Premiums and DC volume
Premium and DC volume increased by 48.2% to € 3,530 million (2022: € 2,381 million), primarily driven by the inclusion of Aegon NL (€ 1,165 million).
The organic growth of pension DC volume was driven by an increase of recurring premiums for the ‘Werknemers Pensioen’ (16.6%) and the ‘Doenpensioen’ (15.5%), as both of these products continued their commercial success. In addition, the DC volume increased through inorganic growth from the addition of Aegon NL. The premiums invoiced increased with the contribution of Aegon NL and through growth in Funeral premiums (8.0%), mainly driven by inflation-related indexation. This was partly offset by the decrease in the Pension Defined Benefit (DB) and the Individual life portfolio.
Assets under Management (‘AuM’) of the DC proposition increased to € 22.6 billion (2022: € 8.03 billion), mainly driven by the addition of Aegon NL DC AuM (€ 12.2 billion), net volume from a.s.r.’s DC products and by positive market revaluations.
Operating expenses
Operating expenses increased by € 184 million to € 401 million (2022: € 217 million). The increase in operating expenses was mainly due to the combination with Aegon Nederland and project expenses related to a new IT landscape in Pensions.
Operating result
The operating result increased by € 98 million to € 688 million (2022: € 590 million), reflecting an increase in the operating insurance service result (OISR) including the 'other' result of € 64 million and the operating investment and finance result (OIFR) of € 34 million.
The OISR including the 'other' result increased by € 64 million to € 279 million, driven by the addition of Aegon NL, and was partly offset by lower experience variance reflecting the fact that actuals are now more closely in line with assumptions. Losses on new business improved driven by increased profitability due to higher interest rates.The OIFR increased by € 34 million to € 409 million driven by the addition of Aegon NL and a positive impact from lower UFR drag (IFRS basis) due to higher interest rates. This increase was partly offset by higher investment expenses, lower asset valuations and a negative impact from accrual of the balance sheet (reflecting higher interest rates and a higher liability illiquidity premium).
Result before tax
The IFRS result before tax increased to € 973 million (2022: € -963 million), mainly due to the negative impact of investment-related incidental items in 2022, reflecting significant negative revaluations driven mainly by strongly risen interest rates in 2022.
Non-investment incidental items amounted to € -228 million (2022: € -110 million), mainly driven by the agreement with claims organisations on the unit-linked life insurance transparency file, which resulted in a provision of in total € 300 million (€ 250 million settlement and an additional provision of € 50 million) in addition to several other items (€ 75 million) comprising an one off benefit related to the settlement of separate accounts in relation to the implementation of IFRS 17 and the own pension schemes of a.s.r. and Aegon NL. The impact of incidental items this year on existing onerous contracts (‘change in future services‘) remained limited, in contrary to 2022, which reflected the impact of exceptionally high inflation.
The remaining part of the increase was due to the improvement in the operating result (€ 98 million).