Brown & Brown Buys Again

Brown & Brown and its subsidiaries sell property-casualty insurance along with employee benefits administration, managed health care and a range of other products and services for midsize employers.

In the past year, Brown & Brown has acquired a number of employee benefits agencies, including John Manner Agency, Joliet, Ill.; Abrams Agency, Hartford; and the Hoffman Agency, Orange, Calif. Including p-c agencies, the company averages more than 20 acquisitions a year, says Cory Walker, Brown & Brown’s chief financial officer.

“They come to us,” Walker says of acquisition candidates. “We have a highly decentralized organization. Agencies are attracted to us because they can continue to run their operations just like when they were on their own.”

Brown & Brown now has agencies in 30 states and about 135 offices, with about 3,550 employees. Its corporate accounts pay commissions averaging between $11,000 and $12,000 a year, Walker says.