L&G shakes up management of retirement division

Chris Knight has been promoted to chief executive of Legal & General Retirement Retail and Laura Mason will become chief executive of Legal & General Retirement Institutional.

Kerrigan Procter, the current chief executive of L&G Retirement, will become head of Legal & General Capital in the new year.

LGC and LGR collectively contributed £708m in operating profit in the first half of 2017, compared to £1.06bn during all of 2016.

Mr Knight will have responsibility for a wide range of retirement products, including lifetime mortgages and individual annuities. He will join the company's executive committee and will report directly to L&G chief executive Nigel Wilson.

Meanwhile Ms Mason ran Legal & General's Direct Investments, and before that, managed investments for LGR. She will also report directly to Nigel Wilson and will also join the executive committee.

L&G said LGR Retail's market share in individual annuities has increased to 13 per cent and Legal & General Home Finance has a market share of more than 30 per cent in lifetime mortgages.

The FTSE 100 company said the two divisions are "core components" of its growth strategy.

Mr Wilson said: "These changes increase Legal & General's capability to accelerate the growth of our business and maximise synergies between our divisions.

"Kerrigan, Laura and Chris are representative of the outstanding leadership we have at Legal & General. They combine extensive industry experience with intellectual rigour, and they are great team players.

"I have every confidence they will deliver terrific outcomes for all of our stakeholders."

Mr Procter has been chief executive of the LGR business division since 2013 and has been responsible for liability driven investments with L&G Investment Management.

He is a member of Legal & General's board and of its executive committee.

L&G says his move to LGC will "ensure that the powerful synergies across Legal & General's principal balance sheet businesses are maximised".