Joining Other Life Insurers, MassMutual Opens Office to Serve Chinese-American Community in NYC
July 15, 2014 by Fran Matso Lysiak
OLDWICK, N.J. – Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Co. has set up shop in a neighborhood in the New York City borough of Queens, in the heart of the city’s Chinatown, in a stepped-up effort to provide financial services to the large Chinese-American community there. The Springfield, Mass.-based company joins New York-based life insurers in recognizing the opportunities to selling to this fast-growing population in the United States.
The Flushing neighborhood is home of one of the largest Chinatowns in the United States, said Randy Chow, a financial services representative and career insurance agent with MassMutual. Chow is heading up the new office and leading the company’s team of 10 agents. The Chinese-American population is about 600,000 in the New York City metropolitan area, Chow said, noting 42% are in Flushing alone.Earlier this year, Roger Crandall, chairman, president and chief executive officer of MassMutual, told Best’s News Service that an area that’s very important for him is “continuing our expansion into the multicultural markets.”
MassMutual is doing “a tremendous job” in the Chinese market in the West Coast of the United States, with a half dozen or more Chinese-focused offices, Chow said, noting the company started to build its presence in the Chinese market on the East Coast a few years ago. “Now they are moving into the East Coast of the United States,” said Chow, also a long-time resident of Flushing.
Asians recently passed Hispanics as the largest group of new immigrants to the United States, according to the Pew Research Social & Demographic Trends as of April 2013. Asian-Americans are the highest-income, best-educated and fastest-growing racial group in the United States, according to Pew Research.
The six largest Asian-American groups by country of origin are Chinese-Americans, Filipino-Americans, Indian-Americans, Vietnamese-Americans, Korean-Americans and Japanese-Americans. Together these groups comprise at least 83% of the total Asian population in the United States, according to Pew Research.
Whole life insurance, a mainstay of many mutual life insurers, is a primary product MassMutual intends to sell to this market.
The Chinese “traditionally highly prize family and are well-known savers so they look more for products that provide protection and guaranteed savings in combination,” Chow said, referring to whole life insurance.
Life insurance has been introduced by Chinese financial professionals for several decades so there is some familiarity with the product, Chow said.
In Flushing, there is a rapid growth of families and business owners, Chow said, noting they have unique financial needs. Most Chinese-Americans don’t have legacy planning for wealth protection, he said, noting there is no system of long-term financial planning in China. In the United States, they begin building up property and a high net worth, and so need a plan to transfer this legacy to the next generation, he said.
Life insurance is “family-oriented and can provide both income protection and the ability to transfer a legacy to Chinese-American’s children, and it allows for making resources available for retirement planning,” Chow said.
Two other large life companies based in New York also see opportunity in serving this market.
“For more than three decades, MetLife has helped thousands of New York’s Chinese-Americans and their families achieve their financial goals,” Candy Chan, who oversees MetLife’s Chinese-American marketing strategy, said in emailed comments.
Since 1982, MetLife’s City Hall office has served New York’s Chinese-American community from its location in Manhattan’s Chinatown, Chan said. The office, which has nearly 100 financial services representatives, also maintains branches in other New York metropolitan areas with high concentrations of Chinese-Americans including Eighth Avenue in Brooklyn; Flushing, Queens; and Edison, N.J.
Chinese-American clients have access to Mandarin and Cantonese-speaking advisers and Chinese-language marketing materials at these locations, Chan said
Sheila Chen, corporate vice president in charge of East and Southeast Asian markets for New York Life, said a focus to better serve the Chinese-American community began in 1995, including the New York City area. In New York, the company’s offices in Manhattan’s Chinatown, Brooklyn’s Chinatown and Flushing are hubs for serving the local Chinese community, Chen said in emailed comments.
New York Life’s agents, drawn from the communities they serve, help Chinese-American individuals, families and business owners get the financial protection they need, Chen said, noting New York Life offers agent training programs and in-language servicing.
MassMutual has set some targets for New York. “I hope over the next three years to reach up to 5,000 families in our area,” Chow said, who acknowledged the other “major” insurance companies in New York City. Over the next three years, he said he will be building his team up to 100 financial professionals, both experienced and career changers, to serve the community.
Massachusetts Mutual Life Insurance Co. currently has a Best’s Financial Strength Rating of A++ (Superior).
Metropolitan Life Insurance Co. currently has a Best’s Financial Strength Rating of A+ (Superior).
New York Life Insurance Co. currently has a Best’s Financial Strength Rating of A++ (Superior).
(By Fran Matso Lysiak, senior associate editor, BestWeek: fran.lysiak@ambest.com)
