It looks as if Legal & General Group PLC (LSE:LGEN) is getting ready for a bit of a spring clean.
The insurer and pensions giant has named Scott Wheway as its next chair, a familiar figure in financial services, currently chairing Scottish Widows and sitting on the board of Lloyds Banking Group. He will take over from Sir John Kingman in early 2026.
That timing gives him a long runway before stepping into one of the City’s more demanding board seats. L&G has been in transition mode for some time, with Antonio Simões taking the reins as chief executive this year and a strategy review due to culminate in an investor day later this month.
The message from UBS is that the group looks poised to shift more of its attention towards UK retail customers, and specifically, the workplace pensions market.
Over the weekend, reports emerged that L&G is in talks to buy Cushon, a workplace savings platform currently majority-owned by NatWest.
NatWest paid £144 million for an 85% stake just last year, valuing Cushon at around £170 million.
The business manages £3.7 billion of assets, tiny compared with L&G’s £100 billion-plus workplace book, but it would give the insurer a fresh foothold in the rapidly growing market for digital pensions and savings products.
UBS thinks such a deal would make strategic sense. L&G’s strength has long been in institutional pensions and bulk annuities, where it dominates, but its retail offering is less well-known than that of some rivals.
Adding Cushon would broaden its reach and help it retain savers as regulatory changes make it easier for firms to offer guidance and advice to customers. Any deal would likely be funded from existing resources rather than new capital.
Investors will get a clearer sense of direction at L&G’s retail-focused update on 23 October. UBS expects management to highlight roughly 10% annual market growth in workplace pensions and to set a target for operating earnings of £500–600 million by 2028.
The change of chair and talk of a small but symbolic acquisition both hint at a company trying to reposition itself. L&G may be best known for looking after other people’s retirements, but it seems to be planning a livelier midlife refresh of its own.