Our History

True Wealth Strategies traces its origins to 1929, when Henry C. Hunken Sr. began his career in insurance services. In 1936 he took over the Massachusetts agency as General Agent (CML). While located in Springfield, Henry served as President of the General Agents and Managers Association (GAMA) of Springfield and President of the National Association of Insurance and Financial Advisors (NAIFA) of Springfield. After a few years, Henry was asked to move to Chicago to take CML’s Chicago agency.

In 1989, Henry Hunken Jr. left CML to become a General Agent with Guardian Life Insurance Company. Henry’s agency jumped out of the gate quickly and was awarded Guardian’s “New Agency of the Year” award in 1990. In 1993, The Hunken Agency was awarded Guardian’s two most prestigious awards, “Agency of the Year” and the “National Life Insurance” award, for leading the company in life premium.

In 1998, Henry Hunken Jr. retired after 40 extremely successful years. Henry Jr.’s two sons, Scott and Henry Hunken III (Chris), were named General Agents. Chris moved from CML to Guardian in 1991. Scott began his career with Guardian in 1990. Scott and Chris Hunken were consistent qualifiers for Guardian's Leaders Club along with numerous qualifications for the industry's prestigious Million Dollar Round Table. Both Scott and Chris served on the board of directors for their industry professional association - The National Association of Financial Advisors, NAIFA Chicago. In addition, Scott Hunken, LUTCF, served as President of NAIFA - Chicago in 1998-1999 and National Committeeman in 2001-2003. In 2014, Scott was awarded NAIFA Chicago's highest award, The Leadership in Life Award.

In 1975 the Davis Dann agency was founded with Guardian by two close friends, Herb Davis Jr., CLU, ChFC and Donald (Donnie) Dann, CLU, CPCU, ChFC, then in 1989 Lanny Levin, CLU, ChFC was added as a partner. When Herb and Donnie retired, the agency was renamed the Levin Agency, managed by Lanny Levin. The agency won two Presidents Cups for being Guardian Agency of the year in 1978 and 1985. In 2010 Lanny stepped down and Mark Pietsch MBA, LUTCF, CLU, took over the reins of managing the agency and renamed the firm The Pietsch Financial Group.

Mark started his career in 1986 as an agent with Prudential and quickly became a Managing Director/General Agent in 1990 over Chicago’s southwest territory, winning numerous Prudential Citation, National Management and GAMA awards. In 2003, Mark was recruited to join GCG Financial (The Alera Group), one of Securian Financials’ largest agencies, as a Managing Director/Owner, and he had an immediate impact recruiting agents and growing the agency. While with GCG, Mark won Securian’s top David W. Goers Award in recognition of new organizational growth and development. In 2010, Mark realized he wanted to lead his own agency with greater support for recruiting and developing new agents. Under Mark’s leadership, The Pietsch Financial Group has consistently grown and won several awards from Guardian for being one of the top recruiting agencies.