About Us

My passion is helping people solve financial risks and problems through some type of insurance solution. I am a people-pleaser and naturally I want to help people. Family has always been important to me. I was lucky enough to grow up in an “insurance business family”. My uncle and father started and grew an agency when I was 6, so the insurance business is really all I have known.

I grew up in Orange City, Iowa in northwest Iowa or Dutchville as some say. I went to Northwestern College in the same town. I had a very blessed and complete upbringing. After college, I moved to Des Moines. My career started at the Principal Financial Group as an information analyst, then 5 years as a commercial lines underwriter for Continental Western Group, and 11 years as a broker/agent/partner for the Van Engelenhoven Agency, Inc. At the family agency, I was able to learn from my dad, Dave.

My agency concentration was on commercial lines, handling a book of business about $2,500,000 in volume. Accounts included municipalities, a private liberal arts college, several bio-tech companies, many non profit organizations and churches, radiation oncology manufacturer, daycares, small and medium retail, plastic manufacturers, metal fabricators, car and motorcycle dealerships, truckers, propane dealers, many contractors (large and small), and agricultural-related accounts including medium-sized agricultural equipment manufacturer, elevators, feed mills, and implement dealerships.

In 2011 my family and I moved to Steamboat Springs, Colorado where I opened Yampa Valley Insurance Agency. Yampa Valley Insurance Agency has grown by leaps and bounds and is still operating today. As a business owner I know the challenges any business owner has. In Colorado, a partner and I owned four restaurants. I performed every job that existed in the restaurants. It was quite a humbling experience!

After losing my dad on November 28, 2021, my wife, Ana Proano and I decided to move back to the Midwest to be closer to my mother Marilyn. We chose Sioux Falls and decided to start a new insurance agency, HammerStone Insurance Group.

I am licensed in Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Idaho, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, North Carolina, North Dakota, Nebraska, New Jersey, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, Washington state, Wisconsin, and Wyoming.

I specialize in commercial/business insurance of all sizes and types; families for their personal insurance (all types); and supplemental insurance for all needs. I am an insurance professional that will work hard for you! - Paul