What Is an Insurance Agency Worth in 2026? #
An agency is worth a multiple of its earnings, and the multiple depends almost entirely on how large those earnings are. The ladder is steep, and the step between the bottom two rungs is the widest in the market.
| Adjusted EBITDA | Multiple | Who the buyer usually is |
|---|---|---|
| Under $1M | 5x to 7x | A local agency, an individual buyer, or a regional consolidator |
| $1M to $3M | 11.4x to 11.8x | Private-equity-backed brokers competing for the same targets |
| $3M to $10M | 12x to 14x | National platforms |
| $10M and over | 14x to 16x and above | The largest brokers and their sponsors |
These multiples come from Sica|Fletcher's sell-side dataset, which covered more than 450 deals in the first half of 2025 and 714 transactions across the full year, as published by Ad Astra Equity. No federal source publishes valuation multiples, so this is a named commercial dataset rather than a statistic.
Almost Every US Agency Is in the Lowest Band #
The figure most often quoted for agency valuations is the one that applies to almost none of them.
The average US insurance agency books $1.44M of annual revenue, from Economic Census receipts for 2022 spread across the establishments County Business Patterns counted for the same year. Corporations in the industry reported a net profit margin of 14.3% for tax year 2022 (IRS Statistics of Income).
Put those together and the average agency's earnings are a long way below the threshold where the multiple jumps. Reaching the second band on that margin would take several times the revenue the average agency produces, so the overwhelming majority of the country's agencies are valued in the first band, at five to seven times earnings.
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Why the Small End Is Valued on Revenue Instead #
Below the platform bands, buyers frequently price an agency on its commission revenue rather than its earnings, at a multiple of roughly one and a half to two and a half times. The reason is not laziness.
A small agency's reported profit is largely a decision about how much the owner pays themselves. Two agencies with identical books can show very different earnings depending on owner compensation, family members on payroll and expenses run through the business. Commission revenue is harder to arrange and easier for a buyer to verify against carrier statements.
It also reflects what is actually being bought. At the small end the asset is the book of business and the renewal rate attached to it, not an operating platform. A buyer is acquiring recurring commissions and the relationships that renew them, so the quality of the book matters more than last year's profit line.
The practical consequence is that a seller should know both numbers. An earnings multiple and a revenue multiple can produce very different answers for the same agency, and whichever is higher is the one the seller should be able to defend.
What Counts as an Insurance Agency #
Insurance Agencies and Brokerages (NAICS 524210) comprises establishments primarily engaged in acting as agents, that is brokers, in selling annuities and insurance policies. The definition is short and the boundary it draws is the one that matters for a valuation.
An agency sells policies and earns commissions. It does not underwrite, and it does not carry the risk. Carriers that assume risk and set premiums are a separate industry, and their economics, their balance sheets and their valuation methods have nothing in common with an agency's.
Census also keeps the service side separate. Establishments that primarily perform claims adjusting, actuarial work, insurance ratemaking or third-party administration are classified in other insurance related activities, not here. A business doing those things alongside policy sales is classified by whichever is its primary activity, which can put two apparently similar firms in different industries.
Before benchmarking an agency against the figures on this page, check that it belongs in this classification. A third-party administrator compared against agency revenue per establishment is being measured against the wrong industry.
Grounding the Valuation in Federal Agency Economics #
Census counts 133,728 insurance agencies and brokerages with paid employees, employing 818,561 people (Census CBP, 2023). That is an industry of small firms: the great majority are local agencies rather than the brokers whose transactions set the headline multiples.
A valuation that holds up with a lender or a buyer starts with normalised earnings from the agency's own accounts, with owner compensation identified and discretionary expenses stripped out, and then places those earnings against the bands above. The federal figures tell you whether the agency is small, typical or large for its classification, which is what decides the band.
The cost side is covered on our page on insurance agency profit margins.
| Input | On this page | In the report |
|---|---|---|
| Valuation multiples, from a named commercial dataset | Yes | Discussed, not measured |
| Corporate net margin, from IRS Statistics of Income | Yes | No |
| Agencies and employment, national | Yes | Yes |
| Average revenue per agency | Yes | No |
| Agencies and employment by state | No | Yes |
| Industry receipts, market concentration and five-year forecast | No | Yes |
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