LONDON, June 12, 2012 /PRNewswire/ --

More than 660,000 people rely on Legal & General for their retirement income each year.

Formed in 1836 by a group of lawyers in a London coffee shop, Legal & General can boast a long and distinguished history. Originally providing life insurance to members of the legal profession, the company has gone from strength to strength over the years and today is one of the UK's leading Financial Services companies. A FTSE 100 company and highly rated for financial strength, they offer a wide range of products and services to over 7 million customers.

Legal & General is a specialist provider of pension annuities and pays more than £1.2 billion in pension income each year to over 660,000 pension customers. The company offers a range of annuity products that are available to buy through financial advisers or direct with pension funds of just £1,000. It can also offer annuity customers extra income where certain lifestyle health risks or medical conditions apply or an income that is linked to investment performance for potential growth.

When choosing an annuity provider, it's important that people shop around to make sure they're not missing out on extra income. Income offers can vary significantly but as Tim Gosden, Head of Annuity Product Development at Legal & General explains, the highest offer won't necessarily be the only consideration for customers and their advisers.

"The promise of an income for life from a pension annuity is an open-ended commitment and customers will want to be confident that their chosen provider will be around to pay them their income, however long they live. Experience, expertise and service are always important, but for long-term financial products like pension annuities, a reputation of financial strength and a proven track record are particularly important."

Tim added; "We go out of our way to ensure that customers get the best deal when they contact us about their annuity. We know that people have different levels of knowledge about annuities, so we make it our responsibility to automatically ask everyone about their health to see if we can offer them extra income through our enhanced annuity. We're the annuity experts so they don't have to be."

For a guaranteed annuity quote and to get an instant decision on extra income based on smoking, weight (BMI), high blood pressure, high cholesterol or Type 2 diabetes, call Legal & General's Annuity Solutions team on 0800 048 2445. We may record and monitor calls.

For a guaranteed annuity quote and to get an instant decision on extra income based on smoking, weight, blood pressure, cholesterol or Type 2 diabetes, call Legal & General's Annuity Solutions team on 0800 048 1603. We may record and monitor calls.

SOURCE L&G Annuities