Legal & General tops £4bn sales in first half as lifetime mortgages bloom

The FTSE 100 group, in its second post-Brexit statement, reassured that it had felt little disruption from the uncertainty around the EU Referendum example and in June carried out around £250m in new bulk annuity transactions.

Added to the £2.9bn portfolio purchase from Aegon in May, this lifted annuity business in the half to £3.6bn compared to £2.4bn in the same period last year.

L&G said it now provides more lifetime mortgages to its customers than individual annuities, after entering the market last year, and expects this trend to accelerate as more baby boomers retire and choose to access their housing wealth to help fund their retirement, instead of buying an individual annuity.

Lifetime mortgage sales topped £200m in the half, surpassing the full year figure for 2015, as well as being greater than total individual annuity sales in the first half 2016.

Bernie Hickman, CEO of Legal & General Home Finance, added: "Legal & General entered the lifetime mortgage market last year.

"Our lowest interest rate on lifetime mortgages is now below 5%, and we have recently been awarded Lifetime Mortgage Lender of the year.

Hickman said individual annuities "still have their place", but customers now were demanding more choice in how they fund their retirement.