UPDATED AT 5 P.M.: Lincoln National Corp., one of four life insurers that's applied for financial help under the federal bailout plan, saw its shares tumble today.

Sure, the overall market plunged, but Lincoln shares sunk by 40 percent early in the day and stayed down.

Shares of Radnor-based firm closed at $7.31, down $4.85 from yesterday's close of $12.16. Over the last 52 weeks, the price of Lincoln shares has fallen 87 percent.

What's going on?

Company executives made a presentation for its 2008 Conference for Investors and Bankers this morning. Given the number of slides and the level of detail, their pitch looks to have been thorough.

Apparently, the message didn't go over well with investors.

During the presentation, Lincoln said it had "no current plans" to raise common equity. CEO Dennis Glass said that the company isn't counting on money from the Treasury Department's Troubled Asset Relief Program in order to succeed in the next 12 to 15 months.

A replay of the webcast will be on Lincoln's Web site on Thursday. Here's a link to the slides used during the presentation.

Now, Lincoln wasn't the only insurer to see its stock price decline on Wednesday. But it was the biggest loser among the 89 stocks in the Bloomberg U.S. Insurance Index.