Congratulations to NAIFA Trustee Stephen Kagawa, LUTCF, FSS, on being named the 71^st recipient of NAIFA-Los Angeles’s Will G. Farrell Public Service Award. The CEO and Chairman of the Board of The Pacific Bridge Companies has been a loyal NAIFA member since 1986.

Kagawa’s practice connects financial professionals in the fields of insurance, investing, banking, tax, and the law to serve the financial needs of multinational individuals and families. He helps ethnic communities and first-generation Americans migrating from Asia acclimate financially to their lives in the United States and is committed to making sure this community is afforded full and equal access to financial understanding, opportunities, advice, products, and services.

He was honored as NAIFA’s 2020 Diversity Champion and became a member of the national Board of Trustees in 2023. Kagawa is a Board member and former Chair of the Circle of Ambassadors with the Go For Broke National Education Center, sharing stories across the United States and around the globe of World War II American soldiers of Japanese American descent. He is a trustee of the Japanese American National Museum, as well as a member of the inaugural Board of Directors and current Council Leader for the U.S.-Japan Council, which helps strengthen U.S.-Japan relations by bringing together diverse leadership; engaging stakeholders; and exploring issues that benefit communities, businesses and government entities on both sides of the Pacific. Kagawa is also an Excalibur Knight of the Inner Circle Society for the MDRT Foundation.

Kagawa is the best-selling author of Aloha Financial Advising: Doing Good To Do Better For Your Clients and Yourself. He is a popular speaker at financial services industry events on issues of ethnic diversity marketing, holistic financial advisory, multi-national wealth management, and entrepreneurship.

The Will G. Farrell Public Service Trophy is awarded annually to a member of the life and insurance industry in Southern California or California who is distinguished in her/his own industry and who has demonstrated unselfish service to others in and out of the industry.

Previous winners of the Will G. Farrell Award include NAIFA Past Presidents John Davidson, Larry Lambert, and Tom Michel. Kagawa will receive the award at the NAIFA-Los Angeles Pathway to Excellence Dinner, April 18, in Culver City, CA.