Quick Answer
Texas insurance agencies sell for 2-3.5x SDE or 1.0-1.8x revenue at the sub-$1M EBITDA personal-lines tier, 7-10x EBITDA or 2.0-3.0x revenue at $1M-$5M EBITDA regional-aggregator scale, 10-14x EBITDA at $5M+ platform-quality, and 11-14x EBITDA (with outliers to 18-20x) for specialty MGAs and wholesale brokers. OPTIS Partners tracked a record 695 agency M&A deals in 2025 (+27% YoY), with PE involved in 69% of disclosed deals. Active acquirers include Acrisure (Bain Capital $32B recap), Hub International (H&F / Apax / Altas / Leonard Green), Alera Group (Genstar / CDPQ), AssuredPartners (now Gallagher, $13.45B 2025), Risk Strategies (now Brown & Brown 2025), USI (KKR), NFP (now Aon, $13.4B 2024), BroadStreet (Ethos / BCI / White Mountains), World Insurance (Goldman / Charlesbank), Keystone (Warburg Pincus), Patriot Growth (Summit / GI), and Higginbotham (employee-owned, Stone Point + Blackstone minority). Critical regulatory note: insurance Form A change-of-control approval applies to CARRIERS, NOT to agency book sales.
Christoph Totter · Managing Partner, CT Acquisitions
Lower middle market M&A across professional services, commercial services, home services, and IT · Updated June 2026
Insurance agency M&A is the most mature roll-up in US services, and that matters if you own an agency in Texas. OPTIS Partners tracked a record 695 insurance agency and broker M&A transactions in 2025 totaling $4.3 billion in disclosed value, up roughly 27% year-over-year and the second consecutive record year, with private equity involved in 69% of disclosed deals. The structural reasons are simple: renewal-commission revenue is the most defensible cash flow profile in any services business, the commission-renewal annuity model is real and accelerating, and 60%+ of independent agency principals lack a written perpetuation plan (Reagan Consulting).
This guide covers what a Texas insurance agency is worth in 2026 and how to sell it well. We walk through 2024-2026 multiples by revenue and EBITDA tier, the recurring-commission premium and contingent-commission normalization buyers underwrite, the named PE-backed consolidators acquiring across the US with CURRENT ownership detail (Acrisure to Bain, AssuredPartners to Gallagher, Risk Strategies to Brown & Brown, NFP to Aon, BroadStreet to Ethos / BCI / White Mountains, Higginbotham employee-owned with Stone Point / Blackstone minority), the sub-vertical mechanics (personal lines, commercial, employee benefits, specialty MGA / wholesale / program admin), the state Department of Insurance agency-license and producer-license framework, and the deal mechanics specific to agency sales — carrier-appointment re-papering, contingent commission stabilization, book-retention earnouts, E&O tail coverage, and the critical regulatory clarification that Form A change-of-control approval applies to CARRIERS, not to agency book sales.
CT Acquisitions runs confidential, buy-side processes. We are not a business broker — the buyer pays our fee, and a seller pays no commission, no retainer, and signs no exclusivity contract. For broader context, see our insurance agency hub guide and the lower middle market buyer mandate report. The free valuation survey takes about three minutes.
Insurance agency and broker M&A multiples in 2024-2026 are at record levels. OPTIS Partners’ M&A Database tracked a record 695 insurance agency and broker transactions in 2025 totaling $4.3 billion in disclosed value, up roughly 27% year-over-year and the second consecutive record year, with private equity involved in 69% of disclosed deals. Tiering looks like this: sub-$1M EBITDA personal-lines and small commercial books trade at 2-3.5x SDE on a revenue-multiple basis (typically 1.0-1.8x revenue), $1M-$5M EBITDA regional-aggregator targets trade at 7-10x EBITDA (typically 2.0-3.0x revenue), $5M+ EBITDA platform-quality assets trade at 10-14x EBITDA, and specialty MGA / wholesale / program admin books trade at 11-14x EBITDA with outliers reaching 18-20x. The headline driver is recurring commission revenue — renewable book revenue mix above 90% is the industry standard and the buyer-underwriting baseline.
