I officially launched the
Asian Americans share similar worries that keep most Americans awake. We worry about job security. We worry about how to provide for our children and aging parents. We want to minimize taxes. We have spending problems and debt problems. We struggle to navigate through the complicated U.S. health care and health insurance system. And we lie awake at night wondering if we have saved enough.
Yet despite the clear need for financial guidance, Asian Americans have
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Cultural barriers collide with advisor frustration
On the demand side, there's also a cultural perception that money is just something you handle yourself, like personal hygiene. Hiring someone to look over your money feels like an admission of failure or leaving yourself vulnerable to exploitation. These lessons get passed down to each generation and are hard to shake off.
Many Asian American consumers simply do not know that qualified, objective financial advisors exist. Among those that do,
On the supply side, advisors who genuinely want to serve Asian American clients often get burned, something I experienced first hand while growing my own practice. The traditional sales model of doing light planning work up front in hopes of earning ongoing AUM fees tends to fail miserably when applied to the Asian American population.
When I first started building a community of Asian American advisors four years ago, I hoped to hear and learn from others who have successfully worked with Asian American clients. Instead, I often heard, "Don't bother, since they will just waste your time and walk away with free advice."
This creates an environment where Asian Americans do not get the best financial care and outcomes. I've seen families tie up their entire net worth in real estate only to feel trapped in retirement. They cannot even take a vacation without worrying that a maintenance emergency — like a clogged toilet — could happen at any moment.
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Asian Americans 'too important to ignore'
Children of immigrants often feel responsible for
Immigrant families can also end up working with multilevel marketing financial sales channels that recruit from within the Asian American immigrant community, and get sold a complicated and expensive insurance product that does not serve their best interest.
I tried hard to figure out how to serve the Asian American population profitably. As I built up my own practice over the past five years, I often felt taken advantage of by people from my own community. On several occasions, I wondered if my colleagues were right that I was just wasting my time.
But each time I doubted myself, something would happen that reminded me that the work is too important to ignore. I would hear from another Asian American wondering if the indexed universal life policy they were sold was really the best use of their money. A skeptical prospect would trust me with their investments and finally feel relief and clarity about their financial future for the first time. I realized this was a personal mission.
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Pairing a mission with profitability
As I continued to learn to market myself to the Asian American population, I finally gained traction in my fourth year of
I found myself in the fortunate position where I had more leads then I knew how to handle as the owner of a solo lifestyle practice.
That is why I launched FAANetwork: to match Asian American consumers with a diverse group of advisors who can best serve them. I can leverage my personal brand to raise awareness and create newfound demand for financial services. I can also show financial advisors that Asian Americans can be served profitability.
The revenue from advisors who sign up for the public directory
