Principles for Sustainable Insurance

ESG is integrated in how we operate. Aegon has its Responsible Business and Investment Committee, consisting of relevant Management Board members, Chief Investment Officers and senior management. They discuss ESG matters related to the business and investing on a quarterly basis, and provide advice to Aegon's Executive Board. Additionally, as per our Executive Board’s Remuneration Policy, 50% of a member’s variable compensation is related to non-financial performance indicators, of which at least one must be ESG-related and clearly support the wider interests of society. New as of January 1, 2021, is the Global Head of Corporate Sustainability function, which was created to further embed ESG into how Aegon operates. 

Our public ESG policies and frameworks are available at aegon.com. In 2020, Aegon made a concerted effort to update the Human Rights Statement and the Vendor Code of Conduct, to reflect current best practice.

ESG risks are covered by Aegon's risk universe and in 2020 climate risk was more explicitly recognized in the risk universe, given its increasing relevance and the need to manage the impact on Aegon's risk profile. Risk management regularly interacts and cooperates on ESG risks, including climate risk, with the Global Corporate Sustainability Team reporting into the CEO and the Climate Change Working Group (CCWG) of the Responsible Business and Investment Committee chaired by a member of Aegon's Management Board. This is covered in more detail in the Responsible Business section and the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) section of  our Integrated Annual Report for 2020. Of note for 2020 were the recognition of climate change and loss of biodiversity as material topics in the Aegon Business Environment Scan.

Through our products we offer financial solutions for vulnerable groups in, for example, insurance for people living with HIV in Brazil. We are also working towards more inclusive products via our Qualitative to Quantitative (Q2Q) pilot, which should vastly reduce human bias. From an investment perspective, ESG integration and active ownership are principles we follow across all decisions and portfolios. Aegon Asset Management is a signatory to the Principles for Responsible Investment.

For more information, please see Aegon's Integrated Annual Report 2020:

• Business Environment Scan – page 16
• Responsible business at Aegon – page 24
• Non-financial policies, procedures and outcomes – page 87
• Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) framework – page 111
• Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures – page 427

For clients, guided by our overarching Responsible Investment Policy, Aegon Asset Management (AAM) has established a Responsible Investment Framework that reflects these key elements including similar policies put forward by AAM’s clients. Our Responsible Investment Framework is structured as follows:

1. ESG integration – Material ESG factors are fundamental to our investment decision-making across all AAM portfolios. By integrating ESG considerations into traditional financial analysis, the AAM research team arrives at an independent view of an issuer’s fundamentals.
   
   2. Active ownership – We actively engage with investee companies across a wide range of industries to improve their ESG profile and address sustainability issues, often in cooperation with other investors to maximize our influence. We also exercise any shareholder voting rights we have to support our engagement efforts and enhance long-term value creation for all stakeholders.
   
   3. Solutions – AAM provides a range of responsible investment solutions to pursue ESG objectives alongside financial returns. These solutions are categorized into four types: exclusion-based strategies, best-in-class strategies, sustainability-themed strategies, and impact investments.
   
   For vendors, in 2020, we replaced Aegon’s previous Sustainable Procurement Policy with a new Vendor Code of Conduct, which sets out the minimum standards our partners must commit to. This document reflects the consistent approach to responsible business that we aim to foster throughout our organization.
   
   We have started using SAP Ariba, a vendor lifecycle management platform for registering third parties and monitoring them through data feeds. Moreover, Aegon is an early adopter of Ariba Risk Management technology, which supports our third party risk management processes and enables us to invite vendors to contribute to a risk assessment directly from the Ariba system.

In addition, Aegon now works with an external assessment company, EcoVadis, that evaluates the ESG risks involved in our partnerships with suppliers. The EcoVadis assessment categories are aligned with the standards laid out in our Vendor Code of Conduct, including key topics such as a supplier's environmental policies and their labor, human rights, and ethics record. The EcoVadis results can be integrated into our Ariba platform, creating greater oversight of a vendor's ESG credentials. This partnership allows us to take a more proactive approach to responsible business. Should the external assessment reveal that a partner falls short of our expectations, we can work with them on corrective actions. We believe that this new system for risk management gives us more comprehensive oversight of our partners' ESG policies, actions, and results. We are now better able to choose suppliers we can trust, and thus to be a good corporate citizen, creating sustainable value for the societies we operate in. In 2020, we decided that we would assess our top 250 vendors by spend (representing 80% of Aegon's total procurement spend).

For more information, please see Aegon's Integrated Annual Report 2020:

• Responsible investment – page 31
• Responsible procurement – page 42

Aegon has a dedicated Global Government & Public Affairs department, whose aim is to support regulators and lawmakers. We advocate worldwide for people to have access to insurance and financial services, for people to be aware of opportunities for flexible employment in old age and for governments to plan and provide for their citizens in an age of increasing longevity. Aegon also encourages financial literacy around the world and engages with individuals and policymakers in service of helping people to achieve wealth and health wherever we can. Aegon is active in many international projects that aim to fulfill this goal; for  example, an Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) working group on the future of work, and the Living, Learning, and Earning Longer initiative led by the World Economic Forum (WEF), the OECD, and US-based retirement interest group AARP. Within Aegon, our Silver Starters program (developed jointly with the Leyden Academy on Vitality and Ageing) provides online entrepreneurship coaching to over- 50s, to promote lifelong learning and healthy attitudes to aging.

