"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) "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.

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
Denny Jacob

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