Local agency, global impact

The aphorism “Think globally, act locally” could serve as a guiding principle for Steve Knoploh, co-founder of Community Insurance of Iowa, based in Oelwein. He is also a co-founder of AgRisk, a boutique agency specializing in providing insurance solutions for agricultural producers that Knoploh and his partner recently sold to Assured Partners, a worldwide insurance agency — which then sold to AJ Gallagher, a company that has 50,000 employees internationally.

“I think it’s unique that I have been an owner in two different agencies simultaneously,” Knoploh said. “I founded Community Insurance of Iowa 25 years ago because I saw there were opportunities for organic growth and a healthy market share here in northeast Iowa, so, at one end of spectrum I live and work in rural Iowa, where we focus in on serving our community, and at the other end I’m associated now with a huge international company.”

That being said, Community Insurance’s local focus doesn’t mean it’s small. It has offices in Delhi, Edgewood, Guttenberg, Monona, New Hampton, Ossian, Sumner, and Tripoli in addition to Oelwein. Knoploh is one of five owners, and the company offers a full spectrum of commercial, ag, corporate, and personal products, so anyone coming in through the door is probably going to find the coverage they need.

“We’ve grown over time,” Knoploh said, “and our partnerships have given us the ability to have multiple contracts with different carriers, which is what we’ve needed to do to keep us viable and serve our area.” And working both locally and globally gives Knoploh an edge. “I think I have the ability to see a lot of different sides of our industry and to act accordingly,” he said.

A LOCAL PARTNER

Knoploh sees Grinnell Mutual as an important partner in growing his business and keeping it on track.

“These days when you talk about insurance in rural America, increasingly you hear words like ‘consolidation,’ ‘acquisition,’ and ‘mergers.’” he said. “As a small insurance business owner, you have to decide which way you want to go. It can be a tough decision. The amount of production required by different carriers can make it hard to please them.” With Grinnell Mutual, he hasn’t found this to be the case.

“Grinnell Mutual has been great,” he says. “In today’s hard market, with a lot of carriers and [limited] capacity, the ability to write new business has been put on hold. We want to have relationships with companies that can help us provide our clients with the widest selection of coverages to meet their needs, and we want to make it possible for our customers to stay with a given carrier for as long as possible. Grinnell Mutual has always been there for us; it’s been a stable marketplace for us and has answered that need.”

Whether thinking globally or acting locally, Knoploh emphasizes that in his view, success is founded in long-lasting, carefully cultivated relationships. That’s another box Grinnell Mutual ticks for him.

“The first field rep who ever called on me, 43 years ago, was Grinnell Mutual’s current CEO, Jeff Menary. How many times can you say that the first company representative you ever met with is a guy who stayed with the company and ended up running it?”

3/2025