Aegon announces interim 2021 financials

It’s Aegon’s turn to release its financial results for the third quarter and first nine months of 2021, and the Dutch insurance group’s numbers are a combination of positives and negatives. 

In Q3, Aegon posted a net loss worth €60 million. This was attributed mostly to a €470 million one-time charge, which the insurer said was a result of management actions to release capital and increase capital generation predictability in its US variable annuity business.

The latest loss is smaller than the negative net result posted in the same quarter last year. In Q3 2020, Aegon’s net loss amounted to €418 million.

The first nine months, meanwhile, paint a different picture, with net result at €1.18 billion – a massive turnaround from last year’s €216 million net loss.

In terms of operating results, here’s how Aegon fared:

According to Aegon, the 16% decrease in operating result in Q3 was mainly due to the group’s adverse claims experience in the US, which was driven by COVID-19 and a higher average claim size.

Commenting on the figures, chief executive Lard Friese stated: “Performance improvements across most of our businesses, supported by the disciplined execution of our operational improvement plan, were offset by elevated mortality in the United States.

“This quarter’s operating result reflects the benefit from addressable expense savings that we have achieved so far. We remain on track to deliver our target of €400 million expense savings by 2023. To date, we have executed 684 out of 1,200 performance improvement initiatives, with expense initiatives representing the majority thereof.”