The Legal & General Life Assurance Society was founded in 1836 when British life insurance was just beginning to flourish. At that time, rapid population growth in the United Kingdom and rising real personal income created favourable conditions for the life insurance industry. Between 1834 and 1836, 310 stock life insurance companies were established, of which Legal & General proved to be one of the most durable. The founders were six London lawyers—Sergeant John Adams, Basil Montagu, W. C. L. Keene, Kenyon S. Parker, J. H. R.

Chichester, and George L. Baker—who convened their first meeting of the board of directors in June 1836 in a law firm at 18 Lincoln`s Inn Fields. At this meeting Adams was elected president and the company`s initial capitalization was set at £1 million, a goal achieved by selling shares in 1839. The first board of directors was set at 24 members, which was increased to 30 at the next meeting, and actions were limited to members of the legal profession. Legal & General Group plc, commonly known as Legal & General, is a British multinational financial services and wealth management company headquartered in London, England. Products and services include investment management, life mortgages (a form of share release), annuities, annuities and life insurance. From January 2020, following the sale of Legal & General Insurance to Allianz, Allianz will no longer offer non-life insurance. [3] The firm operates in the UK and US, with investment management firms in the Gulf, Europe and Asia. [1] Following this reorganization, Legal & General ventured into the U.S. market in 1981 by acquiring the Government Employees Life Insurance Company for $140 million. The following year, she changed the name of the Washington, DC-based company to Banner Life. In 1984, it acquired Unilife Netherlands, the Dutch subsidiary of Unilife Assurance Group, and added Legal & General Netherlands.

At the same time, however, not all of Legal & General`s foreign projects have worked. In 1981, the company decided to stop its non-life insurance activities in France and Australia. In 1987, Legal & General sold its 45% stake in Aegis Insurance, joining the trend of UK companies divesting their South African stakes due to declining profitability, shareholder pressure and concerns about political instability in that country. Legal & General was founded in June 1836 by Sergeant John Adams and five other lawyers in a café in Chancery Lane. [6] Originally called the New Law Life Assurance Society, the Society was limited to lawyers. The name was changed to Legal & General Life Assurance Society to reflect the fact that the policies were available to the general public, but ownership of the shares was limited to lawyers. The group expanded into the UK and soon began acquiring foreign life insurance companies, buying a retirement business from the Metropolitan Life Assurance Company of New York in the 1930s. [6] In the 1990s, Legal & General continued to tinker with its various activities and left the reinsurance sector at the beginning of the decade by selling Victory to Nederlandes Reassurantie Group Holding N.V.

In 1995, Legal & General entered into a joint venture with the Woolwich Building Society to offer Woolwich clients a variety of general insurance policies, including home insurance. In the same year, Legal & General`s Australian subsidiary partnered with Australian insurer SGIO Insurance to acquire SGIC, the South Australian government`s insurance business, for A$170 million (£80 million). Through this transaction, Legal & General acquired SGIC`s life insurance business as well as an investment management contract for the South Australian Government`s liability insurance pool. The company sold its commercial non-life insurance business to Guardian Insurance in 1996 and began providing banking services in the UK the following year after obtaining a banking licence in June. The first service offered by this new company was an instant deposit account service, which was introduced in July 1997. After a management reorganization in 1970, the company`s growing international expansion marked the decade for Legal & General. In 1972, it concluded cooperation agreements with three European insurance companies: Colonia of West Germany, La Paix of France and Reale Mutuale of Italy. In 1973, it merged with the West German Cologne Reinsurance Company to acquire Victory Insurance, Britain`s second largest reinsurance company. Legal & General took over the majority and then bought the Cologne-based minority stake.

That same year, it sold Gresham Life Assurance, but retained most of its operations overseas. Between 1974 and 1976, it signed cooperation agreements with AGO Holding (later part of AEGON in the Netherlands), Assubel of Belgium, Life of Eire of Ireland, Vadoise Vie of Switzerland and Nippon Life. In 1976, Legal & General merged its South African general insurance business with Norwich Union under the name Aegis Insurance Company. The company also took national action in the 1970s. In 1971, she established a pension management subsidiary and founded the Tyndall Fund-Unit Assurance Company to gain a foothold in the mutual fund industry. In 1973, Legal & General acquired real estate developer Cavendish Land. Legal & General emerged unscathed from World War I, although for four years an unusually high number of claims were paid due to war casualties and the 1918 flu epidemic. In 1920, the Society took the word „life“ and removed it from its name. The company began by creating fire and accident insurance policies, a business that immediately became successful.

The new popularity of automobile and air travel has created a strong demand for accident insurance. In 1929, the restriction on membership in the society to lawyers was lifted. The impact of the Great Depression on the world economy in the 1930s was barely noticeable to the British insurance industry. In fact, historian G. Clayton pointed out in his British Insurance that widespread pessimism in difficult times tended to increase the demand for insurance. Important investment decisions in UK regions have not yet been reflected in our Rebuilding Britain Index, but work is underway to change that. The Ministry of Finance is responsible for fiscal policy, which includes taxation, public expenditure and the relationship between the two.