Allianz Life Insurance Co. of North America promoted Renee West to SVP of the actuarial division. West is responsible for building competitive new products, while ensuring the company’s profitability targets are met and risks are understood. She pioneered the company’s use of dynamic hedging, leading to the creation of the Allianz Life internal hedging platform. She also led the development of the company’s most successful fixed-index annuity.
West brought together a team of traders, quantitative analysts and actuaries and to build the company’s first dynamic hedging platform in 2006, Allianz said. Allianz Life is the only fixed-index annuity carrier that uses in-house dynamic hedging, which eliminates costs associated with purchasing derivatives and options from a bank. Dynamic hedging also allows Allianz Life to more closely align its specific liabilities, which helps the company be more consistent in the features it offers its policyholders and have more options when developing new products.
West began her 31-year actuarial career with Allianz Life as a senior actuarial assistant in 1983, the company said. In 1986, she joined Fortis Financial Group and spent more than 12 years rising through its product development ranks. West spent more than a year at Ameriprise Financial, before returning to Allianz Life in 2000 as VP of product development.