| Insurance agency profile | Typical multiple | What moves it |
|---|---|---|
| Sub-$1M EBITDA personal-lines / small commercial | 2-3.5x SDE / 1.0-1.8x revenue | Personal-lines exposure, retention below 85%, no commercial book |
| $1M-$5M EBITDA regional aggregator target | 7-10x EBITDA / 2.0-3.0x revenue | Commercial-lines mix above 60%, 90%+ retention, producer bench |
| $5M+ EBITDA platform-quality | 10-14x EBITDA | Multi-line balance, specialty / MGA component, carrier-appointment depth |
| Specialty MGA / wholesale / program admin | 11-14x EBITDA (outliers to 18-20x) | Binding authority, underwriting margin participation, specialty book |
| Headline PE platform recap | $13B+ EV (AssuredPartners to Gallagher 2025, $13.45B) | The platform multiple — the arbitrage tuck-in sellers feed |
The pattern that matters: the platform-versus-tuck-in arbitrage is meaningful. A $2M-EBITDA regional book tucks in at 7-9x EBITDA, but the platform itself re-trades at 13-18x+ EBITDA at the next PE recap. Acrisure’s $32B Bain Capital-led recap, AssuredPartners’ sale to Gallagher for $13.45B in 2025, Risk Strategies’ sale to Brown & Brown in 2025, and BroadStreet Partners’ recap by Ethos Capital, BCI and White Mountains in 2024 are illustrative of the platform multiple.
Insurance agencies trade above generic services businesses because commission renewal is the most defensible cash flow in the trades-and-services universe. The renewal-commission annuity is real: standard book retention runs 85-95% year over year on personal lines, 90%+ on commercial, and 95%+ on employee benefits with embedded plan administration. Three reasons agency revenue commands a premium: predictability (commission renewals compound on the carrier’s book without re-sale), fiduciary trust (clients rarely move their book mid-policy term), and margin leverage (an agency book added to a $100M+ platform drops 35-45% of incremental commission to EBITDA because carrier appointments, compliance and back office are already sunk). Specialty MGA and program-admin books carry even higher premiums because of binding authority and underwriting margin participation.
Adjusted EBITDA in agency sales is dominated by owner-compensation normalization, production overrides not yet billed, and contingent commission recognition. Buyers normalize the principal’s W-2 to fair-market levels (typically $200K-$350K depending on book size and producer role) and add back the excess draw — the single largest line item moving value. Beyond that, PE buyers scrutinize: contingent / profit-sharing carrier commissions (typically valued at trailing-3-year average, discounted for sustainability), runoff commission obligations to retiring producers, and validation of the carrier appointment portfolio (carrier-by-carrier renewal-commission run-rate). The typical add-back stack lifts reported EBITDA by 15-30% on owner-operated agencies. Pinnacol, Markel, Travelers and other contingent-heavy carrier relationships need explicit trailing-3-year normalization in the data room.
Insurance agency consolidation is the most mature roll-up in services, with PE-backed buyers accounting for 69% of disclosed 2024-2025 agency M&A. The platform-versus-tuck-in arbitrage is meaningful: a $2M-EBITDA regional book tucks in at 7-9x EBITDA, but the platform itself re-trades at 13-18x+ EBITDA at the next PE recap. Acrisure’s $32B Bain Capital-led recap, AssuredPartners’ sale to Gallagher for $13.45B, Risk Strategies’ sale to Brown & Brown in 2025, and BroadStreet Partners’ recap by Ethos Capital, British Columbia Investment Management and White Mountains in 2024 are illustrative of the platform multiple. The gap is driven by carrier-appointment scale, specialty MGA / wholesale capability, cross-sell economics across personal-commercial-benefits-specialty, and platform technology that lifts producer productivity.
Active 2024-2026 US insurance agency consolidators split between PE-backed national platforms and strategic brokers. Among the most active are: Acrisure (Bain Capital-led $32B recap, the largest PE-backed insurance broker in the US), Hub International (Hellman & Friedman, Altas Partners, Leonard Green and Apax Partners), Alera Group (Genstar Capital and Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec), AssuredPartners (acquired by Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. for $13.45B in 2025, ending the GTCR / Apax / CVC ownership era), Risk Strategies Company (acquired by Brown & Brown in 2025, ending the Accel-KKR / Kelso era), BroadStreet Partners (recapped by Ethos Capital, BCI and White Mountains Insurance Group in 2024), Higginbotham (the largest employee-owned independent broker in the US, with Stone Point Capital and Blackstone as minority investors), Inszone Insurance Services (BHMS Investments-backed, Sacramento), USI Insurance Services (KKR), NFP (acquired by Aon in 2024 for $13.4B), Patriot Growth Insurance Services (Summit Partners and GI Partners), Keystone Insurers Group (Warburg Pincus), Foundation Risk Partners (Partners Group), Relation Insurance (Aquiline Capital), World Insurance Associates (Goldman Sachs Asset Management and Charlesbank Capital Partners), Heffernan Insurance Brokers, and the publicly-traded consolidators Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. (NYSE: AJG, post-AssuredPartners), Marsh McLennan (NYSE: MMC), Brown & Brown (NYSE: BRO, post-Risk Strategies), Aon (NYSE: AON, post-NFP), and Willis Towers Watson (NASDAQ: WTW). Critical regulatory correction: insurance department Form A change-of-control approval applies to INSURANCE CARRIERS, NOT to agency book sales — an agency stock sale generally requires only carrier-appointment re-papering and state agency-license amendments, NOT carrier-style Form A approval.
