There were 490 announced insurance brokerage mergers and acquisitions in the U.S. through the first three quarters of this year, up from 454 in the same period last year, according to a report Thursday from broker advisory company MarshBerry Inc.
Private capital-backed buyers accounted for 358, or 73.1%, of this year’s transactions, a “substantial” increase from the 59.3% recorded in the comparable period of 2019, the Woodmere, Ohio-based M&A specialist said in the report.
Independent agencies were buyers in 83 of the 490 deals, increasing their share to 17% from 15.6% in the year-earlier period.
The number of deals in which banks were buyers continued to fall, to four so far this year from nine through the first three quarters of last year and 18 in the comparable period in 2022.
The number of deals involving specialty distributors as targets totaled 82 through the first three quarters of this year, or 12.7%, a 5.7-point decline from the year-earlier period.
Since specialty brokerage deals increased by a compound annual growth rate of 18% from 2018 through 2023 as traditional retail brokers expanded in the wholesale and delegated authority space, “This decrease in percentage share in 2024 may be a trend to watch,” the report said.
The most acquisitive companies so far this year have been BroadStreet Partners Inc., with 51 deals, or 10.4% of the total; Inszone Insurance Services, with 38 deals (7.8%); and Hub International Ltd., with 33 deals (6.7%).
