IN A WORD, 2020 was the year of COVID-19. In the midst of lockdowns and transitions to remote work, some brokerages simply did the best they could. But others faced down challenge after challenge – including a hardening market and shrinking capacity – and managed to not only drive record growth, but also become better brokerages in the process. For the eighth year in a row, IBC celebrates the brokerages that achieved significant growth over the past 12 months – a mix of bootstrapped startups, long-time operations, digital providers and award winners of all kinds. IBC’s method of evaluating brokerages ensures that companies of all sizes compete on an even playing field. In addition to focusing on metrics of size and volume – such as revenue and number of clients – IBC also evaluated brokerages on their year-over-year growth. On the following pages, this year’s Top 10 Brokerages reveal the moves they’ve made to overcome the challenges of the pandemic and offer their insights as to where the industry is headed next.
METHODOLOGY To be considered for IBC’s Top 10 Brokerages, each brokerage was required to provide key details about its business in 2020, including revenue, policies written, number of clients and profit margin. Each brokerage was then ranked according to 11 criteria:
TOP 10 BROKERAGES Insurance Group 1 Storm
COMPOSITE SCORE: 62
Insurance Group 2 Billyard COMPOSITE SCORE: 86
3 Surex
COMPOSITE SCORE: 93
Canada Risk 4 BMS Services COMPOSITE SCORE: 108
Revenue Revenue growth* Revenue per broker New broker growth* Number of clients Number of new clients Client growth* New clients per broker Policies written Policy growth* Profit margin Each brokerage’s ranking in each category was added into a composite score that determined the final ranking. A lower composite score thus equals a higher ranking. The majority of the criteria used by IBC recognizes growth and business volume per broker, rather than critical mass, allowing brokerages of all sizes to compete fairly. In addition, expressing metrics such as revenue growth and policy growth as a percentage of total business ensures that the very bestperforming brokerages make the final list. *Change between 2019 and 2020
M. Beck 5 Wilson Insurance Services COMPOSITE SCORE: 112
Insurance 6 Excel Group
(TIE) COMPOSITE SCORE: 125
6 Schill Insurance Brokers COMPOSITE SCORE: 125
(TIE)
8 Alteri Insurance Brokers COMPOSITE SCORE: 129
Financial 9 Western Group COMPOSITE SCORE: 134
10 Sharp Insurance
COMPOSITE SCORE: 141
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