CHAIRMAN’S LETTER DONALD J. SHEPARD  CHAIRMAN OF THE  EXECUTIVE BOARD Dear reader, On behalf of the Executive Board, I am pleased to present AEGON's 2003 annual report. Following a year that challenged the insurance industry as a whole, AEGON, demonstrating its resilience, performed well in 2003. We are well-positioned to take advantage of a return to a more stable market environment. Financial results for 2003 demonstrated the overall progress that has been made during the year. Full year earnings and life production showed good growth. Furthermore, the divestiture of most of Transamerica Finance Corporation’s business reinforced our focus on core life activities. The principles of our strategy and objectives are clear. AEGON will continue to focus on life and pension products in both its existing and selected new markets. We are committed to a decentralized structure that provides substantial autonomy for local operations, enabling all our businesses to organize themselves around the demands of their customers. We will seek a leading position in each of our chosen markets to generate benefits of scale, combined with profitable and sustainable growth. Distribution continues to be the cornerstone of AEGON’s overall business. Significant progress was made during the year in expanding our multi-channel distribution systems.  While multi-channel distribution has been a particularly important growth driver in the United States and Taiwan, it has also become an increasingly important aspect of distribution activities in our other country units. 2003 not only saw the expansion of AEGON’s distribution channels  in the United States, but also the acquisition and integration of a number of brokers in the Netherlands and independent financial advisor firms in the United Kingdom.  AEGON GROUP ANNUAL REPORT 2003 6 The Hague, March 11, 2004