The value of revenues earned worldwide by MGA, MGU and cover-holder groups (a.k.a. delegated underwriting authority / underwriting agency groups) was around $23.9bn in 2023, according to an analysis by Insuramore.
Globally, over $200bn in premiums across all classes of classes were likely to have been written by MGAs in 2023.
The $23.9bn revenue in 2023 represents growth of over 20% over 2022, before adjusting for inflation.
Between 70% and 75% of the total revenues earned by the groups in 2023 was due to direct commercial P&C (non-life) insurance and the rest to direct private P&C, life and health insurance plus reinsurance.
MGA (managing general agency), MGU (managing general underwriter) and cover-holder revenues are defined as fees and commissions earned from underwriting / programme administration (and related activities) by entities with the authority to underwrite or bind insurance (or reinsurance) risk in any class and that do this exclusively or mainly on behalf of unaffiliated carrier partners. Such entities that are insurer-owned and that are believed to place risks exclusively or mainly with parent or sister underwriters (i.e. affiliated entities) are excluded from Insuramore’s analysis. Revenues from wholesale or other broking / agency activities that do not meet this definition of MGA, MGU or cover-holder business are also not in scope. However, MGA, MGU and cover-holder groups that have set up their own underwriters remain in scope unless they can be said to place risks exclusively or mainly with those underwriters.
Top entities
As a consolidated group, Brown & Brown was again ranked first globally in this arena in 2023; it had worldwide MGA revenues of around twice those of the group ranked second, namely Amwins. Then, following from third to fifth in the ranking were Ryan Specialty Group, TIH – itself divested by Truist to private equity owners during the first half of 2024 – and Gallagher. Collectively, the top five groups accounted for around 17.6% of global MGA revenues in 2023.
The equivalent shares of the top 50, top 100 and top 300 groups work out at a respective 55.4%, 67.5% and 84.4% in what is a fragmented yet highly dynamic sector. Indeed, there are around 3,000 individual enterprises involved in MGA activity worldwide among which over 1,650 are on course to write premiums of more than $10m in 2024.
By ownership, 58 of the top 300 groups in this space in 2023 are classifiable as broker-owned, 31 as insurer-owned and the remaining 211 as independent (albeit many of these are backed by private equity firms). Among insurer-owned groups, Insuramore judges that Munich Re generated the highest revenues from proprietary MGA business in 2023 while NSM Insurance Group was the largest independent group.
As would be expected given the very high industry-wide growth rate, almost all MGA groups experienced an increase in their revenues in 2023 and 12 of the top 300 are believed likely by Insuramore to have more than doubled their income relative to 2022 with both organic growth and M&A activity influential in this respect. However, the wider sector has experienced mixed fortunes with several MGA enterprises that launched in recent years having ceased to trade during 2023 (or the first half of 2024) and with a few fields of activity having seemingly attracted more competing MGAs than they will be able to support.
In the wake of the sharp slowdown in its growth in recent months, these include cyber insurance as well as “fun” segments with comparatively low barriers to entry such as cannabis and pet insurance. Nevertheless, despite a few isolated headwinds, the increasing demand for more bespoke and innovative insurance cover supported by appropriate technologies means that the outlook for the global MGA market remains highly favourable.
Insuramore is a provider of marketing services and related consultancy with a primary focus on the insurance sector.