Exhibit 99.1


                                                                   press release
                                                                   -------------

The Hague, July 11, 2003



       Customer to play more central role in new organization structure of
                              AEGON The Netherlands


AEGON The Netherlands* is to get a new organization structure so that it can
respond more quickly and flexibly to the needs and wishes of its customers.
After nearly ten years of working with independent business units, which served
specific groups of customers independently of one another, AEGON The Netherlands
believes that it can better serve its customers by creating greater cohesion
between the various business units. According to the management, the new
structure will be a better match for the rapidly changing financial services
market and will also create the opportunity of more cost-effective and efficient
operations. The management of AEGON The Netherlands is aiming to implement the
new organization structure in early 2004.

"In the current market, it is no longer enough just to offer good products and
services if you want to have a long-term relationship with customers, who are
increasingly thinking about the long-term and are taking control", is how CEO of
AEGON The Netherlands, Johan van der Werf, explains the philosophy behind the
changes. "The lifestyle of these customers is constantly changing and with it
their financial options and needs. Choices made today for pensions or insurance
policies may no longer suit the situation of tomorrow. This means that we will
have to keep pace with this life pattern, more so than in the past. We should
not only retain our customers by the product we have sold or are selling, but by
the attention we are constantly giving them. Our products offer security, but we
also want to offer people the security that the products will continue to suit
them."

To achieve this, the existing business units will be replaced by five service
centers and four marketing and sales organizations with their own features,
characteristics and fields of expertise. The service centers will concentrate,
among other things, on service provision and product processing in the field of
pensions, individual life, general insurance, banking activities and asset
management. The service centers will be able to work more efficiently as a
result of further implementation of IT solutions and by standardizing products
and product components. The marketing and sales organizations, in which similar
activities of the various business units are concentrated, serve a "multitude"
of advisory and sales channels, such as independent agents, AEGON affiliated
organizations and our own advisers.

In the new structure, the nature of the work will change for many AEGON staff.
The number of staff - currently around 3,000 - will be reduced the next three
years with 10 to 15 % via natural wastage. Compulsory redundancies are not
necessary. Changes of work at AEGON's various sites are not excluded, because
similar jobs will be merged where possible. A part of the cost reduction will be
used for training of staff and additional investments in IT.



CEO Van der Werf doesn't want to talk about a reorganization. "That's when you
move to an entirely new situation and that's not the case here", he says. "We
are finishing something we started in the company a while ago. The new structure
does justice to the partnerships that have arisen in the organization and with
our agents to an increasing extent and provides what the market needs. All kinds
of activities have already been clustered. In practice therefore, part of this
structure is already in place."






For more information:
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Communications AEGON The Netherlands, Jan Driessen, telephone:
+31 (0)70 344 8210
See also our website: www.aegon.nl







Note for the editor: If you wish to receive press releases by e-mail from now
on, please send a message to the following e-mail address:
persvoorlichting@aegon.nl


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* AEGON Nederland N.V. is part of the AEGON Group, based in The Hague, the
international insurance group with interests in the United States, the United
Kingdom, Spain, Hungary and Canada, among other countries. In 2002, the Group
generated revenues of more than EUR 31 billion, 19% of which was achieved in the
Netherlands. AEGON N.V. is the holding company of one of the world's largest
listed life insurance groups ranked by market capitalization and assets.