When Maria Dela Cruz, a three-year MDRT member from Singapore, first entered the industry under the bancassurance umbrella in 2006, her clientele base was naturally geared toward that of the bank she was working for. In particular, the focus was on the local Singaporean market with product offerings and scope of services also being streamlined to address the immediate and long-term focus of a typical Singaporean household. It was not until 2010, when Singapore’s workforce demographics started to notably evolve.

In 2015, Dela Cruz decided to make the transition to the agency distribution channel. From her experience and observations, it was evident, not only from statistics, but from day-to-day affairs, that the labor pool has since expanded to accommodate a higher proportion of non-citizens. Starting off as a migrant herself, it was a natural progression to shift and re-focus her business model toward this niche group of expatriates in Singapore.

“There was a gap to fill, and opportunity soon arose to support and service foreign talents. This concentration allowed me probe deeper into the unique and multifaceted financial advisory needs of this market, [and expanding my services to] not only to cover individual needs, but also support small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) run by business owners who have chosen to adopt Singapore as their home as permanent residents or naturalized citizens,” she shared.  

At present, Dela Cruz continues to primarily service this niche demographic. Leveraging her expertise, she shares tips and strategies that has helped her build a successful and enduring practice:    

Finding the right skills 

First and foremost, she believes that the usual approach to account management applies. “Identify and develop essential hard skills and cultivate the appropriate soft skills to handle your preferred market,” she advises. 

• Hard skills 

Other than job-specific technical knowledge, financial advisors looking to specialize in a particular demographic should also be accustomed to information peculiar to their niche. In the expatriate space for instance, she finds it helpful to make a note of her prospects’ home country’s social security design, banking and insurance framework and alternative investments. For instance, she takes effort to familiarize her knowledge of guidelines issued by the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) for work pass holders, employers’ terms of service and staff benefits, among others.  

By having a solid foundation for the fact-finding process, this would help advisors better appreciate how new solutions can complement their existing portfolio. 

• Soft skills 

For the most part, adopting crucial soft skills carry a lot of weight in ring-fencing a market. “It is important to cultivate a communication style and interpersonal skills suitable to the target market,” Dela Cruz notes. 

From her experience, there are norms of engagements and personality traits that may be inherently, or at times, subconsciously required owing to cultural diversity and varying level of proficiency and degree of exposure to certain professions. For example, besides acquiring the usual personal particulars and financial positions, one must also be trained to weave well-defined inquiries into conversations to extract as much information that will be insightful for the planning process. This may include intricate family ties, innovative offshore business arrangements, extent of real estate portfolio, and many more. 

Identifying your clients’ needs 

Bearing in mind the unique circumstances of niche markets, a bespoke fact-finding process is indispensable. This brings to mind a request she received from a permanent resident to review his portfolio that was drastically affected by the pandemic. Her client was looking to manage Singapore assets separately from resources established back home, as his approach to planning was framed by geographical boundaries “to keep things simple.”.  

However, his total assets were heavily concentrated on properties accumulated in his home country. Towards the end of 2020, the rental income that was utilized to pay for mortgages literally ceased, thereby putting strains into his liquidity. Without such income, mortgage obligations started to eat into their Singapore household budget.  

After re-establishing his cash flow, assets, and liabilities while encouraging him to look into his local and offshore undertakings holistically, Dela Cruz was able to uncover workable timelines and funding arrangements to help him tide over this period. 

All in all, the key to target a niche demographic is to understand the audience and their needs. Dela Cruz has demonstrated that by concentrating resources to create products and services that meet these specific needs, it could help to effectively differentiate one’s practice to attract prospects and retain a loyal client base. 

Contact: MDRTeditorial@teamlewis.com