Strategic highlights:
- Aegon announces ambition to become a leading US life insurance and retirement group
- Aegon to move its head office and legal seat to the US and be renamed Transamerica Inc. at completion of transition, which Aegon aims to conclude by January 1, 2028
- Aegon Asset Management to focus on growing third-party revenues and improving efficiency
- Continued focus on profitable growth in Aegon’s International business
- Strategic review of Aegon UK, evaluating all options, including divestment
Financial highlights:
- Achieving all financial targets for 2025
- Further execution upon Aegon’s strategy to reduce capital employed in Financial Assets through a reinsurance transaction on part of its SGUL block, reducing mortality and policyholder behavior risk and capital employed by USD 0.3 billion. Negative impact on RBC ratio neutralized with a capital investment of USD 800 million, which will enable additional operating capital generation and remittances of USD 75 million per annum
- New EUR 400 million share buyback program to be split evenly between the first and the second half of 2026
- New financial ambitions for the transition period including dividend growth of > 5% per annum from around EUR 0.40 per share for 2025
- Estimated one-time implementation cost of relocation of around EUR 350 million to be incurred between 2H 2025 and 1H 2028
Today, at its Capital Markets Day (CMD) 2025 in London, Aegon announces its ambition to become a leading US life insurance and retirement group and move its head office and legal seat to the US. Following the completion of the re-domiciliation process, which Aegon aims to conclude by January 1, 2028, the holding company, Aegon Ltd., will be renamed Transamerica Inc., while the business units will continue to operate under their current brands.
Aegon CEO Lard Friese together with Aegon CFO Duncan Russell, Transamerica CEO Will Fuller, and Aegon Asset Management CEO Shawn C.D. Johnson will present Aegon’s strategy and growth ambitions. The CMD, entitled “The Next Frontier”, builds on the successful execution of the first two chapters of Aegon’s transformation journey, which began in 2020.
Accelerating growth to become a leading business in the US
Aegon CEO Lard Friese commented: “Today marks a historical moment in the transformation of our company. Over the past five years, we have successfully transformed Aegon into a strong, focused, well-performing group. Now, we are ready for the next frontier: to fully capture the opportunities in the largest life insurance market in the world: the US. With Transamerica, which now represents around 70% of our operations, we are strongly positioned to serve a large and underserved segment: Main Street American families, and medium-sized companies. Aegon’s ambition is clear: we want to become a leading US life insurance and retirement group.”
Aegon’s decision to relocate its head office and legal domicile follows the review that was announced in August 2025. The move supports Aegon’s commitment to prioritize resources towards building a leading US life insurance and retirement group. Aegon aims to begin to report under US GAAP for the first time at its full year 2027 results. To facilitate the transition, Aegon will stop publishing trading updates in 2026 and 2027, limiting disclosures to comprehensive half-year reporting. After the relocation, Transamerica Inc.’s common stock will remain listed on Euronext and NYSE.
Lard Friese said: “The organizational implications of our decision to relocate to the US are profound and defining for our identity. I realize this decision will, ultimately, result in a significant impact for colleagues at our head office in the Netherlands. We will work to support our colleagues throughout the process. While this was not an easy decision to make, it fully embraces the reality of our business and prioritizes resources to build a leading franchise in the US. Once the re-domiciliation is completed, Aegon will change its name to Transamerica Inc. and become an American life insurance, annuity, and retirement group with international insurance and asset management subsidiaries.”
Aegon intends to convene an Extraordinary General Meeting in the fourth quarter of 2026 to seek shareholder approval for the move to the US. Vereniging Aegon, Aegon’s largest shareholder, considers the decision to relocate Aegon Ltd. to the US an important and positive step for Aegon. Vereniging Aegon has indicated that it will review and constructively consider any forthcoming proposals in relation to the impact on the Vereniging of the proposed relocation to the US.
The transition is expected to have an estimated one-time implementation cost of around EUR 350 million to be incurred between 2H 2025 and 1H 2028.
Reinsurance of a portfolio of SGUL policies with a net face value of USD 10 billion
Consistent with its strategy to reduce capital employed by Financial Assets, which are legacy blocks, Aegon has decided to reinsure a block of Secondary Guarantee Universal Life (SGUL) contracts. The transaction covers 30% of the face value of Transamerica’s SGUL business, bringing the total value addressed to 80% of the total SGUL portfolio in combination with previously executed management actions. It decreases the total capital employed by USD 0.3 billion to USD 2.7 billion, well ahead of the targeted reduction in 2025.
The transaction occurs at a price consistent with Aegon’s best estimate assumptions, resulting in a minimal impact on the company’s IFRS valuation equity and operating profit, while removing potential variances and risks associated with mortality and policyholder behavior in the future.
The transaction will unwind existing financing structures and trigger tax constraints along with realized losses, impacting the RBC ratio. It comes together with a USD 800 million investment into Transamerica which neutralizes the impact on the RBC ratio and will enable additional operating capital generation and remittances of USD 75 million per annum, which compares favorably to the alternatives.
Maximizing the value of Aegon’s business portfolio
In the US, the underlying market trends favor Transamerica’s business: people are living longer, the protection gap is widening, and there is significant opportunity for Aegon to support American families in preparing for retirement. To underpin Aegon’s growth plans, Transamerica aims to:
- Make World Financial Group (WFG), Transamerica’s affiliated insurance distribution network of more than 92,000 independent agents, the top agent network for “Main Street” America (middle market and mass affluent), with the aim to increase WFG’s total life sales by 14% per annum to around USD 900 million and increase WFG’s total annuity sales by 7% per annum to around USD 5.0 billion in 2027.
