, contrary to our expectations, the company's capital adequacy deteriorates for an extended period to a level that no longer supports the ratings. If the company loses its very strong competitive position in its key markets as a result of material sales decline or net outflow, or if fixed-charged coverage weakens to less than 4x due to earnings deterioration, we could also lower the ratings. In light of Lincoln's complex risk profile and the resulting high importance of ERM to the ratings, we could lower the ratings if deficiencies lead us to lower our ERM assessment.

Although a positive rating action is unlikely in the next two years, we could raise the ratings if Lincoln can improve its operating performance with return on total capital consistently above 10%, or if capital adequacy becomes extremely strong as measured by our capital model.