Patience pays off — With financial advisor Christina Ma

Christina Ma described her mother as a trailblazer as well as someone who believes in planning and patience. She always hoped her daughter would join her in her insurance and financial services practice, but she didn’t push — she knew the time would be right someday, and that time eventually came along.

Ma started her career as a certified public accountant before joining her mother’s Prudential office in Houston, Texas. But after her first few years in public accounting, Ma yearned for some work-life balance. Her mother took notice.

“My mother is the ultimate planner. She laid out a 10-year plan for her business that included me,” Ma said. “My mother saw some strengths and personality traits in me that she thought would fit in well with a financial services career. But she never really introduced me to the business. She let me do what I wanted because she had patience and she saw that I would come in to the business when I thought it was right for me.”

When Ma became dissatisfied with public accounting, she looked at her mother’s business.

“I saw that my mom had balance in her life that I didn’t have,” she said. “I started asking her how she accomplished that.”

Meanwhile, Ma’s brother began working with their mother, and Ma saw how much he enjoyed the business.

“I said, ‘It seems like you have something fun going on here. Let me check it out.’”

Ma started out as her mother’s assistant and said she “fell in love with the impact my mother had on her clients and the relationships that she built with them.”

She eventually transitioned into advising and said she believes advising and planning “are in my genes.”

“When my mother joined this profession more than 30 years ago, it was a heavily male-dominated industry. She is Asian and a woman and didn’t speak English as well as her peers. She is an incredible trailblazer for me and for other women in this field.”

Taking care of each other

Ma said her family’s practice is aligned with their personal values of protecting others financially and taking care of each other, and she said her mother taught her those lessons before Ma entered the business.

“For example, risk management. I got a life insurance policy when I was in my 20s. And the way that we talked it through was, even though I didn’t have any dependents at the time, I wanted to make sure that if something happened to me, I had something for my parents — kind of as a thank-you and making sure that I’m not like rolling in my grave, not knowing if my family will be taken care of or not. So I think that’s something that our family values aligned with, knowing that there’s something out there to provide that protection for your family.”

Asian Americans also place a high value on taking care of older family members, Ma said, which led her to purchase a long-term care policy to ease the financial burden of future care.

“By mixing our business with our family values, it’s incredible the impact we can have on ourselves as well as our clients,” she said.

Ma’s practice serves Asian American clients as well as clients from other ethnic groups who fit her practice’s values.

“The clients we work with all have the same values we do,” she said. “Whether they are Asian American, African American, Hispanic — I find we align based on our values. So ethnicity put aside, gender put aside, as long as you are a good fit for our firm, we are happy to work with you.”

But she believes Asian American clients are drawn to her practice “because they feel more comfortable in speaking with someone who understands their culture. For example, taking care of our elders, having them move in with us — it’s a foreign concept to some people. But for a lot of Asians, that’s the norm — it’s part of the package.”

Determining a good fit

Ma said her firm takes clients through an initial process to help identify whether they are a good fit.

“At the beginning, we have a conversation where we ask what brought them to speak with a financial planner,” she said.

“From there, we are able to identify: Are they looking for someone only to help implement a product and put it in place? Are they looking for someone to manage their investments? Are they looking for some advice and guidance to help us identify a path for us to move forward together? Are they looking for all three?”

Ma said she believes being a woman in the business helps her clients “because one thing about female advisors is that we make sure everyone has a seat at the table and is included in the planning and decision-making process.”

As an example, she cited a couple who began working with her when she first started in the business.

“They were getting ready for retirement and wanted to make sure they knew what their finances would look like and planning all that out. We helped them make that projection, and now every year, we hear from the husband as well as the wife, telling us they are grateful we included both of them in the conversation.”

Ma said her clients have introduced her to their children as well as their children’s friends, opening opportunities to serve a younger generation.

“We do a lot of multigenerational planning,” she said. “I want all my clients to be healthy and happy, but we put everything in place for them in case that doesn’t happen. We make sure everyone in the family knows who we are so that if anything happens, they know who to call.”

Working with the family

Ma’s brothers, Jason and Marcus, also work in her mother’s practice, and everyone has a special role.

“I am the one who goes out and speaks with our clients,” she said. “I’m on the front end of talking with people and networking, and then I get Jason into the client conversations. Jason is the complete opposite of me personality-wise. He is the most patient man you will ever meet, kind and caring. Jason helps walk our clients through the different stages of our planning process. I do the initial meetings, we build out the plan and we discuss the plan together.”
Meanwhile, Marcus works with his team to service existing clients.

“This is how we work together,” Ma said. “I think it’s amazing that we are able to work together the way we do.”

In addition to working with clients and their children, Ma said her firm obtains clients from centers of influence.

“People who know what we do and why we do it and enjoy our relationship will introduce us to more people,” she said. “I work with a lot of physicians. I’m married to a physician, and I know exactly what they go through financially, what hurdles they encounter. I do a lot of educational sessions for the physician market, and that’s my way of giving back to that community.

“Once people know that you care about them and you’re looking out for them, it’s amazing what happens. When you do good, good comes back to you.”

Enjoying the food scene

Ma and her husband have a daughter who is 1 ½ years old, and they are expecting their second child soon.

They love traveling but are equally as happy to stay in Houston and travel around the city’s restaurant scene.

“We have the most amazing, international, eclectic city,” she said. “We have so many local foods, places from all over the world. We have a great Chinatown, a Koreatown, a Pakistani community. Any type of food you want, it’s served here.”

In looking back at her time in the insurance and financial services business, Ma said the biggest tip she would give someone looking to enter the business is “the first three years are the hardest you will ever go through. They test you on a daily basis. I was lucky to have a good mentor and a great business coach.

“But when you get through those initial years, and when you’re able to find the right people to surround yourself with, this is such a beautiful career. You can help so many people within your natural market, through the relationships you develop and then help society as well.”

Susan Rupe is editor in chief, magazine, for InsuranceNewsNet. She formerly served as communications director for an insurance agents' association and was an award-winning newspaper reporter and editor. Contact her at [email protected].