The chief executive of Legal & General’s Home Finance arm, Claire Singleton, is set to step down from her position after ten years at the group.
Director of intermediary at L&G’s insurance arm, Craig Brown, will take over as CEO on February 28.
Singleton will return to a group general counsel position, L&G said yesterday (January 27).
Her exit as CEO will also see her step down from her role on the board of the Equity Release Council, with Brown taking her place.
When Brown moves into his new role, Julie Godley, one of L&G's account directors, will take up the position of director of intermediary on an interim basis.
L&G's home finance unit is part of its retail division, which encompasses protection, retirement income, workplace savings, personal investment, mortgage lending and a portfolio of fintech investments. It has 11m customers across the UK and US.
Founded in 2015, L&G's retail boss Bernie Hickman said he "remain[s] passionate" about what Home Finance offers its customers in later life.
"Lifetime and retirement interest-only mortgages can help meet a diverse range of challenges across customer demographics, from interest-only mortgage capital repayments to wealth planning," he said.
"Craig brings both an essential understanding of the intermediary landscape and broad commercial experience, making him ideally placed to grow our market share. ”
Incoming Home Finance boss Brown joined L&G in 2012. In his most recent role, the group said he "strengthened many relationships" across its intermediary channel, which comprises of some 19,000 firms.
The former Aviva and Lloyds Banking Group employee has been tasked with transitioning later life mortgages into mainstream retirement planning.
"I think there is a huge opportunity with the growing relevance of property to people’s long-term planning, to move later life lending into the mainstream – and I believe Legal & General can play a key role in leading this transition," said Brown.
The Home Finance arm has also appointed former Just Group and LV executive Andrew Gilbert as product director, and Paula Hughes as head of business development.
Hughes is re-joining L&G, having left in 2017 to spend stints at Nationwide and Key Group.
The leadership shake-up at Home Finance follows a wider reorganisation of L&G's business. In October, it announced it would merge two of its five divisions to deliver insurance and retirement products to its retail clients through one business.
This means since the beginning of this year, Hickman, also chief executive of Legal & General Insurance, has overseen both L&G Retail Retirement and L&G Insurance as CEO.
ruby.hinchliffe@ft.com
