Aegon

Company acquires Monumental Corporation and is listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange. AEGON USA is formed from the merger of Life Investors, Monumental Corporation, and National Old Life. Company acquires Western Reserve Life and is listed on the New York Stock Exchange. Company signs an agreement with Scottish Equitable Life Assurance Society of Edinburgh to establish a new company, Scottish Equitable PLC. Subsidiary AEGON UK signs an agreement with the Independent Insurance Group PLC enabling AEGON UK to disengage from the U.K. property and casualty market. Company acquires U.S.-based Providian Corporation for NLG 6.7 billion (US $3.5 billion). Company acquires Transamerica Corporation and the life insurance business of Guardian Royal Exchange UK. AEGON N.V., one of the world's ten largest listed life insurance groups, is a prime example of the move toward larger units in the insurance industry. The company's formation is due to the merger in the late 1960s of two insurance firms, AGO and Ennia. The history of these firms is the story of combining smaller companies into larger and more competitive organizations--AGO is the product of the merger of Algemeene Friesche, Groot-Noordhollandsche, and Olveh; and Ennia is the product of the merger of Eerste Nederlandsche, Nieuwe Eerste Nederlandsche, and Nillmij. AEGON's name, is made up of the initials of its major predecessors. The name reflects its roots; and its locally managed structure is designed to help the company compete successfully in a mature, internationalized market. The company operates in three major markets: the Americas, including the United States, Canada, and Mexico; The Netherlands; and the United Kingdom. AEGON is also present in a number of other countries, including Hungary, Spain, Belgium, Germany, Hong Kong, Italy, Luxembourg, the Philippines, Taiwan, and has representative offices in China and India. The company's earliest predecessors were burial funds such as the Broederlijke Liefdebeurs (the Fraternal Fund of Love), which was established in Haarlem in 1759. Burial funds were set up to serve a locality or industry and offered some protection from a city-provided pauper's funeral. The funds became increasingly common in the 19th century. The burial funds had a number of distinctive characteristics. Statutes limited them to operate in only one Dutch province. Low premiums that appealed to working people were collected weekly at the insured's home, and fixed premiums did not always mean a fixed-death payment. Burial funds also traditionally insured young children free. One such fund was started when J. Oosterhoff, a civil servant and former burial-fund agent, decided to go into business for himself in 1844. He and another civil servant founded Algemeene Friesche in Friesland. After several years of growth, Oosterhoff wanted to expand nationwide. In 1860 the company passed a government examination of its actuarial practices and became a full-fledged mutual insurance company, and all the people it insured gained equal rights. Ordinary life insurance companies could become national entities and offer a broader range of insurance products, including annuities, term policies, whole life policies, endowment policies, and group life insurance. When Algemeene Friesche's organizational form changed, it continued to offer basically the same product but in a broader market. Groot-Noordhollandsche also began as a burial fund. A local vicar in the western Netherlands established this fund in 1845, a year after Oosterhoff set up Algemeene Friesche. In 1918, Groot-Noordhollandsche also became an ordinary life insurance company. Another burial fund that grew into a life insurance company was the Dordrecht. The Dordrecht's main competitor in the 1880s was an ordinary insurance company, so the burial fund's managers reorganized to remain competitive. In 1883 the Dordrecht became an industrial life insurer, underwriting low-cost policies aimed at working men, basical