Hawaii’s First Insurance Co.

By Tony Abad
Wednesday - March 23, 2011
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By Tony Abad
Vice President of First Insurance Company of Hawaii Ltd.

I’ve worked at First Insurance Company of Hawaii since 1976. Over the past 35 years, I’ve become very familiar with its philosophy toward change.

While First Insurance has a long history in Hawaii, in my experience it has always been a forward-looking company, and I think its ongoing success can be attributed to that.

First Insurance Company of Hawaii was founded 100 years ago - Aug. 11, 1911. At that time, it was known as Home Insurance Company of Hawaii. One of the motivations for starting Hawaii’s first insurance company was to be able to serve the people and businesses of Hawaii with local expertise.


Today, we are proud to be the oldest and largest locally operated property and casualty insurance company in the state.

Hawaii has been our company’s home through the past 100 years.

We are dedicated to understanding the evolving insurance needs of our community and working in collaboration with our independent agency network to provide the best possible personal and commercial insurance products and service.

(front, from left) Ben Bondroff, Allen Uyeda (president and CEO), Tony Abad, Jeff Shonka, (back) Roger Buss, Darren Okihara, Dean Ochiai, Karen Street, Calvin Hiraoka and Steve Tabussi

We sell a promise to our customers that we will be there for them when they experience a loss, so it’s very important to us how our customers rate our claims service. Our most recent surveys show a claims satisfaction rate of more than 97 percent.

In the fast-moving Hawaii of today, we find that customers not only expect quality, but also speed and convenience. To remain a viable choice for our customers, we have to continue to innovate and make doing business with First Insurance as easy as possible. Earlier this month, we launched a new way for our customers to purchase car insurance that provides an online portal for customers looking for speed and convenience, plus the option of speaking to a FICOH sales adviser or their own independent agent when they want personalized assistance and advice. This is one of the ways in which First Insurance is keeping pace with changes in the marketplace.

Giving back to the community also has been a theme throughout First’s history. In honor of our centennial, First Insurance employees are delivering on this commitment by giving back to Hawaii’s people, charities and nonprofit organizations in 100 ways throughout the year as part of a campaign called “Inspiring by Example.”


Mahalo, Hawaii, for your support over the years! As we prepare for our next 100 years, customer service excellence, innovation and giving back to the community will remain important priorities for our company.

Please find us at www.ficoh.com or follow us on Facebook.

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