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Spotlight on Sean Brennan, Co-President & CCO, Athene USA

April 2026

What inspired you to pursue a career in this industry, and how has your perspective evolved over time?

My commitment to the retirement industry is grounded in personal experience. I watched my mother navigate the challenges and uncertainties that often come with planning for retirement, and I saw how financial considerations sometimes limited the time she was able to spend with family and grandchildren. It reinforced for me that time is one of our most finite resources, and that thoughtful retirement planning can create greater confidence and freedom in how people spend their most important years.

What sets your company apart from others in your industry?

Our people are our differentiator. We are driven to perform at the highest standard, skilled at thinking like entrepreneurs and encouraged to take initiative with a demonstrated ability to provide solutions to complex problems. We work with urgency to find ways to meet the challenges we face. We look to improve, share ideas and are not afraid to try something new. We accept the value of failure, which we turn into positive learning. And we're passionate about the impact we make on helping retirees live confidently in retirement.

What are your primary goals as a leader for this year?

This year at Athene, we are focused on helping more retirees achieve better retirement outcomes. We're excited to introduce products and enhancements that help demonstrate how annuities can support long-term growth while delivering lifetime guaranteed income. Additionally, we're exploring new opportunities to expand access to guaranteed income across additional markets and distribution channels. We're focused on bringing security, yield and capital to high-need markets to add value to the overall retirement savings landscape.

What emerging trends in the industry are you most excited about, and why?

Our biggest area of opportunity is the recognition that annuities can play a larger role in retirement security. Most in the industry are aware of the gap between the assets most retirees have and how much they will actually need in retirement. With a $48 trillion retirement savings market and only $2.6 trillion in annuities, we're dramatically underrepresented. The industry is helping address this gap through innovation in product design and customer education. We're seeing increased interest in guaranteed lifetime income as market volatility reminds people of the value of certainty. These trends create unprecedented opportunities for growth and impact.

How would you describe your leadership style, and how does it influence your team’s/organization’s culture?

I'm action oriented and bring a strong sense of urgency to the work, often challenging how quickly we can move and what’s possible. That urgency is balanced by investing deeply in culture and people. Every hire at Athene must be a culture carrier, someone who embraces our drive to succeed differently and feels comfortable in ambiguous situations. I believe in empowering teams with autonomy while maintaining accountability for results. Our team has shaped a strong, unified culture, and I work to reinforce that with every decision and every person we bring on board.

How is your company helping to educate consumers about the value of your products?

We’re reframing the conversation around what truly matters — retirement outcomes, not just product features — and bringing that conversation to younger generations earlier. We do that through clear, accessible education that demystifies how annuities work and how they can complement other strategies, with a focus on engaging Generation X as they begin planning for long-term financial security. For decades, the emphasis has been on helping people accumulate savings, with less attention on how those savings translate into reliable income. Helping people understand that transition, and the role annuities can play, is a critical part of preparing future retirees. 

What are some of the biggest challenges currently facing the industry, and how is your company addressing them?

Because we compete in retirement services, we need to make it easier to do business by empowering partners with the same modern product capabilities: speed, transparency and simplicity. For consumers, the annuity experience also has to be simpler and faster, with more self-service and personalization. No single carrier can change this — it has to be an industrywide effort. So, we’re collaborating and innovating with peers and technology partners. We’re proud to take a leadership role and need other companies to join us. Those who are involved are already benefiting, and we all experience benefits exponentially as more join us.

How does your work on the advisory board align with your professional goals and values?

Serving on the advisory board directly supports my core mission: making retirement income accessible and valued by more Americans. My personal experience with my mother makes this work deeply meaningful. I'm energized every day by my colleagues and peers because I know we're all trying to do the hard things to move us forward, and the advisory board allows me to influence industrywide progress beyond just Athene's footprint. Through collaborative dialogue, we can identify barriers to adoption and help shift how the industry defines success, measuring it by the lifetime income and financial security delivered to support more confident retirements.  

Sean Brennan serves on LIMRA’s Annuity Advisory Board.

 

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