Inside the US$13 billion dual direction Lincoln Advantage 2 Rila.

Since launching in May 2018, the Lincoln Level Advantage (LLA) has been Lincoln Financial Group (Lincoln)’s most successful product launch to-date, with more than US$13 billion in lifetime sales from over 115,000 policyholders.

“Our sweet spot has typically been the six-year durations. We do see a fair amount of allocations now into one-year terms. Innovation around crediting strategies is where we’ve been focused,” Daniel Herr (pictured right), senior vice president, annuity product management at Lincoln told SRP.

Over the past five years, the product has evolved with multiple enhancements that give investors a broad range of underlying assets, including two actively managed exchange-traded funds (ETFs) for LLA 2 that went live in May 2024, a first of its kind in the registered index-linked account (Rila) market. 

The allocation for the two ETFs is greater than 10% of one-year accounts where they are available, said Herr without disclosing their hedge providers.

At the same time, Lincoln expanded its relationship with FT Indexing Solutions to offer the First Trust American Leadership Index, alongside the Capital Strength Index, to track the performance of four equally weighted indices, giving investors exposure to U.S. technology companies focused on dividend growth and stability.

This index outperformed the S&P 500 in 106 out of 118, rolling six-year periods by an average of 12.1%. In August, LLA 2 added two crediting strategies of dual trigger performance and dual 15 plus, which provide opportunities for growth even if the index is down, offering a total of seven crediting strategies with different levels of protection.  

Dual direction strategy is “one of the current value propositions that’s taken hold within the industry”, described by Herr.

Despite being “a small percentage” of LLA 2 sales, the dual direction strategies are becoming a lead conversation for the distribution and wholesaling force at Lincoln.

Compared to regular dual trigger payoff, Herr highlighted a 10% buffer level for the six-year term, which still offers six percent trigger rate as long as the reference index doesn’t fall greater than 10%.

“We’re going to stay focused on these protected accumulation strategies and innovate around offerings within our index products,” he said.

LLA 2 is offered by advisors across direct advisor channels including independent, regional, wirehouses and banks, registered investment advisors (RIAs), and property and casualty (P&C) channels. 

“We started to see an expansion of our Rila product into the fee-based advisor world, which continued to drive the broader opportunity for the business,” said Herr.

As LLA retires from the offering shelf, sales of LLA 2 have been relatively consistent from 2024 to this year, but its assets under management (AuM) continue to grow, according to the product manager.

Including variable annuities, the business line including Rilas, accounts for at least a third of the total sales at Lincoln.

The rapid rise in US interest rates between 2022 and 2023 significantly benefitted the growth of indexed variable annuities in the country.

“The industry has levelled off in his growth at the current time. We’re certainly not losing the opportunity there. But the growth has slowed because of the big shift in the US around fixed products,” said Herr.

The US insurer’s Lincoln Level Advantage 2 won the Most Innovative Product, Annuities at the SRP Americas Awards 2025.