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Mutual bonus

Giving back to our members

Being a mutual means we're owned by our members

When we do well, we're able to give eligible members something extra.

  • The mutual bonus is our way of rewarding eligible members for their support of the development and growth of our business.
  • We currently do this by increasing the value of their policies by a percentage. In recent years, this has been between 0.2% and 1.0% (depending on the type of policy they hold). 
  • Since we introduced the mutual bonus in 2011 we’ve given a total of £289m back to eligible members.
  • In 2019 we completed the sale of one of our businesses. We're using some of the sale proceeds to maintain the mutual bonus, for most of our eligible members, for years to come. You can read more information about this on our dedicated page.

It works like this

If we can give our eligible members a mutual bonus, we'll apply it to their LV= with-profits policy, as long as the policy has been in place for 12 months. The amount will be a set percentage of the policy's value on the date the bonus is applied.

For those members who are awarded a mutual bonus, this will be paid either when their policy matures, is cashed in or pays out on a death claim. However, for our eligible annuity members, they'll receive an increase in their regular income, unless we're paying guaranteed benefits. Mutual bonus does not increase guaranteed benefits or the ‘underpin’ on conventional pension benefits. 

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More information

The mutual bonus is not guaranteed to be paid each year and the amount can vary

The decision to give a mutual bonus is at the sole discretion of the LV= Board, and is currently only offered to certain eligible with-profits members. 

The Board frequently review the member benefits and who is entitled to take advantage of these, including the mutual bonus.

Our goal is to protect the mutual bonus from most business risks. In extreme situations, such as if the solvency of the company is reduced to an unacceptable level, the future bonus rates could drop below the levels we're aiming for or be stopped. Any past mutual bonuses could be reduced or removed, although we think that’s unlikely to happen.

What’s different about the mutual bonus from 2020 onwards?

Since 2011, the mutual bonus has been partially funded from the success of our business. As we sold one of our largest businesses in 2019 – LV= General Insurance, there are fewer sources from which to pay future mutual bonuses.

Therefore, for the majority of eligible members, we aim to use some of the proceeds of the sale to help maintain this bonus at similar levels to those that members have come to expect in the past.

We're using this approach except for members with newer policies, specifically those who hold Flexible Guarantee Bonds Series 3 or Flexible Guarantee Funds Series 2 policies, which since 2018 have received a mutual bonus of 0.2%. Smoothed Managed Funds and LV= ISA policies will also follow the newer policies approach. For more information about this please read through the FAQs below.  


The 2022 mutual bonus was £23million

For 2022 the LV= Board has awarded a discretionary mutual bonus of £23m (2021: £28m). We applied the mutual bonus by uplifting the payouts of LV= with-profits policies as follows:

Policy group Uplift % 2022 Uplift % 2021
LV= conventional with-profits policies 1.0% 1.0%
LV= accumulating and unitised with-profits policies except Flexible Guarantee policies 1.0%
 1.0%
Flexible Guarantee Bonds Series 1 and 2 / Flexi Guarantee Plan / Flexible Guarantee Funds Series 1 0.5% 0.5%
Flexible Guarantee Bonds Series 3 / Flexible Guarantee Funds Series 2* 0.2% 0.2%
Policy group Uplift % 2022 Uplift % 2021
LV= conventional with-profits policies 1.0% 1.0%
LV= accumulating and unitised with-profits policies except Flexible Guarantee policies 1.0%
 1.0%
Flexible Guarantee Bonds Series 1 and 2 / Flexi Guarantee Plan / Flexible Guarantee Funds Series 1 0.5% 0.5%
Flexible Guarantee Bonds Series 3 / Flexible Guarantee Funds Series 2* 0.2% 0.2%

*Flexible Guarantee Bonds Series 3 / Flexible Guarantee Funds Series 2 products have only been eligible for the mutual bonus since 2018. For a policy of this type to be considered for the mutual bonus it will need to have been live for 12 months prior to the mutual bonus declaration. This means that only these policies that have been in force since 31 March 2022 will receive the 2022 mutual bonus.

Smoothed Managed Funds and LV= ISA policies must also have been live for a whole 12 months before any mutual bonuses will be added to the policy value. For those who hold a Smoothed Managed Funds and/or LV= ISA policy that have been converted from our non-profit to with-profits funds, after the initial start date, no mutual bonus is declared until 12 months from the date the conversion took place and not from the start date of the policy.

Your mutual bonus questions answered

Mutual bonus frequently asked questions