Legal & General

Legal & General is one of the UK's best known insurers and pension providers. It sells life insurance, critical illness cover, income protection, over 50s life plans, annuities, workplace and personal pensions, investment funds and lifetime mortgages (a form of equity release). Many people come across it without choosing it: it runs workplace pensions for employers, and it takes over pensions where a scheme's trustees have secured members' benefits with an insurance company.

It is a long established business. The firm behind the brand was incorporated in 1920, is authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority, and appears on the Bank of England's list of UK insurers authorised to carry out contracts of insurance¹. This page explains what it sells, how its charges work, how to claim, complain and contact it, and how your money is protected.

What Legal & General offers

Legal & General's products fall into five broad groups. In protection, it sells life insurance (level and decreasing), critical illness cover, income protection, over 50s life insurance and whole of life cover, including the Legal & General Over 50s Fixed Life Insurance and the Legal & General Whole of Life Protection Plan. In retirement, it sells annuities and takes on the pensions of defined benefit scheme members whose trustees have secured benefits with it. It also runs workplace pensions and a personal pension, and offers a retirement advice service. In investments, it runs a large range of funds, held directly or through ISAs and pensions. Finally, it offers lifetime mortgages, a form of equity release that lets older homeowners borrow against their property.

Its life insurance comes with guaranteed premiums, payable monthly or annually, and includes terminal illness cover from day one of the policy starting⁷. Accidental death benefit is included at no extra cost while an application is being processed, and wellbeing support is included as standard, provided by RedArc Assured Limited⁸. For a wider view of these products, see the guides to protection insurance and insurance.

Life insurance: level or decreasing cover

Legal & General's life insurance comes in two main shapes. With level cover, the potential payout stays the same for the duration of the policy, unless you make changes to it¹⁰. With decreasing cover, the cash sum reduces roughly in line with the way a repayment mortgage decreases, so it is usually chosen to protect a repayment mortgage: as the debt falls, so does the amount insured¹⁰.

There is no minimum cover amount; the size of a policy is driven by the minimum premium⁸. Premiums on level life insurance are guaranteed, meaning they will not rise. Where critical illness cover is added, there is a choice of guaranteed or reviewable premiums⁸. Independent guidance notes that the market offers level term, decreasing term, increasing term and whole of life cover, and that people with pre existing conditions can still access these products, sometimes at a higher premium or with exclusions¹¹.

Which shape suits you depends on what the money is for. Level cover suits interest only mortgages, dependants' costs or an inheritance tax bill that will not shrink. Decreasing cover costs less for the same starting amount because the insurer's liability falls over time, but it will not protect a debt that stays flat. The general principles are explained in the protection insurance guide.

Putting a life insurance policy in trust

Legal & General policies can be placed in trust, and its life insurance pages present this as an option when you set the plan up⁷. A trust is a legal arrangement where the payout is made to trustees, who hold it for the people you name as beneficiaries, rather than paid into your estate.

A policy can be put into trust at any time, when it is first written or later¹³. The effect on where the money goes is significant. A single policy not in trust pays out to the estate, where it may be liable for inheritance tax; in trust, the payout goes to the trustees for the beneficiaries¹⁰. For joint policies, the details matter: in a survivor's trust the payout goes to the surviving policyholder if they survive 30 days after the first death, and to the trustees if both die; not in trust, half the value of the sum assured is treated as part of the deceased's estate¹⁰. If both policyholders die at the same time, the younger is deemed to have survived the older, which can create an inheritance tax charge¹⁴.

The decision is not easily reversed. Once a policy is in trust, you generally cannot simply change your mind, and depending on the type of trust it may be difficult to change the beneficiaries or take the policy back out¹⁵. Legal & General's own claims guidance walks through the payout rules for each arrangement¹⁰.

Annuities and retirement income: who can get a quote

An annuity converts a pension pot into a guaranteed income for life (or a fixed period). Legal & General offers online annuity quotes, and the process takes about 15 minutes on a computer, tablet or phone⁴. To get a quote online you must be aged between 54 years 9 months and 84 years 9 months, live in the UK, have a defined contribution pension pot of at least £10,000 after any tax free cash is taken, and not have a guaranteed annuity rate attached to your pension⁴. Quotes can also be obtained by phone on 0800 048 2446 or by post⁴.

A quote is guaranteed for 15 days, and if a completed application is received within that period the guarantee is extended by a further 30 days⁴. People dealing with certain health issues can get enhanced annuities with better rates, based on medical questions; you do not have to answer the medical questions, but declining them means no enhanced quote⁴. If you have a defined benefit pension, Legal & General directs readers to financial advice about later life income options⁴.

