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Lincoln National's stock price is slowly rising from a deep crevasse that is swallowing the value of insurance companies across the country.

Lincoln, the Philadelphia company whose offices in Greensboro employ 1,323 people in the Life Solutions life insurance division and a variety of other departments, was closely affected by the Wall Street meltdown because it invests in the markets and many of its products are linked to investments.

Likewise, that hurts many people in Greensboro who are heavily invested in Lincoln, including a major charitable foundation founded by a former top executive of the company.

Lincoln, which bought Greensboro's Jefferson-Pilot Corp. more than two years ago, has seen its stock rise from about $60 just after the merger to $74 in mid-2007, only to fall heavily since this summer. The stock closed Monday at $12.19 a share, down 11.2 percent from its Friday close of $13.73.

Lincoln and several other insurance companies have bought themselves tickets to the federal bailout banquet: troubled savings and loan banks. Lincoln said last week it will buy Newton County Loan & Savings of Goodland, Ind.

That financially troubled bank could give Lincoln a chance to qualify for at least a part of $91 billion available in funds from the Troubled Assets Relief Program.

But Lincoln - which had a net income of $148 million in the third quarter - is coy about whether it intends to use the money to shore up investment losses of between $200 million and $300 million it suffered in October's severe stock market slump.

Although Lincoln's life insurance products have not been affected by the stock market crisis, it sells many other financial products that are.

One way Lincoln loses investment money is through annuities, for example. These products often guarantee Lincoln's customers a minimum of value, even if the stocks in those annuities fall below that stated value. And the insurance industry is losing money as customers cash out of those accounts when markets collapse.

Major insurance companies were not included in the final bailout program because they are subject to state, not federal, regulation.

Owning a federally regulated bank, however, buys them a seat at the table, said Dennis Glass, Lincoln's chief executive officer.

"We are not building our capital plans or counting on TARP monies in order to be successful over the next 12 to 16 months," Glass said. "But to not be in a position to apply would put us in a competitive disadvantage."

But just the prospect of major distress in the industry sent Lincoln's stock into the tank last week, dropping from $12.27 on Nov. 18 to $6.37 on Nov. 21.

The price began rising Tuesday, however, when Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said that insurers could become eligible for assistance.

Lincoln's stock drop has pinched numerous investors and current as well as former JP employees whose JP stock holdings were converted to Lincoln National shares after the merger.

One such holder is the Joseph M. Bryan Foundation, whose namesake was a former chairman of Pilot Life Insurance Co., a predecessor of Jefferson-Pilot.

The foundation, which has sold most of its Lincoln stock of about a million shares, still owns about 100,000 shares, said Ed Kitchen, vice president of the foundation.

"I'm sure it would be paining Mr. Bryan to see all this happen and I'm sure there are a lot of people (with) individual investments," Kitchen said. But the Life Solutions division is recognized as the strongest part of Lincoln, and that's good for Greensboro.

"As far as we know, it's still a strong company and we're expecting it to come back."

Contact Richard M. Barron at 373-7371 or richard.barron@news-record.com