Allianz Life strengthens financial crime investigations and due diligence with CLEAR

Key results

• Faster investigations by consolidating multiple research tools into a single platform
• Stronger due diligence through broader visibility into individuals, entities, and beneficial ownership
• Better risk identification with risk scoring, validation, verification, and synthetic identity insights
• Expanded use of CLEAR from reactive investigations to more automated, real-time screening and monitoring

Executive summary

A leading provider of retirement and financial solution Allianz Life Insurance Company of North America (Allianz Life) is headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The company offers fixed index annuities, registered index-linked annuities, and life insurance products to millions of Americans.

Allianz Life implemented Thomson Reuters CLEAR to strengthen its financial crimes investigations and due diligence processes. Before CLEAR, the team relied on multiple fragmented tools to research individuals and entities, resulting in time-consuming manual data gathering and subjective risk assessments. With CLEAR, Allianz Life now conducts person searches, entity searches, risk scoring, and beneficial ownership analysis from a single platform — dramatically improving fraud detection rates and enabling investigators to focus on high-value analytical work rather than manual information gathering.

Combating increasingly sophisticated financial crime

The financial crime landscape has grown dramatically more complex in recent years. From account takeover fraud and elder exploitation scams to synthetic identity schemes, the challenges facing the insurance industry have become highly targeted and increasingly sophisticated. As Carlota Balet, Head of Financial Crimes at Allianz Life, explained, “What is happening today is those scams, or whatever it is that is, is being done, is very targeted, is very sophisticated, and it looks, sounds, and seems very real. And the use of AI and social engineering tactics and deepfake tactics are really what is getting them to be really pros at all of this.”

As the landscape evolved, the team saw an opportunity to enhance its investigation process. Allianz Life’s financial crimes team had been using multiple tools for different purposes — court records, liens and lawsuits, identity validation — and recognized that a more unified approach could save significant time and improve consistency. As Balet noted, investigators were “spending a lot of time searching for information, trying to find answers, trying to find data,” and the team wanted to redirect that effort toward higher-value critical thinking and analysis.

Detecting more fraud, faster — with stronger tools for the future

Since implementing CLEAR, Allianz Life has improved both the efficiency and effectiveness of its financial crime operations. The platform saved the team “a tremendous amount of time in pulling information,” allowing investigators to focus on high-value analytical work. As Balet shared, “Our fraud model today can detect almost 50% more of a fraud online that a rules-based engine would detect” — a powerful advantage as the financial crime landscape continues to evolve.

Beyond the quantifiable gains, Balet highlighted Thomson Reuters partnership approach as a key differentiator. “One of the things that Thomson Reuters really does very, very well and I think separates it from a lot of other vendors is their customer service and support,” she noted.

Looking ahead, the team is enthusiastic about CLEAR Investigate and sees continued investment in AI-driven tools as essential to staying ahead. “Definitely the use of AI to combat the use of AI to perpetrate crime,” Balet said, underscoring Allianz Life’s commitment to proactively investing in both talent and technology to maintain its strong position in the fight against financial crime.

For financial crime professionals considering Thomson Reuters solutions, Balet’s advice is straightforward. “I would just encourage people to try it and go from there. And knowing that it is a tool that will probably help with managing their risk, help with regulatory compliance. But essentially, help them do a better job and hopefully a more efficient job.”

For more information, visit Thomson Reuters CLEAR.