This prospectus is written in plain English. However, there are some technical words or terms that are capitalized and are used as defined terms throughout the prospectus. For your convenience, we included this glossary to define these terms.

The Allianz Index Advantage^® New York is a product that offers index-linked and variable investment options and allows you to defer taking regular fixed periodic payments (Annuity Payments) to a future date. During the first phase of your Contract (Accumulation Phase) your Contract Value fluctuates based on the performance of your selected Allocation Options and the deduction of Contract fees and expenses. During this phase you can make additional Purchase Payments and take withdrawals, and if you die we pay a death benefit to the person(s) you designate (Beneficiary(s)). If you request Annuity Payments the Accumulation Phase of your Contract ends and the Annuity Phase begins. Annuity Payments are fixed payments we make based on the Annuity Option you select and your Contract Value.

We designed the Contract for people who are looking for a level of protection for their principal while providing potentially higher returns than are available on traditional fixed annuities. This Contract is not intended for someone who is seeking complete protection from downside risk, nor someone who is seeking unlimited investment potential.

We offer other annuity contracts that may address your investment and retirement needs. These contracts include variable annuities, registered index-linked annuities and fixed index annuities. These annuity products may offer different features and benefits more appropriate for your needs, including allocation options, fees and/or expenses that are different from those in the Contract offered by this prospectus. Not every contract is offered through every Financial Professional. Some Financial Professionals or selling firms may not offer and/or limit offering of certain features and benefits, as well as limit the availability of the contracts based on criteria established by the Financial Professional or selling firm. For more information about other annuity contracts, please contact your Financial Professional.

For example, these other annuity contracts may have different Index Options, and different rates and minimums for the Caps and Buffers. Caps may also be affected, positively or negatively, by expenses we incur in providing other contract features. For example, a product that deducts fees and expenses from Index Options may have higher Caps than a contract that deducts fees and expenses only from Variable Options.

The Index Protection NY Strategy provides a Performance Credit based on Index Values (the Index’s price at the end of the Business Day) and Index Return.

The Crediting Methods have different risk and return potentials.

The following hypothetical examples show conceptually how the Crediting Methods might work in different market environments and assume no change in the hypothetical Caps. All values below are for illustrative purposes only. The examples do not reflect any Caps or Buffers that may actually apply to a Contract. The examples do not predict or project the actual performance of the Allianz Index Advantage^® New York. Although an Index or Indexes will affect your Index Option Values, the Index Options do not directly participate in any stock or equity investment and are not a direct investment in an Index. The Index Values do not include the dividends paid on the stocks comprising an Index. An allocation to an Index Option is not a purchase of shares of any stock or index fund. These examples do not reflect deduction of the Contract fees and expenses. Historical Index Option performance information is also included in Appendix D.

We can add new Crediting Methods and Indexes to your Contract in the future, and you can allocate Purchase Payments or transfer Contract Value to them on the next Index Anniversary after we make them available to you. Once we add a Crediting Method to your Contract we cannot remove it, or change how it calculates Performance Credits. Once we add an Index Option to your Contract, we cannot change its Buffer, if applicable. However, we can change the renewal Caps associated with any Index Option on each Index Anniversary.

Once we add an Index to your Contract, we cannot remove it without simultaneously replacing or substituting it. Index replacements and substitutions can occur either on an Index Anniversary or during an Index Year. If we substitute an Index during an Index Year, we will combine the return of the previously available substituted Index with the return of the new Index. However, if we substitute an Index, we do not change the Buffers applicable to your Contract, or the current Caps that we set on the prior Index Anniversary. Changes to the Caps for the new substituted Index, if any, may occur at the next regularly scheduled Index Anniversary or later Index Anniversaries. For more information, see Risk Factors – Substitution of an Index.

We establish the Buffers for your Contract on the Issue Date. However, if we add a new Index Option to your Contract after the Issue Date, we establish the Buffer for it on the date we add the Index Option to your Contract. Your actual Buffers are stated in your Contract and cannot change once they are established.

We can change the initial Caps we currently offer for newly issued Contracts frequently at our discretion. Once established for a Contract, these initial rates cannot change until the next Index Anniversary. We can change the renewal Caps for an existing Contract annually on each Index Anniversary, in our discretion. Your initial and renewal Caps are stated in your Index Options Statement, which is the account statement we mail to you on the Index Effective Date and each Index Anniversary. The Index Options Statement also includes the Index Values on the Index Effective Date and each subsequent Index Anniversary. We use these Index Values to determine Index Returns and Performance Credits.

Buffers we offer for newly issued Contracts may change before we issue your Contract, and initial Caps may change before your Index Effective Date. For information on the Buffers, and initial Caps we currently offer for newly issued Contracts, see our website at www.allianzlife.com/indexratesny , or call (800) 624-0197. We publish any changes to these values at least seven calendar days before they take effect.

We will send you a letter at least 30 days before each Index Anniversary. This letter advises you that your current Caps are expiring on the upcoming Index Anniversary, and the renewal Caps for the next Index Year will be available for your review in your account on our website at least seven calendar days before the upcoming Index Anniversary. We also have a link to your Contract information with your renewal Caps on our website at www.allianzlife.com/indexratesny , or call (800) 624-0197. The Index Anniversary letter also reminds you of your opportunity to transfer Variable Account Value to the Index Options, or reallocate your Index Option Values on the upcoming anniversary.

The Contract provides the following values as discussed in section 5, Valuing Your Contract.

The Daily Adjustment is how we calculate Index Option Values on Business Days other than the Index Effective Date or an Index Anniversary for each Index Option . The Variable Options are not subject to the Daily Adjustment.

The Daily Adjustment can affect the amounts available for withdrawal, annuitization, payment of the death benefit, and the Contract Value used to determine the Charge Base and contract maintenance charge. The Daily Adjustment can be positive or negative. When the Daily Adjustment is positive, your Index Option Value has increased since the beginning of the year. When it is negative, your Index Option Value has decreased (excluding the effect of the deduction of Contract expenses or any partial withdrawal).

We calculate the Daily Adjustment for a given Business Day before we deduct any Contract fees or expenses or process any partial withdrawal on that Business Day, including Penalty-Free Withdrawals. However, the Daily Adjustment calculation is not affected by any Contract expense deduction or partial withdrawal. Penalty-Free Withdrawals are withdrawals you take under the free withdrawal privilege or waiver of withdrawal charge benefit, and payments you take under our minimum distribution program. Penalty-Free Withdrawals are not subject to a withdrawal charge. The Daily Adjustment does not change the Contract expense deducted or the withdrawal amount; it only changes the Index Option Value from which we deduct the expense or withdrawal.

The Daily Adjustment approximates the Index Option Value that will be available on the next Index Anniversary. It is the estimated present value of the future Performance Credit that we will apply on the next Index Anniversary. The Daily Adjustment takes into account:

The Daily Adjustment does this by using the hypothetical value of a Proxy Investment (Proxy Value) each Business Day, other than the Index Effective Date or an Index Anniversary, based on the formulas described in Appendix B. The Proxy Investment provides a current estimated present value of what the Performance Credit will be on the next Index Anniversary taking into account the applicable Cap or Buffer. The Daily Adjustment is not the actual Index return on the day of the calculation, and the estimated present value Performance Credit is not guaranteed. Therefore, the Daily Adjustment could result in a loss beyond the protection of the Buffer.

A withdrawal taken during the Index Year may not receive the full benefit of the Cap or Buffer because the Daily Adjustment takes into account what may potentially happen between the withdrawal date and the next Index Anniversary. All other factors being equal, even if the current Index return during the Index Year is greater than the Cap, the Daily Adjustment will usually be lower than the Cap. This is because there is a possibility that the Index return could decrease before the end of the Index Year. Similarly, even though a negative Index return may be within the amount of the Buffer, you still may receive a negative Daily Adjustment because there is a possibility that the Index Return could decrease before the end of the Index Year. A negative Daily Adjustment may cause you to realize loss of principal or previous earnings.

The Daily Adjustment’s risks are discussed in more detail in Risk Factors – Risk of Negative Returns. The specific details of the Daily Adjustment formula are described in Appendix B and in Exhibit 99(a) of the Form S-1 Registration Statement filed with the SEC, of which this prospectus is a part. This information is incorporated by reference into this prospectus. You can obtain a copy of Exhibit 99(a) by calling (800) 624-0197, or visiting our website at www.allianzlife.com/new-york.

For any Index Option , you can capture the current Index Option Value (which includes the Daily Adjustment) on any Business Day during the Index Year through our Performance Lock feature. You (or your Financial Professional, if authorized) can request Performance Locks either “manually”, or “automatically” by setting target(s) based on the Daily Adjustment. (On our website the Daily Adjustment is included in the Index Option Value Return figures.) The Business Day that we execute either a manual or automatic Performance Lock is the Lock Date for that Index Option.

We designed the Contract to be a long-term investment that you can use to help build and provide income for retirement. The Contract is not suitable for short-term investment.

If you need to take assets from your Contract during the withdrawal charge period, we deduct a withdrawal charge unless the withdrawal is a Penalty-Free Withdrawal. While Penalty-Free Withdrawals provide some liquidity, they are permitted in only limited amounts or in special circumstances. If you need to withdraw most or all of your Contract Value in a short period, you may exceed the Penalty-Free Withdrawal amounts available to you and incur withdrawal charges. (For more information on the withdrawal charge, see the Fee Tables and section 6, Expenses – Withdrawal Charge.)

We calculate the withdrawal charge as a percentage of your Purchase Payments, not Contract Value. Consequently, if the Contract Value has declined since you made a Purchase Payment, it is possible the percentage of Contract Value withdrawn to cover the withdrawal charge would be greater than the withdrawal charge percentage. For example, assume you buy the Contract with a single Purchase Payment of $1,000. If your Contract Value in the 5th year is $800 and you take a full withdrawal a 5% withdrawal charge applies. The total withdrawal charge would be $50 (5% of $1,000). This results in you receiving $750.

Amounts withdrawn from this Contract may also be subject to a 10% additional federal tax if taken before age 59 ¹⁄2.

We only apply Performance Credits to the Index Options once each Index Year on the Index Anniversary, rather than on a daily basis. In the interim, we calculate Index Option Values based on the Daily Adjustment . If you invest in any Index Option and take a withdrawal or annuitize the Contract, or if we pay a death benefit, during the interim, you may not receive the full benefit of the Index Returns, Caps or Buffers.

You can transfer Index Option Value to a Variable Option only on every sixth Index Anniversary, and you may transfer Index Option Values among the Index Options only on an Index Anniversary. At other times, you can only move assets out of an Index Option by taking partial withdrawals, surrendering the Contract, or entering the Annuity Phase. This may limit your ability to react to changes in market conditions. You should consider whether investing in an Index Option is consistent with your financial needs.

Returns on securities and securities Indexes can vary substantially, which may result in investment losses. The historical performance of the available Allocation Options does not guarantee future results. It is impossible to predict whether underlying investment values will fall or rise. Trading prices of the securities underlying the Allocation Options are influenced by economic, financial, regulatory, geographic, judicial, political and other complex and interrelated factors. These factors can affect capital markets generally and markets on which the underlying securities are traded and these factors can influence the performance of the underlying securities.

If you allocate Purchase Payments or transfer Contract Value to an Index Option, your returns depend on the performance of an Index although you are not directly invested in the Index. Because the S&P 500^® Index, Russell 2000^® Index, Nasdaq-100^® Index and EURO STOXX 50^® are each comprised of a collection of equity securities, in each case the value of the component securities is subject to market risk, or the risk that market fluctuations may cause the value of the component securities to go up or down, sometimes rapidly and unpredictably. In addition, the value of equity securities may decline for reasons directly related to the issuers of the securities.

The Variable Options do not provide any protection against negative returns. You can lose principal and previous earnings if you allocate Purchase Payments or transfer Contract Value to the Variable Options and such losses could be significant.

If you allocate Purchase Payments or transfer Contract Value to an Index Option , negative Index Returns may cause Performance Credits to be negative after application of the Buffer. Ongoing Contract fees and expenses, including withdrawal charges, could also cause amounts available for withdrawal to be less than what you invested even if Index performance has been positive. You can lose principal and previous earnings if you allocate Purchase Payments or transfer Contract Value to the Index Options , and such losses could be significant.

If you select an Index Option, we calculate Index Option Values on each Business Day during an Index Year (other than the Index Effective Date or an Index Anniversary) by adding the Daily Adjustment. The Daily Adjustment affects the total Contract Value available for withdrawal, annuitization, and death benefits, and it affects how we determine the contract maintenance charge and Charge Base for the product fee. The Daily Adjustment can be less than the Cap even if the year-to-date Index return is greater than the Cap. In addition, even though the year-to-date Index return may be positive, the Daily Adjustment may be negative due to changes in Proxy Value inputs, such as volatility, dividend yield, and interest rate. The Daily Adjustment is generally negatively affected by:

We calculate Performance Credits each Index Year on the Index Anniversary. Because we calculate Index Returns only on a single date in time, you may experience negative or flat performance even though the Index you selected for a given Crediting Method experienced gains through some, or most, of the Index Year. If you allocate Purchase Payments or transfer Contract Value to the Index Options the Caps limit positive returns and could cause performance to be lower than it would otherwise have been if you invested in a mutual fund designed to track the performance of the applicable Index, or the Variable Options.

