Building a Legal & General dividend income stream looks more credible after the company’s full-year 2025 results, which disclosed a £1.2bn share buyback, guided dividend per share growth of 2%, and total planned shareholder returns of £2.4bn over the coming year.
The results also showed adjusted operating profit rising to £1,756m from £1,711m in 2024, according to Legal & General’s 2025 Annual Report Summary. Core operating profit rose 6% to £1,623m, with core operating earnings per share up 9%.
Legal & General dividend income: what the 2025 figures deliver
The full-year 2025 dividend per share was 21.79p, with a final dividend of 15.67p per share to be paid on 4 June 2026, up from 15.36p in 2024, according to Legal & General’s Annual Report and Accounts 2025.
Hargreaves Lansdown reported the forward dividend yield at the time of results at approximately 8.6%, broadly within the 7%-9% range the company has historically maintained.
That yield is underpinned by a Solvency II coverage ratio of 203% and a store of future profit of £13.3bn (2024: £13.2bn), both reported in the 2025 Annual Report Summary. The Solvency II ratio fell from 232% in 2024, which bears watching if capital conditions tighten further.
Scale, buybacks, and the pension transfer pipeline
Legal & General managed £1.2 trillion in assets as of the 2025 full-year results, Hargreaves Lansdown reported. The company described its £1.2bn buyback as the largest in its history, with the first tranche costing £503m before it completed in September 2025, per the 2025 full-year results press release.
The company is targeting more than £5bn in total shareholder returns between 2025 and 2027 through dividends and buybacks, according to Yahoo Finance. It also completed the £1.8bn sale of its US protection business to Meiji Yasuda, retaining a strategic partnership in US pension risk transfer.
Pension risk transfer volumes reached £11.8bn in 2025, Hargreaves Lansdown reported. The company wrote more than £10bn of global pension risk transfer deals in 2024 alone, with record volumes in the US and Canada, and has cited a £1 trillion global market opportunity over the next decade in institutional retirement, according to the L&G 2024 Annual Report Summary.
Total return versus share price: the number income investors should use
The share price alone has contributed relatively little over five years, rising 16% across that period. But the total shareholder return over the same five years was 71%, according to Yahoo Finance. The original source for this article put those figures at 15% and 65% respectively; Yahoo Finance’s reporting supersedes those.
That divergence is the core argument for dividend reinvestment. Most of Legal & General’s compound return to long-term shareholders has come from income, not capital appreciation.
Risks income investors should not ignore
Dividends are not guaranteed. Volatile markets, changing capital requirements, and weaker operating performance have all cut into Legal & General’s profits in past cycles, and a Solvency II ratio moving in the wrong direction could pressure future payouts.
IFRS profit before tax came in at £807m for full-year 2025, well below the adjusted operating profit figure, reflecting the gap between accounting and economic measures of performance that is common across large insurance groups.
The broader principle holds regardless of which stock an investor chooses. A portfolio built on diversified dividend payers requires patience. Side businesses can take five years or more to turn a profit, and most do not. The compounding effect of reinvested dividends on a low-turnover portfolio is slower but steadier.
Legal & General’s next key event for investors is the 4 June 2026 final dividend payment, at which point the market will reassess whether the 2% guided growth rate for full-year 2026 is still on track given any movement in the Solvency II ratio.
