Kosciusko Chamber of Commerce had a ribbon-cutting Monday afternoon for Guidepost Marketing Group and for the new location of Guidepost Insurance. Shown from left are Scott Wiley, Chamber member relations manager; Bill Hays, Blue River Digital, Chamber ambassador; Kathy Snyder, mother of Ben Snyder; Ben Snyder, Guidepost owner; Amy Snyder, Guidepost owner; Melissa Paxton, The Waters of Syracuse, Chamber ambassador; Lynn Brown, Lynn Brown Communications, Chamber ambassador; Kyrie Maierle, Cardinal Services, Chamber ambassador; Kristi Hull, Hunsche CPA, Chamber ambassador; Stacey Leek, Stillwater Hospice, Chamber ambassador; and Glenn Hall, Stillwater Hospice, Chamber ambassador. Photo by David Slone, Times-Union.

By David Slone
Times-Union

WARSAW — Guidepost Insurance not only has a new location, but it also has a sister company in Guidepost Marketing Group.

They are now at 523 S. Buffalo St., Suite 24, Warsaw.

Ben Snyder, who owns Guidepost Insurance with his wife Amy, runs Guidepost Marketing Group.

“Guidepost Marketing Group is a general agency, and in the health insurance world you have field marketing organizations that are kind of the top, and then you’ve got agents on the street, which is your insurance agent you run into,” Snyder explained. “A general agency, what we do, is we’re on-the-ground support for agents who are working in the local community. The FMO is like a national company, so they don’t always have the bandwidth or necessarily the concern or the knowledge of specific communities that agents work in.”

He said Guidepost Marketing Group is there to offer help insurance agents in a variety of ways, whether that’s through marketing, funding for events, tech support, adding a new carrier or helping them branch out in a new line of business.
“So I’m basically there as on-the-ground support. My job is basically to resource them, support them, help them be successful in their business,” Snyder said.

His past career with Humana led him to start Guidepost Marketing Group.

“So, I was let go in July. I was the No. 2 agent in the state, two years in a row, and somebody in corporate decided that they wanted to let go of rural agents,” he said.

Not being in a city like South Bend or Fort Wayne, that made Snyder a rural agent.

“It was kind of a shock. I loved Humana, did well with Humana. I’m actually happier now because they kindly gave me my book of business, so I didn’t lose any of my clients, and then my wife Amy had already started Guidepost Insurance and she was independent. She bought a book of business from an area agent who had tragically passed away. So she started that business. When I got let go, I said, ‘let’s join voices,’ so we teamed up,” he said.

Snyder said he loves the business because he and his wife get to work together.

When he joined his wife with Guidepost Insurance, he realized there was a lot of opportunity because he was one of a thousand other agents that got let go.

“I end up saying to myself, ‘You know what, I’ve got all these peers, who I’ve worked with over the years, they’re now solo like me, independent,’” Snyder said, and they don’t have the resources that Humana had provided them.

“I’ve been in various leadership roles in the past. I’m a former pastor, I like to care for people and help them grow and flourish. I’m a former professor, I like to teach, I like to mentor. So to me, it was like this natural shift to say, ‘Hey, I love what I do as an agent, I can help you be more successful as another agent in the community,’” he said.

Snyder decided to do some recruiting and he pitched his value to his peers that were let go, as well as some independent agents that he knew in the community, and he formed a team. There are now just under 40 agents that work with Guidepost. They’re mostly in Indiana and Michigan, but there also are agents in Kentucky, Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, North Carolina, New York, Maine and New Hampshire.

“We’ve got people all over and we continue to grow, and I just love what I do,” he said.

The role of Guidepost Marketing Group “is to basically come around an agent, who has their own business — like Guidepost Insurance — and help them in any way they need so they can be completely brand-new agents and I’m training them, they’re shadowing me, shadowing them, helping them, whatever support they need,” Snyder said.

The type of insurance agent Guidepost works with are those who are selling Medicare, Marketplace, dental or any other kind of final expense.

“I go to a lot of agent events and do recruiting in person. We have a website, it’s guidepostmg.com. My cell number is (574) 549-2028. Happy to receive a call, a text. And then my email is [email protected]. Anybody can contact me in any of those ways,” he said.

Snyder stated he wants to see people grow and flourish in their business.

“Anybody that wants to join us, needs help and support, we can provide that in whatever way they need,” he said.
Guidepost is at the office throughout the week, and can meet by appointment or at other locations as well.