Budget 2014: Legal and General Shares Plunge 14% on George Osborne's Pension Reforms

Financial services giant Legal and General has seen its shares plummet by over 13% after the Chancellor George Osborne announced radical reforms to the pensions industry.

The FTSE 100 group, which sells financial products including life insurance, general insurance, and pensions, opened at 231p per share, but plunged to 198.10p as of 1443 GMT after Osborne's statement in the House of Commons.

The Chancellor announced that anyone over the age of 55 will be able to take their whole pension pot as cash from April 2015.

"I am announcing today that we will legislate to remove all remaining tax restrictions on how pensioners have access to their pension pots," Osborne said.

He said: "Pensioners will have complete freedom to draw down as much or as little of their pension pot as they want, anytime they want. No caps. No drawdown limits.

Osborne also announced that workers will no longer have to take a compulsory annuity purchase in order to avoid a huge tax bill.

"Let me be clear. No one will have to buy an annuity."

Osborne also explained that the lump sum, otherwise known as the trivial commutation limit, will jump from £18,000 to £30,000 on 27 March.

The Chancellor added that the limit on personal pension pots worth £2,000 will be increased to £10,000.