The bespoke service is aimed at pension funds with liabilities in excess of £300m that are looking for a tailored solution to their pension strategy – rather than a straight investment or pension buy-out proposition.

This new offering from AEGON UK and UBS Global Asset Management will be known as UBS AEGON Affordable Risk Transfer Solution. It will provide clients with an integrated solution from two highly-rated companies combining insurance, administration, asset management and risk management capabilities. Compared to traditional buy-out, it defers the buy-out of more expensive liability tranches and creates the opportunity to generate returns. This increases the probability of lower overall costs and makes risk transfer more affordable for partially funded plans.

Commenting on the new solution, AEGON UK chief executive Otto Thoresen said:

“Linking with UBS Global Asset Management will enable us to provide a bespoke bulk annuity service to a different segment of the corporate market from the SME market where we have made a strong start. This is an important market with a number of diverse opportunities and we are looking forward to developing our proposition with UBS in the weeks and months ahead.”

UBS Global Asset Management’s Head of Global Investment Solutions, Brian Singer said:

“We are delighted to be entering this rapidly expanding marketplace with AEGON UK.  Together we can provide integrated solutions built from proven capabilities and customised to our clients’ needs. This initiative brings longevity risk management into the toolkit of the asset manager and perfectly complements our dynamically-managed investment solutions for pension plans.”

-Ends-

Notes to Editors:

AEGON entered the bulk annuity market in November 2006 with a proposition aimed at the SME market. It has enjoyed a strong start to its presence in the bulk annuity market, with a high level of quote activity and the first cases being funded in the first quarter of 2007, demonstrating that it has a competitive proposition.

AEGON UK has assets under administration of £49.8 billion and employs around 4,000 staff. AEGON UK is part of the AEGON Group, which is one of the world’s largest listed insurers and has assets under management of £245 billion.

UBS Global Asset Management is a leading provider of investment solutions for UK institutional pension fund clients with around GBP 40 billion in UK pension assets under management1. It has enjoyed strong demand for its tailored asset liability investment solutions upon which this new bespoke service builds.  

UBS Global Asset Management is one of the world’s leading asset managers, providing traditional, alternative and real estate investment management solutions to private clients, financial intermediaries and institutional investors worldwide. Invested assets total some GBP 369 billion1 making the firm one of the largest global institutional asset managers, a leading fund house in Europe and the largest mutual fund manager in Switzerland2.

With around 3,500 employees, located in 23 countries, UBS Global Asset Management is a truly global firm. The main offices are in Basel, Chicago, Frankfurt, Grand Cayman, Hartford, Hong Kong, London, Luxembourg, New York, Rio de Janeiro, Sydney, Tokyo, Toronto and Zurich.

www.ubs.com

1As at 31 March 2007
2 Source: Lipper FundFlows Insight Report (as at 31 March 2007)

For further information

Lesley McPherson
Head of Media
T. 0131 549 3782 | M. 07740 897 541
lesley.mcpherson@aegon.co.uk