Protecting your investment

Keeping policyholders’ assets safe

For your security, we use external custodians to look after the assets in our name. Our board of directors appoints the custodians and is responsible for making sure that they keep assets safe and separate as we’re legally required to account for policyholders’ assets completely separate from our own finances.

If we became insolvent, then an insolvency specialist would be appointed. They’d look at our assets and liabilities and pay out each policyholder’s share of the assets. Importantly, in Dublin, policyholders have a priority on the assets if a company is wound up. A policyholder could get back less than their fund value if our liabilities were more than our assets. But this is unlikely, as nearly all of our business is investment business (in other words, our assets are equal to our liabilities).

Risk-based capital

Our parent company, AEGON N.V., also requires that our available capital must be set based on a risk-based capital approach. This approach defines the amount of capital that we must hold when we write various risks. And it makes sure that products (such as AEGON Secure Lifetime Income, which includes investment and mortality guarantees) don’t have an impact on the security of existing lines of business.

The only circumstance in which the guarantee wouldn’t apply is if AEGON Ireland plc failed. In this event, the benefits from your policy may be affected.

Regulatory background

We’re a life assurance company based in Ireland. We’re authorised by the Central Bank of Ireland and regulated by the Financial Services Authority for the conduct of UK business. As Ireland is in the European Union (EU), we must act in accordance with the EU Life Directives.

More about us

As part of AEGON N.V., we benefit from the financial strength of one of the largest listed insurance groups in the world, which has assets under administration of around €391 billion (£353 billion) at 10 November 2011.

Take a look at our ‘Quick reference guide’ for a summary of how we meet our regulatory requirements.