Insurance broker JLT's financial year underlying pretax profit falls 7 percent

(Reuters) - Insurance and reinsurance broker Jardine Lloyd Thompson Group Plc (JLT.L) reported a fall in full-year underlying pretax profit, hurt mainly by investment made in its U.S. speciality business.

The company, which advises mainly on risk management and employee benefits insurance, said underlying pretax profit fell 7 percent to 170.1 million pounds in the year ended Dec. 31.

Total revenue rose 5 percent to 1.15 billion pounds.

Underlying trading profit fell 5 percent to 187.5 million pounds, hurt by both investments made in its U.S. speciality business and challenges faced by its UK and Ireland employee benefits business.

The company said net investment in JLT USA was 20.5 million pounds in the year.

Jardine Lloyd Thomson said last year that a one-off structural shift away from commissions within the UK employee benefits market would hurt its UK Employee Benefits margin and the group's profit for the year.

The changes force financial advisers to charge clients a fee for their services, rather than being paid a commission by asset managers, reducing the chances of firms paying higher commissions to have advisers push their funds.

Full-year revenues in the UK and Ireland Employee Benefits business fell 9 percent to 167.4 million pounds, JLT said on Tuesday.

The slower growth was partially offset by growth in the firm's risk and insurance business, where revenue rose 6 percent to 866.6 million pounds.

The unit accounts for 75 percent of JLT's group revenue.

JLT said it would pay a total cash dividend of 30.6 pence per share, up from 28.9 pence per share a year earlier

(Reporting by Noor Zainab Hussain in Bengaluru; Editing by Gopakumar Warrier and Sunil Nair)