Thursday 26 May 2016 11:45 am

Legal & General shareholders have lots to mull ahead of AGM vote

Legal & General shareholders have a lot to think about as they head to today's AGM, after the financial services giant issued two major announcements in as many days.

Yesterday, the company revealed that it had incorrectly disclosed the single figure remuneration for its chief executive in its annual report for 2015.

After correcting the amount to include some unaccounted for vested options from a share performance plan, investors may have been surprised to discovered that the pay packet they would be voting on for Nigel Wilson was £5.5m, rather than the previously advertised £4.7m.

Wilson's new pay is quite a jump from the £4.2m total he was awarded for his efforts in 2014.

The additional options were correctly disclosed elsewhere in the report, and the company has stated that yesterday's update will have no impact on the profit, balance sheet or other financial information in the accounts.

This morning, shareholders will have been greeted with the news that John Stewart, chairman of Legal & General, would be stepping down with effect from 1 June. Stewart had previously announced his intention to retire in November last year.

Although the company is still on the hunt for a permanent replacement for Stewart, Rudy Markham, vice chairman and chair of the company's remuneration committee, will be take up the role in the interim.

At time of writing, shares in the FTSE 100 company were trading down 0.5 per cent at 238.4p.

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In 2013, new legislation came into force to make companies disclose more information about their executive pay, including providing a single figure for what directors will be paid.