On Oct. 3, 2007, Standard&Poor's Ratings Services assigned its 'A+' senior unsecured debt rating to Lincoln National Corp.'s (NYSE:LNC; A+/Stable/A-1) $375 million senior notes issuance, due 2037. The proceeds from this issuance will be used to fund a new wholly owned insurance subsidiary to reinsure a portion of statutory reserves under AXXX guidelines. We expect that the transaction will provide $300 million of statutory capital relief, which LNC will use for general corporate purposes such as share repurchases and support of future business growth. Standard&Poor's views this debt as operating leverage because its purpose is for funding excess statutory reserves related to universal life insurance rather than capital purposes. Through additional analysis, we have determined that
