30% savings sales surge for L&G

RECORD demand for Individual Savings Accounts and investment products helped insurer Legal & General notch up £388 million in sales for the first three months of the year, the group said yesterday.

Sales were up 2 per cent on a year earlier and 18 per cent higher than the previous three months – better than City analysts were expecting.

The UK's fourth biggest insurer said a 30 per cent year-on-year hike in sales of savings products drove new business higher, helped by the "rebirth of the Isa" as confidence returned to equity markets and following the increase in the annual stocks-and-shares Isa limit to 10,200.

L&G – led by chief executive Tim Breedon – said the rise offset slower sales of protection insurance products amid weakness in the property market, but forecast progress in demand for both protection and savings over the year ahead.

The insurer said: "We continue to expect further recovery in our core UK risk and savings markets during 2010."

In March, L&G unveiled better-than-expected annual results, with operating profits up 87 per cent to 1.1 billion after UK savings returned to profit.