IN THE INSURANCE INDUSTRY
FROM HEALTH AND LIFE TO LIABILITY, INSURANCE COMPANIES ARE RECRUITING
MORE WOMEN, BLACKS, LATINOS AND ASIANS TO BEST SERVE ALL CONSUMERS.
Shanna Reid, a 38-year-old Black agent in
Milwaukee, is living proof that the insurance
industry offers opportunities for those who bring
a fresh perspective to the table. Since leaving the banking industry 10 years ago to work for a national insurance carrier, Reid has moved up the ranks and built a
substantial book of business by tapping an overlooked
yet emerging market: minority- and women-owned
business enterprises (MWBEs).
“My passion isn’t just selling insurance to Black
business owners,” says Reid, founder/president of the
Wisconsin Chapter of the National African-American
Insurance Association (NAAIA). “It’s also educating
her about the product she’s buying, what it does and
why she needs it.”
Besides bringing new ideas and insight to the job,
people from diverse backgrounds can also open doors
in underrepresented communities. “Customers want
to buy insurance from someone who looks like them,”
explains Reid. “And they want to know that the companies they do business with employ people who look
like them.”
Moreover, as women and racial/ethnic populations
accumulate greater wealth by purchasing homes and
cars and starting businesses, their spending on coverage increases. For Blacks, personal insurance/pensions
represented 10. 1 percent of their annual expenses
in 2005, up from 8. 7 percent in 2003, reports the
Selig Center for Economic Growth. Among Latinos,
insurance/pension spending, as a percentage of annual
expenses, jumped from 8. 2 percent in 2003 to 9. 9
percent in 2005. Insurance expenditures increased the
most among Asians during the same two-year time
frame, from 10. 6 percent to 12. 6 percent.
As a result, performance-driven insurers are recruiting more women, Blacks, Latinos and Asians to gain
market share. “I’m seeing more interest in hiring men
and women of color from the insurance companies
that I work with,” says Reid.
Linda Guzzo concurs. As dean of continuing
education and work-force development at Capital
Community College in Hartford, Conn., which offers
associate’s degrees in insurance and financial services,
Guzzo says that her multicultural graduates—especially
