Perfect prospects: insurers are stepping up their courtship of Asian Americans, the fastest growing--and most affluent--race in the United States.

A COMMON BOND: Nan Yin Juan, left and her daughter, Yufang Carolyn Juan, both Axa Financial advisers, find that sharing their history as immigrants from Taiwan helps them relate to Asian-American clients from all cultures.

Yufang Carolyn Juan and her mother, Nan Yin Juan, know first hand why it can be difficult for the insurance industry to reach Asian Americans.

The two Axa Financial advisers, immigrants from Taiwan, said that in addition to language barriers, there are cultural distinctions that must be bridged. For instance, they've had to master the art of selling life insurance without mentioning death.

"You have to be very careful. I'm very fluent in both Chinese and English, but I have to be aware not to say the wrong thing, or you could come off as disrespecting elders due to cultural differences," Carolyn Juan said. "I don't want to mention death, especially in the first meeting, because it's very disrespectful."

After their family emigrated from Taiwan 25 years ago, Nan Yin Juan launched her career with the company, then Equitable Life.

At that time, "it was very difficult to talk to a Chinese person about insurance," Nan Yin Juan said. "They know protection is very important. They save money and know they should be putting it in investments. But they still need financial planning."

While Asian Americans, as part of their culture, value saving money for the future, caring for the family and educating children, many didn't understand the importance of financial planning. So Nan Yin Juan began a drive to educate her community in Falls Church, Va., and Rockville, Md. She wrote articles in local Chinese newspapers and produced an educational series on financial planning for Chinese cable television.

Today, people who spot her inside a store often linger outside to speak with her.

"She's a celebrity. In the Chinese community, people know her and trust her," said Carolyn Juan, who joined her mother as an adviser two-and-a-half years ago. And it's not just the Chinese-American market that flocks to the Juans. They have clients who are non-Chinese Asians.

"Because of our similarities in culture, they feel that we can relate to their backgrounds. For instance, we have a Sri Lankan client who doesn't speak my language, but our backgrounds are very similar. Our cultures are similar," Carolyn Juan said.

"They are immigrants like ourselves," said Nan Yin Juan.

Market in Bloom

Axa is just one insurer that's stepping up its focus on the growing Asian-American market, and with good reason.

With a 49% population growth rate from 1990 to 2000, Asian Americans have the fastest growing population of any racial group in the nation. It's a good market for insurers, because Asian Americans tend to be more affluent and more educated than most Americans.

"Asian Americans are a third of the size of the Hispanic population, but have halt" of their buying power," said Larry Moskowitz, vice president of Kang & Lee, an advertising firm that specializes in Asian-American marketing and worked with Allstate Insurance Co. to develop a campaign targeted to Chinese Americans.

He stressed the term "Asian American" is a misnomer.

The U.S. Census defines Asian as those having origins in any of the original peoples of the Far East, Southeast Asia or the Indian subcontinent, including Cambodia, China, India, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Pakistan, the Philippine Islands, Thailand and Vietnam. It often also includes Pacific Islanders, or those having origins in any of the original peoples of Hawaii, Guam, Samoa or the Pacific Islands.

Each group differs in culture and language. For instance, Chinese are the largest of all Asian-American groups, and hail from four different areas--Taiwan, Hong Kong, People's Republic of China and Southeast Asia. They have dozens of regional dialects, but have two major languages, Mandarin and Cantonese, and two different ways to write: traditional and simplified Chinese.

Some groups, such as the Chinese and Japanese, have been in the United States for generations, while other groups, such as the Hmong, Vietnamese, Laotians and Cambodians are relatively new immigrants.

Lost in Translation

The majority of Asians in America are foreign born, and prefer to communicate in their native language, Moskowitz said.

"Don't get that confused with being fluent in English," Moskowitz said. For instance, Moskowitz said his brother-in-law is from Taiwan, has two master's degrees and has lived in the United States for 20 years, but would rather pick up a Chinese-language newspaper than an English newspaper. "That's just what he is most comfortable with."

These consumers want to speak to someone in their language in their neighborhood, Moskowitz said. "They are not going to call an 800 number and speak to a disembodied voice in English," he said.

While some life insurers have been successful reaching out to Asian Americans, many life insurers and most property/casualty writers haven't even tried, he said. "They have been invisible to most general marketing campaigns, and I mean invisible:' Moskowitz said.

Insurers that do try to reach out to the market do so with mixed results, Moskowitz said. "They'll say, 'Let's pull every ethnic cue out of the hat, every cliche, and slap my name on it and they will know we understand them.' There's a lot of beautiful, theatrical advertising that says: 'We understand your experience; you came with nothing; you worked at night' ... Then in the last five seconds, a logo pops up. Their message is 'I understand your experience; you should love me.'"

