Lincoln Financial Group (NYSE:LNC) announced today that its life insurance Customer Contact Center has earned the designation of “Certified Center of Excellence” by BenchmarkPortal, a national benchmarking firm, for the second consecutive year. The Center of Excellence recognition is one of the most prestigious awards in the customer service and support industry. Only the top 10 percent of contact centers that apply for certification earn the designation.

“Our knowledgeable and experienced Life Customer Contact team is gratified to be recognized for the second consecutive year,” said Laura Dambier, Senior Vice President, Partner Solutions at Lincoln Financial Group. The certification is an important distinction based on best-practice metrics drawn from BenchmarkPortal’s database of contact center metrics, developed at Purdue University, and is the largest in the world.

Lincoln’s Life Customer Contact team, once again, joins their colleagues in the Individual Annuity Customer Contact team who achieved the Center of Excellence designation last fall.

“This latest accolade places our life insurance Customer Care Center in the top 10 percent again,” said Ken Solon, Senior Vice President, Shared Services and Information Technology at Lincoln Financial Group. “This achievement validates our commitment to continually improving the way we deliver the Lincoln experience.”

About Lincoln Financial Group

Lincoln Financial Group provides advice and solutions that help empower Americans to take charge of their financial lives with confidence and optimism. Today, more than 12 million customers trust our retirement, insurance and wealth protection expertise to help address their lifestyle, savings and income goals, as well as to guard against long-term care expenses. Headquartered in Radnor, Pennsylvania, Lincoln Financial Group is the marketing name for Lincoln National Corporation (NYSE:LNC) and its affiliates. The company has $209 billion in assets under management as of March 31, 2014. Learn more at www.LincolnFinancial.com.

About BenchmarkPortal

Founded in 1995, BenchmarkPortal is a global leader in the contact center industry providing benchmarking, certification, training, consulting and industry reports. The BenchmarkPortal team of professionals has gained international recognition for its expertise and an innovative approach to best practices for the contact center industry and hosts the world’s largest database of contact center metrics. BenchmarkPortal’s mission is to help contact centers reach peak performance in operational effectiveness and efficiency so that the centers will realize increased levels of agent and customer loyalty while containing costs and building enterprise value. For more information on BenchmarkPortal please call 1-800-214-8929 or visit www.BenchmarkPortal.com.