Marketing to the Hispanic Community

A matter of priorities

Ruiz has authored numerous books on Hispanics and wealth. He says that Latinos are 10 times less likely to hold IRAs, 401(k)s, annuities and life insurance.

"As far as a reason, what I've come up with over the years is Hispanics have never been taught how to accumulate net worth or wealth," he says. "That wasn't the priority of their parents or grandparents. It was just go to school, finish high school, hopefully go to college and to become a middle-income American."

Yet Hispanic-Americans are no different than other demographic groups in that they want to plan for their financial futures. "They want to invest. They want to save. They want to get all the benefits. They want to fix their income and expenses; their money management," Ruiz says. "[And] they're going to do it with a person that calls on them and explains to them financial planning, investments and savings."

Moises J. Pineda, owner of MJP Insurance Strategies, in Miami, says that many Hispanics come from countries where medical and other types of insurance are provided to them at little or no cost. When they come to the U.S., they assume they will get the same coverage and, therefore, may not be aware of long-term financial solutions.

An example, Pineda says, is long-term care insurance. "Many believe if something happens and they need that type of care that their health insurance or the government will cover them completely and that is not the case," he says. "Even with an annuity, if not enough money is used to fund the account, they will not have the required cash to cover expenses and allow them to get medical help. An LTCI policy would be more beneficial."

Is language a barrier?

Aurora Saenz strongly asserts that to be successful in reaching this market, an advisor or agent must speak Spanish.

"Bottom line, learn how to speak the language correctly," she states. "The insurance vocabulary is not easy to learn, but you need to learn it and understand it well."

Being able to shift between Spanish and English helps, Saenz says. "If you're communicating in English and then they start speaking to you in Spanish, you need to be able to make that switch immediately," she says.

Others, however, say that while speaking Spanish or knowing a few Spanish phrases is helpful, it's not necessary to connect with this community. Mendoza points out that many Hispanics do not speak Spanish; what's more important is having knowledge of and being sensitive to the culture.

Nevertheless, material written in Spanish can be a good resource to have on hand, Mendoza says. "We find in many instances that prospects are not only purchasing for themselves, but they're going to become an influencer for others in the family," he says. "So if they happen to have somebody who still is speaking Spanish fluently or prefers to speak Spanish and you happen to have some materials that are available that explain the basic product or service [in Spanish], that can be very helpful."

Ruiz agrees that Spanish-speaking ability is not essential to market to this community, although much depends on the individual sitting across from you. He says that Hispanics in the middle-income and above brackets are typically bilingual. "They know how to speak English, they want to speak English and they want to hear it in English," he says.

Chris Mendoza, assistant vice president of multicultural market development at MassMutual, gives five pointers to advisors who want to reach the Hispanic market:
1] Be a student of the culture   2] Face-to-face contact is most effective   3] Be where Latinos are
4] Look for referrals  5] Have Spanish-language material available