Buyers value insurance agency sub-verticals on a clear hierarchy. Personal-lines-heavy books with strong retention trade at 2-3.5x SDE / 7-9x EBITDA but with the lowest growth ceiling because direct-to-consumer and embedded digital channels (GEICO, Lemonade, Root, Hippo) compress margin year over year. Commercial-lines books trade at 7-11x EBITDA with the strongest mid-market bid — lower-middle-market commercial (generally $5K-$50K average premium per account) is the sweet spot for PE-backed platforms. Employee benefits books trade at 8-12x EBITDA on the recurring-administration and brokerage commission base, with platforms valuing the plan-administration revenue separately at 10-12x. Specialty MGAs / program administrators / wholesale brokers trade at 11-14x EBITDA with outliers reaching 18-20x for binding-authority operations with embedded underwriting margin participation (Ryan Specialty, Amwins, RPS, RT Specialty). Captive management and surplus-lines specialty trades carry credentialed-expert premiums.
What is your Texas insurance agency actually worth?
CT Acquisitions runs a confidential, buy-side process across the active PE-backed insurance broker platforms. No broker commission, no retainer, no exclusivity contract — the buyer pays our fee.
Texas is a top-tier insurance M&A market with no state income tax and one of the fastest-growing commercial-lines premium pools in the country. Heavy Acrisure, Hub, Alera, USI, NFP-Aon, and Higginbotham activity in Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston, Austin and San Antonio. Texas Department of Insurance issues the Resident Agency License and individual Producer Licenses; changes of agency ownership trigger an entity license amendment within 30 days. Texas does not restrict reasonable producer non-competes.
Insurance agencies are regulated primarily at the state level. Every state requires a Resident Agency License (entity license) and individual Producer Licenses for each selling agent, with separate property-casualty, life-accident-health and surplus-lines endorsements where applicable. Non-resident agency licenses are issued through reciprocal NAIC compact arrangements for multi-state operations. A change of agency ownership (stock sale) generally triggers a state insurance department notice filing within 30-60 days post-close (agency-license amendment), not a carrier-style Form A change-of-control approval. Carrier appointments must be re-papered carrier-by-carrier — this is the most operationally intensive workstream in an agency sale and routinely takes 60-120 days post-close for carriers requiring full underwriting re-approval of the new ownership. Errors-and-omissions (E&O) coverage is written on a claims-made basis; the acquirer typically does NOT assume the seller’s pre-close professional liability, so Extended Reporting Coverage (tail) is mandatory at a typical five-to-seven-year minimum, costing 100-300% of annual premium paid upfront at closing. For surplus-lines and specialty MGAs, additional surplus-lines broker licensing and state-by-state binding authority filings apply.
A Texas insurance agency sale triggers three sequential regulatory workstreams that gate close. First, Texas Department of Insurance entity agency-license amendment within 30-60 days post-close to reflect the new ownership. Second — and this is the binding operational gating item — carrier-by-carrier appointment re-papering, which routinely takes 60-120 days post-close depending on the carrier’s change-of-ownership underwriting process. Third, individual producer-license maintenance for each selling agent including continuing-education compliance through the transition. A critical clarification often missed: insurance department Form A change-of-control approval is a CARRIER regulation, NOT an agency-book-sale regulation. An agency stock sale generally requires only the entity license amendment and carrier-appointment re-papering, not carrier-style Form A approval. For agencies with surplus-lines or specialty MGA operations, additional surplus-lines broker licensing and state-by-state binding authority filings apply.
