A reduction in its life arm profits is one reason for the fall, as they slumped from £29m in 2013 to £17m in 2014.
But LV=’s general insurance profits increased by 14% from £81m in 2013 to reach £92m.
Mike Rogers, LV= group chief executive, said: “Our general insurance business had an excellent year with good profit growth despite continued price competition and strong increases in our home and commercial customer bases as we delivered on our diversification strategy.
“Our protection, equity release, and heritage businesses had a good year helping to partially offset the significant impact of the 2014 budget on our retirement new business profits as annuity volumes fell and we invested in new propositions.”
There were 1.4 million policies underwritten from the intermediary channel in 2014, compared to 3.2 million transactions from the direct route.
