Global insurance giant Allianz has launched a well-timed swoop into the multi-billion dollar niche retirement incomes market. The outcome is likely to be a powerful new financial services firm, capable of challenging the established wealth management arms.The business, set up under the title "Allianz Retire+ Powered by PIMCO" marks the first-time Allianz and fixed income investment manager PIMCO - an Allianz subsidiary since 2000 - have worked together in a co-branded venture.The aim, said Adrian Stewart, head of PIMCO Australia and New Zealand, is to combine the scale and technical expertise of Allianz's global life insurance business with PIMCO's global investment management experience. He was reluctant to outline exactly how that will play out, although taking on Challenger's near monopoly annuities business is one likely outcome. The size of the target market is the A$75 billion annually moving out of funds as the phase shifts from one of accumulation in working years to decumulation in retirement. By 2032, the total post-retirement pool could hit $1.3 trillion, according to Mercer. It's a growing share of a growing pie that Allianz and PIMCO are targeting.Stewart compared the approach being taken to that of setting up a well-funded start-up: "We have been taking a range of different components [from within the wider Allianz and PIMCO organisation] and reassembling them in the Australian marketplace," he told Banking Day."We can take a start-up approach to hire the best people to build the most contemporary financial services firm in Australia."It may be a start-up, but it has the advantage of strong industry relationships from the start with large banks and wealth management firms, alongside industry based super funds and industry funds, to hear from them about the types of features they're looking for.The new business is set to create more than 50 Sydney-based professional jobs in distribution, technology, actuarial, legal, operations, compliance, marketing and customer experience over the next year, Allianz said in a media release.Of that number, about half have already been hired according to Stewart, who has led the collaboration since its inception in 2015, will act as CEO in addition to his current role. "The headcount is a cross section of all functions, leveraging off the existing expertise in Allianz and Pimco, here and across the world," Stewart said.He disclosed that the firm is close to hiring a CEO - expected "in a matter of weeks".If successful, the Allianz-PIMCO model will be replicated across the Allianz group and out to the region, Stewart said.Stewart also expects fast followers among his peers, notably insurance funds with global reach. "We have had a monopolistic marketplace here for way too long.""The industry has an obligation to work harder to solve the Australian retirement income challenge, and last week's federal budget announcement demonstrates the government's commitment to developing a system that better supports Australians at all stages in their retirement."