The Index Options do not directly participate in the returns of the Indexes or the Indexes’ component securities, and do not receive any dividends payable on these securities. Index returns would be higher if they included the dividends from the component securities. The past ten years of actual average of the annual Index returns without and with dividends would have been as follows:

Caps may be adjusted annually on the Index Anniversary and may vary significantly from year to year. Changes to Caps may significantly affect the amount of Performance Credit you receive. (For more information, see the “Changes to Caps and Buffers” discussion later in this section.

The Crediting Methods only capture Index Values on one day each year, so you will bear the risk that the Index Value might be abnormally low on these days.

If a Performance Lock is executed:

There is no guarantee that the Indexes will be available during the entire time that you own your Contract. If we substitute a new Index for an existing Index, the performance of the new Index may be different and this may affect your ability to receive positive Performance Credits. We may substitute a new Index for an existing Index if:

The selection of a substitution Index is in our discretion; however, it is anticipated that any substitute Index will be substantially similar to the Index it is replacing and we will replace any equity Index with a broad-based equity index.

On each Index Anniversary you have the option of remaining allocated to your current Index Options at the renewal Caps, or transferring to another permitted Allocation Option, subject to the limitations on transfers from an Index Option to a Variable Option. If you do not review renewal change information when it is published, or take no action to transfer to another permitted Allocation Option, you will remain allocated to your current Index Options and will automatically become subject to the renewal Caps until the next Index Anniversary.

You risk the possibility that the renewal Caps you receive may be less than you would find acceptable. If you do not find the renewal rates acceptable, you must give us transfer instructions no later than the close of the Business Day on the Index Anniversary (or the next Business Day if the anniversary is a non-Business Day) or you will be subject to these renewal Caps for the next Index Year. Other than on a sixth Index Anniversary when you can transfer Index Option Value to the Variable Options, when your renewal rates change the only option available to you is to transfer Index Option Value between Index Options.

Initial and renewal Caps may vary significantly depending upon a variety of factors, including:

We manage our obligation to provide Performance Credits in part by trading call and put options, and other derivatives on the available Indexes. The costs of the call and put options and other derivatives vary based on market conditions, and we may adjust future renewal Caps to reflect these cost changes. The primary factor affecting the differences in the initial Caps for newly issued Contracts and renewal rates for existing Contracts is the difference in what we can earn from these

The Index Options are supported by bonds and other fixed income securities which are also used to support the Contract guarantees, cash, and derivative hedging instruments used to hedge the movements of the applicable Index.

At Contract issue, we invest a substantial majority of the initial Contract Value allocated to the Index Options in fixed income securities, with most of the remainder invested in derivative hedging instruments. The derivative heding instruments are purchased to track and hedge Index movements and support our obligations with regard to the Index Options. The derivative heding instruments we purchase include put options, call options, futures, swaps, and other derivatives.

The Index Options move assets in the unregistered separate account between a book value subaccount and a market value subaccount during the Index Year based on Index performance. We typically transfer assets between the subaccounts if there is a 10% incremental change in year-to-date Index performance. For the Index Performance Strategy this starts at a -10% decrease in the market; for the Index Protection NY Strategy, this starts at a -30% decrease in the market. We monitor year-to-date Index performance daily and change allocations daily if needed based on this 10% increment. For more information on our unregistered separate account backing the Index Options, see section 11, Other Information – Our Unregistered Separate Account.

We currently limit our purchase of derivative hedging instruments to liquid securities. However, like many types of derivative hedging instruments, these securities may be volatile and their price may vary substantially. In addition, because we pay Performance Credits regardless of the performance of derivative hedging instruments we purchase, we may incur losses on hedging mismatches or errors in hedging. Our experience with hedging securities may affect rates for Caps and Buffers for newly issued Contracts, and may also affect renewal Caps for existing Contracts.

Certain Variable Options may also invest in derivative securities. For more information on these investments, see the Variable Option prospectuses.

We make Annuity Payments, pay death benefits, and apply Performance Credits from our general account. Our general account assets are subject to claims by our creditors, and any payment we make from our general account is subject to our financial strength and claims-paying ability.

The assets in our unregistered separate account, Separate Account IANY are also subject to claims by our creditors. You can obtain information on our financial condition by reviewing our financial statements in this prospectus. For more information see section 11, Other Information – Our Unregistered Separate Account.

Allianz Life of New York is not an investment company and therefore we are not registered as an investment company under the Investment Company Act of 1940, as amended, and the protections provided by this Act are not applicable to the guarantees we provide. The Separate Account is, however, registered as an investment company. Any allocations you make to an Index Option are not part of the Separate Account. Allianz Life of New York is not an investment adviser and so is not subject to the Investment Advisers Act of 1940, and does not provide investment advice to you in connection with your Contract.

Your Contract is registered in accordance with the Securities Act of 1933 and the offering of the Contract must be conducted in accordance with the requirements of this Act. In addition, the offer and sale of the Contract is subject to the provisions of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934.

These tables describe the fees and expenses you pay when purchasing, owning and taking a withdrawal from the Contract, or transferring Contract Value between Allocation Options. For more information, see section 6, Expenses.

    

The following are the minimum and maximum total annual operating expenses charged by any of the Variable Options for the most recent fiscal year ended December 31, 2019, before the effect of any contractual expense reimbursement or fee waiver. We show the expenses as a percentage of a Variable Option’s average daily net assets. The Index Options do not assess any separate operating expenses, and are not included in the following chart.

The table below describes in detail the total annual operating expenses of the Variable Options before fee waivers and/or expense reimbursements. We show the expenses as a percentage of a Variable Option's average daily net assets for the most recent fiscal year ended December 31, 2019. Expenses may vary in current and future years. See the Variable Options' prospectuses for further information regarding the expenses you may expect to pay. Some of the Variable Options or their affiliates may also pay service fees to us or our affiliates. If these fees are deducted from Variable Option assets, they are reflected in the table below.

These examples are intended to help you compare the cost of investing in this Contract’s Variable Options with the costs of other variable annuity contracts. These examples assume you make a $10,000 investment and your Variable Options earn a 5% annual return. They are not a representation of past or future expenses. Your Contract expenses may be more or less than the examples below, depending on the Variable Options you select and whether and when you take withdrawals.

We deduct the $50 contract maintenance charge in the examples on each Contract Anniversary during the Accumulation Phase (or the next Business Day if the Contract Anniversary is a non-Business Day). We may waive this charge under certain circumstances, as described in section 6, Expenses – Contract Maintenance Charge. We deduct the annual product fee (maximum charge of 1.25% ) in the examples on each Quarterly Contract Anniversary during the Accumulation Phase, as described in section 6, Expenses – Product Fee. A transfer fee may apply, but is not reflected in these examples (see section 6, Expenses – Transfer Fee).

The statutory financial statements of Allianz Life Insurance Company of New York are included in Appendix G of this prospectus. The financial statements of Allianz Life of NY Variable Account C are included or incorporated by reference in Part C of the Form N-4 Registration Statement.

Accumulation unit value (AUV) information for the subaccounts offered under the Contract offered by this prospectus, as of the end of December 31, 2019, is listed in the table below. This information should be read in conjunction with the financial statements and related notes of the Separate Account included in Part C of the Form N-4 Registration Statement.

(Number of Accumulation Units in thousands)

An annuity is a contract between you as the Owner, and an insurance company (in this case Allianz Life of New York), where you make payments to us and we invest that money in the Allocation Options you select. Depending on market conditions, your Contract may gain or lose value based on the returns of your selected Allocation Options. When you are ready to take money out, we make payments to you according to your instructions and any restrictions associated with the payout option you select that is described in this prospectus. We do not make any changes to your Contract without your permission except as may be required by law.

The Contract has an Accumulation Phase and an Annuity Phase.

The Accumulation Phase is the first phase of your Contract, and it begins on the Issue Date. During the Accumulation Phase, we invest your money in the Allocation Options you select on a tax-deferred basis. Tax deferral means you are not taxed on any earnings or appreciation on the assets in your Contract until you take money out of your Contract. (For more information, see section 10, Taxes.)

During the Accumulation Phase you can take withdrawals (subject to any withdrawal charge) and you can make additional Purchase Payments subject to the restrictions set out in section 3, Purchase Requirements.

The Accumulation Phase ends upon the earliest of the following.

If you have a financial adviser and want to pay your financial adviser fee from this Contract, you can submit a written request to our Service Center on a form satisfactory to us. We treat this fee payment as a withdrawal which means a withdrawal charge, ordinary income taxes, and a 10% additional federal tax if you are under age 59 ¹⁄2 may apply, and the amount of Contract Value available for withdrawal may be affected by the Daily Adjustment (which can be negative). If this is a Non-Qualified Contract, a withdrawal will be a taxable withdrawal to the extent that gain exists within the Contract. Financial adviser fees paid from an IRA Contract will not be treated as a taxable withdrawal as long as the annuity contract is solely liable for the payment of the financial adviser fee. You should consult a tax adviser regarding the tax treatment of financial adviser fee payments. Please consult with your Financial Professional before requesting us to pay financial adviser fees from this Contract compared to other assets you may have.

Your investment adviser acts on your behalf, not ours. We are not party to any agreement between you and your financial adviser, nor are we responsible for your financial adviser’s actions. We do not set your financial adviser’s fee or receive any part of it. Any financial adviser fee you pay is in addition to this Contract’s fees and expenses. You should ask your financial adviser about compensation they receive for this Contract. Allianz Life of New York is not an investment adviser, and does not provide investment advice in connection with sales of the Contract. We are not a fiduciary to you, and do not make recommendations or assess suitability.

You can submit a written request to our Service Center on a form satisfactory to us to allow your financial adviser to make Allocation Option transfers on your behalf. However, we reserve the right to review a financial adviser’s trading history before allowing him or her to make transfers. If, in our sole discretion, we believe the financial adviser's trading history indicates excessive trading, we can deny your request. If we approve it, your financial adviser is subject to the same trading restrictions that apply to Owners. We can deny or revoke trading authority in our sole discretion.

The Owner designated at Contract issue has all the rights under the Contract. The Owner may be an individual, or a non-individual (e.g. a trust, tax-exempt entity, or corporation). Qualified Contracts and non-individually owned Contracts can only have one Owner. A Qualified Contract is purchased under a pension or retirement plan that qualifies for special tax treatment under sections of the Code.

A Non-Qualified Contract can be owned by up to two individual Owners (Joint Owners). We generally require the signature of both Joint Owners on any forms that are submitted to our Service Center.

The Annuitant is the individual on whose life we base Annuity Payments. Subject to our approval, you designate an Annuitant when you purchase a Contract. For Qualified Contracts, before the Annuity Date the Owner must be the Annuitant unless the Contract is owned by a qualified plan or is part of a custodial arrangement. You can change the

The Payee is the person or entity who receives Annuity Payments during the Annuity Phase. The Owner receives tax reporting on those payments. Generally we require the Payee to be an Owner. However, you can name a charitable trust, financial institution, qualified plan, or an individual specified in a court order as a Payee. For Qualified Contracts owned by a qualified plan, the qualified plan must be the Payee.

You can assign your rights under this Contract to someone else during the Accumulation Phase. An assignment may be absolute or limited, and includes changes of ownership, collateral assignments, or any other transfer of specific Contract rights. After an assignment, you may need the consent of the assignee of record to exercise certain Contract rights depending on the type of assignment and the rights assigned.

You must submit your request to assign the Contract in writing to our Service Center and we must approve it in writing.

Upon receipt of your request in Good Order, we record the assignment. We are not responsible for the validity or effect of the assignment. We are not liable for any actions we take or payments we make before we receive your request in Good Order and record it. A request is in “Good Order” when it contains all the information we require to process it. Assigning the Contract does not change, revoke or replace the originally named Annuitant or Beneficiary; if you also want to change the Annuitant or Beneficiary you must make a separate request.

To purchase this Contract, on the Issue Date all Owners and the Annuitant must be age 80 or younger.

The Purchase Payment requirements for this Contract are as follows.

Once we receive your initial Purchase Payment and all necessary information in Good Order at our Service Center, we issue the Contract within two Business Days and allocate your payment to your selected Allocation Options. If you do not give us all of the information we need, we contact you or your Financial Professional. If for some reason we are unable to complete this process within five Business Days, we either send back your Purchase Payment or get your permission to keep it until we get all of the necessary information. If you make additional Purchase Payments, we add this money to your Contract on the Business Day we receive it in Good Order.

If you submit a Purchase Payment and/or application to your Financial Professional, we do not begin processing the payment and/or application until we receive it. A Purchase Payment is “received” when it arrives at our Service Center from the address for mailing checks listed at the back of this prospectus regardless of how or when you submitted them. We forward Purchase Payments we receive at the wrong address to the last address listed at the back of this prospectus, which may delay processing.

We can only decline a Purchase Payment if it would cause total Purchase Payments to be more than $1 million, or if it would otherwise violate the Purchase Payment restrictions of your Contract (for example, we do not allow additional Purchase Payments on or after the Annuity Date). If mandated under applicable law, we may be required to reject a Purchase Payment.

We accept manually signed applications that are in Good Order and are sent by fax, or email, or uploaded to our website. It is important to verify receipt of any faxed application, or to receive a confirmation number when using email or the web. We are not liable for applications that we do not receive. A manually signed application sent by fax, email or over the web is considered the same as an application delivered by mail. Our electronic systems (fax, email or website) may not always be available; any electronic system can experience outages or slowdowns which may delay application processing. Although we have taken precautions to help our system handle heavy use, we cannot promise complete reliability. If you experience problems, please submit your written application by mail to our Service Center. We reserve the right to discontinue or modify our electronic application policy at any time and for any reason.