The decision is permanent. Once you have bought the product you cannot make any changes to it⁴, and independent guidance is unanimous: a lifetime annuity cannot be changed later, the decision cannot be unwound, you cannot alter your income level or switch to another provider, and there is usually no cooling off¹⁶. You also do not have to buy an annuity from your pension provider, and independent guidance notes that quotes from different providers can be compared before deciding, with free guidance available¹⁶. Your pension provider can give you an estimate of how much you will get when you take your pension¹⁸. The wider choices are set out in the pensions guide.

Pensions, consolidation and retirement advice

Many people hold a Legal & General pension without ever having chosen it, because their employer's workplace scheme is run by the company. Over the past 30 years, more than one million members of defined benefit pension schemes have had their pensions secured with insurance companies such as Legal & General¹⁹. If your scheme's trustees have done this, Legal & General becomes responsible for paying your pension and will write to you; it also notes that it must, by law, always have enough funds to meet its financial responsibilities, and that it holds a capital surplus of several billion pounds as a buffer above that requirement¹⁹.

Legal & General runs both workplace pensions and a personal pension. Its retirement advice service can help with retirement saving and planning and with general savings and investment advice, and it states that all its advisers are fully qualified and regulated; the service is offered through employers, with over 14,000 companies using its advisers²⁰. Advice is a paid service²⁰. Free, impartial guidance on pension choices is available from the guides on pensions and investing.

How Legal & General investment fund charges work

Legal & General's funds each have an ongoing charges figure (OCF): the charge you pay over a year for as long as you hold the investment, quoted on the fund's Key Investor Information document²¹. The OCF includes Legal & General's Fund Management Fee (FMF), and for most funds the OCF will be the same as the FMF. Where a fund invests in other funds not run by Legal & General, the OCF will be higher than the FMF, because it also includes the charges and expenses of those other funds²¹.

The FMF covers investment management, accounting, valuation, the manager's own management costs, trustee and depositary fees, audit, custodian, regulator and registrar fees, and payments to legal and professional advisers. Some or all of any financial adviser commission may come out of the FMF²¹. The OCF is deducted from the fund itself, and the daily fund price reflects the deduction; charges may be taken from the fund's income or from its capital, and where income is not enough, the rest comes from capital²¹.

There are further costs beyond the OCF, taken from the fund's capital: transaction costs from buying and selling investments, including stockbroker commission; interest on borrowing; transaction taxes such as stamp duty; Stamp Duty Reserve Tax on most UK company shares; and, for property funds, a Property Expense Ratio covering property specific management costs²¹. Legal & General currently charges no initial fee and no exit charge on any of its funds, but if you buy through a platform you may also pay a platform fee²¹. All fund managers in the European Economic Area must publish ongoing charges to make comparison possible, and each fund's prospectus, which details all charges, is available free on request²¹.

Applying for cover: medical questions, genetic tests and underwriting

When you apply for life insurance, the insurer asks questions about your health and asks you to declare any conditions you have at the time; this is what allows the policy to be individually underwritten²². Applicants are normally asked about current health, previous health problems and any major health problems in the family²³. A pre existing medical condition, for Legal & General's purposes, is any illness or injury that exists before, or at the time, you take out the policy²².

If you give details of a health condition, you may need to provide more information: the name of the condition, the date you were diagnosed, details of hospital admissions and specialist referrals, the severity and regularity of your symptoms, how it affects your everyday life such as absences from work, and any medication you take and when you started it²². Non disclosure is the classic reason a claim is later refused.

Genetic tests have special rules. Legal & General will not ask you to undertake a predictive or diagnostic genetic test to obtain life insurance. You only need to tell it about predictive genetic test results concerning Huntington's disease, and only where your total life insurance cover is over £500,000, counting any application being made now together with life insurance you already have, with Legal & General or other providers. You do not need to tell it about any other predictive genetic test results. You must, however, tell it if you are experiencing symptoms of, or having treatment for, a medical condition including any genetically inherited one, and you must disclose family history if the application asks for it⁵. Independent guidance confirms that if a GP or hospital doctor report is requested, you will be asked for your fully informed consent and may choose to see the report before it is sent²³.

Critical illness cover from Legal & General automatically includes children's critical illness cover, with terms and conditions, and offers options intended to let the policy adapt with your needs, subject to eligibility criteria⁹.

