
Picture supply: Getty Photos
Customary Life (LSE: SDLF) is a superb UK inventory for income-focused traders to contemplate, with a surprising trailing yield of seven.78%. Just one FTSE 100 share pays extra. Fellow insurer Authorized & Basic Group, which yields 8.55%.
Customary Life has delivered one thing that Authorized & Basic has struggled to do. Share value development. The Customary Life share value is up nearly 25% within the final 12 months (and was doing even higher earlier than the Iran struggle hit markets). In contrast, Authorized & Basic Group is up simply 5% over 12 months.
I maintain each shares in my SIPP, however Customary Life, which just lately rebranded from Phoenix Life, has been the extra rewarding. And I’ve simply observed that its shares go ex-dividend on Thursday (9 April). Any investor who needs to share within the last 2025 payout wants to purchase it earlier than then. Ought to they go for it?
FTSE 100 excessive yielder
Proper now, shopping for any inventory is nerve-wracking, as we await occasions within the Center East. That’s why at The Motley Idiot we all the time advise shopping for shares with a minimal five-year holding interval. That enables the market to shrug off short-term shocks, whereas giving the share value and reinvested dividends time to compound and develop.
Traders should all the time strategy excessive yielders like this one with warning, as shareholder payouts might show unsustainable. But Customary Life has a strong monitor report of accelerating dividends, lifiting shareholder payouts yearly for a decade. Development has been modest, at an annual compound charge of three.18%, however that means it’s taking a measured strategy. Future dividend development is anticipated to gradual to round 2% a 12 months.
Customary Life operates in a aggressive market and has to repeatedly supply new enterprise to maintain the income flowing and the dividends safe. It’s recognized a brand new development alternative in pension threat transfers, though loads of insurers are chasing the identical enterprise. If the Iran battle intensifies, Customary Life might get swept up in a inventory market crash, which might hit the worth of the £280bn of property it holds to guard in opposition to insurance coverage liabilities.
Stable FTSE 100 inventory
With a ahead price-to-earnings ratio of simply over 16, the shares are respectable worth. The ahead yield is 8.1%. If an investor determined to place their full £20,000 Shares and Shares Isa allowance in Customary Life, they may sit up for revenue of £1,620 over the following 12 months.
To bag the 2025 last dividend, they’ll want to maneuver rapidly. It’s price 28.05p for every share purchased. Right this moment, the shares commerce at 712p. So £20k would purchase 2,808 shares. These would produce a dividend of £778 on 20 Might. An interim payout will observe in October. It’s price stating that the shares are prone to fall on 9 April to replicate the misplaced worth after paying that dividend.
Solely an skilled investor with a big portfolio ought to put their full ISA in a single inventory. As with each buy, traders ought to unfold their threat and take a long-term view. However I believe Customary Life is nicely price contemplating right now.

Picture supply: Getty Photos
Customary Life (LSE: SDLF) is a superb UK inventory for income-focused traders to contemplate, with a surprising trailing yield of seven.78%. Just one FTSE 100 share pays extra. Fellow insurer Authorized & Basic Group, which yields 8.55%.
Customary Life has delivered one thing that Authorized & Basic has struggled to do. Share value development. The Customary Life share value is up nearly 25% within the final 12 months (and was doing even higher earlier than the Iran struggle hit markets). In contrast, Authorized & Basic Group is up simply 5% over 12 months.
I maintain each shares in my SIPP, however Customary Life, which just lately rebranded from Phoenix Life, has been the extra rewarding. And I’ve simply observed that its shares go ex-dividend on Thursday (9 April). Any investor who needs to share within the last 2025 payout wants to purchase it earlier than then. Ought to they go for it?
FTSE 100 excessive yielder
Proper now, shopping for any inventory is nerve-wracking, as we await occasions within the Center East. That’s why at The Motley Idiot we all the time advise shopping for shares with a minimal five-year holding interval. That enables the market to shrug off short-term shocks, whereas giving the share value and reinvested dividends time to compound and develop.
Traders should all the time strategy excessive yielders like this one with warning, as shareholder payouts might show unsustainable. But Customary Life has a strong monitor report of accelerating dividends, lifiting shareholder payouts yearly for a decade. Development has been modest, at an annual compound charge of three.18%, however that means it’s taking a measured strategy. Future dividend development is anticipated to gradual to round 2% a 12 months.
Customary Life operates in a aggressive market and has to repeatedly supply new enterprise to maintain the income flowing and the dividends safe. It’s recognized a brand new development alternative in pension threat transfers, though loads of insurers are chasing the identical enterprise. If the Iran battle intensifies, Customary Life might get swept up in a inventory market crash, which might hit the worth of the £280bn of property it holds to guard in opposition to insurance coverage liabilities.
Stable FTSE 100 inventory
With a ahead price-to-earnings ratio of simply over 16, the shares are respectable worth. The ahead yield is 8.1%. If an investor determined to place their full £20,000 Shares and Shares Isa allowance in Customary Life, they may sit up for revenue of £1,620 over the following 12 months.
To bag the 2025 last dividend, they’ll want to maneuver rapidly. It’s price 28.05p for every share purchased. Right this moment, the shares commerce at 712p. So £20k would purchase 2,808 shares. These would produce a dividend of £778 on 20 Might. An interim payout will observe in October. It’s price stating that the shares are prone to fall on 9 April to replicate the misplaced worth after paying that dividend.
Solely an skilled investor with a big portfolio ought to put their full ISA in a single inventory. As with each buy, traders ought to unfold their threat and take a long-term view. However I believe Customary Life is nicely price contemplating right now.



