The allocation instructions you provide on your application automatically become your Purchase Payment default instructions. (In your Contract, Purchase Payment default instructions are called future allocation instructions.) We use these default instructions for all Purchase Payments we receive unless you change them, or give us alternate allocation instructions specific to an individual Purchase Payment. We only allow Purchase Payments or Contract Value transfers to move into the Index Options on the Index Effective Date and on subsequent Index Anniversaries. You cannot transfer Contract Value into or between Index Options mid-Index Year. You select the Index Effective Date when you purchase your Contract. It can be any Business Day up to and including the first Quarterly Contract Anniversary, but it cannot be the 29th, 30th or 31st of a month.

We hold Purchase Payments you allocate to the Index Options in the AZL Government Money Market Fund until the Index Effective Date or the next Index Anniversary, if applicable. On the Index Effective Date we rebalance or reallocate your total Contract Value among all of your selected Allocation Options according to your Purchase Payment default instructions. For additional Purchase Payments received after the Index Effective Date, we transfer the amounts held in the AZL Government Money Market Fund to your selected Index Options on the next Index Anniversary, but we don’t reallocate your total Contract Value unless you instruct us to (see section 5, Optional Reallocation Program).

You can change your Purchase Payment default instructions at any time without fee or penalty. These changes are effective on the Business Day we receive them in Good Order at our Service Center. We accept changes to Purchase Payment default instructions from any Owner unless you instruct otherwise. We may allow you to authorize someone else to change these default instructions on your behalf. Changes to your Purchase Payment default instructions do not reallocate or transfer existing Index Option Values on the next Index Anniversary.

We notify you at least 30 days in advance of each Index Anniversary as a reminder that on the upcoming anniversary you may transfer Variable Account Value to the Index Options, and you may transfer Index Option Value between Index Options. Transfers between Allocation Options do not change your Purchase Payment default instructions. For more information, see section 4, Variable Options – Electronic Transfer and Allocation Instructions. On each Index Anniversary, if we have not received transfer instructions from you, and you are not participating in the Index Option reallocation program, all assets invested continues to be invested in the Index Options at the renewal Caps.

You cannot transfer Index Option Value to the Variable Options except on every sixth Index Anniversary, at which point you can do so even if the assets you wish to transfer have been in the Index Options for less than six full years. If you

You can transfer Variable Account Value among the Variable Options on any Business Day, except that any amount held in the AZL Government Money Market Fund that is set to be allocated to an Index Option on the Index Effective Date or an Index Anniversary will not be transferred to the Index Option if it is transferred to another Variable Option.

The AIP makes additional Purchase Payments to the Variable Options during the Accumulation Phase on a monthly or quarterly basis by electronic money transfer from your savings, checking or brokerage account. You can participate in AIP by completing our AIP form. Our Service Center must receive your form in Good Order by the 15th of the month (or the next Business Day if the 15th is a non-Business day) in order for AIP to begin that same month. We process AIP Purchase Payments on the 20th of the month, or the next Business Day if the 20th is a non-Business Day. We allocate AIP Purchase Payments according to your Purchase Payment default instructions which must comply with the allocation requirements and restrictions stated in this section. AIP has a maximum of $1,000 per month. We must receive your request to stop or change AIP at our Service Center by the end of the last Business Day immediately before the Business Day we process AIP to make the change that month. If you choose to begin Annuity Payments, AIP ends automatically on the Business Day before the Annuity Date. We reserve the right to discontinue or modify AIP at any time and for any reason.

The following table lists this Contract’s Variable Options and their associated investment advisers and subadvisers, investment objectives, and principal investment strategies. Depending on market conditions, you can gain or lose value by investing in the Variable Options. In the future, we may add, eliminate or substitute Variable Options to the extent permitted by the federal securities laws and, when required, the SEC.

Currently, the Variable Options are not publicly available mutual funds. They are available only as Variable Options in variable annuity contracts or variable life insurance policies issued by life insurance companies or in some cases, through

The names, investment objectives and policies of certain Variable Options may be similar to the names, investment objectives and policies of other portfolios managed by the same investment advisers. Although the names, objectives and policies may be similar, the Variable Options' investment results may be higher or lower than these other portfolios’ results. The investment advisers cannot guarantee, and make no representation, that these similar funds' investment results will be comparable even though the Variable Options have the same names, investment advisers, objectives, and policies.

Each Variable Option offered by the Allianz Variable Insurance Products Fund of Funds Trust (Allianz VIP Fund of Funds Trust) is a “fund of funds” and diversifies its assets by investing primarily in shares of several other affiliated mutual funds.

The Variable Options may pay 12b-1 fees to the Contracts’ distributor, our affiliate, Allianz Life Financial Services, LLC, for distribution and/or administrative services. In addition, we may enter into certain arrangements under which we, or Allianz Life Financial Services, LLC, are compensated by the Variable Options' advisers, distributors and/or affiliates for administrative services and benefits we provide to the Variable Options. The compensation amount usually is based on the Variable Options' aggregate assets purchased through contracts we issue or administer. Some advisers may pay us more or less than others. The maximum service fee we currently receive from any variable investment option in any variable annuity contract we offer is 0.35% annually of the average aggregate amount invested by us in the variable investment options.

The Allianz VIP Fund of Funds Trust underlying funds do not pay 12b-1 fees or service fees to the Trust, and the Trust does not charge 12b-1 fees or service fees. The Allianz VIP Fund of Funds Trust underlying funds or their advisers may pay service fees to us and our affiliates for providing customer service and other administrative services to you. Service fees may vary depending on the underlying fund.

We offer other variable annuity contracts that may invest in these Variable Options. These contracts may have different charges and may offer different benefits more appropriate to your needs. For more information about these contracts, please contact our Service Center.

Allianz Investment Management LLC is an adviser/subadviser that is affiliated with us through common ownership.

We may substitute another Variable Option for one of your selected Variable Options, for any reason in our sole discretion. To the extent required by the Investment Company Act of 1940 or other applicable law, we do not substitute any shares without SEC approval and providing you notice. We may make substitutions with respect to your existing allocations, future Purchase Payment allocations, or both. New or substitute Variable Options may have different fees and expenses, and their availability may be limited to certain purchaser classes. We may limit further Variable Option allocations if marketing, tax or investment considerations warrant, or for any reason in our sole discretion. We may also close Variable Options to additional allocations. The fund companies that sell Variable Option shares to us, pursuant to participation agreements, may end those agreements and discontinue offering us their shares.

You can transfer Variable Account Value among the Variable Options on any Business Day. Transfers may be subject to a transfer fee as stated in section 6, Expenses.

The following applies to any transfer.

We process transfer requests based on prices next determined after we receive your request in Good Order at our Service Center. If we do not receive your transfer request before the end of the current Business Day, even if due to our delay in answering your call or a delay caused by our electronic systems, you receive the next Business Day’s prices. For jointly owned Contracts, unless you require us to obtain signatures from both Joint Owners, we accept transfer instructions from any Joint Owner. We may also allow you to authorize someone else to request transfers on your behalf.

We use reasonable procedures to confirm that electronic transfer and allocation instructions given to us are genuine. If we do not use such procedures, we may be liable for any losses due to unauthorized or fraudulent instructions. We record all telephone instructions and log all fax, email and website instructions. We reserve the right to deny any transfer request or allocation instruction change, and to discontinue or modify our electronic instruction privileges at any time for any reason.

Please note that telephone, fax, email and/or the website may not always be available. Any electronic system, whether it is ours, yours, your service provider’s, or your Financial Professional’s, can experience outages or slowdowns for a variety of reasons, which may delay or prevent our processing of your transfer request or allocation instruction change. Although we

By authorizing electronic instructions, you authorize us to accept and act upon these instructions for your Contract. There are risks associated with electronic communications that do not occur with a written request. Anyone authorizing or making such requests bears those risks. You should protect your website password, because the website is available to anyone with your password; we cannot verify that the person providing instructions on the website is you, or is authorized by you.

We may restrict or modify your right to make transfers to prevent any use that we consider to be part of a market timing program.

Frequent transfers, programmed transfers, transfers into and then out of a Variable Option in a short period of time, and transfers of large amounts at one time (collectively referred to as “potentially disruptive trading”) may have harmful effects for other Owners, Annuitants and Beneficiaries. These risks and harmful effects include the following.

We retain some discretion in determining what actions constitute potentially disruptive trading and in determining when and how to impose trading restrictions. Currently, we attempt to deter disruptive trading as follows. If a transfer(s) is/are identified as potentially disruptive trading, we may (but are not required to) send a warning letter. If the conduct continues and we determine it constitutes disruptive trading, we also impose transfer restrictions. Transfer restrictions may include refusing electronic transfers and requiring all transfers be sent by first-class U.S. mail. If the disruptive trading affects only a single Variable Option, we may prohibit transfers into or Purchase Payment allocations to that Variable Option. We do not enter into agreements permitting market timing and would not permit activities determined to be disruptive trading to continue. We also reserve the right to impose transfer restrictions if we determine, in our sole discretion, that transfers disadvantage other Owners. We notify you in writing if we impose transfer restrictions on you.

We adopted these policies and procedures as a preventative measure to protect all Owners from the potential effects of disruptive trading, while also abiding by your legitimate interest in diversifying your investment and making periodic asset

We may make exceptions when imposing transfer restrictions if we determine a transfer is appropriate, although it may technically violate our policies and procedures discussed here. In determining if a transfer is appropriate, we may, but are not required to, take into consideration its relative size, whether it was purely a defensive transfer into the AZL Government Money Market Fund, and whether it involved an error or similar event. We may also reinstate electronic transfer privileges after we revoke them, but we do not reinstate these privileges if we believe they might be used for future disruptive trading.

We cannot guarantee the following.

We may, without prior notice to any party, take whatever action we deem appropriate to comply with any state or federal regulatory requirement. In addition, purchase orders for a Variable Option’s shares are subject to acceptance by that Variable Option’s manager. We reserve the right to reject, without prior notice, any Variable Option transfer request or Purchase Payment if the purchase order is rejected by the investment manager. We have entered into agreements required under SEC Rule 22c-2 (Rule 22c-2 agreements) whereby, upon request by an underlying fund or its designee, we must provide information about you and your trading activities to the underlying fund or its designee. Under the terms of the Rule 22c-2 agreements, we are required to: (1) provide details concerning every purchase, redemption, transfer, or exchange of Variable Options during a specified period; and (2) restrict your trading activity if the party receiving the information so requests. Under certain Rule 22c-2 agreements, if we fail to comply with a request to restrict trading activity, the underlying fund or its designee may refuse to accept buy orders from us until we comply.

Variable Options may add or change policies designed to restrict market timing activities. For example, Variable Options may impose restrictions on transfers between Variable Options in an affiliated group if the investment adviser to one or more of the Variable Options determines that the person requesting the transfer has engaged, or is engaging in, market timing or other abusive trading activities. In addition, a Variable Option may impose a short-term trading fee on purchases and sales within a specified period. You should review the Variable Options’ prospectuses regarding any applicable transfer restrictions and the imposition of any fee to discourage short-term trading. The imposition of these restrictions would occur as a result of Variable Option restrictions and actions taken by the Variable Options’ managers.

We legally own the Variable Option shares. However, when a Variable Option holds a shareholder vote that affects your investment, we ask you to give us voting instructions. We then vote all of our shares, including any we own on our behalf, in proportion to those instructions. Because most Owners do not give us instructions and we vote shares proportionally, a small number of Owners may determine a vote’s outcome. If we determine we no longer need to get your voting instructions, we will decide how to vote the shares. Only Owners have voting privileges. Annuitants, Beneficiaries, Payees and other persons have no voting privileges unless they are also Owners.

We determine your voting interest in a Variable Option as follows.

Your Contract Value is the total of the Variable Account Value and all Index Option Values.

The Separate Account holds the assets you allocate to the Variable Options, including Purchase Payments held in the AZL Government Money Market Fund before we transfer them to the Index Options. The Separate Account is divided into subaccounts, each of which invests exclusively in the shares of a single Variable Option.

We convert amounts you allocate to a Variable Option into subaccount accumulation units. Each subaccount’s daily price (accumulation unit value) is based on the Variable Option’s price. A Variable Option’s price is typically determined at the end of each Business Day, and any Purchase Payment received at or after the end of the current Business Day receives the next Business Day’s price. A Variable Option's price reflects deduction of its operating expenses.

We calculate your Variable Account Value at the end of each Business Day by multiplying each subaccount’s accumulation unit value by its number of accumulation units, and adding those results together for all subaccounts.

On the Issue Date, the number of accumulation units in each subaccount is equal to the amount allocated to a subaccount divided by its accumulation unit value. At the end of each Business Day, the number of subaccount accumulation units:

We calculate an Index Option Value for each Index Option at the end of each Business Day. Generally, the Index Option Value is equal to the Index Option Base plus any applicable Daily Adjustment. The Daily Adjustment applies on Business Days other than the Index Effective Date or an Index Anniversary. The Daily Adjustment can be positive or negative and is discussed later in this section.

