Richard Hatfield & Associates in Phoenix AZ is an insurance firm located near the city of Phoenix, Arizona. The insurance company was founded in 1963 and is based on two premises in Phoenix – in a building that was previously a warehouse. Richard and his family are extremely proud of the business they have built up over the years and are constantly looking for ways to improve their services and products and to improve the company culture. The company is also one of the few insurance companies based in the United States, which has a direct branch in Spain, providing it with a steady stream of new clients who want to purchase insurance in Spain.
This type of insurance agents are known as a “third-party” agent, since they act as an independent contractor and are not actually involved in any aspects of the selling process, except to give advice, but do not actually handle claims themselves. Richard has been making some big mistakes in the past few years and this is something that he has been willing to accept. For example, he has managed to sell some of his own policies, which are likely illegal in this country. He has also managed to convince people that he is a licensed insurance agent, when he is not, and this has led to him being sued by the Arizona State Corporation Commission for many different things, including fraud and advertising fraud. In one particular case, he had sold insurance to people whose records showed that they had no insurance whatsoever, which would be very difficult if they were to buy insurance from him later on.
In 2020, he was sued by the Arizona State Corporation Commission for advertising fraud, because he had used pictures of himself in an advert for his insurance company, claiming that he was a member of the American Association of Life Underwriters. These pictures had been taken when Richard was a member of the American Society of Life Underwriters, which is not what he was actually doing. He had actually been a member of another body, but he had misrepresented himself as a member of the latter in order to get a commission for the policy he was selling. He was also ordered to pay a large fine for the deception he had committed and was ordered to give up a large amount of money in commissions and fees. As well as this, his advertising company was ordered to be closed down because of the way in which he had misled many people into thinking that he was a life underwriter.
