The story
Allianz first created a separate asset management business in 1974 under the leadership of board member, Joachim Faber. Through a combination of asset management acquisitions as well as acquisitions of other businesses that had asset management units, Allianz established a large asset management division comprising different investment 'boutiques'. Allianz Global Investors was established as a dedicated asset management business in 1998. Since then, they have grown into one of the world’s leading active asset managers.
In 2011, a decision was taken to combine most of the different investment managers into a globally integrated asset manager; from 2012 Allianz moved to what they call a "two pillar" model where Allianz Global Investors and PIMCO operate separately from each other despite common ownership.
By December 2025, assets under management by Allianz Global Investors were EUR 591 billion; these assets were split between investments in equities (25%), fixed income (30%), multi asset (29%) and private markets (16%).
Structured Alpha Fraud
During the March 2020 market sell-off, the Structured Alpha funds lost over 6 billion USD leading to accusation that the funds misled investors (such as pension funds) about their risk profile. On 1 August 2021, the United States Department of Justice began a probe into AllianzGI's Structured Alpha Funds with the German Federal Financial Supervisory Authority launching an investigation later in 2021. In 2022 Allianz pleaded guilty to criminal securities fraud and agreed to pay over 6 billion USD in one of the largest cases so far. The funds former manager, Gregoire Tournant, was indicted for fraud, conspiracy and obstruction and two other portfolio managers, Stephen Bond-Nelson and Trevor Taylor, pleaded guilty to charges of fraud and conspiracy.
From Wikipedia’s article on Allianz Global Investors, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.5