Practice area
Independent insurance agencies
An insurance agency is a book of renewals, and what the book is worth depends on its composition. We measured roughly 2,100 Houston-area independent agencies from the Department of Insurance's public appointment files, including which carriers each agency writes for.
What a buyer is paying for
Not revenue. In this trade specifically, price is driven by the share of work that recurs without being sold again.
What the commissions renew on
A buyer prices the last three years of commissions against the likelihood that they renew. Retention, carrier concentration and line mix constitute the valuation; two agencies with identical revenue can be a full multiple apart.
The nonstandard-auto cycle
Nonstandard auto books follow the premium cycle. When rates have risen sharply, trailing commissions are at their strongest, and the candid assessment is that those may be the best three years the multiple will ever see.
Carrier appointments that transfer
The book only moves if the carriers move with it. Whether your appointments assign on a change of control is a diligence answer worth knowing before a buyer asks.
The market, measured
Texas publishes which carriers every licensed agency is appointed with. Read across a metro, those records segment the market by what each agency actually writes, before any conversation, which is how we know which owners the timing argument genuinely applies to.
Measured July 2026
Figures drift as the market changes. We re-measure quarterly rather than quoting a figure once and repeating it.
Who this practice serves
- An independent agency owner, captive-adjacent or fully independent, with a renewal book they own.
- Nonstandard auto and personal lines books, where the timing of a sale matters more than in any other segment.
- Commercial-lines agencies with account rounding and multi-year retention worth presenting to a buyer.
If you have already received an approach, bring the offer to us before signing anything. A letter of intent usually carries an exclusivity clause, and once it is executed the seller’s leverage is largely gone.