Standard Life, part the Phoenix Group, has appointed Warren Bright to the newly created role of head of retail intermediary distribution.

Bright, who has 25 years’ life and pensions experience, will be responsible for developing relationships with the financial adviser community and the market positioning of Standard Life’s suite of income and investment products, and related services.

He joined Standard Life from LV = where he was responsible for managing key strategic adviser relationships and its sales presence in the intermediary market. In over two decades he has established a track record of building and establishing high-performing sales teams, while developing strong operational and technical expertise across intermediary operations and servicing.

Chris Hudson, retail advised managing director at Standard Life, said: “Warren’s appointment further underpins our renewed commitment to the adviser market where Standard Life has a long heritage and experience of working alongside advisers and their clients. We have been investing steadily in the resources required to build a bigger presence – improving the pricing of our individual pension and our digital led online servicing functionality.

“Warren will focus on developing our footprint while working closely with key strategic partners to broaden the service provided to intermediaries.”

Bright added: “I look forward to establishing a stronger market presence for this fantastic brand and growing the support and contact available to advisers who are increasingly challenged by the constantly evolving regulatory environment, and clients being impacted by the ongoing cost of living crisis. Growing a team to support our marketplace ambitions is a priority while also ensuring that the service we provide to advisers makes it easier for them to do business with us.”