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.

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%

Your mutual bonus questions answered

Mutual bonus frequently asked questions