Company History

Insurance Associates was founded in 1970 by Jay Eagan, Joe “Crow” Reynolds, JC Chambers, and Bobby “Red” Rains as a full service insurance agency.  Working with a number of large corporate clients, they divided the firm into three specialty divisions, Life Insurance and Estate Planning, Property and Casualty, and Employee Benefits.

In the early seventies, H.G. Jerry Davis joined the firm to run the employee benefit division which grew to one of the largest in West Texas specializing in partially self-funded accounts.

In 1980, Bill Hartsfield was invited to join the employee benefits division.  Bill had enjoyed a successful group sales career with Blue Cross Blue Shield of Texas, followed by an additional two years as District Manager for Blue Cross over Lubbock and the surrounding 18 county area. 

With Bill and Jerry working as a team, the employee benefit division grew substantially and Davis eventually purchased Insurance Associates Employee Benefit Company from the original founders in 1984.

In 1994, Jerry was offered an opportunity to become the exclusive General Agent for FirstCare Health Plans for Methodist Hospital Lubbock. At that time he sold the company to Bill Hartsfield.

Since that time, Insurance Associates Employee Benefit Company has experienced significant growth in marketing, IT, and service personnel.  In 2004 we opened an additional office in Abilene, TX.   This subsidiary, Insurance Partners of Texas (IPOT), services Hendrick Health System and a growing number of Central Texas clients.  Our client base continues to expand with significant penetration in the hospital, banking, agricultural, and service industries.  As of 2006, Insurance Associates is the broker/consultant for over 100 accounts covering over 25,000 insured lives.

In addition, Insurance Associates was pleased to be invited to join United Benefit Advisors (UBA) in 2004.  This association of over 150 independent elite national brokerage firms provides benefits consulting and best of class products to over 33,000 private corporations and public entities covering over 2.4 million employees and families.  Combined, UBA member firms manage in excess of $16 billion in employee benefit expenditures on behalf of their clients.

We attribute the success and continued growth of Insurance Associates to a legacy of being a trusted advisor, providing the highest quality of benefits and services to our clients.