The Company

Hover & Hessel LLC, Navigators of the New Financial World

Hover & Hessel, an insurance services company specializing in employee benefits, life and disability insurance, works with associations, businesses, large and small, as well as with individuals.

Hover & Hessel - 

  • Provide excellent and experienced guidance in an employee benefit world increasingly difficult to navigate
  • Negotiate the best products for their clients, lowering costs while increasing value. And yes, that can be done---harvesting better coverage with lower premiums.

Seeking to deepen its offerings, Hover & Hessel is also closely networked into partnerships with CalCPA, where we are the exclusive distributors of the CalCPA Health  group life and long-term disability plans and with Johnson & Dugan, a full service employee benefits broker and consulting group. The company is also connected as broker/consultants with the major insurance companies and third party administrators in the United States and Canada.

The Principles Of The Principals

David and Doug share the same goals for their company: providing intelligent and informed advice and insurance services in an uncertain world. Whether guiding clients though the thickets of the new health care laws or helping people protect sensibly against the prospect of job loss and disability, they are a trusted, go-to source interested in long-term client relationships.

Here are our five core principles....

The Client Is Our Center

Our guiding philosophy is to provide clients innovative, financially conservative and up-to-date insurance and benefits planning advice based on a thorough understanding of their needs. Each client is unique. We ask the right questions, help define objectives, formulate the strategy and planning advice, even if it means the right recommendation involves not working with us.

We Stand By Our Clients

Once an insurance or benefit plan is implemented, we take responsibility for making sure promises are kept by advocating strongly on our clients' behalf if any problem arises. We've adhered to this essential value for our entire careers and our proudest moments are standing by our clients in their time of need.

We Are Transparent About Fees

We provide clients full transparency of fees, commissions and any other compensation associated with products and services we recommend. We consider our compensation your money we need to earn.

We Vet Our Networks

We develop and maintain a network of like-minded accountants, lawyers, insurance companies and administrators who share our commitment to providing solutionsthat work most effectively for clients. People in our network exhibit the same core value we have in terms of ethics, honesty and professionalism. 

We Keep Up-To-Date

In a changing financial services environment that often includes complex tax and legal, we are committed to keeping up to date, even though we don't provide tax or legal advice. A commitment to life-long learning is essential as the best client solutions often change over time.

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David Hover

David Hover was born and raised in Santa Rosa, California on a vineyard owned and operated by his grandparents. David and his three siblings constitute the fourth generation of the Hover family to raised in Sonoma County. After graduating from Piner High School, Hover attended California State University, Chico. In 1980, Hover graduated with a B.S. in Business Administration with a concentration in finance. 

After graduation, David began his career in the insurance business by joining Equitable Life in San Francisco. Hover's enthusiasm and drive motivated him to form Hessel and Hover Insurance Services in partnership with Doug Hessel in 1983. The success of Hessel & Hover Insurance Services Palo Alto CA location coupled with David's desire to return to his Sonoma County roots prompted the opening of a second Hessel and Hover location in Petaluma, CA in 1989. 

David has always been involved and cultivated a love of agricultural and farming operations. Shortly after returning to Sonoma County, David and his wife Carrie, purchased a 40-acre horse boarding facility in Santa Rosa, CA. Following the upgrading and refurbishing of the facility, the couple founded Petaluma Hills Stables, a successful hunter/jumper boarding and training facility. In addition to his involvement in the horse industry, David also remains involved in the maintinence and operation of the family's vineyard.

David Hover has over 35 years of experience in the insurance industry with a special focus on employee benefits. He has worked with an incredibly wide range of companies conducting business in many different industries with varying ownership structures. All clients, from family owned wineries to Fortune 500 companies and from non-profit organizations to publicly traded corporations, receive the same superior service that has characterized the Hover and Hessel partnership for the past 20 years.

 

Doug Hessel

Doug is a leading employee benefits broker/consultant in the San Francisco Bay area. Highly experienced, Doug's career has spanned thirty five years. He has worked with hundreds of companies in the management of their employment benefit plans, advising clients how to best use their resources for insurance protection and employment benefits. Clients include leading corporations and non-profit organizations in the Bay Area and other parts of California in the fields of technology, life science, law and accounting. 

Helping clients form and distill their benefit strategies is an essential part of his current work. Collaborating to uncover unique benefit planning opportunities and then implementing the plan is the part of his work that excites him the most. He also prides himself in assisting companies to make cost-effective and forward-thinking benefit plan decisions, difficult but possible in this rapidly changing health reform era made even more complex with the passage of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA). 

Doug and his partner, David Hover of Hover & Hessel LLC, exclusively manage a number of programs that make up a portion of the CalCPA Health employee benefit plans including the group life and long-term disability plans and individual term life and disability programs.

A few of Doug's past client engagements where he served as lead consultant/broker include:

  • Postini - 6-year relationship before acquisition by Google
  • Rinat Neuroscience - 5-year relationship before acquisition by Pfizer
  • TopSpin Communications - 5-year relationship before acquisition by Cisco
  • Juniper Networks - 4-year relationship, company grew from 4-1200 employees
  • Cerent Corporation - 2-year relationship before acquisition by Cisco
  • Ravenbiotechnologies - 6-year relationship before acquistion by Macrogenics

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