Hispanic Market Program boosts participation and deferral rates

DES MOINES, Iowa--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Culturally relevant education at work and online is helping Hispanic employees learn more and save more for retirement, according to new data from Principal Financial Group^®.

Principal^® created the Hispanic Market Program to provide specialized retirement education for employers with large Hispanic workforces. Since launching the program in 2013¹:

• 401(k) plan participation among Hispanic employees in plans with administrative services by Principal is up to 66 percent (a 10 percent increase)
• Nearly half (45 percent) either enrolled in their employer’s retirement plan or increased their deferral on the spot after hearing about its benefits
• Those who enrolled did so at an average of 5 percent of salary, instead of the more typical 3 percent

“We’re encouraged by these results and are working hard to expand the program to more plan sponsors,” said Carlos Rojas, director of consumer and cultural engagement at Principal. “According to our data from plans under the program, just slightly more than half of eligible Hispanic participants are enrolled in their workplace retirement plan.”

Elements of engagement
Recognizing that overcoming culture and language barriers requires more than a simple English-to-Spanish translation, Principal based the Hispanic Market Program education strategy on employee needs and acculturation level.

The program focuses on key elements of engagement that:

• Address cultural influences that may undermine retirement savings, such as sending money home or moving back to the employee’s country of origin
• Identify, develop and integrate cultural elements to help simplify more complex financial topics
• Incorporate levels of culture and language by analyzing the workforce, picking up on what’s culturally unique and making suggestions to plan sponsors so they can customize their plans

The Hispanic Market Program is part of a larger initiative at Principal that aims to provide relevant experiences to targeted consumer segments.

Success story
Texas-based Structural & Steel Products wanted to find a way to motivate more Hispanic employees to participate in its 401(k) plan.

The firm offers a 401(k) plan to its 230 employees, of which more than 70 percent are Hispanic. Not only was the Hispanic participation rate lower compared to that of non-Hispanic employees, many who were participating weren’t taking full advantage of the employer match.

After using the education strategy from Principal:

• Participation rate of Hispanic employees nearly doubled to 68 percent
• Average deferral rate of Hispanic employees increased nearly one percentage point to 5.42 percent (from 4.5 percent)
• 53 percent of Hispanic employees now defer enough to receive the full employer match of 5 percent

Principal.com now available in Spanish
Principal recently launched principal.com/es, a culturally relevant Spanish version of pre-login principal.com. It offers many of the same features and educational content as the English site.

For more research, analysis and insights from Principal, visit the Principal Knowledge Center and connect with us on Twitter.

About Principal^®
Principal helps people and companies around the world build, protect and advance their financial well-being through retirement, insurance and asset management solutions that fit their lives. Our employees are passionate about helping clients of all income and portfolio sizes achieve their goals – offering innovative ideas, investment expertise and real-life solutions to make financial progress possible. To find out more, visit us at principal.com.

This document is intended to be educational in nature and is not intended to be taken as a recommendation.

¹ Results based on 1,731 participants exposed to the new Hispanic 401(k) education program made available by Principal.

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Principal

Jaime Naig, 515-247-0798

naig.jaime@principal.com

Source: Principal

HONG KONG--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- AM Best has assigned a Financial Strength Rating of B++ (Good) and a Long-Term Issuer Credit Rating of “bbb+” (Good) to Beibu Gulf Property & Casualty Insurance Company Ltd. (Beibu Gulf Insurance) (China). The outlook assigned to these Credit Ratings (ratings) is stable.

The ratings reflect Beibu Gulf Insurance’s balance sheet strength, which AM Best assesses as strong, as well as its adequate operating performance, neutral business profile and appropriate enterprise risk management.

Established in 2013, Beibu Gulf Insurance is a non-life insurance company headquartered in Guangxi province, China. It was founded through a joint partnership comprising of 10 state-owned enterprise shareholders and three private sector investors. Its ultimate controlling shareholder, Guangxi Investment Group Co., Ltd., a provincial-level state-owned capital investment company in Guangxi, holds a 29.73% equity stake through its subsidiaries.

