Apollo Global Management (APO) TD Financial Services & Fintech Summit summary

Strategic evolution and partnership

• Grew from a $1 billion startup in 2011 to a major player with a strong growth mentality and focus on core strengths.

• Strategic partnership and eventual merger with Apollo eliminated market friction, improved alignment, and led to credit upgrades for both entities.

• The merger enabled new product development, such as the Altitude product and defined contribution initiatives, with further opportunities being pursued.

Technology and operational efficiency

• Maintains a significant competitive advantage through disciplined expense management and a unified technology platform.

• Transitioned from paper to 85% electronic applications, enabling scale from $2.5B to $30B+ in annuity sales over a decade.

• Focused on further automation and exploring AI for efficiency, with early use cases in marketing, translation, and call center operations.

Distribution and growth

• Expanded retail annuity distribution from IMOs to banks and broker-dealers, now with 70% of sales through these channels.

• Achieved top positions in all major distribution channels, with significant growth in large bank and broker-dealer partnerships.

• New partnerships, such as with Morgan Stanley, are meeting expectations, with more large platforms targeted for onboarding this year.