Brown & Brown

[arnguy]

Anyone familiar with this FMO out of Daytona Beach, FL? I just received an email newsletter that stated that Brown & Brown is purchasing a small, family-owned and operated FMO here in PA with which I am associated. The article goes on to state that Brown & Brown is aggresively expanding by buying up small FMOs.

 

[somarco]

I am surprised B&B found an agency to buy. I thought by now they would have bought just about every independent agency in the country.

They have been on a buying jag for years and snapped up several agencies and TPA's in Florida. But it didn't stop there.

They target mostly P&C agencies but have quite a few other agencies in their portfolio as well.

They do assimilate the agencies into their mix to an extent but unless there is overlap of duties either locally, or that can be handled remotely, they usually don't change too many things.

I did some work with them years ago on the TPA side. In general, they are good people.

 

[arnguy]

Thanks for the input, Bob. I did "google" them. They are the 7th largest brokerage firm in the U.S. The FMO they just purchased does both P&C and health insurance (group and individual). At one time I could sell BX directly through BX, but then BX set up Level 2 brokerages which had to have a certain mimimum production. At that point, most independent agents were given a choice as to which Level 2 brokerage they would operate under----no change in commission scale.