Aegon Earnings: Numbers Look Broadly Good; We Would Welcome Some Conformity to Accounting

We think Aegon has continued to develop its operations in line with a core strategy of growth. In the company’s World Financial Group that houses its network of middle market advisors, the unit has 75,652 licensed agents and versus the 74,000 the business reported at the end of last year that is a 2.2% increase. We think that leaves the business roughly on track to reach around 81,000 by the end of this year and build out to 110,000 by the end of 2027. The number of multiticketing agents has increased to 37,211, 3.3% better than the rise at the end of last year. The retirement plans business, or workplace, reported net deposits of $1 billion in the first three months versus $300 million in the same period in the prior year. The focus continues to be on midsize plans with net outflows from large plans. However, those outflows have moderated since the same period last year. Flows into mutual funds have also performed well. However, we think the Transamerica life business has declined. Products are mainly sold by World Financial Group agents and the business reported new life sales of $119 million in the first three months. This implies a decline versus the $486 million reported over last year. Transamerica’s target is for new life sales of $750 million by 2027 and at the moment this is tight.