Hot M&A market continues for insurance agencies

There were 151 announced insurance agency mergers and acquisitions during Q1 of 2019, according to OPTIS Partners.

Patriot Growth Insurance Services led all insurance agency buyers with 18 transactions during the first quarter of 2019. (Image: Shutterstock)

The pace of insurance agency mergers and acquisitions (M&A) hasn’t cooled in the United States and Canada during early 2019.

One more deal than was announced in Q1 2018.

There were 151 announced insurance agency mergers and acquisitions during the first quarter of 2019, according to OPTIS Partners’ M&A database. That was one more deal than was announced in Q1 2018.

The data from OPTIS covers U.S. and Canadian agencies selling primarily property & casualty (P&C) insurance, agencies selling both P&C and employee benefits, and those selling only employee benefits.

The report breaks down buyers into four groups:

  1. Private equity-backed/hybrid brokers.
  2. Privately held brokers.
  3. Publicly held brokers.
  4. All others.

Patriot Growth Insurance Services led all buyers with 18 transactions during the quarter, including 17 closed deals to kick-off their new venture.

Other top buyers were:

Fewer unique buyers

The report found there were only 57 unique buyers in 2019, the lowest number in any first quarter since 2014.

Acquisitions in Canada have increased from 1-2% of the total 10 years ago to 6-8% now.

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