Agent Mike Snyder Celebrates 40 Years With Allstate

By Nancy K. Crevier

In a day and age when people move from job to job, and job loyalty is no longer necessarily rewarded, local Allstate agent Mike Snyder celebrated his 40th anniversary with the insurance giant on October 31, of which 18 years have been in Newtown. Starting out in 1966 as an agent in Delaware, he then spent several years in New York and Connecticut as an Allstate manager before moving to Newtown in 1979, where he and his wife, Peggy, and two daughters settled.

“At that time, I was with the Allstate office out of the Sears building in downtown Danbury,” recalled Mr Snyder recently. “Newtown had no Allstate office at that time. I opened the first office in Newtown in 1988 over what is now Carminuccio’s on South Main Street.” In 1991, Mr Snyder moved his office to its present location in the Colonial Park Plaza, just a bit further down Route 25.

As a businessman in town, Mr Snyder has been involved in a number of community services. He has served as a member of the Legislative Council, and was on the Board of Selectmen for eight years. He is a past president of the Rotary Club and the Chamber of Commerce and is currently on the board of trustees at Newtown Savings Bank.

He is a people person and that is one of a number of things that has made Allstate a comfortable fit for Mr Snyder for 40 years. It is the people he meets, first of all, that have made the job a pleasure. “I see a lot of people, I talk to a lot of people. I like being able to help people and advise them a ways that make their lives better.”

Allstate, which operates out of every state in the country except Massachusetts, and has been in the insurance business for 75 years this year, offers plans for personal, auto, home, commercial, life, and health insurance, as well as financial services.

“Allstate has been a good company to work for,” said Mr Snyder. “They have a good product portfolio, good backup from the company, and they are a progressive company.” The company takes good care of its employees, too, said Mr Snyder, recounting a time when illness kept him out of work for several months. “Allstate was very good to me at that time,” he said, another reason that he chose to stay with the company when other opportunities knocked.

The flexibility of hours as an Allstate agent is a plus, as well, said Mr Snyder. “You might have to work evenings at times, but then you can go to the park with your kids during the day. I liked that flexibility, and that’s what I would always point out to new agents that I trained.”

He has had a good run the past four decades with Allstate, said Mr Snyder, and is content to continue on. “They’ll take me out of here in a bag,” he joked.