History

Our Agency’s roots trace back to 1952, when Vern Heinsz started in the Life Insurance business and began a full lines Independent Agency in 1960. Our second generation, John Heinsz, started in the Agency in 1970, and succeeded Vern in managing the Agency in 1978. In 1985, the agency joined with Bill Schaefer and his 16 years of insurance experience, and moved to our current location in downtown St. Charles. In 1990 Paul Garwitz brought his many years of experience to HSGW. Doug White joined our Agency in 2003 and Ryan Garwitz, our third generation, joined in 2010. Doug became a part of our ownership team in 2016 and Ryan became part of it in 2019.  They now take a more active role in management and planning, in addition to their normal sales activity.

2016 also saw HSGW join, American Agency Insurance Group, Inc. This is an arrangement that allows all 10 of our member Agencies to add more Companies for our clients and share our insurance expertise, while remaining totally independent.

Although the insurance business has changed tremendously over the years, our belief that our clients’ needs come first, has not. Our motto continues to be: Your most valuable policy is a good Independent Agent.