Featured New York Life Insurance Agents: The Kho Family

Featured Agents:
Jenny Kho, CLU, ChFC; Johnson Kho, CLU, ChFC, CFP; Helen Kho, CLU, CLTC

• The Kho Siblings are active in New York's Filipino-Chinese Community
• Have 70 Years of Combined Experience Helping Their Clients Secure Their Financial Goals
• Turn their Business Success into World Travel

Move to New York. Get a job within two months. Become a success within a year, a top achiever in two years. For most people, the odds of such good fortune are small. But New York Life Insurance Company Agent Jenny Kho, Greater New York Office, never wasted much time thinking about odds. She just did it.

“The New York Life mission is our mission,” Jenny says, referring to herself, her brother, and her sister. Her eyes light up and she flashes her warm smile. “I feel so lucky. We are doing what we enjoy — helping people have peace of mind.”

Days after arriving in New York City from the Philippines, Jenny, who is Chinese by ancestry, answered an ad for a management trainee position. The year was 1982, and the address for the interview was auspicious: the Empire State Building. “The Empire State Building is my first love,” Jenny says, having long admired the iconic skyscraper as a symbol of American prosperity and prestige. “Whenever anyone asked me where I work, I loved to say, ‘Empire State Building.’”

George C. Vatore, CLU, (currently a partner at the Greater New York Office), offered her a sales job on the spot. But Jenny insisted she was too timid for sales. Her modesty was an early clue to the genuine, low-key style that would soon prove to be her biggest asset. In her first six months as an agent, she qualified for the Million Dollar Round Table (MDRT)*. Over the course of her career, she has qualified for some of New York Life’s most prestigious honors, and, in fact, has qualified for the MDRT 26 years in a row — her entire NYLIC career. So much for modesty.

Jenny would be the first to say that luck played a part in helping her gain a toehold in the business. The Chinese school she attended in the Philippines turned out to have an alumni association in Manhattan; it became a treasure trove of referrals. And the Philippine-Chinese Association of America (PCAA), of which she is past-president and co-founder, was, and continues to be, another source of business. “I don’t give out cards,” Jenny says. “People just feel comfortable with me. They come up to me and give me their business.”

If Jenny’s success is a dream come true, consider the two supporting characters that propelled this dream beyond her wildest imagination: her sister, Helen, and her brother, Johnson.

Helen came to America three years after Jenny and became her assistant. One year later she was an agent in her own right, racking up just as much MDRT success (having been a member for her entire 22-year career) and New York Life honors as her sister. Then Johnson, the youngest of the three, came a year later. When Vatore approached him with the idea of working for the Company, Johnson was skeptical. “I thought that Jenny and Helen had all the clients wrapped up and there would be no business left for me.” But that year, 1986, New York Life’s investment management business was relatively new. That business provided Johnson with a niche, an opportunity all his own. Today, he is a lifetime member of the MDRT.

While each sibling’s record of success is remarkable in itself, the total is much greater than the sum of its parts. Though each handles different products (Jenny covers the senior markets, Helen the Middle Market, while Johnson handles mutual funds and annuity products), they all support one another’s clients. If Helen is unavailable, for instance, her client can count on Johnson or Jenny to provide service and support.

Sometimes they collaborate on closing a piece of business. Jenny remembers a time she was working on a case with Helen. As she talked with the client, Helen began filling out the application. The client was amazed at how fast and efficient the whole process was. “Sometimes people wonder if we compete against each other,” Helen says. “We don’t compete. We complement each other.” This teamwork, she adds, enhances each other’s success. “Jenny is my role model. If she does well, I’ll do well.” Likewise, Johnson says that Jenny, the eldest of the siblings, is an inspiration. He adds: “Her integrity and character are unquestionable.”

Nowadays, Jenny works with Helen and Johnson in the Greater New York Office in the Graybar Building, which rises above another New York icon: Grand Central Station. According to her, it’s an ideal location, given that her clients are scattered across the New York metropolitan area. “Our customers just take the train when they come and see us.”

Within New York Life or outside, the siblings maintain a strong family unit. Jenny lives with Helen in a house in Yonkers, NY. “It is the home,” she says, “where the whole extended family comes together.” Johnson lives in Scarsdale, New York, with his wife and five children.

Besides learning, she cites preparation, strategizing, and hard work as other essentials for success. And there are qualities that cannot be taught like honesty, integrity, and a genuine desire to help people. Qualities that, not coincidentally, echo the New York Life mission statement. “The New York Life mission is our mission,” Jenny says, referring to herself, her brother, and her sister. Her eyes light up and she flashes her warm smile. “I feel so lucky. We are doing what we enjoy — helping people have peace of mind.”

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