Insurance agency deal mechanics center on five items distinct from generic services. First, carrier-by-carrier appointment re-papering is the binding operational gating item — plan 60-120 days post-close for full carrier transition. Second, contingent / profit-sharing commission stabilization — buyers underwrite trailing-3-year average with sustainability discount. Third, producer non-compete and non-solicit enforceability is state-specific (California voided non-competes via SB 699 + AB 1076 in 2024; client non-solicits are usually enforceable elsewhere if narrowly drafted). Fourth, E&O tail coverage at 5-7 years minimum at 100-300% of annual premium is a real seller cost that must be modeled into the deal — the acquirer does not assume claims-made pre-close liability. Fifth, book-retention earnouts at 90%+ retention at month 24 (industry benchmark per Reagan Consulting) gate 40-60% of consideration. Equity rollover by selling principals at 20-40% of proceeds into platform equity is standard and captures the second-bite multiple expansion at the next PE recap. Letter of intent to close typically runs 90-120 days with carrier re-appointment and producer-license re-papering as parallel critical-path items.
The structural seller-side fuel under the 2024-2026 agency M&A wave is producer-demographic aging. Industry data shows the average independent insurance agency principal is in their late 50s to early 60s, and Reagan Consulting’s annual succession-readiness surveys consistently show 60%+ of agencies lack a written perpetuation plan. Internal succession is rare because next-generation producers rarely have personal capital to buy founders out at fair-market multiples, and the producer-commission structure makes equity-financed buyouts difficult. PE-backed national consolidators solve liquidity by writing a check today versus a 7-10 year internal note, plus equity rollover for producers who want to stay — which is exactly why 695 transactions closed in 2025 (OPTIS Partners) and the 2026 pipeline remains record-strong.
National advisors who treat an insurance agency as a generic services business will miss the levers that materially move price. The renewal-commission book retention rate and how it is documented carrier-by-carrier; the contingent commission and profit-sharing-arrangement trailing-3-year normalization; the carrier-appointment portfolio depth and re-papering timeline; the producer non-compete and non-solicit enforceability (which voided California producer non-competes via SB 699 + AB 1076 in 2024); the E&O claims-made tail coverage cost at 100-300% of annual premium; the specialty MGA / wholesale binding-authority valuation premium; and the critical regulatory clarification on Form A (applies to carriers, NOT agency book sales) are all insurance-agency-specific diligence items. A Texas seller advised by someone who understands the 695-deal 2025 OPTIS record, the current cap-table on Acrisure / AssuredPartners / Risk Strategies / NFP / BroadStreet / Higginbotham (which is materially different from 2022-2023 ownership), and the book-retention earnout math negotiates as an equal — not as someone being educated by the buyer’s diligence team at their own expense.
Owners who reach the top of the multiple range almost always prepared deliberately. With 12-24 months of runway, prioritize:
For the broader framework, see our insurance agency hub guide and our lower middle market buyer mandate report.
Companion guides:
Insurance agency M&A is the most mature roll-up in US services, with a record 695 OPTIS-tracked transactions in 2025 (+27% YoY), 69% PE-backed buyer share, 15+ active national consolidators, and a structural seller wave driven by 60%+ of agency principals lacking written perpetuation plans. A Texas insurance agency with a commercial-lines and employee-benefits weighted book, 92%+ trailing-3-year book retention, low carrier concentration (no carrier above 25%), normalized contingent commission, current E&O tail coverage planning, a real producer bench (two to four senior brokers), and verified producer non-compete enforceability can realistically reach the upper end of its valuation tier. The issues that most often cost sellers money are personal-lines-heavy concentration, outdated buyer-list outreach to wrong PE owners, volatile contingent commission without trailing-3-year normalization, unmodeled E&O tail cost, and accepting the first inbound platform offer rather than running a confidential process across the full active consolidator pool.
This guide reflects 2026 insurance agency M&A market conditions and CT Acquisitions’ direct work with active acquirers. Multiples are directional, not a guarantee; every agency is underwritten on its own book retention, carrier-appointment portfolio, contingent commission sustainability, producer roster, and growth profile. State Department of Insurance agency-license and producer-license rules, carrier-appointment re-papering procedures, and state non-compete enforceability (which has shifted sharply in California since 2024) are in active transition — confirm current requirements with qualified insurance counsel before relying on them in a transaction.