Moskowitz said it would be better to realize that Asian-American customers are like any other customers. "Treat them first and foremost as consumers, in a nonstereotypical, nonpandering way," he said.

"You're in good hands with Allstate" may be one of the most widely recognized tag lines in the United States, but without a viable word-for-word translation, it didn't mean much to most Asian Americans. As part of its new campaign, Allstate's familiar slogan was translated into Chinese as: "Turn to our hands, relax your heart and be free of worry."

The campaign also features images of contemporary Asian families living in suburbia. "They are depicted as your neighbor, not some noodle vendor down in Chinatown," Moskowitz said.

Shared Values, Good Customers

Insurers are interested in Asian Americans for many reasons.

"Education and savings are two aspects of the culture that are very strong. From that perspective, they are excellent candidates for financial services products and life insurance products," said Phil Salis, president of individual business market for Metropolitan Life Insurance Co.

Also, the Asian market "is thirsty for education, They are looking for information, and are looking for it in their language," Saris said. "If you are in the general market, it's easy for you to go on the Internet or wherever to get information. If you are Chinese and Chinese is your first language, it's very difficult."

MetLife has just launched a campaign offering free educational brochures on financial products in Chinese, and is promoting the campaign in both Mandarin and Cantonese on Chinese television, radio and in print publications. "The response has been phenomenal," Salis said. "We've generated well over 1,000 leads in the first five weeks."

MetLife also plans to roll out a new Chinese-language Web site in June. Asian Americans are more likely than average Americans to have a home computer and Internet access, and also spend more time online than other Americans.

MetLife targets Asian Indians with English, with a sprinkling of Hindi, while the other cultures are targeted with in-language materials, Sails said.

Another factor luring insurers to the market is that it's underserved, said Jane Conti, vice president of New York Life. "It's not fully tapped, not saturated," Conti said. "And it's growing."

New York Life has a cultural markets unit that focuses on supporting agents who sell in these six specific cultural markets: Asian Indians, African Americans, Chinese, Hispanic, Korean and Vietnamese. The division is also working to increase the number of agents who serve these markets.

"Four of the six are Asian markets," Conti noted. One of the reasons she cited for targeting Chinese Americans is that they are the largest group of Asian Americans. Vietnamese is the fastest growing sub-segment. "We thought if we focused on the Vietnamese market while it is still growing, it would benefit us in the future," Conti said.

For State Farm, the Asian-American market is a natural fit, said Teri Lucie Thompson, director of segment marketing for State Farm. "Our bread and butter is our State Farm agent, and one of the things that the Asian customer tends to prefer is face-to-face transactions."

Also, Asians tend to be loyal customers, she said.

"They tend to have longer tenure, and there's less switching among customers than the general American customer," Thompson said.

While many insurers said the key to gain new immigrants as customers is to have agents who can literally speak their language, Thompson said that's not necessarily the case.

At a recent seminar for its top 250 agents who work in multicultural markets, Thompson said the sessions were not divided by the ethnicity of the agents, but by the market they serve.

"We feel that people who have spoken the language or grown up in the culture have a decided advantage, but it isn't something that can't be learned by someone who's willing," Thompson said.

Vivian Kong, marketing analyst for State Farm, helped the company develop "Cultural Acumen" training to give agents insight into Asian culture.

"For instance, it's a big taboo to talk about death in the Asian market. We try to avoid the death subject by talking about living benefits," Kong said.

The hurdle State Farm faces is it's better known as an auto insurer than lilt insurer, Thompson said. Plus, Asian Americans tend to place more confidence in banks than insurers.

"Part of what we have to do is market State Farm's longevity and honorability as a world-class organization. Once they become good property/casualty customers, they are much more amenable to financial services cross selling," she said.

Building Bridges

Allstate, Axa, MetLife, New York Life and State Farm all agreed that agents are key to reaching diverse markets, and support local agents by supporting their advertising and sponsoring local events.

"Agents have been clamoring for a long time that 'we need support,'" said Moskowitz of Kang & Lee. "General communication doesn't help our business."

Asian Americans are ripe for this type of attention and "appreciate companies that show interest in them," said Kong of State Farm.

In addition to buying advertisements in local in-language television, radio and print publications, insurers have taken a role in sponsoring community events not related at all to insurance.

"In these markets, people build very tight relationships in their communities, and they want a company that is going to be active in their community. In mainstream America, that might not be necessary," said Susan Cooper, executive vice president and manager of Axa Advisors' New York metro branch, which hosts several hundred people at its New York office to celebrate the Diwali Festival, an Asian Indian celebration of lights.

