Lincoln National Fends Off Investor Suit Over Insurance Reserves

Lincoln National Corp. will escape, for now, a proposed class action over statements the company made before it took a nearly $2.2 billion charge in 2022, a federal court ruled.

The investors failed to adequately allege that statements by Lincoln and its top executives about factors affecting reserves for two types of universal life insurance were misleading when made, Judge John F. Murphy said Thursday for the US District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.

They also didn’t show the necessary level of intent for securities fraud, Murphy said. The complaint doesn’t adequately set out “what data Lincoln had ...