Assurance

This report is based on information and data from AEGON's country and operating units. These units are responsible for collecting and submitting data used in the report. All information is aggregated and reported on a company-wide basis, subject to internal verification. 

 

In 2008, AEGON decided to introduce limited external assurance for its Sustainability Report. As a first step, the company organized an annual Stakeholder Review to assess the content and relevance of the company's report. So far, two such reviews have taken place - one in 2008 and a second one in 2009. AEGON intends to organize its third annual Stakeholder Review in the second half of 2010.

 

To read more about the Stakeholder Review and its latest findings, please click here.

 

In addition to the Stakeholder Review, AEGON has also introduced limited external assurance for its sustainability reports, starting with the current report. This assurance is  provided by Ernst & Young Accountants LLP, AEGON's present financial auditor. This is in line with the objectives AEGON set out in 2009.

 

Assurance report

To the management of AEGON N.V.

 

Engagement

We have performed an assurance engagement in accordance with Standard 3410, 'Assurance standard relating to social reports'. Our assurance engagement aimed to obtain limited assurance that the information in the sustainability report 2009 of AEGON N.V. (hereafter: Sustainability Report) is, in all material respects, a reliable and adequate representation of the policy, activities, events and performance with respect to corporate responsibility during 2009. Our engagement did not include any quantitative or qualitative information relating to the prior years. We also do not provide any assurance relating to future information such as estimates, expectations or targets, or their achievability.

The procedures performed in order to obtain limited assurance aim to verify the plausibility of information and are more limited than for procedures to obtain reasonable assurance. Therefore, less assurance is obtained than in an engagement to obtain reasonable assurance.

 

Criteria

We assessed the Sustainability Report against the Sustainability Reporting Guidelines (G3) published by the Global Reporting Initiative (hereafter GRI) and AEGON N.V.'s own reporting policies as set out in the chapter 'About this report'. We believe that these criteria are suitable for our assurance engagement.

 

The management's responsibility

Management is responsible for the preparation of the Sustainability Report and the information therein in accordance with the criteria mentioned above. This responsibility includes designing, implementing and maintaining internal control relevant to the preparation of a Sustainability Report that is free of material misstatements, selecting and applying appropriate reporting policies that include the GRI reporting principles and using measurement methods and estimates that are reasonable in the circumstances. The choices made by management, the scope of this Sustainability Report and the reporting policy, including any inherent limitations that could affect the reliability of information, are set out in the chapter 'About this report'.

 

The auditor's responsibility

Our responsibility is to express a conclusion with regard to the Sustainability Report based on the engagement described above. We conducted our limited assurance engagement in accordance with Dutch law and the requirements set out therein with respect to the independence of assurance team members.

 

We have performed all the procedures deemed necessary to obtain the evidence that is sufficient and appropriate to provide a basis for our conclusions. Our main procedures were:

  • obtaining an understanding of the sector and the relevant corporate responsibility issues specific for the organization;
  • assessing the acceptability of the reporting principles used, and the significant estimates and calculations made in preparing the Sustainability Report and its consistent application;
  • performing analytical procedures in order to assess the quantitative data;
  • obtaining an understanding of the design and existence of systems and methods used to collect, process and consolidate the reported information, including the consolidation process;
  • testing, on a sample basis, the substantiation of the quantitative and descriptive information in the Sustainability Report and review of relevant documents;
  • conducting interviews with responsible company officers in order to assess the plausibility of the quantitative and descriptive information in the report;
  • evaluating the overall presentation of the Sustainability Report against the criteria mentioned above.

 

Conclusions

Based on our procedures performed to obtain a limited assurance, nothing came to our attention that causes us to believe that the information in the Sustainability Report, in all material respects, does not provide a reliable and sufficient representation of the policy, activities, events and performance with respect to corporate responsibility during 2009, in accordance with the Sustainability Reporting Guidelines issued by the Global Reporting Initiative and the documented reporting policy of AEGON N.V.

 

The Hague, April 19th, 2010

for Ernst & Young Accountants LLP

Signed D.A. de Waard