Legal & General (L&G)

Established in London in 1836, Legal & General have been providing insurance for their customers for over 180 years. With around 7,000 employees they look after the financial security of over 10 million customers in the UK and US and manage investments for around 3,000 institutional clients.

Legal & General is a British multinational financial services company. Its products and services include life insurance, general insurance, pensions and investment management. It operates in Legal & General Retirement (LGR), Legal & General Investment Management (LGIM), Legal & General Capital (LGC), and General Insurance (GI) segments.

The LGR segment offers annuity contracts with guaranteed income for a specified time; longevity insurance products for company pension schemes; and lifetime mortgages.

The LGIM segment provides index fund management; active fixed income and liquidity management; solution and liability driven investment; active equity; and real estate funds.

The LGC segment offers investment strategy and implementation, and direct investment and structuring services. The GI segment provides household and accident, sickness, unemployment, and pet insurance products.

The company is also involved in insurance agency and brokerage, unit trust, institutional fund management, distribution, mortgage finance, treasury, SPV, building project and modular housing development, general insurance, and open ended investment businesses.

It also engages in the real estate investment and trading, fund general partner, fund trustee, long term, commercial lending, venture and development capital, contractual scheme, real estate agency, private equity, management, investor alternative investment fund, collective asset-management, reinsurance, and investment management activities, as well as provides investment advisory and property services.

In 2017 Legal & General increased their US assets to $189 billion, expanding their US pension risk transfer business and making progress on their strategy to develop their US Insurance business through digital capabilities. In 2014 the company's worldwide assets reached more than $1 trillion (£709 billion).

In 2018 Legal & General launched a new digital broker platform that enables online management of group income protection and group life insurance, for brokers working with SMEs to insure groups of 10-250 employees. The new platform allows brokers to quote, apply and renew policies, while offering an easy and secure way to upload data. The platform can also provide instant online comparison quotes without the need for advisers to repeatedly input customer data.

In 2019, Legal & General announced they had chosen NICE's Employee Virtual Attendant (NEVA) to augment its service delivery approach. The inclusion of intelligent virtual attendant robots into their organisation equips their Customer Service Consultants with the tools to deliver an accurate, efficient and valuable customer experience.

In May 2019 it was revealed that Allianz UK was planning to buy Legal & General's GI division for £242m. The deal was completed at the end of 2019.

Later that same year, Legal & General launched Estua-Re, a pension risk transfer execution platform that is powered by blockchain. The move came following a collaboration with Amazon Web Services.

By using NICE RPA, the organisation has generated efficiency gains by accelerating call resolution times. Furthermore, with the assistance of a virtual robotic workforce, Legal & General’s Customer Service Consultants are able to update multiple policies simultaneously, ensuring continual processing accuracy and fast response times to customer queries.

In February 2020, the LGIM Real Assets segment of Legal & General partnered with Demand Logic after an initial pilot partnership since June the year before. Demand Logic's software offers real-time intelligence to property stakeholders, helping to identify faults, save energy, and improve relationships with occupants. The software is available to asset managers, property managers and facilities managers, meaning issues can be address quicker than typical building management systems.

In May 2020 L&G partnered with UK Research & Innovation to identify innovative healthtechs that help seniors remain healthy and physically active. The company was awarded a £6million grant but pledged a total of £24 million over the next 5 years as part of a major initiative.

In March 2021 Legal & General partnered with esure Group, enabling the esure and Sheilas' Wheels brands to sell L&G products to its 2.4m customers.