On the Index Effective Date, both the Index Option Value and the Index Option Base for each of your selected Index Options are initially equal to the amount of:

We base Performance Credits on Index Values and Index Returns. We measure Index Values on the Index Effective Date and subsequent Index Anniversaries using the Index’s price at the end of the Business Day as provided by Bloomberg or another market source if Bloomberg is not available. If the Index Anniversary is a non-Business Day we use the next Business Day’s Index price. If you select the EURO STOXX 50^®, we determine Index Returns without any exchange rate adjustment. Because we calculate Index Returns only on Index Anniversaries, the Index Return does not necessarily reflect the highest or lowest Index Values that occurred during an Index Year.

We designed the Daily Adjustment to provide an Index Option Value during the Index Year on days other than the Index Effective Date or an Index Anniversary. The Daily Adjustment can affect the amounts available for withdrawal, annuitization, payment of the death benefit, and the Contract Value used to determine the Charge Base, and contract maintenance charge. It is discussed in the Summary - What is the Daily Adjustment?; and in Risk Factors – Risk of Negative Returns. The Daily Adjustment formula is described in Appendix B and in Exhibit 99(a) of the Form S-1 Registration Statement filed with the SEC, of which this prospectus is a part. This information is incorporated by reference into this prospectus. You can obtain a copy of Exhibit 99(a) by calling (800) 624-0197, or visiting our website at www.allianzlife.com/new-york.

We must receive a manual Performance Lock request in Good Order before the end of the current Business Day to lock an Index Option on that day. Otherwise the Lock Date will occur on the next Business Day that your request is in Good Order. We do not allow Performance Locks to occur on Index Anniversaries. For requests submitted in writing, we don't consider the request to be received until it arrives at our Service Center.

You (or your Financial Professional, if authorized) can request an automatic Performance Lock based on targets you set only through your account on our website. When you establish your account you must provide us with an email address. You can set upper and/or lower targets for each of these Index Options each Index Year. Setting a target close to the current Daily Adjustment may cause a Performance Lock to occur very quickly. You can change or cancel targets at any time before we execute a Performance Lock. Each Index Option’s target automatically expires on the earlier of the Lock Date, or the last Business Day before the Index Anniversary. You can also “over-ride” a target by requesting a manual Performance Lock before the target is reached. We determine if a target is reached using the Index Option Values determined at the end of the prior Business Day using the prior day’s Daily Adjustment. We then execute the Performance Lock using the Daily Adjustment determined at the close of business on the Lock Date. By setting targets you are authorizing us to automatically execute a Performance Lock at the close of business on the Lock Date once the target is reached, unless you cancel the lock. We will send an email notice once the Daily Adjustment for an Index Option reaches a target. To cancel an automatic Performance Lock after a target is reached, we must receive your request in Good Order before the close of business on the Lock Date.

For example, assume the Cap for the Index Performance Strategy with the S&P 500^® Index is 10.25% and you set a target of 9.50%. On a Tuesday, your Daily Adjustment determined at the end of the Business Day is 9.63%. We will send you an email notice and assuming Wednesday is a Business Day, we will execute the Performance Lock on Wednesday (which will be your Lock Date) using the Daily Adjustment determined at the close of business. If Wednesday is a non-Business Day, your Lock Date would instead be Thursday (assuming it is a Business Day). Note that the Daily Adjustment on the Lock Date could be greater or less than your target of 9.50%, or Tuesday’s Daily Adjustment of 9.63%.

A Performance Lock can be executed once each Index Year for each of these Index Options. A Performance Lock applies to the total Index Option Value in an Index Option, and not just a portion of that Index Option Value. We use the Daily Adjustment calculated at the end of the current Business Day on the Lock Date to determine your locked Index Option Value. This “locked” Index Option Value may be more or less than the “unlocked” Index Option Value that is available for your review on the Lock Date because the unlocked Index Option Value was determined at the end of the prior Business Day. After the Lock Date, Daily Adjustments do not apply for the remainder of the Index Year and the Index Option Value will not receive a Performance Credit on the next Index Anniversary. However, a locked Index Option Value can decrease if you take a partial withdrawal or when we deduct Contract expenses. On the next Index Anniversary that occurs immediately after the Lock Date, all locked Index Options will be unlocked, we will reallocate the Index Option Value according to your instructions, and Daily Adjustments will again apply for the new Index Year. If you do not provide us with reallocation instructions, the Index Option Value will remain in the same Index Option.

A Performance Lock can help eliminate doubt about future Index performance and possibly limit the impact of a negative Performance Credit you would otherwise receive. The disadvantage of executing a Performance Lock is that the relevant Index Value could increase before the end of the Index Year, and you will not participate in that increase. In addition, if you execute a Performance Lock, you may receive less than the full Cap, or less than the full protection of the Buffer, than you would have received if you waited for us to apply the Performance Credit on the next Index Anniversary.

Contract fees and expenses reduce your investment return and are described here in detail.

The product fee compensates us for providing all your Contract’s benefits, including our contractual obligation to make Annuity Payments and certain Contract and distribution expenses. The product fee also compensates us for assuming the expense risk that the current charges are less than future Contract administration costs as well as the cost of providing certain features under the Contract. If the product fee covers these costs and risks, any excess is profit to us. We anticipate making such a profit.

The product fee is an annualized rate that we calculate and accrue on a daily basis as a percentage of the Charge Base during the Accumulation Phase as follows.

    

Your annual contract maintenance charge is $50. This charge is for Contract administration and maintenance expenses. We waive this charge as follows:

You can take withdrawals during the Accumulation Phase. A withdrawal charge applies if any part of a withdrawal comes from a Purchase Payment that is still within the withdrawal charge period. We assess the withdrawal charge against the Withdrawal Charge Basis, which is equal to total Purchase Payments, less any Purchase Payments withdrawn (including any Penalty-Free Withdrawals), and less any applicable withdrawal charge. We do not reduce the Withdrawal Charge Basis for any amounts we deduct to pay other Contract expenses.

The withdrawal charge compensates us for expenses associated with selling the Contract.

We may reduce or eliminate the withdrawal charge when the Contract is sold under circumstances that reduce its sales expenses. We will implement this withdrawal charge reduction or elimination in a nondiscriminatory manner. For example, if a large group of individuals purchases Contracts or if a prospective purchaser already has a relationship with us. We may choose not to deduct a withdrawal charge under a Contract issued to an officer, director, or employee of Allianz Life of New York or any of its affiliates. Also, we may reduce or eliminate the withdrawal charge when a Contract is sold by a

The first twelve transfers between Variable Options every Contract Year are free. After that, we deduct a $25 transfer fee for each additional transfer. We count all transfers made in the same Business Day as one transfer. We do not count transfers between the Variable Options and Index Options or reallocation of Index Option Value among the Index Options against the free transfers we allow and these transfers are not subject to a transfer fee. The transfer fee continues to apply under death benefit payment Option B, and with optional payments under death benefit payment Option C as noted in section 9, Death Benefit.

We deduct the transfer fee on a dollar for dollar basis from the amount of Variable Account Value being transferred before allocating the remaining Variable Account Value to your selected Variable Options. We do not treat the deduction of the transfer fee as a withdrawal when computing total Purchase Payments adjusted for withdrawals under the Traditional Death Benefit.

Premium tax is based on your state of residence at the time you make each Purchase Payment. In states that assess a premium tax, we do not currently deduct it from the Contract, although we reserve the right to do so in the future. Premium tax normally ranges from 0% to 3.5% of the Purchase Payment, depending on the state or governmental entity. New York does not currently assess a premium tax.

Currently, we do not deduct any Contract related income tax we incur, although we reserve the right to do so in the future.

Your Contract Value is available under the following circumstances:

Any partial withdrawal must be for at least $100.* The Contract Value after a partial withdrawal must be at least $2,000.* We reserve the right to treat a partial withdrawal that reduces the Contract Value below this minimum as a full withdrawal.

We deduct any partial withdrawal (including any withdrawal charge) proportionately from each Allocation Option unless you provide us with alternate instructions.

When you take a full withdrawal, we process your request on the Business Day we receive it in Good Order at our Service Center as follows:

We pay withdrawals promptly, but in no event later than seven days after receipt of your request in Good Order at our Service Center, unless the suspension of payments or transfers provision is in effect (see the discussion later in this section).

Each Contract Year, you can withdraw up to 10% of your total Purchase Payments without incurring a withdrawal charge (the free withdrawal privilege). Any unused free withdrawal privilege in one Contract Year is not added to the amount available next year. Purchase Payment withdrawals that are outside the six year withdrawal charge period are not subject to a withdrawal charge and do not reduce your free withdrawal privilege. Required minimum distribution payments are not subject to a withdrawal charge, but do reduce your free withdrawal privilege.

The systematic withdrawal program can provide automatic withdrawal payments to you. However, if your Contract Value is less than $25,000, we only make annual payments. You can request to receive these withdrawal payments monthly, quarterly, semi-annually or annually. The minimum amount you can withdraw under this program is $100 and there is no maximum. During the withdrawal charge period (if applicable), systematic withdrawals in excess of the free withdrawal privilege are subject to a withdrawal charge. We make systematic withdrawals on the ninth of the month, or the next Business Day if the ninth is a non-Business Day. We must receive your systematic withdrawal program form instructions in Good Order at our Service Center before the end of the Business Day before we process these withdrawals, or your program does not begin until the next month. This program ends at your request or when you withdraw your total Contract Value. However, we reserve the right to discontinue or modify the systematic withdrawal program at any time and for any reason.

If you own an IRA or SEP IRA Contract, you can participate in the minimum distribution program during the Accumulation Phase. Under this program, we make payments to you designed to meet the applicable minimum distribution requirements imposed by the Code for this Qualified Contract. RMD payments are not subject to a withdrawal charge, but they reduce the free withdrawal privilege amount during the Contract Year. We can make payments to you on a monthly, quarterly, semi-annual or annual basis. However, if your Contract Value is less than $25,000, we only make annual payments. You cannot aggregate RMD payments between this Contract and other qualified contracts that you own. We make RMD payments on the ninth of the month, or the next Business Day if the ninth is a non-Business Day. We must receive your program form instructions in Good Order at our Service Center before the end of the Business Day before we process these payments, or your program does not begin until the next month.

After the first Contract Year, if any Owner becomes confined to a nursing home for a period of at least 90 consecutive days and a physician certifies that continued confinement is necessary, you can take withdrawals and we waive the withdrawal charge. This waiver is not available if any Owner was confined to a nursing home on the Issue Date. We base this benefit on the Annuitant for non-individually owned Contracts. We must receive proof of confinement in Good Order for each withdrawal before we waive the withdrawal charge.

We may be required to suspend or postpone transfers or payments for withdrawals for more than seven days after receipt of your request in Good Order at our Service Center, for any period when:

Prior to annuitization, you can surrender your Contract and receive your total Contract Value (less the final product fee, and any applicable contract maintenance charge, and withdrawal charge). If you surrender your Contract on any day other than an Index Anniversary and you have Contract Value in the Index Options, we apply the Daily Adjustment to these Index Option Values before we deduct the final Contract fees and expenses.

Annuity Payments offer a guaranteed lifetime income stream with certain tax advantages and are designed for Owners who no longer need immediate access to Contract Value to meet their short-term income needs.

You can apply your Contract Value to regular periodic fixed Annuity Payments. The Payee receives the Annuity Payments. You receive tax reporting on the payments, whether or not you are the Payee. We may require proof of the

We base Annuity Payments upon the following:

You can choose one of the Annuity Options described below or any other payment option to which we agree. After Annuity Payments begin, you cannot change the Annuity Option.

Under Annuity Options 1, 3 and 5, if all Annuitants die on or after the Annuity Date and before we send the first Annuity Payment, we will cancel Annuity Payments and upon receipt of a Valid Claim we will pay the Contract Value determined on the Annuity Date to surviving individual Owner, or the Beneficiary(s) if there is no surviving Owner. If the Owner is a non-individual, we pay the Owner.

After the Annuitant’s death under Option 2, or the last surviving joint Annuitant's death under Option 4, we make Annuity Payments during the remaining guaranteed period in the following order based on who is still alive: the Payee, any surviving original Owner, the last surviving Owner’s Beneficiaries, or to the last surviving Owner’s estate if there are no remaining or named Beneficiaries.

Annuity Payments are usually lower if you select an Annuity Option that requires us to make more frequent Annuity Payments or to make payments over a longer period of time. If you choose life contingent Annuity Payments, payout rates for a younger Annuitant are lower than the payout rates for an older Annuitant and payout rates for life with a guaranteed period are typically lower than life only payments. Monthly payout rates are lower than annual payout rates, payout rates for a 20-year guaranteed period are less than payout rates for a 10-year guaranteed period, and payout rates for a 50-year-old Annuitant are less than payout rates for a 70-year-old Annuitant.

Annuity Payments begin on the Annuity Date. Your scheduled Annuity Date is the first day of the calendar month following the Annuitant’s 90th birthday and is stated in your Contract. An earlier Annuity Date or a withdrawal may be required to satisfy minimum required distribution rules under certain Qualified Contracts. You can make an authorized request for a different, earlier or later Annuity Date after the Issue Date, but any such request is subject to applicable law and our approval. An earlier or later Annuity Date may not be available to you depending on the Financial Professional you purchase your Contract through and your state of residence. Your Annuity Date must be at least 13 months after the Issue Date.

“You” in this section refers to the Owner, or the Annuitant if the Contract is owned by a non-individual.

