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Overcast Hastava Insurance in Island Park partners with Whitmore Agency
Hastava Insurance Agency, a family-operated Island Park company owned by Michael Hastava, which has provided close to 100 years of service to families, businesses and communities on Long Island, has entered into a partnership agreement with James C. Metzger’s Whitmore Agency, a leading insurance services and estate planning company in the New York metropolitan area headquartered in Garden City.
Hastava has been named managing director of Whitmore’s commercial lines division. The collaboration between the Whitmore and Hastava firms will provide the clients of both organizations with access to a broader range of expertise, opportunities, services and products to support personal and commercial financial protection, growth and estate planning.
Hastava Insurance’s services include the conventional home, auto, boat and umbrella insurance coverage, along with unique coverage options for sports vehicles (RVs, ATVs, off-road and personal watercraft), contractors and special events. Hastava also maintains automotive industry expertise. In collaboration with Metzger, Hastava is developing a comprehensive program that supports the unique insurance requirements of mechanics, body shops and gas stations.
Hastava Insurance also features expertise in flood insurance, which is an evolving sub-specialty that increasingly affects Long Island communities. The agency’s offices were damaged during Superstorm Sandy and the lessons learned in its aftermath, according to Hastava, will ensure continuity of services for clients affected by future weather-related events.
“My father’s Uncle Rudolph started this business during the 1930s,” Hastava said. “The home and business environments were much different back then. The average price for a new home was $4,000, gas was just 10 cents a gallon and the average family earned just over $1,700 a year. It was a time without computers, internet and cell phones. A manual typewriter was Uncle Rudy’s most important piece of office equipment.”
A lot has changed over 90 years, but the most important feature of the Hastava family business always has remained the same.
“He understood the importance of a handshake,” Hastava said, “being available when clients needed him and doing business with integrity. There’s no substitute for personal service.”
The Hastava and Whitmore business models dovetail when it comes to personal service. When Metzger entered the industry more than 30 years ago, he immediately indicated and has continued to practice a distinctive philosophy — “I promise to make insurance personal.”
The collaboration between the Whitmore and Hastava firms creates a new team of creative insurance and risk management advisors to provide expertise in handling the complex insurance needs of individuals, companies and nonprofits.
“The proud Hastava family brand, established here on Long Island close to a century ago, will offer unique and fresh perspectives for all of us at Whitmore,” Metzger said. “This partnership will deliver broader insurance business expertise that immediately will benefit our mutual clients.”
Metzger is a former three-sport athlete at Half Hollow Hills East High School in Dix Hills and a lacrosse All-American at Hofstra University. In the community, he champions athletic, education and many additional Long Island, New York City and New Jersey programs, including Hempstead PAL Lacrosse, Boys & Girls Club of Newark and Big Brothers Big Sisters of Long Island.
Hastava also has been involved in various community programs on Long Island, served a decade as a trustee for the Island Park School District Board of Education and will become engaged with Whitmore’s community programs throughout the New York Metropolitan Area.
