Insurance M&A in 2019: The year's top buyers

The insurance M&A market set a new annual record in 2019.

More than 600 insurance M&A deals closed last year. (Credit: Shutterstock)

In MarshBerry’s recently released M&A Trends 4Q19 report, researchers summarize the state of the U.S. merger & acquisition market analyzing the most recent data.

Not to much surprise, the insurance distribution M&A market set a new annual record in 2019 with 625 announced transactions following several years of increasing demand for deals. For context, MarshBerry reports that the total number of M&A deals of the last five years (2015-2019) has now exceeded the total of the last 10 years (2005-2014) by 116 transactions (4.6%).

Private equity-backed buyers are the largest players in M&A deals, representing 373 of the 625 (59.6%) transactions in 2019.

The top 15 buyers in 2019

The number of U.S. M&A transactions in 2019 totaled 625. Of that total, the top 15 buyers made up 60% (375) of all M&A transactions in 2019. Here are the top 15:

  1.  Acrisure, LLC — 58 transactions (9.3% of 2019 M&A total)
  2.  Hub International Limited — 45 transactions (7.2% of total)
  3.  Broadstreet Partners — 35 transactions (5.6% of total)
  4.  AssuredPartners, Inc. — 34 transactions (5.4% of total)
  5.  Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. — 27 transactions (4.3% of total)
  6.  Patriot Growth Insurance Services, LLC — 26 transactions (4.2% of total)
  7.  The Hilb Group, LLC — 25 transactions (4% of total)
  8.  Alera Group, Inc. — 24 transactions (3.8% of total)
  9.  Risk Strategies — 19 transactions (3% of total)
  10.  Brown & Brown, Inc. — 17 transactions (2.7% of total)
  11.  Integrity Marketing Group — 16 transactions (2.6% of total)
  12.  OneDigital Health and Benefits — 17 transactions (2.7% of total)
  13.  World Insurance Associates, LLC — 17 transactions (2.6% of total)
  14.  USI Holdings Corp. — 10 transactions (1.6% of total)
  15. NFP Corp. — 7 transactions (1.1% of total)

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