Insurance M&A volume declines but deal appetite remains

The last six months have featured several significant insurance deals. 

• In December 2025, Howard Hughes Holdings acquired Bermuda-based reinsurer Vantage Group Holdings for $2.1 billion from Carlyle and Hellman & Friedman. This is a notable example of a non-traditional, strategic acquisition of a specialty reinsurance platform.

• In December 2025, Willis Towers Watson agreed to acquire tech-enabled insurance broker Newfront Insurance Holdings for $1.45 billion, representing a significant brokerage consolidation move that also folds an insurtech-native platform into a top global insurance broker.

• In December 2025, The Baldwin Insurance Group (formerly BRP Group) acquired Cobbs Allen Capital Holdings for $1.41 billion, extending its retail brokerage and specialty platform footprint.

• In February 2026, Enstar Group acquired workers' compensation specialist Accident Fund Holdings from Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan for $1.59 billion, a sizable P&C carve-out from a healthcare-affiliated mutual to a legacy run-off/specialty consolidator.

• In March 2026, Corebridge Financial and Equitable Holdings announced a merger valued at approximately $22 billion, a combination of two scaled retirement, life insurance and wealth management platforms with approximately $1.5 trillion in assets under management and administration. Their merger represents one of the largest strategic combinations in the life and retirement insurance sector in recent years.

These deals reflect continued interest in reliable capital flows, brokerage consolidation, and scaling. For example:

Tailwinds continue to generate interest in P&C. The combination of premium rate increases over the past several years, moderating loss cost inflation, and improved underwriting discipline has driven stronger profitability across homeowners, private passenger auto, commercial property, and E&S lines (including fronting carriers). Improved combined ratios continue to attract investor interest, particularly among high-performing specialty carriers, MGA platforms, fronting carriers, and other E&S businesses.

However, there is increasing nuance in other areas. 

AI is challenging investment strategies. Public and private markets are evaluating if AI will enable new entrants to capture share by delivering brokerage services at a structurally lower cost, or if incumbent brokers can leverage AI to improve operating efficiency and sustain margins. The outcome is expected to influence valuations, capital allocation decisions, and M&A strategy.

In contrast, many carriers and reinsurers view AI as an opportunity and are actively accelerating investments in AI-enabled underwriting, claims, and workflow automation to enhance submission triage, improve underwriting speed, and drive greater operating efficiency. These operational advancements may support improved carrier and reinsurer valuations and contribute to increased M&A activity across the sector.

Organic growth challenges are driving distribution platforms to pursue scale and create operating efficiencies. Premium rate increases across most product lines have recently moderated from the elevated levels of 2022–24, leading publicly traded insurance brokers to forecast slower organic growth. Combined with ongoing uncertainty surrounding AI's potential impacts, this is lowering distributor valuations, which may reduce acquisition capital available to consolidators and narrow the valuation arbitrage that has historically supported the roll-up model.

PE demand remains strong but has become more selective. Private capital sponsors’ desire to acquire or partner with life and annuity (L&A) platforms remains strong. Alternative asset managers and insurance-focused investors continue to pursue acquisitions, reinsurance transactions, and platform investments to access stable liability origination and scalable asset management opportunities. 

Avocet Partners’ announced acquisition of EMC Life and Aquarian Holdings’ announced acquisition of Brighthouse Financial, as well as large-scale asset-intensive reinsurance deals like RGA’s reinsurance transaction with Equitable, demonstrate ongoing appetite for L&A platforms/blocks of business. Established platforms are likely to continue pursuing international reinsurance and liability consolidation opportunities, as competition for US insurance blocks of business remains high.

Moreover, as pricing normalizes across much of the P&C market, carriers are focusing on capital optimization through sidecars, captive reinsurance structures, and alternative capital partnerships. These structures continue to attract interest from private equity, private credit managers, and alternative asset managers who seek access to insurance liabilities and investment management mandates.

Lastly, private equity investors remain highly interested in insurance distribution. However, their focus is shifting to the quality of organic growth, execution of inorganic growth strategies and acquisition pipelines, strength of technology infrastructure, and the maturity of reporting capabilities and internal controls required to support IPO-ready platforms.

Carriers

• Improving combined ratios, sustained underwriting profitability, and continued demand for specialty risk exposure are making P&C carrier deals appealing, with several assets currently in market generating strong investor interest. The combination of strong operating fundamentals and a deep pool of strategic and financial buyers is expected to drive increased deal activity, though dealmakers should anticipate more rigorous diligence around the sustainability of underwriting growth and profitability.

• Alternative capital will continue to supplement, and in some cases take the place of traditional M&A. We expect sidecars, fronting structures, reinsurance arrangements, and strategic minority investments to grow in both volume and complexity. These structures often deliver many of the same strategic and capital outcomes as traditional M&A, allowing carriers to access capital but retain underwriting control. 

• We expect L&A demand will remain strong, but legal entity deal volume is likely to remain constrained. Most private equity sponsors have already built platforms and increasingly favor acquiring business through reinsurance structures, including flow and block transactions, rather than pursuing full legal-entity acquisitions. Additionally, consolidation among larger private equity-backed platforms may emerge as sponsors seek greater operating efficiencies, scale, and product diversity capital benefits.

Distribution

• Distribution deal volumes are likely to moderate as buyers become more selective, integration capacity tightens, and seller expectations adjust to a more measured pricing environment. Nevertheless, strategic acquirers and private equity-backed aggregators are expected to continue leveraging M&A to supplement organic growth and advance existing inorganic growth strategies.

• Persistent compression of public broker multiples is likely to impact private distribution deals. However, potential pricing declines aren’t likely to mirror those in public markets. 

• MGAs operating across multiple programs with proven underwriting profitability, stable capacity relationships, and strong organic growth will continue to command mid- to high-teens multiples. Larger MGA platforms may consider strategic combinations, pursuing low-risk corporate synergies and broader scale with capacity partners. 

• Deal activity is likely to broaden beyond traditional P&C brokerage. We expect continued M&A in adjacent, insurance-like product categories, including home and product warranty, vehicle finance and insurance, credit and payment protection, and other ancillary distribution platforms. Buyers view these segments as attractive sources of growth because they’re less exposed to traditional commercial rate cycles and benefit from embedded distribution and recurring revenue.

Although insurance deals have moderated somewhat, underlying activity remains healthy, and strategic and financial drivers are firmly intact. Private equity remains active across L&A, P&C, and distribution, albeit increasingly through sidecars, reinsurance, catastrophe bonds, and minority structures. In addition, P&C carriers, MGA platforms, and fronting carriers continue to drive P&C deal flow. Moreover, AI shows promise to increase carriers’ operational efficiency, although it also has the potential to lower broker valuations if it changes distributor business models.

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