For most of Sir John's tenure as L&G chair, the company was run by Sir Nigel Wilson, who oversaw a big push by the company into financing urban regeneration projects across the UK, and expanding its pension risk transfer business.
City sources said this weekend that Sir John was likely to step down from the L&G board and retire as chairman at its annual meeting next year.
Legal & General (L&G), the FTSE-100 insurance and asset management group, is preparing to kick off a search for a successor to chairman Sir John Kingman.
L&G said in December when it announced a series of board changes that Henrietta Baldock, who was named senior independent director-designate, would "lead the Board succession process for the Chair".
Following the bailouts of Lloyds Banking Group and Royal Bank of Scotland - now NatWest Group - he was named the first chief executive of UK Financial Investments, the agency set up to manage the taxpayer's bank stakes.