If there are multiple Beneficiaries, each Beneficiary receives the portion of the death benefit he or she is entitled to when we receive his or her Valid Claim. If a Beneficiary dies before you or the Designated Life, that Beneficiary’s interest in this Contract ends unless your Beneficiary designation specifies otherwise. If there are no remaining Beneficiaries, or no named Beneficiaries, we pay the death benefit to your estate, or if the Owner is a non-individual, to the Owner. Unless you instruct us to pay Beneficiaries a specific percentage of the death benefit, he or she each receives an equal share.

Each Beneficiary’s portion of the death benefit remains in the Allocation Options based on the allocation instructions that were in effect on the date of death until we receive his or her Valid Claim and we either pay the claim or the Beneficiary provides alternate allocation instructions. If there is Variable Account Value in the AZL Government Money Market Fund on the date of death, it remains there until the earlier of the next Index Anniversary, or the date we receive a Valid Claim. If an Index Anniversary occurs before we receive a Valid Claim, we will transfer that Beneficiary’s portion of the Variable Account Value to the Allocation Options based on the allocation instructions that were in effect on the date of death.

From the time we determine the death benefit until we make a complete distribution, any amount in the Allocation Options continues to be subject to investment risk that is borne by the recipient(s). Once we receive notification of death, we may no longer accept or process transfer requests. After we receive the first Valid Claim from any Beneficiary we also will not accept additional Purchase Payments or allow any partial or full withdrawals unless the withdrawal is required to comply with federal tax law.

On the first death of a Determining Life during the Accumulation Phase, if the Traditional Death Benefit is in effect your Beneficiary(s) will receive the greater of the Contract Value or the total Purchase Payments adjusted for withdrawals.

If the date we are determining the death benefit is not an Index Anniversary , Contract Value includes the Daily Adjustment. Withdrawals reduce your total Purchase Payments adjusted for withdrawals by the percentage of Contract Value withdrawn, determined at the end of each Business Day. Withdrawals include all withdrawals (even Penalty-Free Withdrawals) and any withdrawal charges, but not amounts we withdraw for other Contract fees and expenses.

If you are the Determining Life, or if you and the Determining Life (Lives) are different individuals and die simultaneously as described in the discussion of Beneficiaries in section 2, Ownership, Annuitants, Determining Life, Beneficiaries and Payees, we determine the Traditional Death Benefit at the end of the Business Day we receive a Valid Claim. For multiple Beneficiaries, each surviving Beneficiary receives the greater of:

The Appendix to the Form N-4 SAI includes tables that are intended to help you better understand what happens upon the death of any Owner and/or Annuitant under the different portions of the Contract.

Distribution must begin within one year of the date of the Owner’s death. Any portion of the death benefit not applied to Annuity Payments within one year of the date of the Owner’s death must be distributed within five years of the date of death.

If the Contract is owned by a non-individual, then we treat the death of an Annuitant as the death of an Owner for purposes of the Code’s distribution at death rules, which are set forth in Section 72(s) of the Code.

In all events, notwithstanding any provision to the contrary in the Contract or this prospectus, the Contract is interpreted and administered in accordance with Section 72(s) of the Code.

This section provides a summary explanation of the tax ramifications of purchasing a Contract. More detailed information about product taxation is contained in the Statement of Additional Information, which is available by calling the toll-free telephone number at the back of this prospectus. We do not provide individual tax advice. You should contact your tax adviser to discuss this Contract’s effects on your personal tax situation.

You can purchase either a Qualified Contract or a Non-Qualified Contract. A Qualified Contract is purchased pursuant to a specialized provision of the Code. For example, a Contract may be purchased pursuant to Section 408 of the Code as an IRA.

Qualified Contracts are subject to certain restrictions, including restrictions on the amount of annual contributions, restrictions on how much you can earn and still be able to contribute to a Qualified Contract, and specialized restrictions on withdrawals. Qualified Contracts must be purchased from earned income from the relevant year or years, or from a rollover or transfer from a qualified contract. An IRA to IRA indirect rollover can occur only once in any twelve-month period from all of the IRAs you currently own.

Currently, we offer the following types of Qualified Contracts.

You can instead purchase a Non-Qualified Contract, which is not qualified pursuant to a specialized provision of the Code. There are no Code restrictions on annual contributions to a Non-Qualified Contract or how much you can earn and still contribute to a Contract.

The Contract has the following tax characteristics.

Subject to certain restrictions, you can make a “tax-free” exchange under Section 1035 of the Code for all or a portion of one non-qualified annuity contract for another, or all of a life insurance policy for a non-qualified annuity contract. Before making an exchange, you should compare both contracts carefully. Remember that if you exchange a life insurance policy or annuity contract for the Contract described in this prospectus:

We established Allianz Life of NY Variable Account C (the Separate Account, formerly Preferred Life Variable Account C), as a separate account under New York State insurance law on February 26, 1988. The Separate Account is registered with the SEC as a unit investment trust under the Investment Company Act of 1940. The SEC does not supervise our management of the Separate Account.

The Separate Account holds the Variable Options' shares that have been purchased with Contract assets. We keep the Separate Account assets separate from the assets of our general account and other separate accounts, including the non-unitized separate accounts we established in connection with the Index Options. The Separate Account is divided into subaccounts, each of which invests exclusively in a single Variable Option.

We own the assets of the Separate Account. We credit gains to or charge losses against the Separate Account, whether or not realized, without regard to the performance of other investment accounts. The Separate Account’s assets are insulated, so that the assets cannot be used to pay any of our liabilities, other than those arising from the investment of Contract assets in the Variable Options.

If the Separate Account’s assets exceed the required reserves and other liabilities, we may transfer the excess to our general account, to the extent of seed money invested by us or earned fees and expenses. The obligations under the Contracts are obligations of Allianz Life of New York.

Our general account holds all our assets other than assets in our separate accounts. We own our general account assets, and, subject to applicable law, have sole investment discretion over them. The assets are subject to our general business operation liabilities and claims of our creditors and may lose value. We have not registered our general account as an investment company under the Investment Company Act of 1940.

Our general account assets fund guarantees provided in the Contracts. Contract Value that you apply to Annuity Payments becomes part of our general account.

We allocate all assets backing the Index Options to an unregistered, non-unitized, non-insulated separate account (Separate Account IANY), which we established under New York Insurance Law solely for the purpose of supporting our obligations to pay Performance Credits associated with the Index Options. Separate Account IANY has two subaccounts: Subaccount IABV (which is a book value subaccount) and Subaccount IAMV (which is a market value subaccount).

Initially, a substantial majority of the aggregate assets backing the Index Options are allocated to Subaccount IABV. We hold all other assets that you allocate to the Index Options that are not invested in Subaccount IABV in Subaccount IAMV. Subsequently, there may be significant transfer of assets between Subaccount IABV and Subaccount IAMV in response to

We invest the assets in Subaccount IAMV in hedging instruments, including derivative investments such as put and call options, as well as cash and fixed income securities. Like our general account, the assets in Separate Account IANY are subject to our general business operation liabilities and the claims of our creditors.

An Owner who allocates Contract Value to an Index Option does not have any interest in or claim on the assets in Separate Account IANY. In addition, neither the Owner nor the Index Options participate in any way in the performance of assets held in Separate Account IANY.

Allianz Life Financial Services, LLC (ALFS), a wholly owned subsidiary of Allianz Life Insurance Company of North America, serves as principal underwriter for the Contracts. ALFS is a limited liability company organized in Minnesota, and is located at 5701 Golden Hills Drive, Minneapolis, MN 55416. ALFS is registered as a broker-dealer with the SEC under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as well as with the securities commissions in the states in which it operates, and is a member of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA). ALFS is not a member of Securities Investors Protection Corporation. More information about ALFS is available at www.finra.org or by calling 1-800-289-9999. You also can obtain an investor brochure from FINRA describing its Public Disclosure Program.

We have entered into a distribution agreement with ALFS for the distribution of the Contracts. ALFS also may perform various administrative services on our behalf.

We may fund ALFS operating and other expenses, including:

ALFS does not itself sell the Contracts on a retail basis. Rather, ALFS enters into selling agreements with other broker-dealers registered under the 1934 Act (selling firms) for the sale of the Contracts. We pay sales commissions to the selling firms and their Financial Professionals. The maximum commission payable to the selling firms for Contract sales is expected to not exceed 7% of Purchase Payments. Sometimes, we enter into an agreement with a selling firm to pay commissions as a combination of a certain amount of the commission at the time of sale and a trail commission which, when totaled, could exceed 7% of Purchase Payments.

We and/or ALFS may make bonus payments to certain selling firms based on aggregate sales of our variable insurance contracts (including this Contract) or persistency standards, or as part of a special promotion. These additional payments are not offered to all selling firms, and the terms of any particular agreement governing the payments may vary among selling firms. In some instances, the amount paid may be significant.

A portion of the payments made to selling firms may be passed on to their Financial Professionals. Financial Professionals may receive cash and non-cash compensation and other benefits. Ask your Financial Professional for further information about what they and their firm may receive in connection with your purchase of a Contract.

Commissions paid on the Contract, including other incentives or payments, are not charged directly to the Owners or the Separate Account. We intend to recover commissions and other expenses indirectly through fees and expenses imposed under the Contract.

Broker-dealers and their Financial Professionals and managers involved in sales of the Contracts may receive payments from us for administrative and other services that do not directly involve the sale of the Contracts, including payments

In certain instances, we and/or ALFS may make payments to a broker-dealer for inclusion of this Contract in its list of products that it offers for sale.

We and/or ALFS may pay certain selling firms additional marketing support allowances for:

We may also make payments for marketing and wholesaling support to broker-dealer affiliates of Variable Options that are available through the variable annuities we offer.

Additional information regarding marketing support payments can be found in the Distributor section of the Statement of Additional Information.

The Variable Options may assess a Rule 12b-1 fee. These fees are paid to ALFS as consideration for providing distribution and certain other services and incurring certain expenses permitted under the Variable Option’s plan. These fees typically equal 0.25% of a Variable Option’s average daily net assets.

In certain instances, an investment adviser and/or subadviser (and/or their affiliates) of a Variable Option may make payments for administrative services to ALFS or its affiliates.

We offer the Contracts to the public on a continuous basis. We anticipate continuing to offer the Contracts but reserve the right to discontinue the offering.

We may credit additional amounts to a Contract instead of modifying charges because of special circumstances that result in lower sales or administrative expenses or better than expected mortality or persistency experience.

The Allianz Service Center performs certain administrative services regarding the Contracts and is located at 5701 Golden Hills Drive, Minneapolis, Minnesota. The Service Center mailing address and telephone number are listed at the back of this prospectus. The administrative and routine customer services performed by our Service Center include processing and mailing of account statements and other mailings to Owners, responding to Owner correspondence and inquiries. Allianz Life Insurance Company of North America (as service provider for the Contracts) also contracts with Tata Consultancy Services (Tata) located at #42(P) & 45(P), Think Campus, Electronic City, Phase II, Bangalore, Karnataka 560100, India, to perform certain administrative services including:

To reduce expenses, only one copy of most financial reports and prospectuses, including reports and prospectuses for the Variable Options, may be mailed to your household, even if you or other persons in your household have more than one contract issued by us or our affiliate. Call our Service Center at the toll-free telephone number listed at the back of this

Like other life insurance companies, we from time to time are involved in legal proceedings of various kinds, including regulatory proceedings and individual and class action lawsuits. In some legal proceedings involving insurers, substantial damages have been sought and/or material settlement payments have been made. Although the outcome of any such proceedings cannot be predicted with certainty, we believe that, at the present time, there are no pending or threatened legal proceedings to which we, the Separate Account, or ALFS is a party that are reasonably likely to materially affect the Separate Account, our ability to meet our obligations under the Contracts, or ALFS ability to perform its obligations.

Allianz Life of New York is a stock life insurance company organized under the laws of the State of New York on September 21, 1982. Our address is 28 Liberty Street, 38th Floor, New York, NY 10005-1422. Before January 1, 2003, Allianz Life of New York was known as Preferred Life Insurance Company of New York. We are a subsidiary of Allianz Life Insurance Company of North America (Allianz Life), which is also a stock life insurance company. Allianz Life is a subsidiary of Allianz of America, Inc. (AZOA), a financial holding company. AZOA is a wholly owned subsidiary of Allianz Europe, B.V., which in turn is a wholly owned subsidiary of Allianz SE, which is registered in Munich, Germany. We currently offer variable annuities and registered index-linked annuities and are licensed to do direct business in six states, including New York and the District of Columbia.

The Board currently consists of nine members, including our Chair and Chief Executive Officer, our President, our Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer, our Vice President, Appointed Actuary, three independent outside board members, and two non-independent board members. Age and positions are provided as of December 31, 2019, except as otherwise noted.

The Board holds regular semi-annual meetings, generally in April and November of each year, and holds special meetings or takes action by unanimous written consent as circumstances warrant. The Board has standing Executive, Audit and Evaluation, Conflict of Interest, and Finance Committees, each of which is described in further detail below. All but two of the directors attended 100% of the Board and committee meetings to which he or she was assigned during 2019. Two directors were absent from one Board meeting and one director was absent from one committee to which he was assigned in 2019. In 2019, the Board acted two times by unanimous written action.

The current members of our Board are as follows.

