Agency M&A activity lost momentum last year. OPTIS Partners, the investment banking and consulting firm that tracks the space closely, counted 695 completed insurance agency transactions nationally in 2025, a 12% drop from the 787 deals it recorded in 2024, according to reporting in Insurance Journal (Jan. 22, 2026). The slowdown accelerated as the year went on — the fourth quarter produced just 157 deals, the weakest quarter since 2019 and roughly 47% below the five-year average, per the same OPTIS/Insurance Journal data.
Property & casualty agencies remained the dominant sellers, representing 455 of the 695 deals, or about two-thirds of all transactions tracked. Buyer activity also shifted: BroadStreet, the private-equity-backed platform that led all acquirers in 2024 with roughly 90 deals, closed only 29 in 2025. Hub International slipped to 49 deals from 61, while Inszone Insurance Services completed 45. Six agencies with revenue above $25 million changed hands during the year, including Assured Partners and Woodruff-Sawyer joining Arthur J. Gallagher, Risk Strategies and One80 moving to Brown & Brown, and CAC Group being acquired by The Baldwin Group, Insurance Journal reported. Earlier in the year, OPTIS data cited by Insurance Journal (Oct. 21, 2025) showed private-equity-backed and hybrid brokers still driving 72% of all transactions through the third quarter — consolidation capital hasn't left the market, it's simply being deployed more selectively at the top end.
That selectivity is the headline for owners of mid-sized independent agencies, but it obscures a separate and arguably more urgent dynamic playing out beneath the deal tables: how many new agencies are forming, and whether they're built to last. OPTIS estimates that roughly 30,000 independent agencies nationwide generate under $1.25 million in revenue, and that the large majority of them lack any real path to perpetuation — no succession plan, no scale buyer, no clear exit.
Public state licensing and carrier-appointment records help put a finer point on where that sub-scale population is concentrated and growing. In Texas, consolidation platforms own just 0.2% of the state's roughly 9,100 independent P&C agencies — the market there remains almost entirely independent. Florida looks different: consolidators hold 3.9% of its nearly 9,945 agencies, meaning roll-up activity has already reached further into that state's book, even as the broader Florida landscape still shows the large majority of agencies independently owned.
What stands out isn't the roll-up share — it's the formation pattern underneath it. Florida DFS/CFO public license and appointment data show Miami-Dade and Broward counties issuing new agent licenses faster than anywhere else in the state, 668 and 526 respectively over the trailing 12 months. Yet those same two counties post the thinnest agents-per-agency ratios statewide, 1.3 and 1.2, a sign that much of that growth is one- or two-person shops rather than expanding established firms. Thin staffing alone doesn't prove carrier dependency, but it lines up with the same fragility OPTIS describes nationally: small, newly formed agencies with limited carrier relationships and little built-in ability to be sold, merged, or handed off when an owner is ready to step back.
For an agency owner reading the national deal count, the practical takeaway isn't that consolidation has stalled — it's that where scale sits keeps shifting. Big-platform buyers are still active but choosier, concentrating on the largest, most diversified books. Meanwhile, at the county level in fast-growing fragmented markets like Dade and Broward, a different kind of consolidation pressure is building from the bottom: an expanding pool of small, carrier-limited agencies that may eventually need to combine, add carrier appointments, or find a perpetuation path of their own. Understanding which category your agency falls into — and how your county's carrier access and agency density compare to neighboring metros — is worth more than watching the national deal count alone. More county-level detail is available at Pexara's Florida consolidation tracker.