Legal & General has announced the appointment of Chris Knight as managing director of L&G Retirement in the retail customer division, as sales hit £1bn in 2016.
Mr Knight has been with Legal & General since 2009, latterly as chief financial officer of Legal & General Retirement.
He will start his new role on 1 March 2017.
Mr Knight is expected to grow the retirement retail customer division of the firm, as Legal & General believes more retirees are deciding to access their housing wealth to provide income, and as auto-enrolment drives growth in defined contribution pensions.
He will also target annuity back book deals, and look to internationalise the business, with the US market as the key focus.
Sales of individual annuities and lifetime mortgages hit £1bn in the retail customer division in 2016, as lifetime mortgage sales trebled, and individual annuity sales were up 15 per cent on 2015.
According to Legal & General, the division now manages almost £20bn in assets for its 500,000 individual annuity customers.
Mr Knight said: "Legal & General Home Finance has the potential to become a major force in the UK mortgage market, expanding the range of our borrowing-in-retirement propositions.
"In the era of pension freedoms, individual annuities are growing strongly again and there are further front-book and back-book opportunities in the UK.”
Kerrigan Procter, managing director, Legal & General Retirement added: “Legal & General Retirement has made strong progress again in 2016.
"We more than doubled total retirement sales in 2016, and have successfully implemented a transformed capital and financial business model for the division that ensures we can sustain this progress in a Solvency II world."
ruth.gillbe@ft.com
