Legal & General makes some senior management changes

Legal & General Group announced a senior management shuffle in its Legal & General Retirement (LGR) and Legal & General Capital (LGC) divisions on Wednesday..

The FTSE 100 firm said the two divisions collectively contributed £708m in operating profit in the first half of 2017, describing them as “core components” of its growth strategy.

Kerrigan Procter, who has been CEO of the LGR business division since 2013 and is a member of Legal & General's group board and of its executive committee, would now move to become CEO of Legal & General Capital.

Prior to heading LGR, Kerrigan had responsibility for liability driven investments within Legal & General Investment Management.

The board said his move to LGC would ensure that the “powerful synergies” across Legal & General's principal balance sheet businesses were maximised.

Chris Knight is head of LGR Retail, the board confirmed, with responsibility for a “wide range” of retirement products, notably lifetime mortgages and individual annuities.

As CEO of that business, he would join the group executive committee and report directly to Nigel Wilson.

LGR Retail's market share in individual annuities was increasing, Legal & General claimed, and was now 13%, with Legal & General Home Finance under his leadership having a market share of over 30% in lifetime mortgages.

Finally, Laura Mason was promoted to become CEO of LGR Institutional.

The board said she would also report directly to Nigel Wilson and join the group executive committee.

That would build on her experience of running Legal & General's direct investments, and before that of managing investments for LGR.

The management changes would take effect from the new year, Legal & General confirmed.

“These changes increase Legal & General's capability to accelerate the growth of our business and maximise synergies between our divisions,” said Legal & General group CEO Nigel Wilson.

“Kerrigan, Laura and Chris are representative of the outstanding leadership we have at Legal & General.”

Wilson said the trio combined “extensive” industry experience with “intellectual rigour”, adding they were great team players.

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