Walter R. White, age 63, joined Allianz Life in 2009, and currently serves as the Chair and Chief Executive Officer of Allianz Life of New York since January 1, 2012. Mr. White also serves as the President and Chief Executive Officer of Allianz Life and as a member of its Board of Directors since January 1, 2012. Mr. White also serves as the President of AZOA Services Corporation, and the Chair of its Shared Plans Management Committee. Mr. White also serves as a Governor of Allianz Individual Insurance Group, LLC, Allianz Investment Management LLC, and TruChoice Financial Group, LLC, respectively. In addition, Mr. White serves as a Director of AZOA Services Corporation, Questar Capital Corporation, and Questar Agency, Inc., respectively. Mr. White is responsible for leading and overseeing Allianz Life and Allianz Life of New York and providing strategic management and direction. Mr. White served as Chair, Chief Executive Officer and President of Allianz Life and Annuity Company from 2012 to 2017, and as a Director of Allianz Technology of America, Inc. from 2013 to 2015.

Mr. White brings to the Board extensive financial services and brokerage experience as well as key strategic planning and leadership skills developed as the Chief Executive Officer of Allianz Life of New York and the former President of Woodbury Financial.

William E. Gaumond, age 46, serves as a member of the Board of Directors, and the Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer of Allianz Life of New York since January 1, 2016. Mr. Gaumond joined Allianz Life in 2004 and currently serves as the Senior Vice President, Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer, and as a member of the Board of Directors of Allianz Life. Mr. Gaumond also serves as the Chief Financial Officer of Allianz Foundation for North America, and as a Governor of TruChoice Financial Group, LLC and Allianz Life Financial Services, LLC, respectively. Mr. Gaumond also serves as a Director and President of Allianz Fund Investments, Inc., AZL PF Investments, Inc., Dresdner Kleinwort Pfandbriefe Investments II, Inc., and PFP Holdings, Inc., respectively. Mr. Gaumond is also a Director of Questar Agency, Inc., Questar Asset Management, Inc., Questar Capital Corporation, Yorktown Financial Companies, Inc., Allianz of America, Inc., Allianz Real Estate of America LLC, and Allianz Technology of America, Inc., respectively. He is also a Director and the Senior Vice President of AZOA Services Corporation. Mr. Gaumond also serves as a Director and the Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer of Allianz Finance Corporation. Mr. Gaumond is responsible for all finance and risk management functions, with oversight of the controller, financial planning, treasury, and corporate risk management areas. Prior to his current roles, Mr. Gaumond spent 12 years in a number of finance and investment-related positions at Allianz Life and its affiliates in various executive capacities, including as the Senior Vice President, Asset Liability and Investment Risk Management of Allianz Life and as the Vice President, Head of Asset Liability and Investment Risk Management of Allianz Life of New York from 2013 to 2015, respectively.

Mr. Gaumond brings to the Board extensive financial services, investment, and insurance industry experience, including serving as Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer of Allianz Life and Allianz Life of New York.

Eric J. Thomes, age 47, joined Allianz Life of New York on April 1, 2019, and currently serves as the President and as a Director. He also serves as the Senior Vice President, Chief Distribution Officer of Allianz Life. Mr. Thomes also serves as a Governor, and as the Chief Executive Officer and Chief Manager of Allianz Life Financial Services, LLC. Mr. Thomes also serves as a Governor of Allianz Individual Insurance Group, LLC, and TruChoice Financial Group, LLC, respectively. He also serves as the Chair and as a Director of Yorktown Financial Companies, Inc., Questar Agency, Inc., Questar Asset Management, Inc., and Questar Capital Corporation, respectively. Mr. Thomes is responsible for the development, design and implementation of Allianz Life’s and Allianz Life of New York’s sales and distribution strategies. Prior to his current roles, Mr. Thomes served as the Field Senior Vice President, FMO Sales from 2009 to 2019. He also served as the President of Allianz Individual Insurance Group, LLC from 2005 to 2018.

Mr. Thomes brings to the Board extensive financial services and insurance industry experience.

Steven J. Thiel, age 49, joined Allianz Life of New York’s Board of Directors on November 13, 2012 and is also a member of its Finance Committee. He also serves as the Vice President, Appointed Actuary of Allianz Life of New York. Mr. Thiel also serves as the Vice President, Actuarial Reporting and Analysis of Allianz Life. He is also a Director, and the President and Chief Executive Officer of Allianz Annuity Company of Missouri and Allianz Life Insurance Company of Missouri, respectively. Mr. Thiel joined Allianz Life in 2008. Mr. Thiel also served as the Appointed Actuary of Allianz Life and Annuity Company from 2012 to 2017. Mr. Thiel leads a team responsible for accurate and timely reporting of the actuarial balances for Allianz Life and Allianz Life of New York. He is accountable for analyzing aspects of the Company’s financial performance and delivering key projects that drive financial strength and stability.

Mr. Thiel brings to the Board extensive experience in actuarial and financial performance matters.

Ronald M. Clark, age 72, joined Allianz Life of New York’s Board of Directors on March 31, 2013, and is a member of its Audit and Evaluation and Finance Committees. Mr. Clark also serves on the Board of Directors of Allianz Life, is the Chair of its Nomination, Evaluation and Compensation Committee, and is a member of the Audit and Executive Committees. He also serves as a Director and Audit Committee member of Allianz Reinsurance America, Inc. Mr. Clark also serves as a Director of Manitex International, Inc. as the Chair of its Compensation Committee, and as a member of its Audit Committee. Mr. Clark has over 40 years of experience in investments, having served as the President of Allianz

Mr. Clark brings to the Board extensive experience in the financial services and insurance industries, as well as extensive experience with investment matters.

Martha Clark Goss, age 70, joined Allianz Life of New York’s Board of Directors on October 15, 2005. Ms. Goss has more than 35 years of executive experience, primarily in finance and investments and risk management. Since 1992 she has served on a number of public and private company boards, has provided independent consulting services to various companies and serves as an instructor for executive leadership training for Deloitte LLP. Ms. Goss currently serves as a director of American Water Works Company, Inc., Neuberger Berman Mutual Funds and Berger Group Holdings, Inc. Ms. Goss brings to the Board extensive experience in the financial services industry as well as expertise on corporate governance and risk management matters. The Board also benefits from her perspective as a current and former director of other companies.

Lorraine Lods, age 51, joined Allianz Life of New York’s Board of Directors on October 1, 2018. Ms. Lods has over 25 years of insurance and financial service experience. Ms. Lods currently serves as Regional Vice President of Retirement Consultant for Allianz Life Financial Services, LLC covering the New York City-Long Island Territory since 2009. Ms. Lods brings to the Board extensive experience in the insurance industry as well as extensive experience in wholesaling.

Gary A. Smith, age 60, joined Allianz Life of New York’s Board of Directors on May 10, 2005. Mr. Smith is Co-Founder and Senior Partner of Ivy Planning Group (Ivy), a 29-year-old management consulting and training company specializing in strategy, diversity, leadership and change management. Mr. Smith has over 29 years of experience in strategy, technology, management consulting and executive coaching to large private sector companies and government organizations. He has successfully developed and implemented strategies, led teams, and served the needs of a wide spectrum of clients, sharing best practices in management consulting in multiple venues. Mr. Smith brings to the Board extensive experience in management consulting and diversity initiatives.

Kevin E. Walker, age 57, joined Allianz Life of New York’s Board of Directors on October 1, 2018. Mr. Walker also serves on Allianz Life’s Board of Directors as of May 23, 2017, and is a member of its Audit Committee and its Nomination, Evaluation and Compensation Committee. Mr. Walker has over 30 years of insurance and financial services experience. Mr. Walker served at various Allianz affiliates throughout his career, most recently as the President and Chief Executive Officer of San Francisco Reinsurance Company from 2015 to 2016. Prior to that, he was the Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Fireman’s Fund Insurance Company from 2011 to 2015, and the Senior Vice President of Group Planning and Controlling of Allianz SE from 2006 to 2010. He also served as the Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, Retirement and Protection Division of Genworth Financial from 2010 to 2011.Mr. Walker also was employed by Allianz Life from 1995 to 2006 as the Vice President, Treasurer and Senior Investment Officer, following which he then served as the Senior Vice President and Senior Financial Officer for all product lines. Mr. Walker has also served as a director and officer for several other Allianz affiliates.

Mr. Walker brings to the Board extensive experience in the insurance industry, as well as extensive experience in finance and operations.

The current executive officers (other than Messrs. White, Gaumond, Thiel and Thomes) are as follows. Age and positions are provided as of December 31, 2019, except as otherwise noted.

Gretchen Cepek, age 51, joined Allianz Life of New York on February 17, 2012 and currently serves as the Chief Legal Officer and Secretary. In this role, Ms. Cepek is responsible for the legal and compliance departments as well as government relations and the special investigations unit. She also serves as the Senior Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary of Allianz Life and the General Counsel and Secretary of AZOA Services Corporation. Previously, Ms. Cepek served as the Secretary for Allianz Life and Annuity Company from 2012 to 2017, and the Vice President of Legal Business Operations, Distribution and Product Development of Allianz Life from 2009 to 2012. Ms. Cepek received her J.D. from Valparaiso University School of Law in 1993.

Catherine A. Mahone, age 55, joined Allianz Life of New York on April 9, 2013 and currently serves as the Chief Administrative Officer. Ms. Mahone also serves as the Senior Vice President, Chief Administrative Officer of Allianz Life, and a Governor of Allianz Life Financial Services, LLC. Ms. Mahone is responsible for the oversight of enterprise operations, information technology, and other strategic business initiatives. Previously, Ms. Mahone served as the Senior Vice President, Enterprise Operations of Allianz Life from 2008 to 2012, and a Director of Allianz Technology of America, Inc. from 2013 to 2015.

Neil H. McKay, age 58, joined Allianz Life of New York in 1999 and currently serves as the Chief Actuary of Allianz Life of New York since April 8, 2014. Mr. McKay also serves as the Senior Vice President, Chief Actuary of Allianz Life. Previously, Mr. McKay also served as a Director and the Chief Actuary of Allianz Life and Annuity Company from 2007 to 2017. Mr. McKay is responsible for all of the actuarial functions of Allianz Life of New York and Allianz Life, including the actuarial assumptions underlying its products and the rate setting associated with existing and new products.

Todd M. Hedtke, age 47, joined Allianz Life of New York in 2011 and currently serves as the Chief Investment Officer since August 21, 2015. He also currently serves as the Senior Vice President, Chief Investment Officer of Allianz Life, the Chief Executive Officer of Allianz Investment Management LLC, and the Chief Investment Officer of Allianz Annuity Company of Missouri and Allianz Life Insurance Company of Missouri, respectively. Mr. Hedtke is President of Allianz Finance Corporation, and Vice President and Treasurer of Allianz Fund Investments Inc., AZL PF Investments Inc., and Dresdner Kleinwort Pfandbriefe Investments II Inc., respectively. Mr. Hedtke is also a Director of Allianz Fund Investments Inc., AZL PF Investments, Inc., Dresdner Kleinwort Pfandbriefe Investments II, Inc., and Allianz Finance Corporation, respectively. He also serves as a Governor of Allianz Investment Management LLC, and as the Chair of the Benefit Plans Investment Committee for AZOA Services Corporation. Mr. Hedtke leads the investment management, liquidity planning, hedging, and trading functions at Allianz Life. He is also a member of the global Allianz Investment Management Board, which serves the Allianz Group of insurance companies. Prior to his current role, Mr. Hedtke spent 15 years in a number of investment-related positions at Allianz Life and its affiliates, including his prior role as the Vice President, Investment Management of Allianz Life from 2010 to 2015, the Vice President of Investments of Allianz Life of New York from 2012 to 2015, the Treasurer of Allianz Fund Investments, Inc. in 2015, and a Director and the Chief Investment Officer of Allianz Life and Annuity Company from 2015 to 2017.

The Executive Committee of the Board (“Executive Committee”) is currently composed of Messrs. White (Chair), Gaumond and Walker (who replaced Mr. Herbert as a member as of April 10, 2019).. The function of the Executive Committee is to exercise the authority of the Board between meetings of the Board, with the exceptions set forth in Allianz Life of New York’s By-Laws. The Executive Committee did not meet in 2019.

The Audit and Evaluation Committee of the Board is currently composed of Ms. Goss (Chair), who replaced Mr. Herbert as the Chair as of April 10, 2019, and Messrs. Clark and Walker (who replaced Mr. Herbert as a member as of April 10, 2019). The Audit and Evaluation Committee is responsible for recommending the selection of independent certified public

The Conflict of Interest Committee of the Board is currently composed of Mr. White (Chair), Ms. Cepek, and Ms. Goss (who replaced Mr. Herbert as a member as of April 10, 2019). The Conflict of Interest Committee assists Allianz Life of New York in addressing ethics and conflict of interest matters. The Conflict of Interest Committee met once in 2019.

The Finance Committee of the Board is currently composed of Messrs. Gaumond (Chair), Clark and Thiel. The Finance Committee is responsible for exercising all the powers of the Board of Directors with respect to the investments of the funds of Allianz Life of New York. The Finance Committee met two times in 2019, and acted three times by written action.

Allianz Life of New York is not subject to the independence standards of the New York Stock Exchange or any other national securities exchange, but is subject to the independence standards set out in New York Insurance laws and the Model Audit Rule. Applying the independence standards of the Model Audit Rule to the current members of Allianz Life of New York’s Board of Directors, as well as the members that served on Allianz Life of New York’s Audit and Evaluation Committee during 2019, the Board of Directors has determined that (1) Ms. Goss and Messrs. Clark and Walker are “independent” under those standards, and (2) Mr. Herbert was “independent” under those standards through his retirement date of April 10, 2019.

