How to Value a Commercial Insurance Brokerage in 2026

Commercial insurance brokerages are, dollar for dollar, one of the most valuable small businesses you can own. A shop producing $2M in EBITDA routinely sells for $18-24M. That's not a typo. The multiples in this industry are in a different universe than almost any other SMB category, and the reason is simple: recurring revenue with 90%+ retention.

I've worked on commercial insurance brokerage deals on both sides of the table, and the valuation dynamics are fundamentally different from any other professional services business. If you own a commercial book and you haven't started thinking seriously about your exit, you're leaving money on the table every year.

Commercial vs. Personal Lines: Why It Matters So Much

The first thing to understand is that personal lines and commercial lines are essentially different businesses that happen to share a name. A personal lines agency — auto, home, umbrella policies for consumers — typically sells for 2-4x revenue or 5-7x EBITDA. Retention is decent but customer acquisition costs are brutal, and direct writers (GEICO, Progressive, Allstate direct) are eating the market.

Commercial brokerages — GL, workers comp, property, professional liability, cyber, executive risk, and specialty lines for businesses — sell for 8-12x EBITDA, with scaled platforms pushing 13-14x in premium markets. Why the gap? Commercial clients renew at 90-95% annually, producer relationships are stickier, commissions are higher, and there's no direct-to- consumer disruption. Once you place a manufacturer's package policy, you're writing that renewal every year for a decade.

If your book is mixed, the buyer will value the commercial and personal lines separately and blend the multiples. Don't let a broker pitch you a single multiple on a mixed book — you'll get shortchanged on the commercial side.

The Revenue Multiple Shortcut (And Why It's Misleading)

Industry shorthand often quotes commercial brokerage values at 2.5-3.5x revenue. That shortcut works reasonably well for small agencies because margins are relatively predictable — a well-run commercial shop runs 25-35% EBITDA margins, so 3x revenue roughly equals 10x EBITDA at 30% margin.

But the shortcut falls apart above $5M in revenue. Scale drives margin expansion, and platform buyers care about EBITDA, not revenue. A $10M revenue shop running at 35% margin ($3.5M EBITDA) might sell for 11x EBITDA ($38.5M), which is 3.9x revenue. The same shop at 22% margin ($2.2M EBITDA) would sell for maybe 9x ($19.8M), or only 2.0x revenue. Margin is everything above the $5M line.

What Drives a Premium Multiple

The 8-12x EBITDA range is wide, and where you land inside it depends on specific, measurable factors:

Account size. An agency with average account revenue of $25K+ (middle-market clients) is worth substantially more than one averaging $2K per account (micro-business clients). Middle-market accounts are stickier, more profitable, and easier to cross-sell. They also require fewer service touches per dollar of revenue, which means better margins.

Retention rate. The industry benchmark is 90%. Every percentage point above that adds real multiple — a shop running 94% retention commands a half- turn more than one running 88%. Retention gets measured by dollar of commission, not account count, because losing one $80K account is much worse than losing four $5K accounts.

Contingent commissions. Carrier profit-sharing and contingent commissions can add 10-20% to your revenue in a good year. Buyers discount contingents because they're carrier-dependent and vary year to year, but a shop with strong, recurring contingent relationships gets credit for them at roughly 70-80% of face value.

Producer retention agreements. This is the single biggest risk factor for buyers. If your top producers can walk away with their books of business, the buyer is buying air. Agencies with ironclad producer non-solicits and book-ownership clauses command premium multiples. Agencies where producers have ambiguous ownership get discounted hard.

Niche specialization. A generalist agency writes everything and competes on price. A niche agency — say, a shop that only writes commercial trucking, or hospitality, or tech E&O — becomes the go-to specialist in that vertical and commands both better margins and better multiples. Specialty agencies regularly trade at 11-13x EBITDA.

Who's Buying: The Named Acquirers

The commercial insurance brokerage M&A market is one of the most active in all of private equity. A handful of PE-backed platforms are rolling up the industry at unprecedented pace, and knowing who they are helps you position for the right buyer.

• Acrisure: The most prolific acquirer in the space. They've done 800+ deals and typically pay 9-11x EBITDA for mid-size agencies ($1-5M EBITDA). Known for fast closes and light integration — you keep your brand and team.
• Hub International: Backed by Hellman & Friedman and Altas Partners. More selective than Acrisure, pays 10-12x for quality platforms. Heavier integration but strong carrier leverage.
• AssuredPartners: GTCR-backed, very active in middle market. Pays 10-11x and is known for giving sellers equity rollover options into the holding company.
• BroadStreet Partners: Ontario Teachers' backed. Focuses on larger platforms ($2M+ EBITDA) and pays 11-13x for quality.
• World Insurance Associates: Charlesbank-backed rollup, active in the $500K-$3M EBITDA tier. Pays 9-11x.
• Patriot Growth, Alera Group, Inszone, Risk Strategies, Higginbotham: All active PE-backed buyers at various sizes.

The secret most sellers don't know: these buyers compete with each other, and running a structured process between three or four of them routinely adds 1-2 turns of EBITDA to the final price. A banker who runs insurance M&A full-time is worth their fee on a deal over $1M EBITDA.

Deal Structure: What the Offer Actually Looks Like

A typical commercial brokerage deal isn't just cash at close. Expect a structure something like this on a $20M headline price:

• 70-80% cash at close ($14-16M)
• 10-20% equity rollover into the acquirer's holding company, often with a liquidity event in 5-7 years
• 10-15% earnout tied to retention of the book over 2-3 years (measured by commission retention, not account count)
• Producer retention pool funded separately, sometimes carved out of the headline price

The earnout piece is where deals get contentious. Make sure the retention measurement is clearly defined (gross vs. net of new business, how renewals count, what happens to lost contingents) and that the buyer can't sabotage the book through operational decisions during the earnout period. I've seen 15% earnouts go to zero because of ambiguous language.

How to Maximize Your Exit

If you're 2-3 years from selling, the playbook is clear:

Lock in your producers with book-ownership and non-solicit agreements. This is the single highest-ROI thing you can do. A shop where producers can't walk commands a multiple 2-3 turns higher than one where they can.

Grow EBITDA margin, not just revenue. Buyers pay on margin. Cut service inefficiency, consolidate carriers, leverage AMS automation, and push your margin from 22% toward 32%. At $5M revenue, that's $500K more EBITDA and probably $5M+ more in sale price.

Clean up your AMS data. Buyers will audit your AMS (AMS360, Epic, HawkSoft, etc.) and reconcile policy counts, premium-in-force, and commission reports. Sloppy data is a red flag and can cost you a turn on the multiple.

Document contingents. Pull 5 years of contingent commission statements and calculate a normalized run-rate. Buyers credit documented, recurring contingents much more generously than undocumented ones.

Get your books audited, not just reviewed. For any deal over $10M, audited financials pay for themselves several times over in buyer confidence and deal certainty.

Before you engage a banker, run your numbers through our instant valuation tool to understand where you stand against real commercial brokerage comparables.

The Bottom Line

Commercial insurance brokerages are valued like recurring-revenue software businesses — because economically, that's what they are. The 8-12x EBITDA range is real, the rollup buyers are real, and the right process can add millions to your exit. But none of that happens by accident. Brokerages that sell well are built intentionally, with locked-in producers, clean data, documented contingents, and expanding margins. Start 2-3 years early and you'll retire on a number that surprises you.