Committing to the Hispanic Market.

I want to compliment you on your article "Winning The Hispanic Market," which ran in the September issue of Best's Review. I have more than 25 years of industry experience with several companies. Fifty percent of my clients are Hispanic, and I agree with some of the statements that you put forth in the article. The Hispanic market is not going to be captured by just translating marketing material from English into Spanish. It requires an agent's awareness of the apparent cultural differences in order to be successful in this market.

Being a native of Bogota, Colombia, and having worked for this period of time in the United States, I acquired a good knowledge of how to do business in America. For this reason, I feel comfortable working for all the disparate groups.

Part of my time, I spend working with the Hispanic market, since I understand the culture. I see the tremendous need to service this undeserved market. This market is ripe for insurance, but the insurance companies are too slow in recognizing the importance of being at the vanguard of this market. I also noticed the difference in membership at the Million Dollar Round Table meetings. Twenty years ago, when I first attended these meetings, I saw hardly any Hispanic members. I was very happy to find, at last year's meeting in Anaheim, that there were over 350 agents from Mexico, and there were over 350 Hispanic members qualifying for the meeting.

In San Diego County, 40% of the population is Hispanic, and the Hispanics are divided into many groupings. "Hispanics" come from different regions of the Americas, and although we all speak the same language, there are differences in words, customs, and ways of doing business. Only someone who is either well-versed in these nuances, or a native speaker, will have a better understanding of how to adapt to doing business in this market.

The way that I see it, the insurance companies have to commit themselves to a targeted marketing approach for the Hispanic market. This can best be accomplished by supporting community activities, and recruiting quality, bi-lingual agents who will be sensitive to cultural differences. In addition to this, the insurance companies need to advertise, mostly in TV and radio, because Hispanics receive most of their information via these media. They need to advertise with someone who understands this market, so that they do not end up with cumbersome translations from the English language that make them appear uninformed or lacking attention to detail. Management needs to support the agent's efforts in order to be successful. Last, but not least, they have to commit themselves to offer good customer service, and backup for the product they are selling with 800 numbers, and prompt responses to all requests.

Jorge Molina

Financial Representative

San Diego

Report Update

Capital Consumption: An Alternative Methodology for Pricing Reinsurance by Donald Mango, director of research and development at GE ERC, described in "A Capital Idea" (Best's Review, September 2004), is no longer accessible at the Web address cited in the article.

It is available on the Casualty Actuarial Society's Web site at www.casact.org/pubs/forum/03 wforum/03wf351.pdf.