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March 12, 2018 at 11:29 AM
Allianz Life Insurance Company of North America talks about how it backs its indexed universal life (IUL) insurance product index options in filings for two new indexed universal life
The Golden Valley, Minnesota-based insurer recently added the Allianz Life Pro+ Elite and Allianz Asset Pro+ policies to its IUL product family.
Allianz Life has given the Allianz Life Pro+ Elite policy a longer menu of index options, and it has aimed that product at life agents who are used to selling IUL policies.
The company is aiming the Allianz Asset Pro+ product, which is simpler and has a shorter index option menu, at financial professionals who work with broker-dealers and are not as familiar with IUL products.
(Related: Inflation Is Americans’ Top Economic Worry: Allianz Life)
Like all IUL issuers, Allianz Life is responsible for backing its IUL product interest guarantees.
In filings for the new products, Allianz Life shows how serious it is about meeting those guarantees by describing its hedging strategy. In an Allianz Life Pro+ Elite rate filing, for example, the company notes that it uses call options, put options, futures and other derivatives to back the indexed benefits in the policy.
Allianz Life goes a step further and gives the name of the individual who will be overseeing the company’s hedging strategies: Mike Scriver.
“Mike Scriver, senior vice president of hedge design management, monitors and manages our derivatives and the various asset/liability risks for this policy,” Allianz Life says, in a version of the filing posted by District of Columbia insurance regulators. “Mr. Scriver has over 23 years in the financial services industry including over 20 years of experience in the insurance industry and over 15 years of experience working with derivatives.”
The Products
Allianz Life — an arm of Allianz S.E. of Germany — will issue the new policies in every jurisdiction except for New York state.
The product aimed at traditional agents, the Allianz Life Pro+ Elite policy, offers more index options than the company’s older Allianz Life Pro+ policy.
The Allianz Life Pro+ Elite index menu includes a fixed-interest option, the Bloomberg US Dynamic Balance Index II, the Allianz True Balance index and the PIMCO Tactical Balanced Index.