All of our officers and employees, including our Chief Executive Officer, President, Chief Financial Officer and Controller, are subject to Allianz Life of New York’s Code of Ethics.

In this section, we provide an overview of the goals and principal components of our executive compensation program and describe how we determine the compensation of our “Named Executive Officers” or “NEOs.” Allianz Life of New York is a subsidiary of Allianz Life. Each of our NEOs is employed by both Allianz Life of New York and Allianz Life. Our NEOs are compensated directly by Allianz Life. Allianz Life charges Allianz Life of New York an allocated percentage of each of our NEO’s compensation. The allocated percentage of compensation charged to Allianz Life of New York for our NEO’s during the year ended December 31, 2019 is set forth below and hereafter referred to as the “Allocation Percentages.” For 2019, our NEOs were:

The details of each NEO’s compensation may be found in the Summary Compensation Table and other compensation tables included in this Executive Compensation section.

Our NEOs are also officers of Allianz Life, our parent company, and are not paid additional compensation for serving as executive officers of Allianz Life of New York. Instead, our NEOs are paid directly by Allianz Life with a certain portion of their Allianz Life compensation allocated to Allianz Life of New York, which allocation is reviewed and approved by our Audit and Evaluation Committee with respect to those NEO’s that are also the NY Principal Officers. The “NY Principal Officers” are the Chief Executive Officer, President, Chief Legal Officer and Secretary, Chief Administrative Officer and Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer. Therefore, our parent company, Allianz Life, establishes our NEOs’ compensation programs with our Audit and Evaluation Committee reviewing and approving the compensation allocations to Allianz Life of New York with respect to our NY Principal Officers. Allianz Life’s compensation programs are intended to align our NEOs’ interests with those of our ultimate stockholder, Allianz SE, the ultimate parent company of Allianz Life and Allianz Life of New York. Allianz Life’s compensation programs are designed to reward performance that meets or exceeds the goals established by the Compensation Committee, a management committee of Allianz Life. Allianz Life is tasked with establishing the executive compensation philosophy. In line with Allianz Life’s compensation philosophy described below, the total compensation received by our NEOs will vary based on individual and corporate performance in light of annual and long-term performance goals. Our NEOs’ total compensation is composed of a mix of annual base salary, annual cash awards based on corporate objectives and executive performance factors and long-term equity incentive awards in the form of restricted stock units of the equity securities of Allianz SE.

The overriding goal of Allianz Life’s executive compensation programs is to attract, retain and motivate top-performing executive officers who will dedicate themselves to long-term financial and operational success. To this end, Allianz Life has structured the executive compensation programs to foster a pay-for-performance management culture by:

To support this pay-for-performance strategy, Allianz Life’s total compensation program provides a mix of compensation components that bases the majority of each executive’s compensation on their success and on an assessment of each executive’s overall contribution to that success.

The framework governing the executive compensation policies for Allianz Life, which directly compensates the executives of Allianz Life of New York, except as such policies relate to the compensation for the Chief Executive Officer, is set through the Compensation Committee of Allianz Life. Decisions affecting the compensation of the Chief Executive Officer are outside the scope of the Allianz Life Compensation Committee. Any such decisions are made by Allianz SE, subject to review by the Nomination, Evaluation and Compensation Committee of the Allianz Life Board of Directors (the “NEC Committee”), and final approval by Allianz Life’s Board of Directors. With respect to the compensation of other “principal officers” selected by the Board for purposes of the duties of the NEC Committee under Minn. Stat. § 60D.20, subd. 3(d), the Compensation Committee’s decision are similarly subject to review by the NEC Committee and final approval by

Following its review and decision, the Compensation Committee produces and submits a report on executive compensation to Allianz Life’s Board of Directors at its request. With respect to the compensation of “principal officers” selected by Allianz Life’s Board for purposes of the duties of the NEC Committee under Minnesota Statutes § 60D.20, subd. 3(d), the Compensation Committee produces and submits a report on executive compensation proposed for the designated “principal officers”, to the NEC Committee for its review and recommendation to Allianz Life’s Board for final approval.

Our Chief Executive Officer assists the Compensation Committee in its review of the total compensation of all the NEOs except himself. He provides the Compensation Committee with his assessment of their performances relative to the corporate and individual goals and other expectations set for them for the preceding year. He then provides his recommendations for each NEO’s total compensation and the appropriate goals for each in the year to come. However, the Compensation Committee is not bound by his recommendations.

Allianz Life’s Human Resources supports the Compensation Committee on executive compensation matters by being responsible for many of the organizational and administrative tasks that underlie the compensation review and determination process and making presentations on various topics. Allianz Life’s Human Resources efforts include, among other things:

Because Allianz Life competes most directly for executive talent with other large diversified financial services companies, Allianz Life regards it as essential to regularly review the competitiveness of the total compensation programs for executives to ensure that Allianz Life provides compensation opportunities that compare favorably with the levels of total compensation offered to similarly situated executives by other companies that participate in the compensation surveys in which Allianz Life participates. Allianz Life relies primarily on external market surveys of corporate compensation and benefits published by various national compensation consulting firms, especially salary surveys focusing on insurance companies. In addition, other factors taken into account include the average revenues and number of employees of companies that participate in such surveys.

All these information sources are employed to measure and compare actual pay levels not only on an aggregate, total compensation basis but by breaking down the total compensation program component by component to review and compare specific compensation elements as well as the particular mixes of fixed versus variable, short-term versus long-term and cash versus equity-based compensation at the surveyed companies. This information, as collected and reviewed by Allianz Life’s Human Resources, is submitted to the Compensation Committee for review and discussion.

Allianz Life’s compensation programs are designed with the goal of providing compensation to our NEOs that is fair, reasonable, and competitive. To achieve this goal, Allianz Life believes it is important to compare compensation paid to each NEO not only with compensation paid by the surveyed companies, as discussed above, but also with compensation paid to each of our other NEOs. Such an internal comparison is important to ensure that compensation is equitable among our NEOs.

Allianz Life provides total compensation to our NEOs that consists of several components. These components include the three components of the total compensation program (i.e., base salary, annual and multi-year incentives and equity) as well as: (i) retirement, health and other benefit programs; (ii) severance benefits; and (iii) perquisites.

Allianz Life’s philosophy is to make base salary a relatively small portion of the overall compensation package for our NEOs, which Allianz Life believes is common in the industry in which we operate. The amount of the base salary awarded to NEOs is based on the position held, the NEO’s tenure, the scope of the position’s responsibilities and the NEO’s own performance, all of which are reviewed with the aid of market survey data. Using this data, Allianz Life maintains a 50th percentile pricing philosophy, comparing base salaries against the median for comparable salaries at surveyed companies, unless exceptional conditions require otherwise.

With respect to the base salary of our Chief Executive Officer, the Chair of the Board considered the Chief Executive Officer’s experience, performance, and contribution to overall corporate performance when determining his base salary for 2019 for recommendation to the NEC Committee. Base salaries for our other NEOs for 2019 were also set by the Compensation Committee based upon each NEO’s individual experience and contribution to the overall performance of Allianz Life, and subject to Allianz SE Compensation Committee reviews and, with respect to the base salaries of “principal officers” selected by Allianz Life’s Board of Directors for purposes of the duties of the NEC Committee under Minnesota Statutes § 60D.20, subd. 3(d), subject to NEC Committee review and recommendation to Allianz Life’s Board for final approval.

Allianz Life offers annual cash bonuses to certain executive officers under the AIP. The AIP is designed to improve performance and profitability by motivating employees to accomplish organizational objectives and financial goals. Bonus awards that may be paid pursuant to the AIP are within the sole discretion of the Compensation Committee, and with respect to our CEO, the Chair of the Board, and are intended to:

The purpose of the ALTPUP is to advance the interests of Allianz Life, including Allianz Life of New York, and our indirect stockholder. The ALTPUP seeks to accomplish this purpose by providing an incentive in addition to current compensation to certain individuals within designated classes of employees of Allianz Life who contribute significantly to their company’s long-term performance. Such incentive shall be in the form of Long-Term Performance Units ("ALTPUP Units"), which are contingent awards, subject to the terms, conditions and restrictions described in the ALTPUP and the Award Agreement under which such awards are made, by which participants in the ALTPUP may become entitled to receive cash on the payment date for redemption of the ALTPUP Units valued on the valuation date. The award of ALTPUP Units is discretionary and any payments from the ALTPUP are intended to:

Targeted levels of bonus awards made pursuant to the ALTPUP for our NEOs were established by the Compensation Committee (or, in the case of those NEOs that are “principal officers” for purposes of the NEC Committee’s duties, the NEC Committee with final approval of Allianz Life’s Board) based on a number of factors related to the performance of Allianz Life and Allianz Life of New York, and the performance of the NEO. Maximum bonus awards made to our NEOs pursuant to the ALTPUP are set to two times the target amount for each NEO. See footnote (2) to the Summary Compensation Table for the specific amounts awarded to each NEO for the year ended December 31, 2019.

Our Chief Executive Officer receives cash awards pursuant to the terms of the Allianz SE Mid-Term Bonus Plan instead of the ALTPUP. The Allianz SE Mid-Term Bonus Plan covers business performance over a three-year period. The minimum payout is zero and the maximum payout is 165% of the target amount. Target award amounts generally focus on performance of Allianz Life and Allianz Life of New York, including the growth and operating profit and achievement of goals set by Allianz Life. At the end of each three-year period, the performance of Allianz Life is assessed, along with relevant comparable company comparisons. Proposed incentive awards are endorsed by the Allianz SE Board of Management and approved by the respective Compensation Committee and with respect to the “principal officers” for purposes of the NEC Committee’s duties, by the NEC Committee for final approval by Allianz Life’s Board.

The AEI is (a) one part of the variable compensation element for senior executives and provided under the Allianz Sustained Performance Plan (“ASPP”) or (b) offered by Allianz Life to selected senior employees as an additional part of their variable compensation on a case by case basis. The AEI is granted in the form of restricted stock units of Allianz SE (“RSUs”). See the discussion regarding material terms of grants under the AEI under Performance – Based Incentive Compensation Plans, below.

Allianz Life provides our NEOs with certain limited perquisites. All of our employees, including our NEOs, may participate in the qualified 401(k) plan. Allianz Life and Allianz Life of New York generally provide our executive officers, including our NEOs, with a matching contribution up to $20,625 annually. In addition, Allianz Life and Allianz Life of New York provide excess liability insurance coverage to all of our NEOs and provide financial planning and tax preparation services, relocation reimbursements and reimbursements of spousal travel expenses to certain of our NEOs.

Allianz Life has entered into an Executive Severance Agreement with our Director, Chair and Chief Executive Officer, Walter R. White, which is described in the “Allianz Life Executive Severance Agreement” discussion later in this section. We have not entered into any other specific severance agreements with any of our NEOs.

The remainder of our NEOs are eligible for severance payments under the Executive Severance Plan if they experience a qualifying termination of employment and otherwise satisfy the conditions set forth in the plan.

Other than the Executive Severance Plan, which is described later in this section, our NEOs (except for Walter R. White) are not eligible for severance payments. Certain of our executive officers receive offer letters which set forth the terms relating to base salary, sign-on incentives and equity compensation. However, Allianz Life does not view these offer letters as employment agreements as each offer letter states that employment with Allianz Life is “at will.”

Stock-Based Compensation. Stock-based compensation, including Allianz SE restricted stock units (RSUs) granted pursuant to the AEI, are accounted for in accordance with the requirements of Financial Accounting Standards Board Accounting Standards Codification (“FASB ASC”) Topic 718. The fair value of the RSUs at grant is the arithmetic average of the closing prices of an Allianz SE share in the electronic cash market trading system Xetra (or any successor system) on that day and the nine immediately preceding trading days, less the present value of dividends expected to be paid on one Allianz SE share over the vesting period, and less the fair value of payout restrictions deriving from the vesting period and the payout cap.

The following table sets forth the compensation paid by Allianz Life for the year ended December 31, 2019 to our principal executive officer, our principal financial officer and each of the two highest paid NEOs who are involved in the management and operations of Allianz Life of New York, that was charged to Allianz Life of New York, based on the Allocation Percentage assigned to each NEO. The executive compensation information in this prospectus is shown for a one-year period, in accordance with Regulation S-K Item 402, Instruction 1 to Item 402(c) and Item 402(a)(3).

The AIP is intended to provide an incentive that will encourage superior individual performance and encourage retention of employees who have demonstrated exceptional performance or who are anticipated to significantly contribute to long-term success. The AIP seeks to accomplish this purpose by providing a bonus opportunity to eligible employees who have made significant contributions during the plan year to the achievement of annual goals and objectives. The guidelines for target awards are meant to be illustrative of competitive market bonuses for similar job levels in the marketplace. While the target awards may be used for illustrative, budget planning or distribution scenarios, all bonus awards are discretionary and are in no way guaranteed.

The Compensation Committee or other duly authorized committee determines allocation of bonus awards to employees. With respect to “principal officers” for purposes of the NEC Committee’s duties, the NEC Committee recommends to Allianz Life’s Board of Directors awards for final approval.

In order to be eligible for ALTPUP awards, individuals must be nominated by the business unit and approved by the Compensation Committee and with respect to “principal officers” for purposes of the NEC Committee’s duties, by the NEC Committee with final approval by the Board. Receipt of an ALTPUP award one year is not a guarantee that an ALTPUP award will be granted in subsequent years. The ALTPUP incentive is in the form of ALTPUP Units, which have a target value of $10. The threshold value is $5 and the maximum value is $20. ALTPUP award periods are three years, with one-third of the ALTPUP Units paying out each year over the three-year award period. The valuation date is December 31 at the end of each performance year, unless the Compensation Committee in its discretion selects an earlier date.

