History

Our brand has evolved over the years – here’s a timeline to take you through the journey we’ve been on.

Our story started over 190 years ago, when we were founded as Scottish Equitable here in the UK. Today we’re part of Aegon group – an international provider of life insurance, pensions and asset management.

Our UK team are focused on providing retirement, workplace savings and protection solutions to over 3.8 million customers.1 To do that we work with financial advisers and employers, to help improve people’s financial wellbeing – all while being a trusted partner. You can find out more about what we do and how we deliver it on our About us page.

Our brand has evolved over the years – here’s a timeline to take you through the journey we’ve been on.

A timeline of our history

1831

We've been helping people take responsibility for their financial future since Scottish Equitable was founded in Edinburgh back in 1831

1862

Mr Christie became our first pensioner to recieve a Scottish Equitable pension. Today we have over 3.8 million customers in the UK.1

1 Information as at 31/12/2021

1902

Our assets passed £6 million for the first time. Today we're part of a global group that looks over 1.02 trillion euros on assets on behalf of savers and investors worldwide.2

2 Information as at 31/12/2021

1994

Scottish Equitable plc was created and Aegon N.V. took a 40% stake.

1996

We moved to a new home in Edinburgh Park. The office was opened by H.R.H The Princess Royal. We now also have offices in London and Lytham St Annes, Witham, Manchester and Peterborough.

1998

Aegon N.V. increased their staje in Scottish Equitable to 100%.

1999

Aegon UK set-up as a holding company and Guardian Life and Pension was acquired.

2009

A few years later we re-branded ourselves as Aegon, in the UK. This gave our customers the re-assurance of global strenght and expertise on top of our proud heritage in the UK.

2009 – 2017

We were the Lead Partner of British Tennis. During this time, we supported tennis at all levels – from grass roots and junior development through to amateur and professional events – major grass court tournaments and national Davis Cup and Fed Cup teams. We are proud to have left a strong legacy for both the sport and our brand.

2014

We launched Retiready, giving people the opportunity to take control of their own pension planning. At the same time, we introuduced the Retirement Score which allows everyone to find out how prepared they are for the retirment they want.

2018

In 2016, we announced an agreement to aquire BlackRock's UK defined contribution platform and administration business. The transfer of the BlackRock's UK DC platform and administration business to Aegon, was completed in 2018, resulting in the new pension scheme – Aegon Master Trust.

2019

Cofunds and IPS became part of Aegon in January 2017. We saw the final stage of our Cofunds and IPS integration completed in May 2019.

2019 also brough the important introduction of Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) funds. Our TargetPlan pension deafult fund offers this option for workplace savers.

2020

We work with advisers, employers and customers to help improve the nations's financial wellbeing. We created our Financial wellbeing hub, which features interactive tools and content to inspire our customers to consider tehir financial position here and now – as well as in the long term.

2021

We announced we acquired Pension Geeks. Founded in 2014, Pension Geeks specialises in connecting people with their finances through innovative engagement techniques and events – making pensions as easy as possible to understand

1 Aegon Financial Supplement Q4 2021 Results, p11. Data Source, Aegon NV, Feb 2022.