Allianz Life life insurance

Overview

Allianz Life Insurance Company of North America is the U.S. life insurance and annuity company of Allianz SE, the Munich-based insurer and asset manager. Headquartered in the Minneapolis suburb of Golden Valley, it is known first for annuities: the company says it became the top U.S. carrier of fixed index annuities in 2000, citing Wink's sales data. Its life insurance line is narrow by comparison: indexed universal life (IUL) built for cash-value accumulation, sold through financial professionals rather than online or through a captive sales force.

Allianz's U.S. life group ranked #26 among U.S. life insurance groups by 2024 individual life direct premiums written, according to NAIC market share data, with $1.79 billion in premiums and a 1.15% share. The NAIC group has two members: Allianz Life Insurance Company of North America, which does business everywhere except New York, and Allianz Life Insurance Company of New York. Allianz Life says it has about 2,000 U.S. employees, most of them in Minnesota, and press coverage of its 2025 data breach put its customer count at about 1.4 million.

History

Henry M. Little formed North American Casualty in Minneapolis in 1896. In 1912 it merged with North American Life Association to form North American Life and Casualty. MONY (Mutual of New York) acquired the company in 1971, and Allianz bought it in 1979. It took the name Allianz Life Insurance Company of North America in 1993 and moved into its current headquarters at 5701 Golden Hills Drive in 2001.

Under Allianz ownership the company built its business around fixed index annuities, later adding registered index-linked annuities, an exchange-traded fund line run by its subsidiary Allianz Investment Management (launched in 2020) and, in 2022, an annuity for employer retirement plans. It stopped taking applications for stand-alone long-term care insurance in November 2009 and kept servicing existing LTC policies.

In January 2022 Allianz completed a reinsurance transaction, announced the month before, covering about $35 billion of Allianz Life's fixed index annuity liabilities with Resolution Life and affiliates of Sixth Street, including Talcott Resolution. Allianz Life kept administering those contracts and remains responsible to the contract holders, so the deal did not change who services them. Jasmine Jirele was named president and CEO in 2021, succeeding Walter White. Since 2017 the company has held the naming rights to Allianz Field, the St. Paul stadium of Minnesota United FC.

Life insurance products

Allianz Life does not sell term life, whole life or final expense coverage. Its current life product is the Allianz Life Accumulator indexed universal life policy, launched July 16, 2024, which replaced Allianz Life Pro+ Advantage as the company's main IUL.

• Crediting: the policy's value can earn fixed interest, indexed interest linked to external indexes, or a mix. At launch Allianz added three indexes new to its IUL line, including the S&P 500 Futures Index ER. Index credits are limited by caps or participation rates; a negative index year credits zero rather than a loss, though policy charges still reduce values.
• Index Lock: the owner can lock in an index value once per crediting period, or set upper and lower targets that trigger an automatic lock. Allianz says the Accumulator was the first life insurance policy to offer this feature.
• Bonus allocations: some index options carry an interest bonus; Allianz discloses that bonused allocations generally have lower caps and participation rates.
• Costs of leaving: a surrender charge applies to a full surrender in the first 12 policy years, and partial withdrawals may carry a $50 charge.
• Riders: optional riders accelerate part of the death benefit for chronic or terminal illness, add coverage, waive certain policy charges, or keep the policy from lapsing while a large loan is outstanding (an overloan protection design). Some carry an added cost, and availability varies by state.

Coverage requires full health and financial underwriting; Allianz does not publish a no-exam or instant-issue option, and the policy is not offered in New York. Because the caps, rates and charges that drive IUL results are not guaranteed, the sales illustration deserves close reading (see IUL illustrations and Actuarial Guideline 49 and IUL pros and cons: what the sales pitch leaves out).

Other products

Annuities are the core business. Allianz Life sells fixed index annuities, including the Allianz 222, Allianz 360, Benefit Control, Accumulation Advantage and Core Income 7 lines, and registered index-linked annuities under the Index Advantage+ name. Allianz Life of New York sells annuities in New York, including a New York version of Index Advantage+. The company still services its closed block of long-term care policies.

Buying and service

Allianz sells only through financial professionals: independent insurance agents and representatives of broker-dealers, with product availability varying by state and firm. There is no online quote or application for consumers; the website offers IUL education, a coverage calculator and an online account for existing customers. Customer service for life insurance, fixed annuities and long-term care is at 800-950-1962, Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Central time; variable and index-linked annuity owners call 800-624-0197.

Claims

A beneficiary starts a claim by reporting the death, either through the online notification form on the claims page or by calling 800-950-1962, with the policy number and the deceased's date of birth or Social Security number. Allianz then sends a claim packet that lists the available death benefit values and payout options; some beneficiaries can complete the claim online instead of on paper. The completed forms go back with a certified death certificate, plus extra paperwork when the beneficiary is a trust, estate, minor or foreign person, to PO Box 59060, Minneapolis, MN 55459-0060. Allianz says it reviews a complete claim within 10 business days, or sooner if state law requires, and then pays under the option the beneficiary chose. The claims guide covers the general process.

Ratings and reputation

According to Allianz Life's ratings page, AM Best affirmed its A+ (Superior) rating, the second-highest of 16, in March 2026; S&P Global affirmed AA (Very Strong) in March 2026; and Moody's affirmed Aa3 in September 2025. The company does not publish a Fitch rating. Allianz Life was not among the insurers ranked in the J.D. Power 2026 U.S. Individual Life Insurance Study.

The biggest recent mark on its reputation is a data breach. On July 16, 2025, an attacker used social engineering to get into a third-party, cloud-based customer relationship management system and took personal data on the majority of Allianz Life's roughly 1.4 million U.S. customers, as well as financial professionals and some employees. The company said its own network was not breached and offered affected people 24 months of identity-theft protection and credit monitoring. Lawsuits over the breach were consolidated in federal court in Minnesota; the company's 2025 statutory financial statements say none of the putative class actions it faces had been certified.

Who it suits

Allianz Life fits a buyer who already works with a financial professional and wants either an annuity or an accumulation-oriented IUL from a large, highly rated insurer with a deep parent company. It fits poorly for anyone who wants simple, low-cost protection: there is no term, whole life or final expense policy, no direct purchase, and its one life product carries surrender charges and non-guaranteed crediting.

• Strengths: A+ from AM Best and AA from S&P (both March 2026), backed by Allianz SE; IUL features such as Index Lock that give the owner some control over index timing; one of the largest annuity product lines in the U.S. for people buying both.
• Weaknesses: a single life product, indexed universal life; sold only through financial professionals, with no online quotes; a 12-year surrender charge period; the July 2025 breach exposed personal data on most customers; no life insurance sold in New York.

How to contact Allianz Life