The race to provide more sophisticated intelligence to both agency members and carrier partners is hotter than ever among the nation’s top agency partnerships.
Many partnerships are delivering better options including a path for agency members to sell their own agencies to other network members or to the network organization directly with the help of private equity investments. Nearly all are developing technology platforms that will make the agency-network-carrier relations more effective in the future. Some are even eyeing the managing general agency (MGA) space for expansion.
Insurance Journal spoke to a few agency network leaders for this special report, which also includes Insurance Journal’s Top 20 Agency Partnerships list.
Expansion
For SIAA, the future looks like an insurance ecosystem that builds distribution opportunities. This could include traditional agency network distribution, wholesale distribution, retail agency distribution through its Sequel Insurance Agencies, as well as business intelligence and AI technology services for its entire distribution network.
“What we’re trying to do is take the business and really develop distribution, network, retail, wholesale, product, business intelligence, and AI and wrap it all together in this one singular platform,” said Matt Masiello, CEO of SIAA. It’s the “mad scientist vision” for the future of the “SIAA Intelligent Distribution Platform,” he said.
Sequel Insurance Agencies, part of the SIAA Intelligent Distribution Platform, serves as the perpetuation partner to members of SIAA – The Agent Alliance. Sequel Insurance launched nearly two years ago, but this year the group began actively acquiring.
“We came out of the gate and bought five agencies in June. We owned two (agencies initially), and then we bought five more,” Masiello said. Then in July, Sequel announced the acquisition of Watkins Insurance Group in Austin, Texas, and at the same time SIAA completed its acquisition of Insurance Agents Alliance of Texas (IAAT), a smaller regional network.
SIAA’s private equity partner since 2021, Odyssey Investment Partners, laid the groundwork for developing the retail agency channel as well as its investments in tech-enabled business intelligence through the acquisition of DONNA.ai last year.
The idea of a retail “roll-up strategy” isn’t new. Private equity backed acquirers have been leading the agency M&A world for years. The difference for agency network acquirers backed by PE investment is that the acquisitions often come from inside the network, and that’s a benefit to the network and its members, Masiello said.
“We’ve touted ourselves as being able to help independent agencies through all the stages of their life cycle, but we’ve never really done a great job on succession,” Masiello frankly added. “We have a lot of members that sell to other (SIAA) members, and we’ll continue to see that, but for bigger agencies where we were competing with the other private equity-backed acquirers, we just didn’t really have a dog in the fight.”
Having the capability to acquire larger firms keeps the business not only within the SIAA platform but also with its carrier partners, he said. So far, Sequel Insurance has only acquired current SIAA member agencies, but Masiello said the door is open to other acquisitions in the future if they make sense.
For Greensboro, North Carolina-based Smart Choice, private equity investment has also helped the network build up a retail arm for the benefit of agency members. “It’s the reason we brought in private equity, to acquire agencies so they remain independent,” according to Andrew Caldwell, CEO of Smart Choice.
Caldwell said it’s not uncommon for member agencies looking to retire to sell to other large private equity-backed acquirers. “So, we wanted to create a situation where those agencies could remain in the network, where we would retain the employees and continue to help grow the agencies,” he said.
Smart Choice began acquiring member agencies in 2019 but ramped up its acquisition efforts since adding minority-interest PE funding during the middle of 2023.
“That investment totally changed our business,” Caldwell said. “From a pure EBITDA standpoint, middle of 2023, we were a $10 million EBITDA company. We will finish the year at $60 million in EBITDA,” he added. In early September, Smart Choice announced that agency membership peaked at 12,000 in 2026, up from 10,000 in late 2023.
The Right Fit
Not everyone is in favor of the private equity funding wave in the agency network world.
“For some, these transactions are horrendous for the agent,” said Eric Robertson, CEO of Agents Alliance Services. “I’ve heard a lot of horror stories as it pertains to PE and even some networks buying because then they come in and they’re focused more on the bottom line, not on the agent,” he said. “Our approach is different,” he added. “We’ve brought on several really great brokers in the last year, and they’re thriving.”