For more information, please see Aegon's Integrated Annual Report 2020:

• Society – page 27

Each year, we publish progress against the PSI principles. Our progress report is included as part of our Integrated Annual Report, and is available at www.aegon.com.

ESG is integrated in how we operate. In 2019 Aegon set up the Responsible Business and Investment Committee, consisting of selected Management Board members, Chief Investment Officers and other senior managers. They discuss ESG matters related to the business and investing on a quarterly basis, and provide advice to Aegon's Management Board.

Our public ESG policies and frameworks are available on this website. In July 2019, Aegon announced the update of the Inclusion & Diversity statement. Aegon also conducts a biennial Business Environment Scan to identify material ESG topics and issues for our business. This scan brings together the expert-driven emerging-risk identification process conducted under the requirements of Solvency II and the materiality assessment.

Through our products we offer financial solutions for vulnerable groups in, for example, Brazil, Romania and China. From an investment perspective, ESG integration and active ownership are principles we follow across all decisions and portfolios. Aegon Asset Management is a signatory to the Principles for Responsible Investment.

For more information, please see Aegon's Integrated Annual Report 2019:

• Responsible business at Aegon – page 24
• Non-financial policies, procedures and outcomes – page 86
• Business Environment Scan – page 16
• Responsible investment – page 28
• Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures - page 421
  

Aegon engages with stakeholders through polls and surveys, conferences, perception studies, workshops and face-to-face meetings so that we can learn about their lives, their aspirations and their unmet needs. These engagements, alongside panels with our customers and employees help us to improve our products and services, to price our offerings appropriately and to reach untapped or underserved customers around the world.

Our responsible investment framework encourages engagement with companies in an effort to advocate for positive change, mitigate ESG risk and promote best practices. Through our procurement, we currently have over 650 suppliers who are subject to our minimum supplier standards and who have agreed to our Supplier Sustainability Declaration – a statement of the supplier's sustainability policies and initiatives that our partners attest to either during or after the procurement process.

For more information, please see Aegon's Integrated Annual Report 2019:

• Responsible business at Aegon – page 24
• Aegon: A partner to the world – page 30
• Responsible investment – page 28
• Non-financial policies, procedures and outcomes - page 86
• Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures – page 421

Aegon has a dedicated Global Government & Public Affairs department, whose aim is to support regulators and lawmakers. We advocate worldwide for people to have access to insurance and financial services, for people to be aware of opportunities for flexible employment in old age and for governments to plan and provide for their citizens in an age of increasing longevity. Aegon also encourages financial literacy around the world and engages with individuals and policymakers in service of helping people to achieve wealth and health wherever we can. This includes partnerships with the World Economic Forum, the American Association of Retired Persons, the Milken Institute the Global Coalition on Aging and the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development.

For more information, please see Aegon's Integrated Annual Report 2019:

• Responsible business at Aegon – page 24

Each year, we publish progress against the PSI principles. Our progress report is included as part of our Integrated Annual Report, and is available at www.aegon.com.

Aegon is committed to doing business responsibly. We have internal policies, procedures and frameworks that set out how decisions should be made in areas such as procurement, investment, tax, product development, remuneration and information security. We also have a Code of Conduct, which applies to all Aegon employees worldwide. This Code of Conduct contains basic principles governing our workplace, social responsibility and business conduct.

The aim of these policies and procedures is to protect stakeholders by ensuring we are aware in our decision-making of all relevant financial and nonfinancial factors. We monitor implementation and take remedial action where necessary to ensure full compliance. We have a dedicated Non-Financial Risk Committee, which meets monthly. The Committee's members are drawn from Aegon’s Legal, Compliance and Risk departments, among others.

To oversee our investment approach, we have a Responsible Investment Strategy Committee. We also have a formal Responsible Investment Policy; we provide mandatory ESG training for portfolio managers, and have built responsible investment into both our risk management framework and into our investment mandates. We prefer to engage, though we do exclude some investments, where there are international agreements in place, or a clear social or environmental case to do so. Our Exclusion List was last updated in February 2019. The list comprises 14 companies involved in controversial weapons, 48 in thermal coal mining, 11 in oil sands and a further 63 in tobacco. We also exclude investment in 15 countries. 

We engage regularly with all stakeholders, including customers and business partners.

