LONDON, May 13, 2026, 15:06 (BST)
Legal & General Group Plc said on Wednesday it paid more than £1.388 billion in protection claims in 2025, putting a fresh number on the scale of its UK retail insurance book as the group pushes a sharper capital-return story. The company said the payouts covered more than 26,000 retail and group protection claims and averaged £3.8 million a day.
The update matters because protection insurance is under closer regulatory review in Britain. The Financial Conduct Authority has been studying “pure protection” products — life cover, critical illness cover and income protection, which pay out when a policyholder dies, becomes seriously ill or cannot work — and said about 16.2 million UK adults held such policies in May 2024.
It also comes while L&G is buying back stock. The company’s buyback page showed it had purchased 100.5 million shares for about £253.2 million by May 8 under the £1.2 billion programme announced in March, while AJ Bell’s delayed market data showed L&G quoted at 247.20p/247.30p, up 0.88%, in London trading.
Retail Protection paid just under £993 million to individuals and families, with life and over-50s plans making up the bulk of claims at nearly 14,000 payouts worth £527 million. Group Protection — cover bought by employers for staff — paid £396 million, including £284 million on group life policies and more than £82 million in group income protection benefits. James Shattock, L&G’s managing director for protection and retail retirement, said “protection is more than paying a claim,” and said investment in digital tools was aimed at making the claims journey “efficient, transparent and flexible.”
L&G said more than 40% of retail protection claims now start online. It also said its retention team kept 22,000 retail protection customers covered in 2025 who might otherwise have lost policies through lapses or cancellations.
The numbers give L&G something concrete to point to in retail, a division that sits beside its larger institutional retirement and asset management operations. In March, the company reported core operating profit of £1.623 billion, up 6%, and said it managed £1.2 trillion of assets at year-end, with global pension risk transfer volumes of £11.8 billion. Pension risk transfer means an insurer takes on pension obligations from a company scheme in exchange for assets to back those payments.
The competitive context is tight. Aviva, a major UK peer in protection and retirement, said in March it paid £1.99 billion across 61,632 individual and group protection claims in 2025, including more than £677 million in group protection payouts.
L&G is not pitching the claims data as a profit guide. Still, it feeds into the wider investor argument: the group wants to show that retail protection can hold customers, handle claims digitally and support cash generation while the board returns capital through dividends and buybacks.
There are risks. Higher sickness absence, more severe claims or more policy lapses could change the economics. The FCA has also said some parts of the protection market could work better, and Hargreaves Lansdown senior equity analyst Matt Britzman wrote after L&G’s March results that the company still faced “near-term risks,” especially if economic conditions came under pressure. Hargreaves Lansdown
The next scheduled investor dates are close enough to matter: L&G lists its annual general meeting and general meeting for May 21, a dividend payment date on June 4 and half-year results on Aug. 5. That leaves management a short runway to turn the latest operating data into a clearer story on margins, retention and capital returns.
