As Aegon’s new holding company prepares to tackle recruitment, housing and the cost of living on the island are a definite concern.

It started with one employee in September 2023, and is now up to six people.

“We move to ten, hopefully, by the end of the year,” Tibor Leeuwenburgh, the head of the Bermuda office, said. “Part of my role is to motivate people to come and work for us.”

He found difficulties renting in Bermuda when he and his wife moved here from the Netherlands in January.

“Before my wife and I rented the house we are in now, we looked at many other places,” he said. “When you look on real estate websites like Property Skipper from 10,000 miles away in the Netherlands, and see all kinds of nice places, you think, well, this one does not have that and this one does not have this. When you come here and look at the places, you realise there is a housing shortage, and you have to be flexible. You have to adapt to the local community.”

The Leeuwenburghs are now happily ensconced in a home in Smith’s, but Mr Leeuwenburgh said the high price of life in Bermuda has also impacted them at a corporate level.

His words followed a comment from Axa XL chief underwriting officer Noel Pearman at the Bermuda Risk Summit last week that Bermuda’s expense can be a disadvantage to companies looking to set up here.

Jason Hayward, the Minister of Economy and Labour, recently promised to tackle the issue.

Aegon, a global financial services company, has redomiciled its legal seat to Bermuda, but its headquarters remain in Amsterdam.

“We do life insurance protection,” Mr Leeuwenburgh explained. “We have a distribution company, an asset manager and $825 billion in revenue-generating investments on the balance sheet. We also do retirement services.”

He said they were here to build up their presence for the Bermuda capital regime and be able to report under it.

Bermuda’s regulatory framework was one of the draws for Aegon. The fact that Bermuda has Solvency II third-party equivalency, and acceptance by the National Association of American Insurance Commissioners was critical.

“The Bermuda Monetary Authority is the supervisor for our insurance group,” Mr Leeuwenburgh said. “We are very impressed with the way they supervise us.”

Aegon already had an history with the island, with its subsidiary Transamerica Life Bermuda established here 20 years ago.

The firm also wanted a place where it could build a relationship with the community.

Earlier this month, Aegon launched its Community Investment Programme which has three components: education, financial and social empowerment, and a grant to the Bermuda Foundation.

It also plans to award university scholarships to local students.

“Education is fundamental for prosperity,” Mr Leeuwenburgh said. “Countries that have a good education system and well-educated people prosper.”

Aegon wants to start with three scholarships then slowly add more as the years pass.

“We want to offer the scholarship for studies that are important to Bermuda, particularly in the healthcare, technology and trade arenas,” he said. “We would really like Bermudians who get our scholarship to return to Bermuda to work after graduation.”