Insurance Agencies Acquired in Massachusetts in 2018

February 21, 2019 Update

Two additional agency acquisitions Eastern Insurance made in June and July of this year have been added to our list. Thank you to Eastern Insurance for getting in touch with us to help keep our list as up-to-date and accurate as possible.

As always, if you know of any other agency acquisitions in Massachusetts during either 2018 or 2019, that should be listed here, please click on the link to the right.

A look mergers and acquisition activity in Massachusetts

As Agency Checklists has done for every quarter for the past few years, the following is a listing of the agency acquisitions have been reported or announced over the course of 2018. Since not every purchase and sale is announced, however, please note this may not include transactions not reported or announced publicly.

Taking stock of the past year, it is easy to note that what is happening in Massachusetts mirrors what is happening nationally. Consolidation of the Massachusetts marketplace continued during the past year at a brisk clip. Overall, our list shows that 30 agencies were sold or merged in the Commonwealth during 2018.

Unlike the national trends, however, the majority of purchases and sales have been between agencies owned and operated in Massachusetts. For example, while Acrisure led the nations in purchases in 2018, did not have any major acquisitions in Massachusetts in 2018. Locally-owned and operated Kaplansky Insurance, however, continued to increase its geographic footprint across the state with four acquisitions last year. Boston-based Risk Strategies had two acquisitions in 2018, while The Hilb Group, a portfolio company of Boston-based Aubry Partners and Hub also announced two acquisitions. Surprisingly, both Eastern Insurance and Salem Five only had one major acquisition announcement each in 2018.

In a clear sign of the graying of the insurance industry, some long-time independent insurance agencies also were acquired this year, underlying the often difficult transition a family-owned agency must make when younger generations are not continuing on in the family business. As many older family-owned independent agencies fail to lure in younger generations to take over the reins, it is likely that a continued uptick of purchases and sales will continue in Massachusetts in 2019.