Clients First Insurance officially opened for business on August 1, 2017 when Joe Dodd purchased part of All-Star Insurance. The actual origins of Clients First Insurance go much further back, in fact Clients First Insurance traces our history back to October of 1946; that’s when Bill Farmer and Joe Harper opened Harper and Farmer Insurance Company to sell life and hospitalization insurance in Gilmer, Texas.

After Harper left the agency, Farmer moved the office to the east side of the square in downtown Gilmer and operated as Farmer Insurance Agency until 1954 when J.H. Stropp joined the agency as a partner. The Farmer-Stropp Insurance Agency moved that same year to a building located on the southeast corner of the square.

In April of 1957 the name changed to the J.H. Stropp Insurance Agency when Bill Farmer sold his interest in the firm to Stropp.

In June of 1959 Mr. Stropp’s nephew, Tom Davis, joined the newly named Stropp and Davis Insurance Agency as a partner. Mr. Davis eventually purchased his uncle’s interest in the agency from the Stropp family after Mr. Stropp died in 1971 and renamed it the East Texas Insurance Agency.

First National Bank of Gilmer purchased the agency in June of 2010 and Mr. Dodd was named President of the agency in October of 2010. Mr. Davis retired in June of 2011 after 52 years with the agency.

In August 2011 the corporation's name was changed to All-Star Insurance Group. The December 2013 acquisition of Hogue Insurance Agency in Quitman allowed the agency to expand to the West.

When First National Bank decided to sell All-Star Insurance, Dodd purchased the Gilmer and Quitman client base and changed the name to Clients First Insurance.

Dodd moved the Gilmer office into the newly renovated Strand Building on the southeast corner of the square next to the building that housed the agency for more than 60 years. In August 2018 the Quitman office moved to 713 South Main Street.