Legal & General protection sales grew significantly during the first half of 2026 due to an increase in margin and completions, the insurer reported.
There was a near equal split between retail and group protection sales but the group market saw the largest growth, despite Health & Protection revealing troubles with its group critical illness product.
New protection sales on an annual premium equivalent (APE) basis grew by 22% to £168m from £138m a year earlier, “reflecting growth across both retail and group businesses” L&G said.
It revealed the new business margin on protection sales had been increased by 2.9 percentage points from 8% in the first half of 2025 to 10.9% this year.
Retail protection new business premiums rose 12.9% to £87m from £77m in H1 2025.
L&G said sales “remained strong across all channels” with digital self-service and data-led capability remaining central to the proposition.
Group protection new business premiums rose 32.7% to £81m from £61m with improved margins.
Both these new business figures were also up from the second half of 2025 where sales were £82m and £49m respectively.
In total, protection gross written premiums of all business in place including new sales rose by £31m or 2.6% to £1.19bn from £1.16bn.
Retail protection gross premium income increased 2% to £784m from £771m with group protection gross premium income up 5% to £406m from £388m.
Additionally, L&G said it was continuing to “engage proactively with the Financial Conduct Authority on the second phase of its Pure Protection Market Study, following the publication of its interim review in Q1 2026.”
US protection arm sale
The sale of its US protection business announced in early 2025 had a significant effect on the overall L&G results.
On 2 February 2026 the sale of its US protection and US pension risk transfer (PRT) businesses to Meiji Yasuda was completed for $2.6bn.
The Japanese mutual life insurer became the owner of the L&G’s US protection business and now holds a 20% economic interest in the US PRT business.
As a result, L&G saw a £1.4bn boost to its bottom line for the first six months, taking its overall profit before tax to £1,997m from £406m.
Its retail operation, which includes all protection business, reported a 5% rise in profit before tax to £248m from £237m.
‘Simpler, more focused L&G’
Legal & General group CEO António Simões noted the group’s core operating profit grew 7% to £918m and it had completed around £450m of its £1.2bn buyback programme.
“We are making good progress in becoming a simpler, more focused L&G,” he said.
“We are pleased to confirm a 2% interim dividend increase as we continue to deliver strong and sustainable shareholder returns.
“The highlight of the first half was the performance in asset management, with fee-related earnings increasing 37%, supported by record annualised net new revenue and a reduced cost-income ratio of 71%.
“In institutional retirement, we maintained our strict pricing discipline while writing or exclusive on £5.7bn of global PRT year to date.
“We continue to cement our leading positions in retail. Workplace pensions administered assets increased 27% year on year to £128bn and total UK DC assets under management reached £236bn,” he added.