The books that a.s.r. manages as service books are individual life, defined benefit (DB) pension books and funeral. New business has reduced over time, mainly due to the low interest rate environment, changes in the Dutch tax regime and a.s.r.’s value over volume strategic principle.

a.s.r.’s profitability in this segment has its origin in low and variable cost operations, in migration and conversion skills of books of business and in the optimisation of Solvency II capital and investment returns. The focus is on further rationalisation of products, migration of IT platforms, cost efficiency and generating a stable operating result.

Opportunities within service books are:

• Consolidation of funeral books;

• Consolidation in individual life;

• Benefits that may be achieved by leveraging a.s.r.’s operational efficiency in the segment.

Individual life

Most of the products within Individual life are no longer actively sold. Organic growth is in term life insurance, the sole Individual life proposition actively sold, which consists of traditional life insurance policies providing death benefits payments without a savings or investment feature. a.s.r.’s term life products are mainly sold in combination with mortgage loans or investment accounts.

Pensions DB

a.s.r. is a major provider of pensions in the Netherlands. Although the growing DC proposition is now the largest part of new business, the DB product still forms a large part of the existing pension portfolio.

a.s.r. manages its DB pension portfolio as a service book, with a focus on the further optimisation of processes and cost-efficiency. a.s.r.’s DB pension portfolio provides strategic growth opportunities following the introduction of the new pension system in the Netherlands.

Funeral

a.s.r. offers funeral insurance under the Ardanta brand. a.s.r. is the biggest funeral insurer in the Netherlands, based on portfolio size. a.s.r. continues to focus on capital generation and the further strengthening of its competitive position. Efficient operations, reflected in the costs per policy, form an important driver for this.