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Speed demons
Brokerages have two principal avenues for growth, but it is organic expansion that commands the industry’s focus.
This, according to Sean O’Neill, head of the global insurance practice at Bain & Company, is the sector’s “holy grail” – a mark of sustainable success that firms are increasingly striving to attain.
“The leading brokerages have worked to enable broker productivity by reducing time spent on administrative activities to free up time for client-facing activities,” he says.
“Most of this has been in the consolidation of middle and back-office activities, but we are also starting to see the early shoots of success in technology enablement of front office and more bespoke broker activities.”
While the other route to growth is via acquisitions and consolidation, that has been prevalent across the industry and is expected to slow down.
It is still happening, though. For example:
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January 2025 – Ryan Specialty acquired Velocity Risk Underwriters from funds managed by Oaktree Capital Management LP for $525 million.
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March 2025 – Balance Partners announced the acquisition of Vanguard Specialty.
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March 2025 – NEXT Insurance was acquired by Munich Re’s ERGO for $2.6 billion.
MarshBerry’s Pete Kampf pinpoints specialty insurance as the main driver of consolidation. He says, “Following 2023’s all-time high of 181 specialty insurance intermediary transactions, 2024 experienced 120 total transactions, representing a 33 percent decline …. The specialty intermediary mergers and acquisitions (M&A) market remains stable: the continued outpacing of demand over the supply of quality sellers.”
Joshua Morey, chairperson and co-founder of Ori-gen…