- Scale the Protection Solution business by increasing life sales by 15% per annum to around USD 720 million in 2027.
- Capitalize on Transamerica’s leadership position in pooled Retirement plans and broaden its ancillary product range, targeting approximately USD 275 billion Retirement plan AuA in 2027, while increasing Return on Assets from 8 bps (YTD 2025) to around 11 bps.
- Continue to decrease Transamerica’s exposure to its Financial Assets.
This plan aims to enable Transamerica to grow its operating result and its remittances by around 5% per annum over the course of the next two years from a 2025 run-rate of USD 1.4 to 1.6 billion and USD 675 million respectively. This includes the impact of the SGUL reinsurance transaction and related investment into Transamerica.
In addition, Aegon outlined its plans for its asset management business, which include:
- Expanding its third-party business segment by focusing on higher revenue-margin strategies which will enable third-party revenue growth to outpace AuM growth.
- Implementing a number of initiatives to improve the scalability and efficiency of its organization with the ambition to improve the Global Platforms operating margin to at least 20% in 2027, from around 16% expected for 2025. Key enablers include cost reduction programs, a simpler business organization and a single portfolio management system.
- Growing its Strategic Partnerships in China and France, which have historically been a strong source of earnings and remittances.
- Continuing the strong collaboration between Transamerica and Aegon Asset Management (Aegon AM), which includes investment in capabilities to contribute to Transamerica's growth plans.
These plans aim to increase Aegon AM’s operating result to more than EUR 200 million in 2027, from a 2025 run-rate of EUR 170–200 million, and to increase its remittances of approximately EUR 80 million estimated for 2025 by more than 5% per annum until 2027.
In the UK, Aegon’s strategy to transform Aegon UK into a leading digital savings and retirement platform, as outlined in June 2024, continues to make good progress and the business remains a reliable and growing source of revenues for the Group. In the context of our stronger focus on the U.S., Aegon will begin a strategic review of Aegon UK to assess the best way to accelerate and maximize value for all stakeholders. In this review all options will be evaluated, including a potential divestment.
With respect to its International business, which includes growth markets in Spain & Portugal, Brazil, China, and Transamerica Life Bermuda, Aegon will continue to invest in profitable growth. These businesses, primarily operated through partnerships, will continue to upstream remittances and contribute to the Group’s operating results, building their growth on product innovation, customer service, and expanding distribution.
a.s.r. shareholding
Aegon will remain a patient shareholder of a.s.r. and benefit from its progress, holding its stake until the a.s.r. share price reflects its intrinsic value and/or until value-creating opportunities present themselves. As Aegon CEO Lard Friese, who is currently a non-independent member of the supervisory board of a.s.r., will be fully focused on delivering on the ambitions that Aegon has set out today, Aegon will nominate a new member of the supervisory board of a.s.r. Following the approval of the nominee by all relevant stakeholders of a.s.r., Lard Friese will step down as non-independent member of its supervisory board.
Capital management implications
Under the new strategic ambition, Aegon’s approach to capital management will not change. Aegon's operating companies will remain well capitalized and Cash Capital at Holding will be maintained around the mid-point of the EUR 0.5 to 1.5 billion operating range. Excess capital will be returned to shareholders over time, unless it can be invested in value-creating opportunities. To support shareholder returns and reach the targeted level of EUR 1.0 billion at the end of 2026, Aegon announces today a new EUR 400 million share buyback program to be split evenly between the first and the second half of 2026. The share buyback program will start at the beginning of January 2026.
Consistent with the strategy announced today, the financial flexibility enabled by the capital management framework will be prioritized to the US.
Across its businesses, Aegon will continue to increase the proportion of capital employed in strategic business lines with attractive returns. At the same time, Aegon aims to drive capital employed by the US Financial Assets down to USD 2.2 billion by year-end 2027, while reducing risk sensitivities through management actions and transactions.
Financial targets
As a result of Aegon’s plans to further strengthen its businesses and grow profitably:
- The company’s operating result is expected to grow by around 5% per annum between 2025 and 2027 from EUR 1.5 - 1.7 billion (run-rate taking into account an assumed EUR/USD exchange rate of 1.20), driven by growth of Aegon’s US Strategic Assets.
- OCG after holding funding and operating expenses is expected to grow between 0% and 5% per annum over the same timeframe, from around EUR 0.9 billion for 2025 (run-rate taking into account both the positive impact of the SGUL derisking transaction and related investment into Transamerica and the negative impact of an assumed EUR/USD exchange rate of 1.20) as higher earnings on in-force are offset by higher new business strain.
- Free cash flow is expected to grow by around 5% per annum from around EUR 0.8 billion per year (run-rate taking into account both the positive impact of the SGUL derisking transaction and related investment into Transamerica and the negative impact of an assumed EUR/USD exchange rate of 1.20 and the reduced cash flows from a.s.r. driven by the reduced size of the stake) as the pay-out ratio of OCG gradually increases over time.
- Dividends remain well covered by free cash flow and, on a per share basis, will benefit from the reduction in share count from the announced share buyback programs, enabling a growth of dividend per share in excess of 5% per annum.