Lincoln Financial Group Enters Into an Accelerated Share Repurchase Program (ASR)

PHILADELPHIA, Aug. 14 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Lincoln National Corporation (NYSE: LNC) today announced that it entered into an agreement to purchase approximately 5.5 million shares of its common stock from a third-party broker-dealer using an accelerated stock repurchase program for an initial purchase price of $350 million. Under the terms of the arrangement, Lincoln may receive, or be required to pay, a price adjustment based on the volume weighted average market price of Lincoln National Corporation common stock during the term of the program. The price adjustment can be settled, at Lincoln's option, in cash or in shares of its common stock. Lincoln expects the program to be completed early in the fourth quarter of 2006, although in certain circumstances the third-party broker-dealer may accelerate the completion date.

Lincoln remains authorized to repurchase up to an additional $971.6 million of its securities under its existing repurchase authority.

More information about the accelerated share repurchase program can be found in our current report on Form 8-K being filed today with the SEC.

Lincoln Financial Group is the marketing name for Lincoln National Corporation (NYSE: LNC) and its affiliates. With headquarters in Philadelphia, Lincoln Financial Group had consolidated assets of $167 billion as of June 30, 2006, and had annual consolidated revenues of $5.5 billion in 2005. The company offers: annuities; life, group life and disability insurance; 401(k) and 403(b) plans; savings plans; mutual funds; managed accounts; institutional investments; and comprehensive financial planning and advisory services. Company affiliates include: Lincoln Financial Distributors, which provides wholesaling and marketing support; Lincoln Financial Advisors and Jefferson Pilot Securities Corp., Lincoln Financial Retail Distribution, a national network of financial planners, agents, and registered representatives; Delaware Investments, the marketing name for Delaware Management Holdings, Inc. and its subsidiaries; Lincoln Financial Media, which owns and operates three television stations, 18 radio stations, and the Lincoln Financial Sports production and syndication business; and Lincoln UK. For more information please visit http://www.lfg.com/.

Forward-Looking Statements - Cautionary Language

This document may contain information that includes or is based upon forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements give expectations or forecasts of future events. You can identify these statements by the fact that they do not relate strictly to historical or current facts. They use words such as "anticipate," "estimate," "expect," "project," "intend," "plan," "believe," and other words and terms of similar meaning in connection with a discussion of future operating or financial performance. In particular, these include statements relating to future actions, prospective services or products, future performance or results of current and anticipated services or products, sales efforts, expenses, the outcome of contingencies such as legal proceedings, trends in operations and financial results.

Any or all forward-looking statements may turn out to be wrong. They can be affected by inaccurate assumptions or by known or unknown risks and uncertainties. Many such factors will be important in determining our actual future results. These statements are based on current expectations and the current economic environment. They involve a number of risks and uncertainties that are difficult to predict. These statements are not guarantees of future performance. Actual results could differ materially from those expressed or implied in the forward-looking statements. Among factors that could cause actual results to differ materially are:

  --  Problems arising with the ability to successfully integrate our and
      Jefferson-Pilot Corporation's ("Jefferson-Pilot") businesses, which
      may affect our ability to operate as effectively and efficiently as
      expected or to achieve the expected synergies from the merger or to
      achieve such synergies within our expected timeframe and the impact
      of the application of purchase accounting on results of operations;

  --  Legislative, regulatory or tax changes, both domestic and foreign,
      that affect the cost of, or demand for, our products, the required
      amount of reserves and/or surplus, or otherwise affect our ability to
      conduct business, including changes to statutory reserves and/or
      risk-based capital requirements related to secondary guarantees under
      universal life and variable annuity products such as Actuarial
      Guideline 38; restrictions on revenue sharing and 12b-1 payments; and
      the potential for U.S. Federal tax reform;

  --  The initiation of legal or regulatory proceedings against LNC or its
      subsidiaries and the outcome of any legal or regulatory proceedings,
      such as: (a) adverse actions related to present or past business
      practices common in businesses in which LNC and its subsidiaries
      compete; (b) adverse decisions in significant actions including, but
      not limited to, actions brought by federal and state authorities, and
      extra-contractual and class action damage cases; (c) new decisions
      that result in changes in law; and (d) unexpected trial court
      rulings;

  --  Changes in interest rates causing a reduction of investment income,
      the margins of our fixed annuity and life insurance businesses and
      demand for our products;

  --  A decline in the equity markets causing a reduction in the sales of
      our products, a reduction of asset fees that LNC charges on various
      investment and insurance products, an acceleration of amortization of
      deferred acquisition costs, the value of business acquired , deferred
      sales inducements and deferred front-end loads and an increase in
      liabilities related to guaranteed benefit features of our variable
      annuity products;

  --  Ineffectiveness of our various hedging strategies used to offset the
      impact of declines in the equity markets;

  --  A deviation in actual experience regarding future persistency,
      mortality, morbidity, interest rates or equity market returns from
      our assumptions used in pricing our products, in establishing related
      insurance reserves, and in the amortization of intangibles that may
      result in an increase in reserves and a decrease in net income;

  --  Changes in accounting principles generally accepted in the U.S. that
      may result in unanticipated changes to our net income;

  --  Lowering of one or more of our debt ratings issued by nationally
      recognized statistical rating organizations, and the adverse impact
      such action may have on our ability to raise capital and on our
      liquidity and financial condition;

  --  Lowering of one or more of the insurer financial strength ratings of
      our insurance subsidiaries, and the adverse impact such action may
      have on the premium writings, policy retention, and profitability of
      our insurance subsidiaries;

  --  Significant credit, accounting, fraud or corporate governance issues
      that may adversely affect the value of certain investments in the
      portfolios of our companies requiring that LNC realize losses on such
      investments;

  --  The impact of acquisitions and divestitures, restructurings, product
      withdrawals and other unusual items, including our ability to
      integrate acquisitions and to obtain the anticipated results and
      synergies from acquisitions;

  --  The adequacy and collectibility of reinsurance that we have
      purchased;

  --  Acts of terrorism or war that may adversely affect our businesses and
      the cost and availability of reinsurance;

  --  Competitive conditions, including pricing pressures, new product
      offerings and the emergence of new competitors, that may affect the
      level of premiums and fees that we can charge for our products;

  --  The unknown impact on our business resulting from changes in the
      demographics of our client base, as aging baby-boomers move from the
      asset-accumulation stage to the asset-distribution stage of life;

  --  Loss of key management, portfolio managers in the Investment
      Management segment, financial planners or wholesalers; and

  --  Changes in general economic or business conditions, both domestic and
      foreign, that may be less favorable than expected and may affect
      foreign exchange rates, premium levels, claims experience, the level
      of pension benefit costs and funding, and investment results.

The risks included here are not exhaustive. We describe additional risks in our recent Forms 10-K, 10-Q and 8-K and other documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Moreover, we operate in a rapidly changing and competitive environment. New risk factors emerge from time to time and it is not possible for management to predict all such risk factors.

Further, it is not possible to assess the impact of all risk factors on our business or the extent to which any factor, or combination of factors, may cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in any forward- looking statements. Given these risks and uncertainties, investors should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements as a prediction of actual results. In addition, we disclaim any current intention to update any forward- looking statements to reflect events or circumstances that occur after the date of this document.