Brands over time

Legal & General
over time

Every year keeps its colour across every chart.│ ChatGPT, 30 Nov 2022

286 of Legal & General's own blog posts, press releases and announcements, 2015 to 2026, measured sentence by sentence, 74 of them recovered from the Internet Archive. How the writing has moved over the years, how it compares with 9 other insurers, and what it sounds like in its own words.

Pages measured
286
Years covered
2015–26
Archived before ChatGPT
74
Blog · press
159 · 127

01 · Homepage

One capture a year

Legal & General's homepage from 2000 to 2026, closest to 1 July, from the Internet Archive. Pick a year or press play. Each headline is quoted from its capture and links to the archived copy.

2026legalandgeneral.com8 Jul 2026
Legal & General homepage, 8 Jul 2026

Screenshot of Legal & General’s homepage (legalandgeneral.com) as archived by the Internet Archive on 8 Jul 2026. © Legal & General or its licensors. Shown for comparison and review; not endorsed by Legal & General.

Homepage

2026

“Pensions & Retirement”

Page title

Legal & General | Pensions, Retirement, Life Insurance & Investments

Open on the Internet Archive
  1. 2006Welcome to Legal & General Direct
  2. 2010Performance driven ISAs.
  3. 2013New Tax year, New ISA allowance.
  4. 2016Welcome to Legal & General.
  5. 2021Life Insurance from £6 a month
  6. 2026Pensions & Retirement

27 captures. Screenshots are rendered from the archive and can pull in images archived later than the page itself; dates come from the capture. Years without a capture are greyed out in the strip.

02 · Measures by year

How the writing moved

Every year’s pages, averaged. Pick a measure. Hatched bars rest on fewer than 10 pages: context, not a finding. The page count sits under each year.

Sentence lengthAverage words per sentence.
6
12
18
Insurance avg 13.6
8.6
12.5
15.1
16.8
14.7
17.4
15.5
15.7
15.1
14.6
14.8
13.7
ChatGPT · Nov 2022
201510 pp
20168 pp
201714 pp
20184 pp
20199 pp
202014 pp
202115 pp
202210 pp
20239 pp
202419 pp
202547 pp
2026126 pp
10 or more pagesFewer than 10 pages: context, not a findingSector averageChatGPT released
Show as a table
YearSentence lengthPages
20158.610
201612.58
201715.114
201816.84
201914.79
202017.414
202115.515
202215.710
202315.19
202414.619
202514.847
202613.7126

Years with pages: 2015 (10), 2016 (8), 2017 (14), 2018 (4), 2019 (9), 2020 (14), 2021 (15), 2022 (10), 2023 (9), 2024 (19), 2025 (47), 2026 (126). Dates come from page metadata, structured data, the URL, or the month a page was first archived (a latest possible date).

03 · Before and after

2019 to Nov 2022 against 2024 to 2026

The same measures on 48 pages from before ChatGPT launched and 192 pages from 2024 on. A change here is a change in style. It does not show how any page was written: people used every one of these words and shapes long before 2022, and SGR-011 found most of the shift across brands was a trend already under way.

Measure2019 to Nov 2022 · 48 pp2024 to 2026 · 192 ppChange
Sentence length
15.914.1−12%
Sentence rhythm
0.650.70+7%
Contractions
13.915.0+8%
"You"
50%41%−9 pts
"We"
47%52%+5 pts
Questions
2.65.9+128%
Exclamations
0.060.15+145%
Long words
27%28%+1 pts
Em dashes
1.121.94+73%
AI-associated words
0.851.37+62%
AI-era marketing words
0.631.18+87%
Quieter LLM-favoured words
1.202.58+115%
AI-associated sentence shapes
0.200.28+39%
Page length
9311,015+9%

Each row is scaled to its own larger value, so rows compare within themselves, not with each other. Before = 2019 to Nov 2022 (48 pages); after = 2024 to 2026 (192 pages). Method: SGR-011.

04 · Against its sector

Legal & General among insurers

Each dot is one brand’s mean across all its measured pages; the tick is the sector average. Only brands with 10 or more measured pages are shown or counted. Select a dot to open that brand.

  1. "We"

    83% more than its sector

    52% against a sector average of 28%; highest of 10.

  2. "You"

    36% less than its sector

    43% against a sector average of 66%; lowest of 10.

