Legal Guidance for Insurance Agency Transactions
Deal activity is thriving, and our insurance agency M&A lawyers are deeply experienced.
For more than a decade, baby boomers who spent a career building their insurance agency have taken greater advantage of the opportunity to monetize their investment by selling their agency.
While rising interest rates have had some cooling effect on deals, the market remains relatively brisk, the multiples remain reasonable high, and selling an agency can provide a good opportunity to build wealth while continuing to work in a meaningful and lucrative way. Quality agencies looking to sell will still find high demand from perspective buyers. Likewise, the fact that the market for agency purchases in not quite as hot as it was a year or more ago, there are opportunities for new buyers to compete for quality agencies. While there are a number of similarities between buying and selling an insurance agency and buying and selling other kinds of businesses, there are sufficient unique features in these transactions that should cause parties involved in insurance merger and acquisition activity to engage counsel that is specifically experienced in this arena.
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Effective Non-Piracy Agreements
By Gary Miller and Matt Veech, BoyarMiller
Experience
BoyarMiller’s team of corporate lawyers has decades of experience helping agents and owners of insurance agencies build and maintain the value of their businesses, especially in times of transition (whether than means selling an agency developed over the years or buying an additional agency).
Our senior deal team members have a long history in representing agencies in purchase and sale transactions. Recently, BoyarMiller’s insurance agency M&A lawyers have handled transactions as small as a single owner as the primary producer to agencies with multiple offices, ten or more shareholders and numerous producers.
Our lawyers assist agencies negotiating the sale documents and addressing the distinctive considerations of selling an agency such as:
- Unique and significant earnouts and related post-closing payment opportunities
- Equity of the acquirer as a portion of the purchase price
- Non-piracy and non-competition elements, including insurance agent non-compete agreements
- M&A referral bonuses
Relationships
We maintain excellent relationships with several top national investment bankers specializing in insurance agency acquisitions, and we work closely with the investment bankers and our clients to successfully complete the transaction.
We recognize the need for speed (minimizing the period a selling agency is in transition) and for patiently explaining all aspects of the transaction to our clients. We recognize that many of our clients have never been through this process before and it may be among the most significant transactions of their careers. For over 30 years, representing insurance agencies in connection with their perpetuation, owner agreements, insurance agency mergers, and insurance agency purchases and sales has been an important part of our practice.
BoyarMiller is well positioned to handle the purchase or sale of an insurance agency in any of the fifty states (although our attorneys are licensed only in Texas). By partnering with our client’s existing corporate counsel as relates to any local issues, BoyarMiller can effectively provide their insurance agency specific knowledge across the United States.
Gary Miller, Taylor Gaver, Jet McGuire and the entire BoyarMiller team provided us a lot of expertise and comfort during a very big deal for us, given that we have been in business since 1933. We took comfort in the entire team’s expertise, but we really valued Gary’s deep understanding of insurance brokerages. Gary knew a lot of nuisances and brought a lot of value and comfort to us as well as good advice. The team exhibited speed in helping us and a foundational understanding of what we needed during a stressful time. Everybody’s responsiveness was incredible to meet important deadlines and answering questions.
Gary and his team worked tirelessly to make sure we succeeded in closing on time. Their knowledge and experience in insurance agency M&A proved to be invaluable. I can’t imagine ever going through the process without their help.
Following a recommendation, I retained the legal services of BoyarMiller to assist with the sale of my insurance agency. Particularly, Gary Miller possessed the necessary expertise and understood my requirements for any agreement to sale of my agency.
Gary was helpful and patient as we conducted various discussions and negotiations with prospective buyers. His experience was evident as he provided constructive advice which ultimately led to finding an appropriate buyer.
The valuable expertise and assistance of Gary, and firm associate Taylor Gaver, were instrumental in working out the agreement which led to the sale of my agency. Throughout these negotiations, Gary and Taylor were available daily and responded directly and professionally to my questions and concerns. They’re help proved invaluable to the successful sale of my agency.
I highly recommend BoyarMiller.
Gary W. Miller
Founding Shareholder, Corporate M&A Group
Gary W. Miller
Founding Shareholder, Corporate M&A Group
Gary W. Miller
Founding Shareholder, Corporate M&A Group
