Employee Benefits & Consulting Review
Heavy Consolidation in EB Continues as Mega Deals Reshape the Industry
Since 2016, there have been 1,587 publicly announced insurance brokerage transactions where the seller was an employee benefits (EB) & consulting firm. While deals counts were down in this segment from 2024 to 2025, interest in the EB brokerage industry continues to remain high. As the insurance industry continues to change, brokers are forced to bolster their expertise, client service delivery, and resources to help their clients. This includes helping them achieve their employee benefit’s goals, which has grown well beyond brokering employer sponsored health plans. Alongside the evolution of clients’ needs, which require investment in resources to stay competitive, EB valuations have continued to increase, driving a large amount of consolidation within the space.
As a whole, the insurance brokerage industry continues to be highly fragmented, but even more so in the EB space. While EB-only firm deals continue to hover around 150 deals a year – EB revenue continues to be a large part of the publicly announced top 100 broker transactions over the past two years. Almost all of the top 100 brokers have large EB practices that continue to be a significant focus of their acquisition strategy.
M&A market update
Looking over the trend over the past five years (2021-2025), there were 906 transactions compared to 681 total reported deals in 2016-2020. Although deal counts have declined the last two years, MarshBerry believes this isn’t a reflection of interest in the EB space, but rather representative of the lack of available EB-only firms.
Deal volume vs. revenue growth
The total number of announced EB & consulting firm M&A transactions in 2025 was 152, representing approximately 18% of all insurance brokerage transactions. While this number is a slight decline compared to previous years, likely due to a declining supply of EB-only firms, the overall amount of EB revenue transacted in 2025 remained high, as much EB revenue was bundled with multiline firms.1 An analysis of the top 100 insurance brokerages deals (by revenue) shows a sharp increase in EB revenue embedded within large, multiline transactions involving large, diversified brokerages with significant employee benefits operations.
The percentage of EB revenue as part of deals in the top 100 acquired revenue has gone from 0.4% in 2021 to 8.0% in 2025 – highlighting a clear shift in where EB value is being transacted.
These transactions underscore sustained demand from both private capital-backed platforms and strategic acquirers seeking to scale EB capabilities, deepen client relationships, and enhance cross selling through multiline firms, even when EB is not the sole focus of the deal.
Top Buyers of EB Firms
In 2025 the top ten buyers of EB firms represented 59.9% of total transactions, compared to 58.2% in 2024. The top buyer of EB firms was Integrity Marketing Group, having announced 39 deals on the year, after announcing 30 deals in 2024. Both Integrity Marketing Group and AmeriLife Group who combined executed 48 deals in 2025 are primarily focused on the individual market, where most of the other active acquirers are targeting acquisitions where the core focus is employer sponsored medical and ancillary benefits services.
Top Employee Benefits Buyers, Announced U.S. Transactions
Sources: S&P Global Market Intelligence, Fidelity, and MarshBerry proprietary database. Data as of 12/31/25.
- 1/14/25: OneDigital acquired the small group benefits business of Mylo, expanding its presence and capabilities in serving small employers nationwide. The acquired operation provides medical, dental, vision, life, disability, and supplemental insurance solutions to businesses with up to 99 employees across both national and regional markets. The transaction strengthens OneDigital’s long-standing focus on the small business segment by adding an established client base and experienced team that aligns with its integrated benefits and advisory platform. For Mylo, the divestiture allows greater focus on its core products, partnerships, and technology, while ensuring continuity of service for its small group benefits clients under a scaled national platform. MarshBerry advised Mylo in this transaction.
- 3/3/25: AmeriLife Group acquired Crump Life Insurance Services and Hanleigh Management from TIH Insurance Holdings, expanding its national life, health, annuity, and retirement distribution platform. The transaction brings Crump’s established wholesale life insurance and advanced planning capabilities into AmeriLife’s broader wealth ecosystem, enhancing scale and distribution reach across carriers and advisors.
- 6/10/25: Brown & Brown acquired Accession Risk Management, the parent of Risk Strategies and One80 Intermediaries, in a transaction valued at approximately $9.8 billion, marking one of the largest brokerage acquisitions in the U.S. market. Accession is among the largest privately held brokerages, generating roughly $1.7 billion of revenue in 2024 with more than 5,300 employees across the U.S. and Canada, while Risk Strategies contributes significant scale in retail brokerage and One80 adds wholesale and program management capabilities.
- 9/19/25: OneDigital completed a majority investment from Stone Point Capital and Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, valuing the integrated insurance, financial services, and workforce consulting platform at more than $7 billion. The investment was structured through the purchase of ownership from existing shareholders, with Onex Partners retaining a significant minority position following its initial investment in 2020. The transaction provides OneDigital with additional capital to support continued organic expansion and acquisitions, reinforcing investor confidence in the firm’s founderled leadership, multi-vertical operating model, and long-term growth strategy.
Will Interest In EB & Consulting Firms Continue In 2026?
Most active buyers have made considerable investments in the EB & consulting space and remain convinced that the brokerage and consulting model is a sustainable one. The shortest-term risk for active EB acquirers revolves around lack of quality, scaled supply. The industry still lacks leadership that is committed to driving change, investing against current margins, hiring the next generation, creating sustainable sales production, and instilling confidence around competing with the bigger, more scalable players. Large EB only brokerages have become a minority. The employee benefits business is evolving, and clients rely on the broker more than ever before as competition continues to drive scalable innovation. While EB inventory will most likely remain low, it’s still a valuable space with an abundance of buyers looking to invest capital in independent firms unable to internally perpetuate their ownership. All signs point to an upward trend for interest in the EB segment.
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