  3. Em dashes

    25% less than its sector

    1.65 against a sector average of 2.18; 3rd lowest of 10.

Sentence length3rd highest of 10
Legal & General 14.3
10.517.1
Contractions3rd lowest of 10
Legal & General 14.4
9.625.3
"You"Lowest of 10
Legal & General 43%
43%88%
"We"Highest of 10
Legal & General 52%
10%52%
Questions4th highest of 10
Legal & General 4.9
2.75.8
Long words3rd highest of 10
Legal & General 27%
19%29%
Em dashes3rd lowest of 10
Legal & General 1.65
1.263.84
AI-associated wordsHighest of 10
Legal & General 1.23
0.161.23
Exclamations2nd lowest of 10
Legal & General 0.13
0.041.11
Page lengthMid-table, 6th of 10
Legal & General 964
8411,707

Pages measured: Aviva 273 · Direct Line 191 · Admiral 238 · LV= 305 · AXA 186 · Hastings Direct 146 · esure 133 · Legal & General 286 · Zurich 149 · Bupa 142. Measures and method: SGR-010; the brand list and sectors come from SGR-009.

05 · Vocabulary

Words Legal & General uses more than its peers

The words this brand reaches for more often than the rest of its sector. This is subject matter more than voice.

pension69.7 vs 14.1
mortgage62.6 vs 13.0
lifetime32.7 vs 4.2
annuity27.0 vs 2.9
client22.7 vs 0.8
interest22.7 vs 3.8
retirement39.3 vs 11.7
advisers17.1 vs 2.2
pensions17.7 vs 3.2
trustees12.0 vs 1.2
mortgages11.0 vs 1.4
Legal & GeneralSector peers

Uses per 10,000 words, ranked by weighted log-odds (Monroe et al. 2008) across 286 pages. Checked for product names and page furniture.

06 · In its own words

What it sounded like

Openings of real pages, quoted word for word, oldest first. Each links to the page, or to the Internet Archive’s copy when it has gone.

2016Apr (archived by) · PressArchived copy
“These days pets are living longer but as they get older they have changing needs so you’ll need to adapt the way you care for them. Take a look at some of our top tips to help maintain a healthy happy lifestyle for your pet.”
Caring for elderly pets
2017 · PressArchived copy
“More than pets or talking about the weather, Brits love their homes. £2.6 trillion is tied up in UK property, and £1.8 trillion of that belongs to homeowners aged 55 or older.”
Lifetime mortgages: Mainstream retirement planning?
2020Aug (archived by) · AnnouncementArchived copy
“If life is like a box of chocolates, then looking after your pension schemes can be like managing a freight train.”
Legal & General
202224 Jan · BlogArchived copy
“The UK is famously a nation of proud homeowners. Buying, renovating, redecorating and selling property might as well be a national pastime. Still, there’s one element of homeownership which we seem uniquely squeamish about discussing: using a home in retirement planning.”
The rise of the asset-affluent
202327 Nov · Blog
“Over 50s dating can be just as exciting as earlier in life, and these days, there are so many dating sites for over 50s it’s difficult to know where to start. In this article, we’ll explore how you can start dating again after 50 and find romance in your golden years.”
Over 50s dating
20256 Nov · Blog
“Planning for the unexpected can help us feel better prepared if the worst happens. Learn how the financial decisions you make now can help when you and your loved ones need it most.”
Planning for the unexpected

07 · Every page

All 305 pages, by year

The full list behind every number above, with links to the live page or the archived copy. 286 count towards the measures; the rest were not measured (2 pdf report (annual report, info pack), 15 mostly short lines (lists, tables, link pages) rather than prose, 2 under 150 words of text). Pages with no reliable date count in the overall numbers but in no year.