Despite being a small-to-medium sized non-life insurer in China, Beibu Gulf Insurance holds a prominent position in Guangxi province, capturing 9% of local market share, in terms of premium income in 2025. The company maintains a diversified product mix, with motor insurance making up nearly half of its gross written premiums. Leveraging strong relationships between its shareholders and local governments, Beibu Gulf Insurance gains access to business opportunities in policy driven agricultural insurance and has continued to expand its liability lines in recent years. While its risk profile is concentrated in certain geographical areas, this risk is partially mitigated by approximately one-quarter of its business originating outside of Guangxi, namely Guangdong (including Shenzhen), Sichuan and Guizhou province.

Beibu Gulf Insurance’s strong balance sheet strength assessment is underpinned by its strongest level of risk-adjusted capitalisation as at year-end 2025, as measured by Best’s Capital Adequacy Ratio (BCAR), which is supported by organic capital accumulation and controlled expansion in underwriting and investment risks. Nevertheless, the company’s absolute capital size remains modest with a relatively high underwriting leverage. Beibu Gulf Insurance demonstrated its financial flexibility by successfully issuing capital supplementary bonds (CSB). Adjusted financial leverage, including equity credit for CSB, was positive at 17.4% despite a low interest coverage ratio in 2025. An offsetting factor is its highly dispersed shareholding structure, which may be subject to further changes; as such, the execution of the company's future capital plans may introduce uncertainty to the fundamentals of its balance sheet strength.

After posting two years of net loss, Beibu Gulf Insurance turned around to profitability in 2023, and sustained momentum to deliver mid-single-digit return-on-equity across both 2024 and 2025. Although Beibu Gulf Insurance has been recording underwriting losses since its establishment, it has achieved narrowing loss trend in recent years from the management’s effort of portfolio restructuring. The company maintains a well-diversified and liquid investment book, dominated by bonds, fixed-income wealth management instruments and cash. The investment portfolio generated a low-single-digit investment return, which was above the average level of the domestic non-life industry in 2025.

Negative rating actions could occur if there is a material decline in Beibu Gulf Insurance’s balance sheet strength fundamentals. A sustained deteriorating trend in underwriting and/or operating performance also may result in negative rating actions. Positive rating actions could occur if the company has a material improvement in balance sheet strength fundamentals while maintaining positive operating performance.

Ratings are communicated to rated entities prior to publication. Unless stated otherwise, the ratings were not amended subsequent to that communication.

This press release relates to Credit Ratings that have been published on AM Best’s website. For all rating information relating to the release and pertinent disclosures, including details of the office responsible for issuing each of the individual ratings referenced in this release, please see AM Best’s Recent Rating Activity web page. For additional information regarding the use and limitations of Credit Rating opinions, please view Guide to Best’s Credit Ratings. For information on the proper use of Best’s Credit Ratings, Best’s Performance Assessments, Best’s Preliminary Credit Assessments and AM Best press releases, please view Guide to Proper Use of Best’s Ratings & Assessments.

AM Best is a global credit rating agency, news publisher and data analytics provider specialising in the insurance industry. Headquartered in the United States, the company does business in over 100 countries with regional offices in London, Amsterdam, Dubai, Hong Kong, Singapore and Mexico City. For more information, visit www.ambest.com.

Copyright © 2026 by A.M. Best Rating Services, Inc. and/or its affiliates. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

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Stephanie Mi
Senior Financial Analyst
+852 2827 3402
stephanie.mi@ambest.com

James Chan
Director, Analytics
+852 2827 3418
james.chan@ambest.com

Christopher Sharkey
Associate Director, Public Relations
+1 908 882 2310
christopher.sharkey@ambest.com

Al Slavin
Senior Public Relations Specialist
+1 908 882 2318
al.slavin@ambest.com

Source: AM Best