LV dishes out £29m in bonuses to 280,000 eligible members

LV distributed £29million in bonuses to 280,000 eligible members during the past year, newly published results show.

The mutual, which has shared a total of £414million in member bonuses since 2021, it said on Thursday reported a 57 per cent surge in operating capital generation to £55million for 2024.

LV credited strong protection sales of 12 per cent year-on-year, adding that equity release mortgage advances 'increased positively'.

New business sales, based on the present value of new business premiums, jumped 4 per cent.

The investment, protection, retirement and in-house advice group said it cut its operating expenses by 4 per cent to £244million from £255million a year ago.

Boss David Hynam also highlighted 'strong' investment performance from LV's Smoothed Managed Fund range

He added: 'We are well positioned to further enhance investment and financial performance.

'We remain steadfastly committed to doing the right things for our members, customers and advisers, and continuing to deliver for this and future generations to come.'

In 2021, members of LV rejected a £530million sale of the insurance mutual to US private equity group Bain Capital.

Former boss of LV, Mark Hartigan, said at the time that the business needed to demutualise in order to survive.

The Bain Capital takeover would have meant that LV would have lost its mutual status, with members given £100 each as part of the deal. Ultimately, the proposed sale did not get enough support from members.

Hynam said: 'Members will appreciate that we are not only returning profits to them in the form of the member bonus, but we are also running the business efficiently on their behalf.

'Our financial performance is a result of our forward-looking strategic approach and points to the significant benefit of our diversified portfolio, which includes award-winning products, services and advice.'