A Texas insurance agency typically sells for 2-3.5x SDE or 1.0-1.8x revenue if it’s a sub-$1M EBITDA personal-lines-heavy book, 7-10x EBITDA or 2.0-3.0x revenue in the $1M-$5M regional-aggregator tier, 10-14x EBITDA at $5M+ platform-quality scale, and 11-14x EBITDA (with outliers to 18-20x) for specialty MGAs, wholesale brokers and program administrators. At the platform headline, AssuredPartners sold to Gallagher for $13.45B in 2025, Acrisure recapped at $32B with Bain Capital leading, and Risk Strategies sold to Brown & Brown in 2025. The single biggest mid-market lever is renewal-commission retention — agencies with 92%+ trailing-3-year retention and commercial-lines / employee-benefits weighting trade 1-2 turns higher than personal-lines-heavy peers.
The 15+ active PE-backed national insurance consolidators all acquire across all 50 states. The most active in 2024-2026 are Acrisure (Bain Capital-led $32B recap, the largest PE-backed broker in the US, HQ Grand Rapids MI), Hub International (Hellman & Friedman / Apax / Altas / Leonard Green), Alera Group (Genstar + CDPQ), AssuredPartners (now Gallagher, $13.45B 2025), Risk Strategies (now Brown & Brown 2025), USI Insurance Services (KKR), NFP (now Aon, $13.4B 2024), Patriot Growth Insurance Services (Summit + GI), Keystone Insurers Group (Warburg Pincus, HQ Northumberland PA), Foundation Risk Partners (Partners Group), Inszone (BHMS Investments), BroadStreet Partners (Ethos + BCI + White Mountains 2024), World Insurance Associates (Goldman + Charlesbank), Relation Insurance (Aquiline), and Higginbotham (employee-owned, Stone Point + Blackstone minority). Public consolidators (Gallagher AJG, Marsh McLennan MMC, Brown & Brown BRO, Aon AON, Willis Towers Watson WTW) also actively acquire.
No — this is a critical clarification often missed. Insurance Form A change-of-control approval applies to INSURANCE CARRIERS (companies underwriting policies), NOT to agency book sales. A Texas agency stock sale requires (1) state Department of Insurance entity agency-license amendment within 30-60 days post-close, (2) carrier-by-carrier appointment re-papering (60-120 days post-close depending on carrier), and (3) individual producer-license maintenance for each selling agent — but NOT Form A approval. Treating Form A as an agency-sale gating item adds unnecessary delay and signals advisor inexperience to a buyer’s diligence team.
Insurance agencies with 90%+ trailing-3-year renewal-commission retention consistently trade 1-2 full turns of EBITDA higher than peers running 85% or below. Buyers prove it by reviewing the book carrier-by-carrier, policy-by-policy: trailing-3-year retention by line of business, average premium per account, renewal commission trailing-12 month-over-month, and carrier-appointment portfolio depth. Agency management system (AMS) reports (Applied Epic, Vertafore AMS360, HawkSoft, etc.) are the documentation standard for diligence.
The highest multiples in Texas go to agencies with 92%+ trailing-3-year book retention, commercial-lines and employee-benefits weighted revenue mix (not personal-lines-heavy), low carrier concentration (no carrier above 25%), normalized contingent commission with trailing-3-year baseline, organic premium growth above 10%, a real producer bench (two to four senior brokers reducing key-person risk), and a clean E&O claims history with verified tail-coverage availability. Specialty MGA / wholesale / program-administrator books with binding authority and underwriting margin participation trade at the very top of the range (11-14x with outliers to 18-20x for the platform recaps like Ryan Specialty, Amwins, RPS, RT Specialty).
A well-run, confidential Texas insurance agency sale typically takes five to eight months from go-to-market to close: roughly 4-8 weeks of preparation (carrier-appointment portfolio documentation, contingent commission normalization, AMS data normalization, E&O tail coverage review), 3-6 weeks of confidential outreach to the active PE-backed consolidators, 3-5 weeks to indications of interest and letter of intent, then 90-120 days of diligence and closing — with carrier-appointment re-papering (60-120 days post-close) extending as the operational tail beyond the signing window.
Nothing to the seller. CT Acquisitions is a buy-side advisor, not a business broker — the buyer pays our fee. There is no commission, no retainer, and no exclusivity contract for the seller.
Ready to talk about selling your Texas insurance agency?
Book a confidential 30-minute call. We will walk through your renewal-commission book, contingent revenue, carrier appointments, E&O tail coverage, producer roster, and what your firm could realistically command from the active PE-backed consolidator pool. No fee to you — the buyer pays our commission.