For some agency owners, autonomy and independence matter, he said. “They love having their own business,” he said. That’s something large organizations do not offer, he said. “There’s a control aspect in bigger organizations, and that can create a lot of shakeup, resentment, and even poor work culture.”
Overall, insurance agency mergers and acquisitions in the first six months of 2026 slowed down by 15% compared with the same period last year, according to OPTIS Partners. “Several of the big, most active buyers over the past several years have significantly cut back activity,” said Steve Germundson, a partner at OPTIS, in July when releasing their most recent analysis. He noted, however, that the buying pace picked up for emerging private equity firms and those anticipating a recapitalization or a sale soon.
A few large deals could open the door to opportunities for startup agencies that could benefit from those in the agency network world. These include Aon’s acquisition of USI Insurance from KKR for $17 billion, and the purchase of Australia’s Steadfast (also the owner of ISU Network) for $5.3 billion by a U.S. consortium, consisting of KKR, The Amwins Group, and Dragoneer Investment.
Robertson said there are opportunities right now for agency networks to help unhappy brokers in these post-acquisition times, and he predicts more shakeup to come because of some larger M&As. That is spurring new agency startups that agency networks are well suited to help.
“There’s not a lot of motivation from a larger corporate perspective to really pay attention to the things that they need to pay attention to,” Robertson noted. “You just become a number. You’re one of a thousand,” he said.
Some agents come to resent the situation. “These guys are out there beating the pavement, drumming up business. So, why are those large firms getting 60% of the commission and the broker’s only getting 40%, and in some cases 30%. Is service work worth 60%? Absolutely not.”
Keith Captain, president of MarshBerry Networks, which includes the FirstChoice agency network, said not every network or agency is the right fit.
“Networks come in all shapes and sizes. Some are very small and offer very little services other than aggregation of premium for revenue,” Captain said. “Others are very large and have moved to buying agencies in an ‘owned’ agency model. Some agents will love that model because they know they have a place to sell. Other agents will absolutely hate that model because they either a) want to maintain their independence, or b) don’t think their network is the right buyer.”
Captain says FirstChoice is not looking to become a buyer.
“We strongly believe in helping our members make the right decision based on their needs and desires for whatever that might be–perpetuation, ESOP, agency sale, equity partner, etc.,” he said. “We think agents that join a network to sell to them are being a little short-sighted on the possibilities of one of the biggest assets they will ever own.”
There are plenty of choices for agency owners to find the best fit for their needs in the network world.
“I think an independent agent needs some sort of network affiliation or relationship at this point,” Smart Choice’s Caldwell said. “It’s almost table stakes.”
Whatever the choice, professionally run agency networks will continue to provide services and support that help independent agents grow their business, MarshBerry’s Captain told Insurance Journal. “We (and others) are investing in tools and resources that will allow them to have access to compete against the much larger agencies in the market,” he said. “We want them to have the ability to compete at all levels, so that means helping them with producer training, education, technology consultations, new technology for quoting, AI work, market access, increased revenue, etc., etc.”
Whatever agency owners want from a network is a personal choice, network leaders say. But most importantly, Agents Alliance Services’ Robertson advises agency owners to pay close attention to the details of the network contract.
“Hands down, the most important elements of your contract are the buyout provision and the non-competes,” Robertson said. “That is overlooked in so many cases. I can’t tell you how many conversations we’ve had with agents that are unhappy that they essentially have to buy their agency back to roll it out or buy 30% of it back to roll it out, and then are hit with these non-competes,” he said.
Renaissance Alliance CEO Bob Bondi said networks have become a critical component in the entire insurance ecosystem.
“Networks represent an opportunity for the independent agent to do what they do best, which is stay independent, by helping agencies scale their business a little bit better,” he said.
Carriers also rely on networks to help bring in more premium dollars, he added.
“Carriers are working more closely than ever with networks to help drive the premium in a way that promotes growth,” Bondi said. “Networks can be very helpful with that because that’s what we do all day long. We promote growth not by getting more members but by helping our existing members with true organic growth.”
And the competitive spirit among the network space is a good thing, he added. “I can never see a downside to competition,” he said. Competition really helps make the entire system better. “Network competition is making everybody better, and that’s good,” he said.
