Our history
A lot has changed since 1836, but our desire to build a better future hasn’t. Through our investments, we have the opportunity to tackle issues connected with financial wellbeing and developing public and private spaces, such as addressing the inadequacy of housing and increasing investment in infrastructure and commercial real estate. We continue to be guided by our purpose – Investing in the long term. Our futures depend on it.
1800s
In June 1836, six lawyers founded L&G. And we have been investing for the long term from the start. Our very first investments in the UK’s earliest railways and real estate showed that capital can generate social benefits alongside returns for investors. That idea continues to guide us today.
1940s
In the 1940s, we first entered the US market, laying the groundwork for our future development by acquiring the pensions business of Metropolitan Life Insurance Company of New York. Some 40 years later, we would go on to establish Legal & General America.
1970s
In the same decade that we were listed on the London Stock Exchange, Legal & General Investments (later to become our Asset Management business) was established and began to manage assets on the behalf of institutional and private clients and pension funds. It was also in this decade that our iconic umbrella logo – the star of our very first TV advert – was launched.
1980s
We took some big steps in the ‘80s to expand our domestic and international presence. We grew our life insurance footprint in the US, while also beginning to make inroads into the European market with the purchase of a Dutch life insurance firm. A few years later, we would become a proud founding member of the UK’s newly established FTSE 100 index.
1995
We launched our Mortgage Club, helping borrowers find good-value mortgages and homes. 30 years later, our Mortgage Club would be involved in one in four of all mortgages in the UK, one in three of all intermediated mortgages, and facilitate over £1.1 trillion of mortgages for customers.
2006
This year marked the launch of Legal & General Investment Management America, which is today part of our international Asset Management business. This signified a major step forward in the US market for L&G, combining our deep expertise in asset management and origination with enhanced global distribution capabilities.
2013
By the 2010s, the pensions landscape was changing. With the introduction of auto-enrolment in 2012 ensuring that more people were enrolled on pension schemes than ever, in 2013 we introduced the L&G Mastertrust, one of the first UK master trusts. In 2025, our Mastertrust would reach a major milestone, becoming the first commercial master trust in the UK to pass £30 billion in assets under management (AUM).
2015
While we’ve been helping to regenerate cities since the 1840s, 2015 saw a pivotal scaling up in the way we approached these investments. We launched the Cardiff Central Square development, a joint public-private venture that helped to transform Cardiff city centre. The project added £1.1 billion in gross value to the region while creating space for 13,000 jobs, ensuring an even brighter future for the city. The initiative’s scale made it the largest privately funded development in Wales, and we’re proud that the 120,000 square foot office element now serves as L&G’s beautiful, state-of-the-art Welsh headquarters.
2018
With the UK’s housing crisis worsening as we approached 2020, we launched Legal & General Affordable Homes. Through our role as a direct investor and operator of residential property we help provide affordable, accessible housing across the UK. Through direct investment in property and deployment of third-party capital, we are developing affordable housing which creates value for investors and meets a social need.
2019
After its launch in 2015, this year marked a major milestone for Legal & General Retirement America, our US Pension Risk Transfer (PRT) business, which surpassed $1 billion in total deals transacted during this year. This reflected the rapid growth of both the PRT market and L&G’s operations within it, which would only continue to expand in the following years.
2020
As we entered the 2020s, the investment landscape was changing. With concerns about climate change well-established and investors seeking investment products that addressed these challenges, in 2020 our Asset Management business launched a climate transition index fund, which provided sophisticated and diversified exposure to the opportunities arising from the low-carbon energy transition. We continued to expand investor choice in this area in the years to follow through products that included our Net Zero Global Corporate Bond Fund, which was launched in 2022.
2021
In 2021, we combined our life insurance, annuities, and workplace businesses to create our Retail business, a leading provider of retirement and protection solutions. By 2025, our Retail customer base had swelled to 12.4 million, while our workplace pension assets had surpassed £100 billion.
2022
In 2022, our Asset Management business was appointed to manage
the assets of the British Steel Pension Scheme, one of the UK’s largest DB pension schemes. The synergies of our Asset Management and Institutional Retirement businesses were on full display. Our Asset Management business aligned the Scheme’s investments with L&G’s pricing, while our Institutional Retirement business helped the Scheme smoothly de-risk across a series of transactions. In 2023, it was announced that L&G had successfully insured the entirety of the Scheme’s £7.5 billion of liabilities.
2023
Against the backdrop of a thriving PRT market, we executed the largest transaction by premium size in the history of the UK PRT field: a £4.8 billion full-scheme buy-in with the Boots Pension Scheme. This deal secured the retirement benefits of all 53,000 retirees and deferred members of the Scheme. The transaction had been a long time in the making: we had provided investment management services to the Scheme for over 20 years, with this buy-in marking the conclusion of a de-risking process that had begun all the way back in 2001.
2024
In 2021, we combined our life insurance, annuities, and workplace businesses to create our Retail business, a leading provider of retirement and protection solutions. By 2025, our Retail customer base had swelled to 12.4 million, while our workplace pension assets had surpassed £100 billion.
2025 and beyond
2025 marked the biggest deal in L&G history, with the sale of our US protection business to Meiji Yasuda. The sale supports our long-term strategic goal to grown our US PRT and global asset management propositions, while delivering increased returns to shareholders.
We’re also building on our long-standing heritage in private markets, which stretches back through the launch of L&G Property back in 1987, and L&G Infrastructure making its first investment in 2015. 2024 marked the launch of the L&G Private Markets Access Fund – which has surged to £1.3 billion in AUM a year on from its launch – and in 2025 we went a step further, entering a strategic partnership with Blackstone. This partnership will enable L&G to leverage Blackstone’s private credit origination platform to access a pipeline of diversified investment-grade assets, complementing our existing insurance, investment and asset origination capabilities.