"Running ads is simply a branding exercise. That's not really our focus," Cooper said. "Our focus is to really partner with these communities with things that are the most important to them."

State Farm recently sponsored an essay-writing contest for children in a large Chinese-language newspaper. "It's a lot of grass-roots work that takes place at the local level," State Farm's Thompson said.

MetLife sponsors cricket leagues, which are popular with Asian Indians. Local agents will put up some of their own money, and MetLife will match it.

"My experience has been that local events work better than national events, when a rep is taking ownership of that event and is going to man the booth and be out there, that's where it really pays off," Salis said.

Key Points

* Asian Americans are the fastest growing racial group in the United States, with 49% growth from 1990 to 2000.

* Asian Americans have the highest median household income in the United States--S10,000 a year more than non-Hispanic whites.

* Because education and savings are valued highly in their culture, Asian Americans are excellent candidates for financial services products and life insurance products.

* Agents play an important role in marketing insurance to Asian Americans.

Learn More

Allstate Insurance Group A.M. Best Company # 00008 Distribution: Exclusive agencies

Axa Financial A.M. Best Company # 06341 (Axa Equitable Life) Distribution: General agents/brokers

Metropolitan Life Insurance Co. A.M. Best Company # 06704 Distribution: Captive agencies

New York Life Insurance Co. A.M. Best Company # 06820 Distribution: Career agents, independent agents and brokers, alternative channels

State Farm Group A.M. Best Company # 00088 Distribution: Exclusive agencies

For ratings and other financial strength information about these companies, visit www.ambest.com.

REACHING OUT" A dancer performs Bharatanatyam, a classical Indian dance, at the "Festival of Lights" or Diwali celebration hosted at Axa Financial's Equitable Tower in New York last November. The traditional Indian festival celebrates the victory of good over evil, light over darkness, and knowledge over ignorance, although the actual legends that go with the festival vary in different parts of India. Axa hosted 400 of its executives, financial advisers, clients and potential clients at the event.

Asian-American Market By the Numbers

50%

Percentage of Asians and Pacific Islanders in the United States who live in three states: California, New York and Texas.

30%

Percentage of San Francisco residents who are Asian.

30% Percentage of San Francisco residents who are Asian.

2.2 Million

The number of U.S. residents who speak Chinese at home.

1 in 5

Asian and Pacific islander families that have five or more members.

1 in 4

Members of the nation's foreign-born population who were born in Asia.

95%

Percentage of Asians and Pacific Islanders who live in metropolitan areas.

78% Percentage of non-Hispanic whites who live in metropolitan areas.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau

Asian-American Market Fast Facts

California has the largest Asian population (4.6 million) of any state.

Hawaii is the state where Asians make up the highest proportion of the total population (58%).

Next to Spanish, Chinese is the most widely spoken non-English language in the United States.

Asian Americans are 65% more likely to own a business than all Americans.

Asians and Pacific Islanders living in the United States are more likely than the general population to be well-educated and live in a metropolitan area.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau

Asian Americans: Facts and Figures

Top Asian Groups
In the United States

Almost 88% of Asian Americans
are one of six major sub-segments.

Chinese         23.7%

Filipino        18.1%

Asian Indian    16.4%

Vietnamese      11.0%

Korean          10.5%

Japanese        7.8%

Other Asian     13%

Note: Table made from pie chart.

Homes Valued
At More Than $250,000

Asians own the highest
percentage of homes valued
at more than $250,000.

Asian           37%

Non-Hispanic
White           14%

Asian Americans
Have Highest Income

Asian households are more likely
than any other group to earn
$75,000 or more a year.

Asian           35%

White           27%

Hispanic        13%

Black           13%

Note: Table made from bar graph.

Asians Tend to Be
Better Educated

Asian Americans are more likely
to have bachelor's degrees or
higher.

                   Percentage with
                   B.A or Higher
Asian
American           44%

Non-Hispanic
White              28%

Black              17%

Hispanic           11%

Note: Table made from bar graph

Asians Are More
Computer Savvy

Asian Americans are most likely to
have a household computer and
Internet access.

                Computer in   Home Internet
                 Household      Access
Asian and
Pacific
Islander            65%          56%

White Non-
Hispanic            56%          46%

African-
American            33%          24%

Hispanic            34%          24%

Note: Table made from bar graph.

Spend More Time
On Internet

Asian Americans are the heaviest
everyday Internet users.

Asian
American       70%

White          57%

Hispanic       48%

African-
American       39%

Note: Table made from bar graph.

Source: Kang & Lee, U.S. Census Bureau

By Ronald D. Verzone