"Agency valuations continue to climb based in part on the continued expansion of interest from the PE/hybrid group," Timothy J. Cunningham, managing director of OPTIS, said in a statement. "There's nothing on the horizon to indicate any change should be expected in the current state of agency M&A." (Credit: designer491/Shutterstock)

Mergers and acquisitions (M&A) of insurance agents and brokers reached a new high in 2019, edging past 2018, previously the most active year, according to OPTIS Partners' annual report. The OPTIS database logged a record 649 deals in the United States and Canada in 2019, up from 643 M&A deals in 2018.

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Denny Jacob

Denny Jacob is an associate editor for NU PropertyCasualty360. Contact him at [email protected].