Part 1: How We Got Here

A Brief History of Consolidation in Insurance Brokerage

The Business Investors Couldn’t Resist

Private equity firms love the insurance business, and for good reason. It is resilient, cash-generating, and predictable.

Demand is recurring and often compulsory. Customers stay for years. Free cash flow is strong, capital needs are low, and revenue holds up through economic cycles. Insurance offers something investors crave: stability.

The Early Wave of Consolidation

In the early years, consolidation focused on larger agencies that served up-market clients, where having national subject-matter experts and broader carrier leverage genuinely improved outcomes.

• In 2004, there was one PE-backed broker.

• By 2014, there were eleven.

• By 2024, there were nearly forty, responsible for roughly 80% of all industry M&A activity.

That surge of capital pushed consolidation from regional and large commercial accounts into local Main Street agencies. The playbook stayed the same, but the businesses being purchased were not.

Scale at All Costs

As capital poured in, new entrants raced to deploy it. Acquisitions became less about strategy and more about scale. Instead of asking “What kind of business is this?” the question became “How much EBITDA can we buy?”

Valuations climbed, and so did expectations. When deal flow slowed, pressure shifted inward…onto the agencies themselves.

Decisions about staffing, servicing, and technology moved from the agency floor to the boardroom. The private-equity model depends on liquidity within five or so years. So when the M&A gravy train dried up, boardrooms began tinkering with the very goodness they bought.

But not all agencies are created equal. Each serves a different mix of customers, communities, and industries. Trying to run them all the same way is like forcing a square peg into a round hole.

The Human Cost

The results have become clear:

Service has suffered.
Customers who once had a personal point of contact now get routed through centralized service centers or virtual assistants overseas.

Staff gets squeezed.
The people who built these agencies face shifting priorities, new reporting lines, and productivity targets disconnected from their customers’ needs.

Community connection fades.
Agencies that once served as local fixtures are absorbed into national brands, losing the personal trust that made them thrive.

It’s not that private equity is inherently bad for the industry. The issue is the short-term horizon that prizes scale and growth above all else. In the process, much of what makes independent agencies special — the customer focus, local accountability, and sense of ownership — gets lost.

A Different Kind of Scale

At Agent Vista, we’re building a model designed to keep what’s great about this business intact while modernizing what’s broken. We believe you can run a sound, investor-appealing company without sacrificing the customer or the community.

People first.
We partner with agencies to empower their teams, not replace them. Local relationships aren’t inefficiencies; they’re competitive advantages.

Technology that enables, not replaces.
Our AI-native platform automates the busywork so agents can spend more time advising clients and growing their books.

Long-term alignment.
We’re not building to flip. We’re building for endurance. We’re building with patient capital, shared ownership, and sustainable growth.

We care deeply about creating investor value, but we don’t prioritize it above the customer experience. When you start with the customer, everyone wins: the agency, the staff, the community, and yes, the investors too.

Reclaiming the Human Advantage

Insurance has always been a people business. A business built on trust, empathy, and accountability. Those qualities don’t appear in spreadsheets, but they’re what keep customers loyal for decades.

At Agent Vista, we believe the next generation of insurance distribution will belong to those who blend the best of both worlds: human connection and modern intelligence. Technology should serve people, not the other way around.

Because when businesses exist to serve customers, not just capital, that’s when they make magic.