Customers

Among our products and services, we offer specific financial products for vulnerable groups and socially-responsible investment funds (SRI). In several countries, we sell products for customers on low incomes — for example: our ‘My Family’ micro-insurance product in Brazil and low-cost life insurance in Romania. We also provide support to those facing chronic illness. In China, our critical illness coverage offers protection against both diabetes and cancer; we also have products that help customers suffering from cervical and breast cancer. In addition to our products, we also support a number of financial education programs. In the Netherlands, for example, we pay for budget coaches to help customers in financial difficulty. In the US, we work closely with the National Foundation for Credit Counseling. We also offer lessons, online seminars and clinics for members of the public. For our customers in the UK, the Netherlands and Hungary, we have SRI funds. At the end of 2018, these funds had EUR 3.4 billion under management, almost 80% more than they had five years before.

We encourage greater energy efficiency through our real estate investments — for example, we are renovating properties in our Amvest fund in the Netherlands. We want to achieve an average B label for energy efficiency; currently, more than half of these properties are rated E or F (A is the highest). To Dutch customers, we offer green mortgages.

Business partners

Our business partners help us develop, market and distribute our products and services. When working with outside providers, our goal is to create long-term relations that benefit Aegon and allow our partners to develop and grow their businesses. We regularly assess the companies we work with against minimum social and environmental standards. These standards are set out in our Sustainable Procurement and Outsourcing Risk policies. 

As a financial services company, we buy goods and services, including IT support, office equipment and management consultancy. We also buy utilities (electricity, water etc.). That said, we do not have a particularly complex supply chain and we do not need to source raw materials or deliver physical goods to customers. Our Sustainable Procurement Policy, which sets out environmental, social and governance standards for our suppliers. As part of our approach, we require some of our suppliers to sign a Supplier Sustainability Declaration; at the end of 2018, these declarations covered 25% of our total procurement spend.

Though the nature of our relationship has changed, intermediaries remain a valuable sales channel. We provide training to our distributors, so they understand our policies and are able to provide the right advice to our customers.

Aegon has a dedicated Global Government & Public Affairs department, whose aim is to support regulators and lawmakers.

Our aim is to become a thought leader on retirement and healthy aging. We invest in research through the Aegon Center for Longevity and Retirement (ACLR) and its sister organizations in the US and Brazil. We have also built a network of partnerships to push for change and reform in the way we manage retirement, healthcare and aging. As part of this network, we work with the Global Coalition on Aging (GCOA), the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP), the VU University Alzheimer Centre and the MIT AgeLab.

In many countries, we know people can no longer rely on state or company pensions and benefits. We are therefore putting more efforts into financial education. In the Netherlands, for example, we have the ‘Goed met Geld’ – or ‘Mastering Money’ – program. By the end of 2018, more than 100,000 people had completed the program’s basic financial awareness test. We also have supplemental health and long-term care businesses in the US. In the UK and the Netherlands, we invest in care homes for the elderly. In 2018, we supported a new Dementia Discovery Fund and stopped investments in tobacco; smoking is a leading cause of many of the chronic illnesses pushing up healthcare costs.

We have a responsibility to support the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) where we can, both as an investor and a provider of financial services. We focus on SDGs most relevant to our business and have selected specific goals and targets‍ linked to our strategy. In addition to these goals and targets, we also work directly with other organizations to support the SDGs. As well as the UN Principles for both Sustainable Insurance and Responsible Investment (PSI, PRI), we are members of the CDP (formerly the Carbon Disclosure Project) and the Extractives Industry Transparency Initiative (EITI), which works for greater transparency in reporting financial flows within the global energy and minerals sector. Aegon has also signed the Paris Pledge for Action, which was launched at the Paris climate change conference in 2015.

We publish details our progress each; our latest progress report is included in our 2018 Integrated Annual Report (page 434).

We have internal policies, procedures and frameworks covering a number of relevant areas, including: responsible investment, health & safety, community investment, human rights, remuneration, sustainable procurement, product development and approval, and fraud and other financial wrong-doing. We also have a Code of Conduct which applies to all Aegon employees worldwide. Most of these policies and frameworks are available at www.aegon.com. Policies are supported by training and development programs. Where relevant, policies are incorporated directly into Aegon's operational risk management framework (including tax, responsible investment and health & safety etc.) Policies are also updated regularly.

We engage regularly with customers, business partners and other stakeholders through polls and surveys, conferences, workshops, and face-to-face meetings. We use intelligence from our stakeholders to improve our products and services, and to ensure our business remains as accountable and relevant as possible. In some cases, we have departments dedicated to engagement (Investor Relations, Global Government & Public Affairs, Procurement etc.). Engagement is also an integral part of our approach to responsible investment. We also engage through our membership of international organizations and initiatives (including the Global Coalition on Aging, Geneva Association, Principles on Responsible Investment etc.).

Aegon has a dedicated Global Government & Public Affairs department, whose aim is to support regulators and lawmakers. We carry out or fund research into key ESG issues (including the impact of aging and the serious illnesses such as cancer and Alzheimer's), and we work with other stakeholders through multilateral organizations and agreements.

Each year, we publish progress against the PSI principles. Our progress report is included as part of our Review, and is available online