Allianz SE, Allianz Global Investors and Allianz Lebensversicherungs-AG are planning to form a joint venture (JV) called Allianz Corporate Pensions Advisors (ACPA), to cater 200 most prominent corporate clients in Germany.

The specialized pension advisory unit ACPA aims to meet the special requirements and needs of their top clients in Germany through a dedicated approach.

The new unit aims to offer clients tailored offerings from asset management and life insurance, drawing on all the expertise and complete product range of the entire company at Allianz, in particular Allianz Global Investors and Allianz Lebensversicherungs-AG.

Allianz Lebensversicherungs-AG CEO and a member of executive committee of ACPA Maximilian Zimmerer said against the background of growing demand for pension provision, company pension schemes are a strategic growth driver for them.

"In this line of business in particular, we are able to create substantial added value for our clients by synergizing our corporate strengths from asset management and life insurance operations and reinforce our position as the market leader," Zimmerer said.

To achieve this, Allianz said that it will follow an integrated approach, where it will deal with the legal, fiscal and social-security requirements in the pension segment for these corporate clients.

It will also follow an approach that integrates biometric, financial and regulatory aspects on a cross-product basis.

Allianz Global Investors Deutschland CEO James Dilworth said as a consequence of the financial crisis and changes to accounting guidelines, pension management has become a central value driver of corporations.

"With ACPA we are able to further support large corporate clients in this area," Dilworth said.

Both Jorg Braun of Allianz Lebensversicherungs-AG, and Michael Schetze of Allianz Global Investors, have been named as managing directors of the new unit.