Our Chief Executive Officer receives cash awards pursuant to the terms of the Allianz SE Mid-Term Bonus Plan instead of the ALTPUP. The Allianz SE Mid-Term Bonus Plan covers business performance over a three-year period. The minimum payout is zero and the maximum payout is 165% of the target amount. Target award amounts generally focus on company performance, including growth and operating profit and achievement of goals set by Allianz Life. At the end of each three-year period, the performance of Allianz Life is assessed, along with relevant company comparisons. Proposed incentive awards are endorsed by the Allianz SE Board of Management and with respect to the “principal officers” for purposes of the NEC Committee’s duties, by the NEC Committee for final approval by the Board.

The AEI is designed to recognize the participant’s continuous employment with Allianz Life over the relevant period and shall be an incentive to continue in employment. Grants under the AEI will generally only be made if the participant is employed with Allianz Life at the date of grant. Payments will be made only if the participant remains employed with Allianz Life during the vesting period of the RSU, or leaves employment under circumstances set out in the AEI, including after retirement or early retirement eligibility, disability, or under certain other circumstances. The securities issuable under the AEI are RSUs. An RSU constitutes the right to receipt of the market value of Allianz SE common stock at the time of exercise. This amount will be paid in cash. RSUs are subject to a four-year vesting period. At the end of the four-year period, the RSUs are exercised uniformly for all participants, provided they remain employed by Allianz Life or terminate after retirement or early retirement eligibility, or under certain other circumstances. Vesting and exercise may accelerate if a participant leaves employment under other “good leaver” circumstances set forth in the AEI. The grant at fair value cannot be greater than 165% of a participant’s target amount. The maximum value of an exercise is an increase of 200% over the grant value (i.e., 300% of the grant value).

The following table provides additional information about plan-based compensation disclosed in the Summary Compensation Table. This table includes both equity and non-equity awards granted for the year ended December 31, 2019, and charged to Allianz Life of New York based on the Allocation Percentage assigned to each NEO.

The following table sets forth the outstanding equity awards at the December 31, 2019 fiscal year-end. The table shows RSUs granted pursuant to the AEI, based on the Allocation Percentage assigned to each NEO.

The following table summarizes the value received from Allianz SE stock option exercises and stock grants vested during the year ended December 31, 2019, and charged to Allianz Life of New York based on the Allocation Percentage assigned to each NEO.

Allianz Life entered into an Executive Severance Agreement with its Chief Executive Officer, Walter R. White, with an expiration date of December 31, 2020. The severance arrangements for Mr. White as Chair and Chief Executive Officer of Allianz Life of New York are prescribed by the Executive Severance Agreement.

Pursuant to the Executive Severance Agreement, Mr. White is entitled to a lump sum cash payment upon separation of $69,208 based on the allocated percentage of compensation charged to Allianz Life of New York in the event he is terminated without “cause” as defined in the Executive Severance Agreement. In addition, pursuant to the Executive Severance Agreement, Mr. White is also bound by other restrictive covenants, including covenants relating to confidentiality and non-disparagement. Mr. White would also be entitled to continuation of medical and dental coverage at the employee premium rates for a period of 18 months following termination if Mr. White timely elects continuation and pays the required premiums.

The remainder of our NEOs are eligible for severance payments under the Executive Severance Plan if they experience a qualifying termination of employment and otherwise satisfy the conditions set forth in the applicable plan. The terms of this plan are set forth below.

Executive officers who have the title of Senior Vice President or above and report directly to a senior executive officer at a specific level are eligible to receive severance benefits under the Executive Severance Plan if they experience a qualifying termination of employment and otherwise satisfy the conditions set forth in the plan. The purpose of the Executive Severance Plan is to provide severance benefits to executive officers whose employment is involuntarily terminated in a qualifying termination of employment in order to assist with job transition. Pursuant to the Executive Severance Plan, eligible executive officers who are involuntarily terminated in a qualifying termination of employment will receive a lump sum cash payment equal to one and one-half times their “annual base pay” in effect at the time of termination. Annual base pay, for purposes of this agreement, equals base salary and excludes special payments, such as bonuses, expense reimbursements, living or other allowances. Eligible executive officers would also be entitled to continuation of medical and dental coverage at employee premium rates for a period of 18 months following termination, if the executive officer timely elects continuation coverage and pays the required premiums.

The following table shows the portion of the lump sum payments that would have been allocated to Allianz Life of New York based on each NEO’s Allocation Percentage and payable to each of our NEOs had they been terminated on December 31, 2019 and been eligible for severance payments pursuant to the Executive Severance Plan.

The following table provides information on compensation paid to the directors of Allianz Life of New York for the year ended December 31, 2019.

We are an indirect wholly owned subsidiary of Allianz SE. Allianz SE’s principal executive offices are located at Königinstrasse 28, 80802 Munich, Germany. As of March 31, 2020, the directors and executive officers of Allianz Life of New York held less than 1% of Allianz SE’s ordinary shares issued and outstanding.

We are a wholly owned subsidiary of Allianz Life, which is a wholly owned subsidiary of AZOA, which in turn is a wholly owned subsidiary of Allianz Europe, B.V. Allianz Europe, B.V. is a wholly owned subsidiary of Allianz SE, our ultimate parent, which is registered in Munich, Germany.

Transactions with affiliates may not be on an arm’s-length basis and may present the potential for conflicts.

As an insurance company, a number of risks may affect our business. However, because the Contract (and any other insurance contract that we offer) is a regulated insurance product as opposed to an investment in our business, many of the risks that may be relevant to an investor in our business are unlikely to be relevant to you. The risks described below are only those business and operational risks that are likely to be relevant to you as a purchaser of the Contract.

We make Annuity Payments and apply Credits for this Contract from our general account. We also pay benefits for other insurance contracts from our general account, and our general account is subject to claims by our creditors. Our ability to make payments from our general account is subject to our financial strength and claims-paying ability. The following risks relate to the most significant factors that may negatively affect our general account and, in turn, our financial strength and claims-paying ability.

As an Owner of the Contract, you do not share in the profits and losses generated by our business. However, if we were to experience significant losses, we might not have sufficient assets in our general account to satisfy all of our financial obligations under the Contract. Circumstances and events that may result in financial losses include, but are not necessarily limited to, the circumstances and events listed below. We cannot predict what specific impact that any of these circumstances or events may ultimately have on our financial strength or claims-paying ability.

We are subject to detailed and comprehensive regulation and supervision in New York by the New York Department of Financial Services (“NYDFS”) in jurisdictions in which we operate. The NYDFS has broad administrative powers with respect to all aspects of the insurance business and, in particular, monitors the manner in which an insurance company offers, sells and administers its products. Therefore, we may from time to time be subject to a variety of legal and regulatory actions relating to our current and past business operations and practices. Our operations, products and services are subject to varying state and federal laws. In addition, our operations, products and services are regulated by various regulatory authorities and self-regulatory authorities including state insurance departments, state securities administrators, state banking authorities, the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, the Internal Revenue Service, the Department of Labor, and the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission.

Changes to federal and state laws and regulations may materially affect the way in which we conduct our business. We are faced with significant challenges due to the fact that our regulatory environment is evolving rapidly. Federal and state governments, including federal and state regulatory authorities, have become increasingly active in the regulation of the businesses in which we engage. In addition, federal and state regulatory authorities are assuming active, and in some cases increasingly aggressive, roles in interpreting and enforcing laws and regulations related to our business. We cannot predict the potential effects that any new laws or regulations, changes in existing laws or regulations, or the interpretation or enforcement of laws or regulations may have on our business, but such changes may negatively affect our financial strength and claims-paying ability.

On April 18, 2018, the SEC published a series of proposed rules related to the standard of care owed by a broker-dealer to its customers (“Regulation BI”), and the creation of a Form CRS Relationship Summary. Among other things, Regulation BI would impose a “best interest” standard of care on broker-dealers making recommendation to their customers. Broker-dealers and investment advisers would be required to provide the Form CRS Relationship Summary to their customers. The Form is designed to provide information about the broker-dealer or investment adviser to their customers. The SEC requested comments on the newly proposed regulations by August 7, 2018. We cannot predict whether any such proposal will be adopted and, if so, what impact it could have on our business, consolidated results of operations and financial condition.

The New York State Department of Financial Services (“DFS”), the regulatory authority for the insurance industry in New York, has adopted revisions to its Insurance Regulation 187, a regulation that imposes suitability requirements on annuity recommendations by producers and insurers subject to New York law. Under the amendments to Regulation 187, recommendations of and related to annuity contracts will be subject to a best interest standard and other additional obligations. Regulation 187 is scheduled to become effective for annuity recommendations on August 1, 2019.

With the implementation of the new provisions of Regulation 187, it may be necessary for us to change compensation to financial professionals, limit the types of assistance or advice provided to annuity owners, or otherwise change the sales support of the annuities upon the effective date. These changes could have an adverse impact on the level and type of services provided and compliance with Regulation 187 could also increase our overall operational costs for providing some of the services currently provided. These changes may lead to greater exposure to legal claims in certain circumstances, including an increased risk of DFS-related actions.

We establish and carry reserves to pay future benefits and claims of policyholders. Our reserve are calculated based on a number of estimates and assumptions, including estimates and assumptions related to future mortality, morbidity, interest rates, future equity performance, reinvestment rates, persistency, claims experience, and policyholder elections (i.e., the exercise or non-exercise of policy benefits). The assumptions and estimates used in connection with the reserve estimation process are inherently uncertain, involve the exercise of significant judgment and reflect evolving information. For example, the current rates of mortality and morbidity may continue to improve in the future due to medical and technological advancements that result in policyholders living longer than anticipated. We periodically review the adequacy of reserves and the underlying assumptions and make adjustments when appropriate. We cannot, however, determine with precision the amounts that we will pay for, or the timing of payment of, actual benefits and claims or whether the assets supporting the policy liabilities will grow to the level assumed prior to payment of benefits or claims. If actual results differ significantly from our estimates and assumptions, our claim costs could increase significantly and our reserves could be inadequate. If so, we will be required to increase reserves or accelerate amortization of deferred acquisition costs. However, we cannot be certain that our reserves will ultimately be sufficient to pay future benefits and claims of policyholders.

Statutory accounting standards and capital and reserve requirements are prescribed by NYDFS and the National Association of Insurance Commissioners. The NYDFS established regulations that govern reserving requirements and provide minimum capitalization requirements based on risk-based capital (“RBC”) ratios for life insurance companies. In any particular year, statutory surplus amounts and RBC ratios may increase or decrease depending on a variety of factors, including but not limited to, the amount of statutory income or losses that we generate, changes in reserves, the amount of additional capital that we must hold to support business growth, changes in equity market levels, the value of certain fixed-income and equity securities in our investment portfolio, changes in interest rates, and changes to existing RBC formulas. Additionally, state insurance regulators have significant leeway in interpreting existing regulations, which could further impact the amount of statutory capital or reserves that we must maintain. There can be no assurance that we will be able to maintain our current RBC ratio in the future or that our RBC ratio will not fall to a level that could have a material adverse effect on our business. If we are unable to maintain minimum capitalization requirements, our business may be subject to significant increases in supervision and control by the NYDFS.

We have been involved in various regulatory investigations and examinations, and we may be involved in more in the future. We may also be named as defendants in individual lawsuits in the future. These actions arise in various contexts, including in connection with our activities as an insurer, securities issuer, employer, investment adviser, investor and taxpayer. Lawsuits and regulatory proceedings may involve significant amounts of damages (including punitive damages) or fines that we must pay, and certain regulatory authorities involved in regulatory proceedings have substantial power over our business operations. An adverse outcome in any lawsuit or regulatory proceeding that results in significant financial losses or operational burdens may negatively affect our financial strength and claims-paying ability.

As part of our overall risk management strategy, we purchase reinsurance for certain risks underwritten by our various business segments. While reinsurance agreements generally bind the reinsurer for the life of the business reinsured at generally fixed pricing, market conditions beyond our control can determine the availability and cost of the reinsurance protection for new business. If we are unable to purchase the desired amount of reinsurance protection on acceptable terms, our risk of loss may increase. As our risk of loss increases, so does the risk that we may not be able to meet our financial obligations.

Certain types of insurance and investment products that we offer expose us to risks associated with fluctuations in financial markets. Although we use hedging techniques to manage risks associated with our insurance guarantees, increased volatility in the financial markets and unanticipated policyholder behavior may increase the cost of these hedges and/or negatively affect our ability to hedge certain risks. Ultimately, our hedging programs may be inadequate to protect us against the full extent of the exposure or losses we seek to mitigate, which in turn may negatively impact our financial strength and claims-paying ability.

Our claims-paying and financial strength ratings, which various ratings organizations publish as measures of an insurance company's ability to meet policyholder obligations, are important to maintaining public confidence in Allianz Life of New York and our products, and the ability to market our products and services. A downgrade or an announced potential downgrade in our claims-paying and financial strength ratings may reflect an increased risk that we may not be able to meet our financial obligations. Any such downgrade or potential downgrade may itself harm our financial strength and claims-paying ability by causing financial losses to our business. Such losses may be the result of: