TALK OF THE STREET; BROKERS HELP MARKET GO MORE MULTILINGUAL.

Byline: Deborah Adamson Daily News Staff Writer

In a competitive market, financial services firms don't care whether you're white, black, yellow or red. As long as you have green.

In the next step to attracting more customers, a growing number of brokerages are offering multilingual services that range from brochures in Chinese to full-fledged offices targeting minority communities.

That's welcome news to Adelina Rodriguez of Sun Valley, a native of Argentina and president of the Women In Motion investment club who likes the idea of multilingual financial material.

``I read it in English because that's the only thing available,'' she said.

Providing information in Spanish and other languages will encourage people whose first language is not English to learn about investing, she said.

This fall, Merrill Lynch will launch its first formalized multilingual marketing plan targeting mainly the Asian and Latino communities.

Merrill Lynch discovered there was widespread interest among these groups for financial information in their languages, based on its survey of 2,200 individuals to be released this fall.

Among Asians, three-quarters of those interviewed wanted information in their native tongue. Among Latinos, the figure is 70 percent.

``There's a big potential,'' said Dan Haughton, director of marketing services for the New York-based brokerage firm.

Most ethnic groups are vastly untapped.

Less than 5 percent of the country's 80 million investors are not white, according to Dalbar Inc., a Boston-based financial services research firm.

Merrill Lynch realized there was a demand for multilingual products when it received reports from bilingual brokers that customers also wanted educational information in their first language.

This fall, the firm will offer educational materials in Chinese, Spanish and Korean that treat topics such as asset allocation and money management. An advertising campaign will be unveiled as well.

Merrill Lynch decided not to use Japanese because many Japanese-Americans are fluent in English. Among other ethnic groups, there's a greater percentage of new immigrants, many of whom speak limited English.

The brokerage firm is targeting a dozen key markets in the country with a diverse ethnic base, such as Los Angeles. Their niche customer is someone with a household income of at least $75,000 a year.

Interest in investing is rising among these ethnic groups as they enter their wealth accumulation years, Haughton said.

Charles Schwab & Co. in San Francisco, the nation's largest discount brokerage chain, has full-fledged centers catering to immigrants and foreign nationals.

In the San Gabriel Valley, an area heavily populated by Asian-Americans, the brokerage operates a multilingual center where the Chinese dialects of Mandarin, Cantonese, Fukienese, Shanghainese and Taiwanese are spoken.

``We've seen an upsurge,'' said Ron Gong, branch manager of the San Gabriel office. ``We've grown quite substantially.''

Last year, the number of customers at the branch rose by 75 percent.

Schwab is looking to open another office in the Rowland Heights area by the end of this year, Gong said.

The brokerage offers bilingual information packages, general services and IRA brochures, a guide to fixed income investments and mutual funds, a Telebroker pamphlet (toll-free bilingual hotline) and account application forms.

There's even a Web site in Chinese.

The Southland office is one of four offshoots of Schwab's main Asia Pacific Services center in San Francisco.

``San Francisco is the gateway to Asia'' and has a large Asian community, said Schwab spokesman Tom Taggart. ``Based on demographic changes, we should have a center dedicated to people who prefer to do business in their first language.''

The discount brokerage also has a Latin America Center in Florida that caters to speakers of Spanish and Portuguese. It has two offices in Puerto Rico.

National Discount Brokers in New York plans to expand its multilingual services as well. It already uses bilingual traders who speak the Chinese dialects of Mandarin and Cantonese as well as Spanish.

It is in the process of translating its brochures and Web site into different languages. Prospective customers can get information on opening new accounts, filling out application forms and others.

``That's the growing side of the business at this point,'' said John Holman, managing director of National Discount Brokers.

Russian is another language the company is considering.

``In New York, the expansion and wealth of the Russian community has really grown,'' he added.

Business from foreign nationals is also promising, Holman added, with the rise in wealth among residents of developing countries.

Kennedy Cabot, a discount brokerage based in Beverly Hills, also is planning to step up its multilingual efforts in the next few months.

Retirement Benefit Systems, a financial services firm in Calabasas, is developing Spanish-language financial material dealing with topics such as retirement planning, social security and life insurance.

But catering to different ethnic groups needs more expertise than merely translating a brochure into another language.

There are cultural considerations as well.

For instance, Asians tend to test out the broker first before entrusting him or her with all of their investments, Gong said.

Building personal relationships is important to both Asians and Latinos.

Word of mouth is more effective than ads, Taggart added.

``We get a lot of referrals from family members,'' he said. ``That will typically sell much better than any advertising you run.''

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Drawing: (Color) No caption (Multilingual businessman)

Bradford Mar/Daily News