Aegon: Securing Your Future Since 1844

The story of Aegon is a compelling chronicle that begins in the mid-19th century, rooted in the spirit of community and mutual support. Its earliest predecessor, Algemeene Friesche Begrafenisfonds, was established in 1844 in the northern Dutch province of Friesland. This humble burial fund provided funeral insurance to small communities, ensuring that loved ones could be buried with dignity—a foundational principle of collective financial security. Over the ensuing decades, this concept of mutual support evolved. In the United States, parallel developments were taking shape. In 1904, Amadeo Giannini founded a company that would eventually become Transamerica, driven by a vision to extend financial opportunities to a broader population, not just the elite. These nascent enterprises, born from a desire to address fundamental human needs for security and dignity, grew and merged with others, gradually forming the complex tapestry of what Aegon represents today. The name "Aegon" itself is a product of significant consolidation. It emerged in 1983 from the merger of AGO and Ennia, two major Dutch insurance companies. This merger solidified its position in the domestic market and laid the groundwork for international expansion. Key milestones in its global journey include the acquisition of Scottish Equitable in the UK in 1994, with Aegon eventually acquiring a 100% stake by 1998. This move significantly bolstered its presence in the British market, where Scottish Equitable was rebranded as Aegon UK. In the US, Aegon USA grouped its various businesses under the single brand name Transamerica in 2011, establishing a powerful and recognizable presence in the North American market. More recently, Aegon has continued to strategically refine its structure. In October 2022, it announced the acquisition of its Dutch operations by ASR Nederland, a transaction completed in July 2023. As part of this deal, Aegon received €2.2 billion in cash proceeds and retained a 29.99% strategic shareholding in ASR, demonstrating a commitment to its home market while streamlining its global focus. This move also marked the beginning of an asset management partnership with ASR. Subsequently, in September 2023, Aegon reincorporated in Bermuda, further optimizing its international operational framework. This long and adaptive history underscores Aegon’s resilience and strategic foresight, enabling it to navigate economic shifts and continue serving millions of customers worldwide.

Aegon's comprehensive suite of financial services is meticulously designed to address the diverse needs of individuals, families, pension funds, companies, and other institutions across their life stages. Its offerings are primarily structured around three core pillars: life insurance and protection, pensions and retirement solutions, and robust asset management services. At its heart, Aegon provides a wide array of insurance products that offer essential financial safeguards. These include traditional life insurance, universal life, and whole life policies, designed to provide peace of mind and financial protection for beneficiaries. Beyond fundamental life coverage, Aegon also offers accident and supplemental health insurance, and general insurance products like car insurance, travel insurance, and household insurance. Critical illness and disability coverage further extend its protective umbrella, ensuring clients are shielded against unforeseen circumstances. The focus is on delivering superior claims outcomes, providing a crucial safety net when it’s needed most. Recognizing the global challenge of securing a comfortable retirement, Aegon places significant emphasis on pensions and retirement planning. It offers various retirement plans, including workplace pensions, with a Master Trust option available in the UK. For individual customers, products like Individual Savings Accounts (ISAs) and annuities are available. A notable innovation in this space is Aegon UK's "Retiready" service, launched in April 2014. This free digital retirement, saving, and planning service helps individuals assess their future income needs and select suitable products. This reflects Aegon's commitment to empowering customers with the tools and information necessary to make informed financial decisions and live their best lives in retirement. Aegon's US operations, under the Transamerica brand, have also shown strong growth in mid-sized retirement plans, with an emphasis on expanding distribution networks. Aegon Asset Management (Aegon AM) is a cornerstone of Aegon's global operations, functioning as an active global investment manager. As of December 31, 2022, Aegon AM managed over $311 billion in assets, serving a broad clientele that includes pension plans, public funds, insurance companies, banks, wealth managers, family offices, and foundations. Aegon AM’s investment philosophy is grounded in fundamental, research-driven active management, underpinned by rigorous risk management. It operates through four global investment platforms: Fixed Income, Real Assets, Equities, and Multi-Asset & Solutions. These platforms offer a comprehensive product suite that benefits from the firm's extensive global research and expertise. For instance, in 2024, Aegon AM saw positive third-party net deposits, particularly in its Global Platforms, driven by strong fund performance in alternative fixed income and contributions from its partnership with ASR. This commitment to diverse and robust asset management solutions positions Aegon as a key player in helping clients achieve their long-term investment goals. In recent years, Aegon has actively pursued a strategy of streamlining its business to focus on core areas with high growth potential and predictable capital generation. This involves strategically divesting non-core operations and forging partnerships that enhance its value proposition. A prime example is the divestment of its Dutch insurance, pension, banking, and mortgage origination activities to ASR Nederland, completed in July 2023. While transferring these operations, Aegon retained a significant 29.99% strategic shareholding in ASR, establishing a strong asset management partnership. This move allows Aegon to reduce its exposure to certain "Financial Assets" and reallocate capital towards "Strategic Assets," which offer higher returns and growth prospects. Another significant strategic move in the UK market was the acquisition of Aegon’s UK individual protection policies by Royal London, with the scheme becoming effective on July 1, 2024. This transition means that previous Aegon or Scottish Equitable policyholders now have their payments managed by Royal London, though policy information remains unchanged. Furthermore, Aegon divested its business in India in February 2024, aligning with its strategy to largely eliminate exposure to businesses outside its core focus. These strategic realignments underscore Aegon's disciplined approach to capital management and its commitment to building leading, advantaged businesses globally.

