By Tim Cunningham and Dan Menzer

2007 and 2008 were banner years in the agency-brokerage merger and acquisition market, with more deals at the largest aggregate value than at any time in history. But everything began to change at the end of 2008: the economy entered the most severe recession since the Great Depression; the stock market had crashed and the global economy was in shambles. To add to the pain, the insurance market remained soft, with the possibility the economic turmoil would exacerbate or prolong the soft market in a "perfect storm" scenario.

In spite of this, however, the agency-brokerage business has been, is and will remain attractive to buyers, as its cash flow is reasonably predictable and it is not overly capital intensive. However, along with the perfect storm events, the need to preserve capital or the inability to raise capital has created the current "dead calm" environment. Many of the active players on the M&A scene have grown cautious and conservative due to the inability to predict when any semblance of economic recovery and market firming will occur. A no call may be the best call.

Recommended For You

Want to continue reading?
Become a Free PropertyCasualty360 Digital Reader

Your access to unlimited PropertyCasualty360 content isn’t changing.
Once you are an ALM digital member, you’ll receive:

  • Breaking insurance news and analysis, on-site and via our newsletters and custom alerts
  • Weekly Insurance Speak podcast featuring exclusive interviews with industry leaders
  • Educational webcasts, white papers, and ebooks from industry thought leaders
  • Critical converage of the employee benefits and financial advisory markets on our other ALM sites, BenefitsPRO and ThinkAdvisor
NOT FOR REPRINT

© 2025 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.