Aviva has appointed Maiyuresh Rajah as director of investments for wealth and advice within its UK insurance, wealth and retirement (IWR) business.
Rajah was previously the firm’s head of investment strategy and propositions.
Prior to joining the company he was a senior investment strategist at State Street.
In his new role, Rajah will be responsible for all investment activity across Aviva’s wealth and advice business.
This includes investment strategy, proposition development, investment governance, asset transitions, and sustainable investing across the workplace and retail pension businesses.
He will report to Aviva managing director of wealth and advice Michele Golunska.
Golunska said: “Investments are key to everything we do for our customers. We have an investment centre of expertise across our individual lines of businesses which brings together over 80 investment specialists, meaning we are well positioned to deliver market leading investment solutions for customers.
“Maiyuresh has led the development and innovation of our investment strategy over the last year three years, and I’m pleased he will now lead the investments area. He brings a wealth of experience in asset management and investment consulting to this significant role.”
Rajah added: “I’m delighted to now lead our investments area so we can continue to support our customers’ investment needs and help them to meet their future financial and retirement goals.”
In May 2024, Aviva recorded strong growth across its businesses in the first half of the year.
The wealth arm of the business reported net flows of £2.7bn, up 15% from last year. This represents 6% of opening assets under management (AuM).
Aviva said that the net flows were on the back of consistent growth in its workplace pension investments and a strong performance in adviser platform.
Aviva’s Workplace, which offers pension schemes for some of the UK’s best-known companies, accrued net flows of £2bn, up 13%.
The business also won 136 new schemes and saw strong increments from the impact of wage inflation on employee contributions.
Platform net flows were up 24% to £0.8bn (Q1 23: £0.7bn).
It also saw record quarter gross inflows on its adviser platform.