Selling your insurance agency?
Your retention rate is your valuation.

The honest version

What insurance businesses actually sell for

Quality agencies commonly trade in the range of 8–12x EBITDA, with commercial-lines books at the upper end of the range. Personal-lines-heavy books generally price lower, and small books are often valued on a multiple of commission rather than EBITDA.

The range is wide because the same business is worth different amounts to different buyers. In this sector you are usually looking at three:

• National brokers and PE-backed aggregators — consistently the most active and best-funded buyers, particularly for commercial books.
• Regional agencies — expanding footprint or carrier appointments, often with more flexibility on structure.
• Internal perpetuation — selling to producers, which preserves culture but rarely matches an outside number.

Which of those is at your table changes your number far more than anything on your equipment list.

What moves the number

The four things buyers actually underwrite

• Client retention rate. This is the first number every buyer asks for. Retention is the closest proxy for the durability of the book and it drives the multiple more than size does.
• Commercial versus personal lines mix. Commercial books carry higher revenue per account and stickier relationships, and are priced accordingly.
• Producer dependence and non-competes. If the book walks when a producer walks, the buyer is purchasing a risk. Enforceable agreements materially change the price.
• Carrier relationships and contingent income. Appointments, loss ratios, and the stability of contingent commissions all feed directly into the underwriting.

The structural detail to get right early is your producer agreements. Buyers will assume that any book without enforceable protection can leave, and they will price for that assumption. Reviewing and, where necessary, refreshing those agreements is one of the highest-return actions available before a sale.

The process

Why a quiet, competitive process beats the first offer

Most owners in this sector are approached directly, unsolicited, by a consolidator or a platform buyer. That approach is flattering and it is also the single most expensive letter you can accept, because a buyer negotiating against nobody has no reason to move on price or on terms.

We run the opposite process. Buyers are qualified and under confidentiality agreement before they learn whose business it is. Nothing is listed, advertised, or published. Your staff, your customers, and your competitors learn nothing until you decide they should — and several credible buyers are considering the same opportunity at the same time.

The result is not only a better number. It is better terms: what happens to your team, how long you stay, how the earn-out is structured, and what happens to any real estate.

Common questions

Insurance agency owners ask us these first

What is my insurance agency worth?

Quality agencies commonly sell for 8 to 12 times EBITDA, with commercial-lines books at the top of that range and personal-lines-heavy books lower. Retention rate, producer agreements, and carrier relationships move the number more than raw premium volume.

Who buys insurance agencies?

National brokers and private-equity-backed aggregators are the most active and best-funded buyers, followed by regional agencies expanding their footprint. Internal perpetuation to producers is also an option, though it rarely matches an outside offer.

Should I sell my agency or perpetuate internally?

Both are legitimate. Perpetuation preserves culture and rewards your producers; an external sale almost always produces a higher number and cleaner liquidity. The mistake is choosing one without ever pricing the other. A confidential valuation lets you compare them properly.