04 March 2015
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Legal & General (L&G) has seen its UK protection premiums increase 6% to £1.047bn in 2014.
Group protection new business sales were down by £5m to £65m in 2014 compared to 2013. The annual figures attributed the decline to price increases.
Meanwhile, new business for individual protection increased by £17m to £165m in 2014. The Q4 figure of £41m was the same as the two previous quarters and £1m on the Q1 figure for 2014.
For group new business, annual premiums were £11m in Q4 which was a decrease of £3m on the previous quarter and £2m down on the same quarter the previous year.
Gross premiums for individual protection were up 7% to £1.056bn while for group protection gross premiums were up 4% to £351m.
Distribution through IFAs saw sales growth of 15% in 2014 to £99m.
Operating profits at L&G were up 10% to £1.275bn and after tax profits were up 9% to £992m.
Nigel Wilson, group chief executive at L&G said: "Our market leading growth businesses coupled with continuous cost reductions have given us scale and efficiency in our chosen markets."
He added: "Over the last five years we have increased dividend per share from 3.84p to 11.25p - a nearly threefold increase. In 2014 we produced another year of double digit growth across our key financial metrics enabling us to reward shareholders with a 21% rise in the dividend."
