Increase in sales for Legal and General

Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Legal and General, the fourth biggest life insurer in the UK (according to market value) has revealed a positive result on its first quarter of 2010 as they posted a 2% rise in sales.

First quarter sales for Legal and General amounted to £388 million as opposed to £382 million in the first quarter of 2009, this figure beat market analyst forecasts as they predicted sales of £368 million for the first quarter of this year.

Many city forecasters attributed the rise to the general recovery in the domestic insurance industry as well as an increase in the minimum retirement age in the UK which inevitably pushes up volumes across the sector as a whole.

Tim Breedon, Chief Executive at Legal and General had this to say about the results:

"We continue to expect further recovery in our core UK risk and savings markets during 2010. We remain on track to deliver GBP600 million of cash in 2010."

It has also been reported that savings in the UK grew by 30% to £267 million with demand for ISA’s growing rapidly.

With the increase in the age at which you can withdraw income or a lump sum from pensions savings going up to 55 from 50 coming into effect in April of this year, analysts believe that Legal and General are reaping the benefits from many people deciding to make purchases ahead of the change.

With the positive results for Legal and General from the first quarter exceeding many expectations the company is now expected to build on this and see out the year with an even higher rise in sales.