Hatfield Insurance & Financial Services Inc Information

Hatfield Insurance & Financial Services, Inc. (HIFSI) was established in 2009 by Eric Hatfield, but our roots go back much further than that. At the time, Eric had spent a little over 7 years as a career agent for a general agency of MassMutual (in Century City, CA). As a career agent in the MassMutual Financial Group, Eric went through comprehensive core training programs and built experience providing his clients guidance on the purchase of insurance and investment products to fit their financial needs. It was during this time that Eric met two experienced agents (both with over 30 years of experience at that point) who went on to play important roles in his development and, ultimately, led to a merger of three practices that today make up the majority of the clients that HIFSI services. Those two agents were Bing S Newton, CLU, ChFC and Steven F Davidson, CLU, ChFC. Bing spent 3 years personally coaching Eric on the curriculum needed to obtain his CLU (Charted Life Underwriter) and ChFC (Chartered Financial Consultant) professional designations. Hours upon hours were spent sharing stories and reviewing real case examples to illustrate key concepts and reinforce the course material. Both Bing and Steve then spent years working on joint cases with Eric where he was able to apply the lessons learned to actual client situations. It was a similar work ethic and a commitment to always acting in the best interest of the client that bonded the three together, and over the years a succession plan was established allowing Steve and Bing to retire knowing that their clients were in excellent hands with Eric. Steve's assistant, Tina Ziegler, joined Eric and took over the role of office manager when Steve retired in 2011. This helped maintain an important string of continuity for servicing all of Steve's clients. During Eric's time with MassMutual, he met another financial services professional, Scott Gilbert, who joined Eric as a junior associate in the fall of 2012. Eric was impressed with Scott's integrity and commitment to service. Today, Eric and Scott, with the assistance of two important internal staff members, Tina Ziegler and Pamela Peterson, service a large clientele that comprises 4 combined practices. It was important to Eric and Scott (as well as their clients) that they find a way to deliver financial services through an independent channel without bias towards any specific company's products. In January 2014, Hatfield Insurance & Financial Services, Inc. was reorganized as a Registered Investment Advisor firm. This new independent structure allows us to deliver investment & insurance services in a truly objective manner. Our guiding principal is to always act in the best interest of our clients. In 2015, another important relationship was formalized. Eric has spent time over the past decade working with Cori Martin (owner) and Janet Mendence (associate) at Dancor Insurance Services (Dancor) in West Los Angeles, CA. Dancor has been the endorsed disability specialist for the GME House staff at UCLA Medical Center since the late 1980's. Dancor has now transitioned its role to HIFSI to act as disability specialists for the UCLA GME House staff, providing group disability benefits as well as educational support to the physicians on protecting their income for their respecitve medical specialities. Janet Mendence has joined HIFSI, and together with Eric Hatfield and Scott Gilbert, will be continuing to provide these services to the house staff members.