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Asian Enterprise Featuring Ed Chin - "Profile of Success", February 1998
Profile of Success
Ed Chin
As a third generation Asian American, Ed Chin's rags to riches story is a true American fairy tale. Chin was raised in the Chinatown district of Oakland, California in a financially poor family but rich with love. Unaware of being poor, Chin and his family always concentrated on what they had and not what they didn't have. This philosophy has stayed true with Chin and has helped him build AIS Corporation into the $25 million corporation that it is today. As president and 100% owner of AIS Corporation, Ed Chin heads one of the largest Asian American owned general insurance companies in the nation.
"After high school I started college and later dropped out before I graduated because I had to make some money. I was broke, my father was ill, I needed some money," admits Chin. Facing this predicament, Chin remembers an earlier conversation he had with his father's insurance man. Chin asked him how much he made and when he told him the figure, Chin decided, "if he could do it, so could I."
Originally, Chin was turned down from nearly 20 insurance companies because he did not fit the profile: the education, experience, family. However, he eventually got work in December of 1960 with a local insurance company. But He later learned that he was only hired because his boss had to fill a body quota. Determined to be a success, Chin did not let this get him down. Instead, he proved himself by his hard work and in the first six months he made $36,000 and over the next four or five years sold a gigantic amount of insurance.
Traditionally, Asian Americans have had a difficult time securing affordable health insurance or access to affordable health care services. Realizing this and armed with research data on the Asian American community, Ed Chin did not waste any time in negotiating with and convincing major health insurance companies to provide Asian Americans with affordable health insurance.
The uniqueness that Chin brings to the industry and makes him stand out from the rest is his ability to comprehend bicultural assets. He is able to have a deep understanding of both "Asian ways" and the "Western ways". This blending of both cultures allows Chin to create innovative insurance plans for the Asian American community.
One such innovation is the California Asian Risk Association or CARA. CARA is an unincorporated association dedicated to the research, development, and delivery of employee benefits and high-end compensation plans to the growing Asian American population. Since 1980, CARA has negotiated special programs for the Asian American community ranging from life and disability to medical and dental insurance.
Chin's commitment to the Asian community has been instrumental in the insurance industry's acknowledgement that Asians are good insurance business. Fighting for the Asian American community consistently and being vigilant about keeping rates down for our community - that is Chin's burning passion. He has taken a Caucasian tool and retooled it to work for the Asian American community.