M&A activity snapshot
Delegated underwriting is consolidating far faster than retail insurance distribution. MarshBerry estimates roughly 149 specialty transactions closed in 2025 across about 1,700 specialty firms, nearly 9% of the sector in one year, versus under 2% for retail brokers. MarshBerry's "specialty" bucket combines delegated authority with wholesale brokers. No public tracker separates MGA deals on their own.
That count has been volatile. MarshBerry recorded an all-time high of 181 completed specialty deals in 2023, then approximately 120 announced deals in 2024. The 2025 figure is therefore a partial rebound, not a new peak. For contrast, OPTIS Partners counted 292 insurance agency deals of all types in the first half of 2026, the slowest start since 2016, a U.S. and Canada count dominated by retail.
The underlying market keeps growing. AM Best data shows MGAs wrote $108.7 billion of direct premium in 2025, up 17.8%, against 5% growth for the broader U.S. P&C industry. That equals approximately 10% of the overall P/C market, per AM Best.
Trackers disagree on size because they measure different things. Conning puts total U.S. MGA premium at approximately $128 billion for 2025, including Lloyd's business, with $102.6 billion in statutory MGA direct premium, up 12%. Program business overlaps both: TMPAA's biennial study found premium volume climbed to $110.8 billion in 2024, up 40% from 2022.
Who is buying
Public specialty and wholesale platforms set the pace. Houlihan Lokey reports that Ryan Specialty was the most active acquirer of MGAs in 2024, adding eight platforms for an estimated transaction value of more than $3.4 billion. The same report describes CRC Group refocusing on the wholesale and MGA market after its separation from Truist, and NSM selling its U.S. commercial programs division to New Mountain Capital.
Wholesalers also buy founder-owned MGAs as succession exits. In September 2026, Amwins acquired Joseph Chiarello & Co., a family-run MGA writing commercial insurance for the firearms industry, folding it into Amwins Underwriting.
Private equity is the other main bidder. Houlihan Lokey lists MGA platforms, including Arrowhead, Constellation, Worldwide Facilities and Wellington, that used private equity to scale and later sold to strategics. MarshBerry has flagged an unusual reversal: private equity investors are currently paying higher valuations for delegated authority platforms than strategic buyers.
Capital providers that stop short of full ownership are a growing group. RedBird Capital Partners' Bishop Street Underwriters took a $125 million structured capital investment from White Mountains Insurance Group.
What buyers look for
The asset being sold is underwriting authority granted by a carrier, not a book of client relationships. AM Best reports that underwriting authority was granted in more than 75% of MGA contracts reviewed in 2025. It also notes that non-exclusive contracts carry most MGA premium, which makes it easier for carriers to exit underperforming segments.
That makes underwriting results a valuation input even though the carrier bears the risk. TMPAA found 84% of carriers exited at least one program, primarily due to poor performance. AM Best describes insurers demanding greater loss ratio stability and applying more rigorous due diligence before extending or renewing capacity.
MarshBerry's five primary valuation factors include historical and future growth, systems and processes, caliber of management, and concentrations, such as an MGA reliant on one market. Capacity concentration is the vertical-specific version of customer concentration. AM Best reports many MGAs are moving away from a single fronting carrier or reinsurer toward more diversified panel arrangements.
Fronting relationships get their own diligence. Conning estimates approximately 20% of total U.S. MGA premium is supported through fronting carrier relationships. AM Best says reinsurers prefer that the fronting carrier have more "skin in the game", as reassurance that program decisions put profitability first.
What makes a strong company
The TMPAA survey gives a rough profile of a program administrator. Average administrator revenue rose from $13.8 million in 2022 to $20.6 million in 2024, and 37% of respondents reported profit margins above 36%. These are survey responses, not a census. Firms that clear those marks while showing the traits below tend to attract the most buyer interest:
- A multi-year loss-ratio record across at least one soft market, so a buyer can see the program survives the cycle.
- Capacity spread across more than one carrier or panel, with no single paper provider able to end the business.
- Carrier contracts with clear term, termination and assignment language that a buyer's counsel can review early.
- Profit commission and contingent income reported separately from base commission, so a buyer can normalize it.
- An underwriting team and carrier relationships that do not depend on the founder alone.
- Clean producer licensing, and no risk-bearing carrier inside the entity unless a split sale is planned.
Scale also matters because carriers allocate capacity to proven programs. MarshBerry notes that ten years ago five delegated authority firms had a billion dollars of premium or more; today there are twenty-two. Some large platforms now retain a sliver of risk, generally 10-20% of total exposure, through sidecars and captives.
Valuation and deal structure
Delegated-authority multiples sit at the top of insurance distribution. MarshBerry reports 2025 delegated-authority transactions achieved an average pro forma EBITDA multiple of 19.4x, with valuations up 65% over six years. That average covers MarshBerry-advised deals only, which skew toward larger firms.
The range is wide. MarshBerry's 2024 specialty deals spanned around 9x to over 20x pro forma EBITDA, and its median all-in multiple rose from just over 13x in 2023 to over 16x in 2024. Across all insurance distribution, MarshBerry puts average guaranteed valuations at around 11.5x pro forma EBITDA. That is an upfront figure, so it is not a like-for-like comparison with the 19.4x all-in average.
Earnouts appear even in platform-scale deals. Ryan Specialty agreed to pay $525 million upfront cash for Velocity Risk Underwriters, which had about $81 million of 2024 operating revenue, exclusive of any earnout. By Axia's arithmetic on those two figures, that upfront price was roughly 6.5x revenue. It is a platform-scale reference, not a lower-middle-market comparable.
Structure depends on whether the seller owns a carrier. A pure MGA is a licensed producer, so a sale centers on licensing and carrier consent. If the target owns a domestic insurer, change-of-control rules apply. Iowa's insurance holding company statute, for example, provides that control shall be presumed to exist at ten percent or more of the voting securities. Velocity split the two: FM acquired the E&S carrier while Ryan Specialty took the MGU.
Full sales are no longer the default. AM Best reports full acquisitions now represent a minority of MGA transactions. Minority stakes with call options and structured capital, as in the Bishop Street example above, give owners a way to take liquidity while keeping control for now.
Outlook
The E&S tailwind behind MGA growth is slowing. AM Best puts total U.S. surplus lines premium at $143.2 billion in 2025, up 10.4%, but domestic surplus lines insurers grew 8.9%, ending their seven-year double-digit run. AM Best also notes E&S premium growth has been moderating over the past 12 to 18 months.
Capacity will likely get more selective rather than disappear. AM Best indicated that newer or less-capitalized MGAs may face particular difficulty, while experienced MGAs with demonstrated track records become more valuable partners. MarshBerry warns that a half decade of rate tailwinds are turning into headwinds, and that large platforms have pivoted growth toward underwriter and broker recruiting, often called incubation.
Over the next 12 to 24 months, that combination points to a wider gap between proven and unproven programs. Owners with multi-cycle loss ratios and diversified capacity should keep commanding scarcity pricing. Newer or single-carrier MGAs are more likely to see structured capital or minority deals than full exits at headline multiples.
Own an MGA or program administrator? Run the valuation tool or go back to the financial services M&A overview. Retail agency owners should read what buyers look for in an insurance agency. See also: why vertical-specific buyers outperform generalists in outbound.