❏ LETTER OF THE CEO  AEGON in recent years has undergone a significant transformation.  In response to the changing global market environment, we have  sharpened our focus on AEGON’s core business of life insurance,  pensions and asset management. Moreover, we have taken decisive  measures to reduce our exposure to the volatility of financial  markets, strengthen our financial position, implement substantial  cost reductions and align our organization to better respond to the  needs of our customers and the expectations of our shareholders.  Indeed, these strategic actions have enabled us to put the  financial crisis firmly behind us, while setting our sights toward  sustainable growth.  Equally important has been our focus on  capturing the operational and cost  efficiencies necessary to create a more  streamlined organization, better positioned  to deliver added value to customers, business  partners and of course, our shareholders. In line with our decision to sharpen our focus on our  core business, we have restructured and refocused  our businesses in the United States, the Netherlands  and the United Kingdom. First and foremost in this  transformation process was our decision to initiate a  thorough portfolio review to determine which businesses  were supportive of AEGON’s long-term growth  prospects, and which were not. This subsequently led to  putting into run-off or exiting a number of businesses,  including among others, our institutional markets  division, as well as our bank-owned and corporate-owned  life insurance business in the United States, the sale of  our funeral insurance business in the Netherlands, and  the sale of AEGON’s third party pension administration  and employee benefits software businesses in the United  Kingdom. We are confident that by shifting to a more  fee-based income model (as evidenced by our focus on  growing AEGON’s strong position in pensions), AEGON  will be less dependent on spread-generated income and  consequently, less vulnerable to the fluctuations of  financial markets. Positioning AEGON for the future