Aegon's global presence is characterized by significant operations in key markets, complemented by a tailored approach to local needs and regulations. While headquartered in the Netherlands, its major operational hubs are strategically located to serve diverse client bases across the Americas, Europe, and Asia. In the United States, Aegon operates heavily through its Transamerica brand, a leading provider of life insurance, retirement, and investment solutions. Transamerica serves over ten million customers, with a strong track record of making financial services accessible to the middle market. A crucial component of Transamerica's growth strategy is its affiliated insurance distribution network, World Financial Group (WFG), which comprises over 86,000 independent agents distributing Transamerica's products and those of other insurers. This network plays a vital role in reaching a broad customer base, with strong growth reported in WFG and individual new life sales in Q1 2025. While the first quarter of 2025 saw some adverse mortality experience in the US impacting operating capital generation, Aegon is actively reviewing this and has noted that several peers also reported a severe flu season. Despite this, the company's US businesses are well-capitalized, and Transamerica continues to strengthen its distribution capabilities and increase new life sales. Aegon UK is a leading investment platform, serving approximately 3.7 million customers as of December 31, 2021, managing around £214 billion of customers' savings. Based in Edinburgh, Aegon UK specializes in pensions, investments, and insurance. Its history includes the acquisition of Cofunds, a UK-based investment and administration service, in 2016, and BlackRock's UK defined contribution platform in 2018. Aegon UK's Workplace business has consistently generated strong net inflows, contributing positively to the group's overall performance. However, the UK Adviser platform has experienced net outflows, reflecting ongoing consolidation and customer withdrawals, prompting Aegon to focus efforts on improving the platform experience and targeting its top 500 financial advisor firms. Beyond its major operations in the US and UK, Aegon maintains a presence in numerous other countries. This includes Canada, Brazil, Mexico, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Turkey, and Spain. In Asia, Aegon Asset Management holds a 49% stake in Aegon-Industrial Fund Management Company, a Shanghai-based asset manager, and a 50% stake in Aegon THTF Life Insurance Company in China. While challenges in China due to lower interest rates impacted sales in 2024, the value of new business in its International segment grew, driven by strong performance in Brazil and Spain & Portugal. This geographically segmented approach allows Aegon to adapt to local market needs and regulations while maintaining a cohesive global strategy.

Aegon's financial performance and strategic direction are continuously refined to ensure sustained growth and value creation for its stakeholders. With 2025 as the current year, the company's recent results and forward-looking targets underscore a disciplined approach to capital management and a clear vision for the future. Aegon has demonstrated a stable financial performance amidst varying macroeconomic conditions. For the first quarter of 2025, Aegon reported a 4% year-on-year increase in operating capital generation (OCG) before holding funding and operating expenses, reaching €267 million. This growth was primarily driven by business expansion, although it was partially offset by unfavorable mortality experience in the United States. Despite this, the capital ratios for Aegon's key business units remained above their respective operating thresholds, indicating a robust financial position. Looking back at the second half of 2024, Aegon reported a net profit of €741 million, with its operating result climbing by 14% to €776 million compared to the same period in 2023. This improvement reflected better experience variance in the US and business growth across US and asset management segments. Operating capital generation for H2 2024 remained stable at €658 million, and the company successfully met its increased full-year guidance for 2024 of around €1.2 billion for OCG and over €700 million for free cash flow. These results provide a solid foundation for the company's 2025 aspirations. Aegon is firmly on track to meet its ambitious 2025 financial targets, which were laid out during its 2023 Capital Markets Day. A key objective is to achieve operating capital generation from its units of around €1.2 billion by 2025, alongside free cash flow of approximately €800 million. CEO Lard Friese has expressed confidence in meeting these targets despite the uncertain macroeconomic environment, highlighting the strong capitalization and significant excess liquidity at the holding level. The company's strategy involves actively reducing its exposure to "Financial Assets" – businesses that are capital-intensive and prone to volatile earnings – and reallocating this capital to "Strategic Assets" that offer greater growth opportunities and more predictable returns. This strategic shift includes investments in partnerships and the global asset management business. Aegon also aims to grow its dividend per share to around €0.40 over 2025, barring unforeseen circumstances and subject to necessary approvals, reflecting its commitment to shareholder returns. Consistent with its commitment to disciplined capital management and shareholder returns, Aegon has been executing significant share buyback programs. In the first half of 2024, the company completed a €1.535 billion share buyback program. In the latter half of 2024, it completed a €200 million buyback, and a new €150 million share buyback program commenced in January 2025. Furthermore, to manage its cash capital at the holding level, Aegon announced a new €200 million share buyback program expected to be finalized by year-end 2025. This aligns with the company's objective to reduce cash capital at holding to around €1.0 billion by the end of 2026. These actions underscore Aegon's confidence in its financial strength and its proactive approach to optimizing its capital structure.

