Allianz Retire+ welcomes new distribution lead

The firm has grown its wealth management team with an experienced distribution specialist.

Allianz Retire+ has announced the appointment of Brendon Rodda to chief distribution officer, wealth management.

Within the capacity, Rodda will be responsible for leading the retirement specialist’s distribution strategy for the wealth management arm of the business.

According to the firm, this will include overseeing the national sales efforts, technical services and platform, and research relationships to deliver its flagship solution, Allianz Guaranteed Income for Life (AGILE), to the advice community.

He joins Allianz Retire+ with more than two decades of experience within financial services. Most recently, he served as executive vice-president at investment firm PIMCO, where he oversaw its global wealth management distribution strategy.

Before this, Rodda had a four-year stint at Macquarie as associate director, where he contributed to the strategic growth of the business.

Adrian Stewart, Allianz Australia Life Insurance chief executive, said: “We are thrilled to welcome Brendon to the Allianz Retire+ team. As an experienced leader within financial services, he offers a range of expertise across disciplines which will enhance our growth strategy.”

Stewart added that since the launch of AGILE on the HUB24 platform in November 2023, there has been a “significant increase” in the number of advisers seeking scenario modelling for their clients’ portfolios.

“The AGILE solution helps deliver certainty to end clients and derisks a client’s portfolio by guaranteeing income without giving up accessibility,” Stewart said.

Namely, by the middle of February, AGILE was available to 4,678 financial advisers across 26 licensee-approved product lists and is “rapidly growing”, according to Stewart.

“This activity is encouraging as we work to deliver greater access to advisers through our partnership with HUB24,” he concluded.

Over the last year, Allianz Retire+ has also created new state management roles, most recently with the appointment of Marcus Cleary as Victorian state manager in August.

In May, Allianz Retire+ also announced the appointments of Stephen Armstrong to the newly created role of Western Australia state manager and Natalie Philips as NSW state manager.

At the time, Stewart said the two appointments would bolster the firm’s expertise and elevate its support for advisers in delivering retirement income solutions to their clients.

“We see huge potential across both the west and east coast of Australia, which is why we have created the new role for state manager for WA and SA to service those regions,” he said.