Making a claim and consenting to medical reports

The fastest way to make a claim with Legal & General is online, through its claim portal, available 24/7²⁴. What you need depends on the product. For a life insurance claim: the policy number or direct debit reference, the full name of the person who has died, the date, place and cause of death, the claimant's name and relationship, and the legal next of kin if known. For over 50s policies, a copy of the death certificate. For income protection claims: the policy number, details of the illness or injury, your employer's contact details and proof of earnings²⁴.

Legal & General reserves the right to apply for a medical report or medical records from any doctor you have attended²⁵. Your consent is needed before a medical report can be requested from your doctor, and if you consent, you can choose to see any report or records before they are sent, though this will delay the handling of your claim²⁵. You do not have to give consent, but without it Legal & General cannot handle your claim²⁵. If you do see the report, your doctor must get your consent before sending it, and you have the right to ask the doctor to amend any part you consider incorrect or misleading, and to attach your written views to any part the doctor refuses to amend²⁵. Independent guidance confirms you are entitled to talk with your GP or hospital doctor before reports are sent²³.

To report that a policyholder has died, the income protection claims number, 0800 027 9830, can also be used: Legal & General will help close the policy and stop future payments²⁴. After a death there are other notifications to make, including telling the pension service; in Northern Ireland you tell the Northern Ireland Pension Centre so State Pension and Pension Credit payments stop²⁶.

Contacting Legal & General and spotting scams

Legal & General's contact details are on its website, legalandgeneral.com, and each product has its own team²⁷. For annuity quotes, call 0800 048 2446⁴. For complaints about life cover, mortgage life insurance, critical illness, over 50s insurance and parent free cover, call 0370 010 4080, 9am to 5pm, Monday to Friday, or write to Legal & General, City Park, The Droveway, Hove, BN3 7PY. For retirement income and lifetime care plan complaints, call 0345 7660 813 or write to PO Box 809, Cardiff, CF24 0YL²⁸.

Legal & General sets out clearly how it does and does not make contact, which helps in spotting scams. It states that it will never cold call you, and will only phone when there is a need to; that outgoing calls always come from a registered Legal & General number and never from a mobile; that it does not use WhatsApp or any other private messaging app; that it will never contact you via social media or web chat unless you contacted it first; that it will always use your name and never write to you as "customer", "client" or "account holder"; and that it will never sell your information to third parties²⁹. Its official social media accounts are Facebook @legalandgeneral, Twitter @landg_uk, YouTube legalandgeneral and Instagram legalandgeneral²⁷.

Complaints: how to raise one and what the figures show

Legal & General operates as one brand, but its customers are looked after by a number of different firms, and its complaints reporting shows which firm looks after which products³². Complaints can be raised by phone or post using the numbers above, and if you are unhappy with the outcome you can take the complaint to the Financial Ombudsman Service, which handles complaints about insurance companies and claims³³.

The published figures give a picture of volume and outcomes. For the main insurance firm, in insurance and pure protection, 3,312 complaints were opened and 3,172 closed between 1 January and 30 June 2026, with 34.96% upheld; the main cause was general admin and customer service. In decumulation and pensions, 1,261 complaints were opened, 1,289 closed, and 73.85% were upheld³². The ombudsman's own quarterly data for the same sector shows 299 complaints opened about legal expenses insurance in Q1 2026/27³⁴. The high uphold rate on pension complaints means the ombudsman sided with the customer in most of the cases escalated to it.

If a claims management company is involved in a complaint, you can complain about the claims company itself: ask it for a copy of its complaints procedure or check its website, contact it with your complaint so it has a chance to put things right, and keep a record³⁵.

How your money is protected

Legal & General states that, for UK residents, its benefits should be covered by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) in the unlikely event that it cannot meet its obligations¹⁹. The FSCS covers a range of products if a UK authorised financial firm fails, including deposits, insurance, investments, pensions and mortgage advice⁶. For most types of general insurance it protects at 90% of the claim, with no upper limit; compulsory general insurance is covered at 100%³⁶. FSCS also publishes guidance on what protection applies to financial advice and investments³⁷.

Because Legal & General is an insurer authorised in the UK, its long term insurance and pension obligations sit within this framework, and the firm itself points to the statutory capital requirements and its surplus as the first line of protection¹⁹. The FCA Consumer Rights rules add a further duty on firms: where a firm knows a customer has died, it must take all reasonable steps to communicate instead with a personal representative of the estate or the beneficiaries³⁸. For the wider picture of your rights when a financial firm fails, see the guide to consumer protection.