In today's rapidly evolving digital landscape, Aegon is not merely adapting; it is pioneering. The company recognizes that digital transformation is paramount for enhancing customer experience, improving operational efficiency, and bolstering security in the financial services sector. Aegon's approach to innovation is deeply integrated into its core strategy, driven by a "customer-centric approach" and a commitment to leveraging advanced technologies. One of Aegon's strategic initiatives is its "Pure Digital 2.0" strategy, particularly evident in its life insurance operations. This strategy is centered around an AI-driven approach aimed at delivering seamless, straight-through experiences for purchasing policies. By harnessing the power of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) technologies, Aegon gains valuable insights into customer financial habits, streamlines underwriting processes, detects irregularities, and fosters stronger customer loyalty. For instance, the deployment of "Robbie the Robot" for robotic process automation (RPA) has led to reduced processing times and improved customer experience across operations. Beyond back-end efficiencies, Aegon is also focused on revolutionizing customer-facing digital platforms. It has chosen strategic partners to develop a design system, completely renew its client dashboard, and rebrand its online presence, like aegon.nl. The goal is to accelerate day-to-day operations while continuing to innovate, making it easier for customers to interact with their financial products. This includes utilizing cloud-native solutions, virtual desktop interfaces on platforms like Microsoft Azure, and collaboration tools like Microsoft Teams for seamless customer interactions and internal communication. Aegon's commitment to customer experience extends beyond technology to a deeply embedded cultural shift. Its "Connecting with Customers" program, an award-winning initiative, aims to embed a customer-focused culture throughout the entire business. This program uses various methods, including online learning, customer talks, animated games, podcasts, and workshops, to ensure that every employee understands their role in serving the customer. A poignant example highlighted in their initiatives was inviting a customer to meet all the back-office and customer-facing teams who had supported them on their retirement journey, reinforcing a unifying purpose across the organization. This holistic approach to digital transformation, combining technological advancement with a profound commitment to customer centricity, ensures Aegon remains agile and responsive to evolving market demands.

Aegon's long-term vision extends beyond financial performance to encompass a deep commitment to environmental, social, and governance (ESG) principles. Recognizing its role as a global financial institution, Aegon actively strives to have a positive impact by addressing critical environmental and societal issues, with a particular focus on climate change and inclusion & diversity. Aegon's dedication to sustainability is reflected in its adherence to international standards and its participation in key global initiatives. The company is a founding signatory of the United Nations Environment Programme Finance Initiative's Principles for Sustainable Insurance (PSI), aiming to integrate sustainability into its core business practices. In 2015, Aegon signed the Paris Pledge for Action, committing to supporting the Paris Agreement and accelerating the transition to a climate-resilient and net-zero economy. Further solidifying this commitment, Aegon N.V. became a signatory of the UN Global Compact (UNGC) in 2021, pledging to implement universal sustainability principles in human rights, labor, environment, and anti-corruption, and to support the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Aegon Asset Management also became a signatory to the Net Zero Asset Managers Initiative in 2021. The company has set clear, actionable targets to mitigate its environmental footprint and promote sustainable investing. By 2025, Aegon aims to reduce the weighted average carbon intensity of its corporate fixed income and listed equity general account assets by 25% relative to a 2019 baseline. As of December 31, 2023, it had already achieved a 37% reduction against this baseline, demonstrating significant progress. Aegon also targets a 25% reduction in the scope 1 and 2 carbon intensity of its directly-held real estate investments by 2025. Looking further ahead, by 2030, Aegon aims to reduce the weighted average carbon intensity of its corporate fixed income and listed equity general account assets by 50% against a 2019 baseline and reduce scope 1 and 2 carbon intensity of its directly held real estate investments by 42%. Beyond environmental considerations, Aegon is equally committed to social aspects of ESG. It focuses on inclusion and diversity, supporting initiatives that promote financial education, encourage entrepreneurship, and help individuals develop skills for active participation in the economy. For instance, in March 2025, Aegon announced a community investment program in Bermuda to support education, financial and social empowerment, and contribute to the Bermuda Foundation. This comprehensive approach to sustainability underscores Aegon's belief that business success is intertwined with respect for the environment and the well-being of the communities it serves.

