AEGON Scottish Equitable today announces the launch of a new adviser extranet service for use with its guaranteed onshore bond - ‘Investment Control’, http://www.aegonse.co.uk/onshorebond.

AEGON's extranet service aims to help advisers more quickly and efficiently complete applications. Supporting both online and offline business, the extranet has been developed from adviser feedback to meet the demands of today’s adviser business models.

The benefits of the service include

• 0.25% extra commission which can be offset against charges/increase allocation
• menu-driven commission flexibility
• e-mail linking, allowing others to pick up where you left off
• full save and recall functionality
• convenience – advisers can work at a time that suits

Investment Control, which was launched in April and was recently rated five-star by Defaqto, offers investors peace of mind in times of market uncertainty with money-back guarantees. The protected investment option guarantees investors:

• a money-back guarantee on death, and
• a money-back guarantee on cash-in from year five onwards

From the 10th anniversary of each investment, and every five years after that, if the fund value is greater than the amount invested less any withdrawals, this will be set as the new higher guaranteed amount.

The development of the extranet service builds on AEGON Scottish Equitable’s current ‘eee’ rating awarded by the Financial Technology Research Centre (IFRC) for online services for onshore bonds.

Derek Hendry, Head of eCommerce at AEGON commented ; “Providing advisers with the capability for electronic transactions is increasingly important, and can really make life easier for advisers. This is the first phase of a wider project to develop the service to advisers and roll out the system within other areas of AEGON.

Notes to editors

• AEGON UK is one of the UK’s leading life and pensions companies and has assets under administration of £52.3 billion and employs around 4,500 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.
• Investment Control is a new addition to AEGON’s guaranteed product range. Investment Control offers investors a choice of more than 90 funds to meet a variety of investor’s needs and different attitudes to risk. The Protected Investment option offers a choice of two portfolios to invest in. These are the ‘Core portfolios’ which offer a choice of funds for investors looking for passive equity management and four ‘multi manager portfolios’ for clients looking for active management. There is also a cash fund.

For further information