Allianz Life earnings meet company expectations

Feb. 17--Allianz Life Insurance Co. of North America reported year-end results below a very strong 2016 but within company expectations and affected by a one-time tax charge and new regulations.

The operating profit was down slightly to $1.18 billion. Net income, which fell 15.7 percent to $711 million, included the one-time tax charge of $145 million.

"We feel good about the run of success we've had in the last few years," said Walter White, president and CEO of Allianz Life. "We see growing demand for our protection and retirement income products, and anticipate another strong year in 2018 as we continue to introduce product innovations and new digital capabilities."

Total premiums for 2017 were $11 billion, down 16 percent from 2016. The company was anticipating a drop because of key regulatory changes and a difficult interest rate environment for life insurers.

Allianz Life Insurance sells retirement products including traditional life insurance and index-based annuity plans.

The company has $136.3 billion in assets under management, an 8.8 percent increase over 2016. During 2017, the insurer paid out $2.7 billion in benefits, up from $2.6 billion the year before.

White said the company has been making progress toward a multiyear goal of converting various paper forms to online applications. Allianz will continue to look at other advanced technologies including artificial intelligence and will delve deeper into analytics to create new products and to better serve its customers.

The division of Allianz SE has 2,200 employees, 2,000 of them working out of its Golden Valley offices. Allianz SE is based in Germany and has 142,000 employees in more than 70 countries.

Allianz Life has become an increasingly important part of its parent company's overall business. According to the company, Allianz Life generated nearly 10 percent of Allianz SE's global operating profit in 2017 and 24 percent of Allianz SE's global operating profit in the life/health sector.

Last year, Allianz Life signed a multiyear stadium naming-rights deal with Major League Soccer's Minnesota United for the team's new soccer stadium in St. Paul. Allianz Field will be the eighth stadium named after Allianz around the world including Munich, London, Sydney, Turin, Sao Paulo, Vienna and Nice.

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