2026126 pages
202547 pages
202419 pages
20239 pages
202210 pages
202115 pages
202014 pages
20199 pages
20184 pages
201714 pages
20168 pages
201510 pages
In the overall numbers, no year1 page
  • Legal & General15 May 2014 · press · 2,415 words · archivedDated before 2015: in the overall numbers; the year charts start at 2015
Not measured19 pages
  • Climate and nature report 20252026 · info_pack · 38,566 wordsPDF report (annual report, info pack): listed, but kept out of every measure
  • Annual reports and accounts 20252026 · info_pack · 167,304 wordsPDF report (annual report, info pack): listed, but kept out of every measure
  • Evolving our customer service: expanding to Glasgow18 Dec 2024 · press · 145 wordsUnder 150 words of text: too short to measure
  • Market update 20247 Oct 2024 · press · 215 wordsMostly short lines (lists, tables, link pages) rather than prose
  • The de-risking journeys of large DB pension schemes22 Mar 2024 · press · 209 wordsMostly short lines (lists, tables, link pages) rather than prose
  • PRT update - full year 20236 Mar 2024 · press · 253 wordsMostly short lines (lists, tables, link pages) rather than prose
  • Legal & General24 Jun 2022 · blog · 147 words · archivedUnder 150 words of text: too short to measure
  • Lifetime Mortgages22 Aug 2019 · blog · 372 words · archivedMostly short lines (lists, tables, link pages) rather than prose
  • Legal & Generalby Sep 2017 · blog · 629 words · archivedMostly short lines (lists, tables, link pages) rather than prose
  • Legal & Generalby Sep 2017 · blog · 684 words · archivedMostly short lines (lists, tables, link pages) rather than prose
  • Legal & Generalby Sep 2017 · blog · 617 words · archivedMostly short lines (lists, tables, link pages) rather than prose
  • Legal & Generalby Sep 2017 · blog · 638 words · archivedMostly short lines (lists, tables, link pages) rather than prose
  • Legal & Generalby Sep 2017 · blog · 623 words · archivedMostly short lines (lists, tables, link pages) rather than prose
  • Legal & Generalby Aug 2016 · blog · 460 words · archivedMostly short lines (lists, tables, link pages) rather than prose
  • Legal & Generalby Aug 2016 · blog · 531 words · archivedMostly short lines (lists, tables, link pages) rather than prose
  • Legal & Generalby Aug 2016 · blog · 631 words · archivedMostly short lines (lists, tables, link pages) rather than prose
  • Legal & General Adviser Centreby Aug 2016 · blog · 257 words · archivedMostly short lines (lists, tables, link pages) rather than prose
  • Legal & Generalby Mar 2016 · blog · 620 words · archivedMostly short lines (lists, tables, link pages) rather than prose
  • Making a claim - Lifestyle insurance5 Jan 2015 · blog · 414 words · archivedMostly short lines (lists, tables, link pages) rather than prose

08 · Method

How this was measured

The pages

Legal & General's own blog posts, press releases and announcements, fetched from the live site in 2026 and from the Internet Archive for 2015 to November 2022. Homepages are shown as captures; product and help pages are not measured.

The measures

Code counts from ScriptGrain’s writing instruments: sentence length and rhythm, contractions, pronouns, punctuation, long words, and three published lists of AI-associated words. No AI model reads or judges any page.

What it cannot say

These measures describe style. They cannot tell who or what wrote a page, and nothing here says or implies that any brand used AI to write.

Sample sizes

Every number carries its page count. Years under 10 pages, and before-and-after comparisons with under 10 pages on a side, are shown as context only.

Sentence length
Average words per sentence.
Sentence rhythm
How much sentence length varies (standard deviation over mean). Higher reads less even.
Contractions
Contractions (we're, you'll, it's) per 1,000 words. A rough gauge of how conversational the writing is.
"You"
Share of I/we/you pronouns that are "you": how much the writing addresses the reader.
"We"
Share of I/we/you pronouns that are "we": how much the writing talks about the organisation.
Questions
Question marks per 1,000 words.
Exclamations
Exclamation marks per 1,000 words.
Long words
Share of words with seven or more letters.
Em dashes
Em dashes per 1,000 words.
AI-associated words
Words from SGR-007's three AI-associated lists, per 1,000 words. These are style markers that people used long before ChatGPT; a higher rate says nothing about who or what wrote the page.
AI-era marketing words
Marketing words that became more common in AI-era copy (seamless, elevate, unlock...), per 1,000 words. A style measure only.
Quieter LLM-favoured words
Everyday words language models are known to over-use, per 1,000 words. A style measure only.
AI-associated sentence shapes
Sentence patterns such as "not just X, but Y", found by ScriptGrain's cliche checker, per 1,000 words. A style measure only.
Page length
Average words per page.

Studies: SGR-009: Do brands in the same sector sound the same? · SGR-010: How UK brands write · SGR-011: Did brand writing change after ChatGPT?.