Having been investing for nearly 40 years, I’ve changed my style considerably over the decades. In the early years, I enjoyed taking high-risk punts on small-company shares. Later, I followed the advice of my hero Warren Buffett to buy great companies at fair prices. These days, I aim to boost the passive income generated by my family portfolio.
£86bn in passive income
In particular, I crave the strong steams of cash that come from owning FTSE 100 shares. According to one report, total FTSE 100 dividends could hit £86bn for 2026, versus £80.7bn in 2025. That’s a solid rise of 6.6% — well ahead of inflation (the rising cost of living).
At present, my family portfolio includes over 25 different Footsie and FTSE 250 shares that we own for market-beating dividend income. Therefore, our dividends are fairly widely diversified and we don’t rely too heavily on one company, industry, or region for our cash.
A dividend dynamo
For example, here is one share my family portfolio already owns that I’m keen on for its powerful passive income. Furthermore, I’m thinking about buying more of this dividend superstar to help fund retirement when it finally arrives.
Lovely Legal & General
While working in the financial world for 15 years, I became a big fan of UK insurer and asset manager Legal & General Group (LSE: LGEN). Founded in 1836, L&G has grown to become one of Europe’s biggest money managers, with client assets approaching £1.2trn.
L&G released its latest full-year results on Wednesday, 11 March. Investors didn’t like its reduced Solvency II coverage ratio of 210%, sending the shares down 6.6% to 241.38p as I write. This values this great British business at £13.8bn, well below recent highs seen in mid-February.
This share-price slide has boosted L&G’s trailing dividend yield to a juicy 8.9% a year. This is nearly triple the FTSE 100’s cash yield of 3.1% a year. In addition, the group will spend £1.2bn on a huge share buyback to boost future returns to shareholders. Looking ahead, the firm aims to return more than £5bn to its owners from 2025 to 2027. Wow.
If I had the means, I would gladly buy L&G outright, take it private, and get mega-rich. Maybe the company might attract bidding interest at some point from, say, one of its colossal American rivals? Then again, L&G’s future growth relies on stable and rising asset prices — something far from guaranteed in these volatile times.
Also, if stock markets plunge again — as they did in 2022 and spring 2020 — then L&G’s earnings and cash flow could get walloped. Even so, I expect the company to keep raising its hefty dividend to shareholders. Indeed, it has already committed to lift this payout by 2% this year and next.
In summary, I intend to hold tightly onto our existing L&G shares — and maybe buy even more for extra passive income.
Meanwhile, what other super shares are moving markets and exciting investors right now?