Choosing a financial partner is one of the most critical decisions an individual or institution can make. In a world characterized by constant change and uncertainty, the longevity, adaptability, and forward-looking strategy of Aegon present a compelling case for trust and partnership. Stability and Heritage: With roots tracing back to 1844, Aegon boasts nearly two centuries of experience navigating economic cycles, market fluctuations, and societal shifts. This deep heritage is not just a matter of history; it’s a testament to enduring stability, proven resilience, and a steadfast commitment to its clients through generations. This historical depth provides a foundation of confidence, knowing that Aegon has seen and overcome challenges, emerging stronger each time. Comprehensive Solutions: Aegon’s integrated approach to financial services means clients can access a wide spectrum of solutions under one trusted umbrella. From diverse life insurance and protection products that guard against life's uncertainties to robust pension and retirement plans that secure future aspirations, and dynamic asset management services that grow wealth, Aegon offers a holistic suite. This breadth allows for tailored financial planning that adapts to changing life circumstances, providing a cohesive strategy for diverse needs. Global Reach with Local Understanding: Operating in major markets such as the United States (through Transamerica) and the United Kingdom, alongside a significant international presence, Aegon combines global scale with localized expertise. This means clients benefit from a global perspective on investment opportunities and risk management, coupled with an understanding of specific regional regulatory landscapes and cultural nuances. It's like having a world-class orchestra that also knows how to play your favorite local tune, ensuring both broad strategy and personalized service. Innovation and Customer Focus: Aegon is proactively investing in digital transformation, leveraging technologies like AI and machine learning to enhance service delivery, streamline processes, and provide more insightful financial guidance. This isn't just about efficiency; it's about making financial management more intuitive, accessible, and responsive to individual needs. The company's "Connecting with Customers" program exemplifies its deep commitment to a customer-centric culture, fostering real-time feedback loops and ensuring that every part of the business is aligned with serving client needs. Commitment to Sustainability: In an increasingly conscious world, Aegon's strong emphasis on ESG principles, particularly climate action and inclusion & diversity, resonates deeply. By actively working towards reducing its carbon footprint, investing in sustainable solutions, and promoting social empowerment, Aegon is not just a financial service provider but a responsible corporate citizen. Partnering with Aegon means aligning with a company that believes in creating value not only for its shareholders but also for the planet and society at large. In essence, Aegon offers a powerful combination of time-tested reliability, forward-thinking innovation, and a genuine commitment to empowering individuals and institutions to achieve their financial best. It’s a partner that understands the journey of life, helping to build a secure and prosperous future.

Aegon stands as a formidable and evolving entity in the global financial services industry, its journey from a 19th-century burial fund to a diversified multinational powerhouse testament to its adaptability and enduring vision. In 2025, Aegon continues to solidify its position through strategic divestments, a sharpened focus on core "Strategic Assets" in life insurance, pensions, and asset management, and a relentless pursuit of digital innovation. The company's recent financial performance, marked by consistent operating capital generation and shareholder returns through dividends and share buybacks, underscores its robust health and disciplined capital management. More than just a provider of financial products, Aegon embodies a purpose-driven philosophy: "Helping people live their best lives." This mission is brought to life through its customer-centric approach, leveraging cutting-edge technology to create seamless experiences and fostering a culture where every employee is invested in client success. Furthermore, Aegon's unwavering commitment to sustainability and ESG principles positions it as a responsible leader, actively contributing to a more resilient and equitable future. As the world continues to evolve, Aegon remains a steadfast partner, dedicated to providing the security, foresight, and innovative solutions necessary for individuals and institutions to thrive in the complex financial landscape of today and tomorrow.