Worldwide, total fees and commissions earned from insurance broking activity in 2024 were worth around USD 180 billion
The market appears to have consolidated further during 2024 and this trend seems likely to continue during 2025
Close to a half of the world’s top 500 broking groups are headquartered in the US and over 85% of them are privately-owned
London, UK (July 7, 2025) – According to the latest rankings and analyses updated by Insuramore, the value of the worldwide market for insurance broking in terms of fees and commissions earned was around USD 180 billion in 2024, up from around USD 166.5 billion in 2023 on a constant currency basis, equivalent to a growth rate of around 8.1% without adjusting for inflation, but closer to 2.6% as an inflation-adjusted measure. Without adjusting for inflation, the top 15 broking groups together achieved an even higher aggregate growth rate of 10.7% albeit this was driven in part by M&A activity.
Among these, Alliant and Howden were the groups that expanded their broking revenues most rapidly.
In 2024, the market is estimated to have broken down between around USD 83.3 billion due to commercial P&C (non-life) retail broking, USD 18.2 billion to private P&C (non-life) retail broking, USD 55.8 billion to employee benefits plus life and health insurance retail broking, USD 8.3 billion to reinsurance broking and USD 14.7 billion to wholesale broking. (Noting that these data points omit MGA / MGU and tied agency activity among other elements, please see below for precise definitions of these segments.)
Revenues from reinsurance and wholesale broking grew most quickly during the year while those from employee benefits plus life and health insurance retail broking recorded the least growth.
In terms of the value of its total broking revenues worldwide, Marsh McLennan ranked first among broking groups in 2024, and it was followed in descending order by Aon, Gallagher, WTW and Acrisure. Meanwhile, the leaders in each of the five broking segments were as follows:
- commercial P&C insurance retail broking – Marsh McLennan;
- private P&C insurance retail broking – Alliant;
- employee benefits activity plus retail broking of life and health cover – WTW;
- reinsurance broking – Aon;
- wholesale insurance broking – Amwins.
Overall, the top 15 groups are believed to have controlled 48.7% of total global broking fees and commissions in 2024, up from 47.6% in 2023 and 45.8% in 2020. This shows that there has been some consolidation in the market structure which is mainly due to M&A activity. Looking ahead, it will be apposite to see whether further such activity causes the worldwide market to consolidate further in 2025; significantly, eight of the top 500 groups were in the process of being acquired during the first half of the year.
Among the top 500 groups in 2024, the US is the headquarters for 233 (46.6%) of them; following the US by this measure are the UK, France, Canada and Germany, the home countries for a respective 49, 35, 31 and 21 of the largest 500 groups, with the rest of the world accounting for the remaining 131 in the analysis. Furthermore, the vast majority (at 430, or 86.0%) are privately-owned, involving one or a combination of family ownership, employee ownership or private equity.
Please visit www.insuramore.com/rankings/brokers for more rankings and analyses by Insuramore.
About Insuramore
Insuramore is a provider of marketing services and related consultancy with a primary focus on the insurance sector. Its positioning stems not only from the broad range of services that it offers and its worldwide coverage but also from its deep understanding of all types of insurance spanning life, health and P&C (non-life) insurance, whether bought by individual consumers, commercial enterprises, the public sector or not-for-profit entities, plus related services such as assistance and warranties. Insuramore’s insurance provider rankings provide original and unrivalled insights into carrier (underwriter), broker, MGA / MGU / cover-holder and marketplace groups around the world. For the full list of insurance types about which Insuramore can provide data, research and consulting services at an international level, visit www.insuramore.com/insurance-types.
Notes
Definition of insurance broking revenues
Insurance broking revenues are defined as fees and commissions earned from any kind of insurance (or reinsurance) wherein the intermediary (brokerage / independent agency) acts in an advisory capacity for its customers and places risks with all or a broad range of carriers / underwriters in the relevant market either directly (on a retail basis) or indirectly via other intermediaries (on a wholesale basis). Fees earned from alternative risk transfer (ART) activity such as the placement of risks with a captive carrier / underwriter, risk retention group (RRG) or insurance pool, or into an insurance-related security, are also classified here as insurance broking revenues, as are fees intrinsically related to core broking activity such as those earned from safety / risk / crisis management consulting, claims advocacy / claims management, premium finance, employee benefits / health / pensions / wellness consulting, associated data / actuarial analytics etc.
Fees and commissions earned from activity wherein the intermediary acts as a tied agent for a single (non-captive) carrier / underwriter or places risks with a limited panel of (non-captive) carriers / underwriters are NOT classified here as insurance broking.
Fees and commissions earned from underwriting activity by managing general agents (MGAs), managing general underwriters (MGUs), cover-holders with binding authority (i.e. where risks are not retained) are also NOT classified here as insurance broking revenues.
Likewise, revenues earned from ancillary services that are not intrinsically related to insurance broking (as defined above) are also NOT classified here as insurance broking. Variously, and depending on the breadth of activities of the intermediary, these ancillary services may include general human resources (HR) and compensation consulting / communication / administration, workforce absence management consulting, general management consulting, capital advisory services for insurance-related investments, other professional services (e.g. audit, compliance, deal advisory, tax etc.), financial advisory services for individual customers concerning investments / pensions / retirement savings / wealth management, estate planning, online price comparisons for insurance / other services (i.e. aggregation), and premium finance (where not intrinsically related to the intermediary’s core broking activity).
Captive brokers that focus mainly on arranging insurance for their parent organizations (and their suppliers) are excluded from the analysis; these are present in a few specific countries such as Germany and Japan.
Definition of commercial P&C insurance retail broking revenues
Broking revenues (as defined above) derived from property and casualty (non-life) insurance acquired directly or via affinity partners (i.e. on a retail basis) by business enterprises (including the self-employed), the public sector and not-for-profit entities comprising commercial auto (motor), liability (e.g. D&O, professional) and property insurance plus other commercial lines cover including (but not limited to) business interruption, commercial cyber, group accident (but not health), legal protection, MAT (marine, aviation and transport), surety, trade credit and workers’ compensation insurance.
Definition of private P&C insurance retail broking revenues
Broking revenues (as defined above) derived from property and casualty (non-life) insurance acquired directly or via affinity partners (i.e. on a retail basis) by private individuals (but NOT by the self-employed for their own business activity) comprising auto (motor) and home insurance plus other personal lines cover including (but not limited to) boat / yacht, extended service contract / warranty, legal protection, personal accident (but not health), pet, private cyber / liability, travel and unemployment insurance.
Definition of employee benefits activity plus life and health insurance retail broking revenues
Broking revenues (as defined above) derived from independent arrangement of and advice / consulting in relation to employee and executive benefits programs (comprising both core and voluntary group benefits and including employee retirement / pension schemes), plus broking (as defined on the following two pages) of protection-related life and / or health insurance (including dental and vision cover plus creditor / loan-related policies) acquired directly or via affinity partners (i.e. on a retail basis) by any kind of customer either on a group or individual basis.
Definition of reinsurance broking revenues
Broking revenues (as defined above) derived from reinsurance (including retrocession).
Definition of wholesale broking revenues
Broking revenues (as defined above) derived from any kind of insurance (or employee benefit) wherein the broker acts as an intermediary between carriers / underwriters and retail brokers / independent agencies other than affinity partners.
SOURCE: Insuramore
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