As a multi-racial, openly LGBTQ business owner who grew up in Jamaica, Matthieu Chin says he understands challenges, financial and otherwise. He’s navigated them his entire life.
“I worked in my family’s liquor and grocery business from a very young age, which taught me a lot about business, bookkeeping and overall street-smarts,” he explains. “I migrated here at the age of 15, graduated high school and was out of the house at age 17.”
Chin subsequently worked full time to put himself through college. After graduating in 2006, he navigated the next year’s economic downturn while serving as a caretaker for loved ones.
“My family and I persevered,” he recalls. “I took care of my elder grandparents and because they had no long-term care planning in place, I had to fund all of their care myself.
“Where I came from, the challenges that I’ve endured over the years, and becoming self-made all contribute to my motivations and deep passion for economic equality and educating my clients on becoming more financially sustainable,” he continues. “I think we, as a country, do a really poor job at ensuring financial literacy.”
Chin, who now lives in St. Petersburg, works to change that as a financial representative for Northwestern Mutual. The organization serves more than 4.6 million Americans by providing life, disability income and long-term care insurance, annuities, and brokerage and advisory services.
It has also received a perfect score for seven consecutive years in the Human Rights Campaign’s annual Corporate Equality Index, which measures how inclusive an organization’s corporate policies and practices are. “I’ve made financial security my focus and my practice is all about educating my clients on becoming financially sustainable,” Chin says. “Teaching them basic financial knowledge and helping them achieve their goals through planning.”
Watermark spoke to Chin about exactly that.
Watermark: Why is bringing financial awareness to the LGBTQ community important?
Matthieu Chin: I think a lot of our community doesn’t know what’s available to them. Every conversation I have, whether it be with an LGBTQ client or not, my goal is to ensure that everyone leaves the conversation with more knowledge or that they wish that they had that conversation sooner.
When it comes to the LGBTQ community, there are unique challenges that we face. A frequent topic is starting a family, anything from looking into adoption or exploring surrogacy options. One of the biggest things … is that soon we’re going to have to figure out what’s going to happen to our elder members that don’t have kids or family close by. What if they need long-term care? Are they financially secure enough to pay for it?
We also see questions around affording HIV medications. Because basic Medicare will not cover them, people need to have Medicaid plus supplements, which come at a cost. There are a lot of unique financial challenges we see among the LGBTQ community, which requires tailored planning and a unique understanding of the options available to them.
What’s your approach to addressing these matters?
Every situation is different. At the end of the day, we’re a relationship business. It’s important to sit down with the families, individuals or businesses we’re working with and get to know them. As a trusted adviser, it’s important to know who they are, what’s important to them, what they’re passionate about and what their goals are. From there, I need to understand, or help them understand, any variable that could affect them from achieving their financial goals. Our client-advisor relationships are constant – it’s a lifelong relationship. There’s no plan that’s set in stone; we constantly evolve the plan as life goes on. We meet with our clients, at a minimum, every six months to make sure their plan is working. And if not, we adjust as needed … that’s a relationship that we built. A relationship of trust.
What message do you have for those who feel they don’t have enough funds to need assistance?
It’s one of the hardest topics to talk about. Everybody is either afraid, there’s anxiety around it, or they’re ashamed. I like to start our conversations by telling them this is a no judgement zone, there’s no need to justify or to explain why they are where they are.
I’m a firm believer that someone has to be there while you’re crawling before you start to get up and walk. Somebody has to be there to hold your hand, educate and help you.
I find that a lot of people that hear about financial planning think they have to have a lot of money to invest when that’s not the case. We first figure out how to protect what you currently have and what you’ve worked so hard to accomplish. Once everyone has that conversation, they feel more comfortable and they can have that aha moment of “why did I not speak about this before?”
What are your thoughts on the LGBTQ dollar?
Almost two years ago, I sat with a colleague in the firm and I said “I want the Tampa Bay LGBTQ community to be the most financially secure in the nation.”
The first thing he said to me was “well, how do we show that? What report? What metrics? How are we going to prove that?” He asked that because there is a lack of census data collected, but truly a goal of mine is to make our LGBTQ community here locally the most financially secure one in the nation.
How do you plan on making that happen?
My partnership with Northwestern Mutual runs deep and I’m always working to put clients first. Diversity and inclusion is not just something that we preach, but something we practice.
The way our business grows is really through introductions and having a presence in the community. Not everyone is actively searching for a financial representative to do business with … Retirement planning and goal planning is on everyone’s list, but it’s one of those things that can be forgotten about until it’s too late.
For me, those are the hardest conversations to have is when it’s too late. My plan is really just building our presence in the Tampa Bay area and in our community, and to show that we’re here to really help them grow. Giving back is big on our list.
What else can you share?
I think a lot of people think that they’re confident with their finances. When we go through or have a conversation, we usually find a couple of stones that are left unturned.
I would ask our community to be a little bit more open minded about how we can help with their financial plan. It’s just like mental health and a lot of other topics. We’re trying to break down the stigma and we’re trying to be more open about it. Finance is something that you really shouldn’t be ashamed of. If you want to change, and you want to grow, have that discussion with a financial advisor or representative.
Look for an advisor that fits with you – speak to a few of them, interview them, ask them why they do what they do, who they do it for, what their specialty is, who their company supports. Our community wants to really know that they’re doing business with an institution that supports them and that has had their back.
For more information about Matthieu Chin and available services, call 305-282-8868 or visit MatthieuChin.NM.com and NorthwesternMutual.com.
