Top 10 Reinsurance Broker Rankings
Following the whirlwind of M&A activity from 2018 to 2022, our annual Top 10 Reinsurance Broker Rankings, based on 2023 revenue estimates, reveals a stabilised top tier, while the new wave of challenger brokers has begun to make its mark further down the table.
For years, the reinsurance brokerage sector experienced a relatively stable environment, marked by predictable patterns and incremental shifts. This stability was significantly disrupted between 2018 and 2022, as a series of high-profile transactions redefined the sector.
This transformation began with Marsh McLennan’s $5.6bn acquisition of JLT in 2019, followed by Gallagher’s acquisition of Willis Re on the back of Aon’s failed pursuit of WTW in 2020-21, and lastly the $1.6bn combination of Howden Re and TigerRisk, announced in 2022.
This year, the reinsurance distribution landscape appears to have settled back into a period of slower, more incremental change.
Gallagher Re and Howden Re have now cemented their respective positions as the third and fourth largest reinsurance brokers.
Along with Aon’s Reinsurance Solutions and Marsh McLennan’s Guy Carpenter – ranked first and second, respectively – the top four now collectively command approximately 90 percent of the reinsurance brokerage market.
But while the line-up has stabilised, gradual change continues to reshape the reinsurance intermediation market.
Organic growth remains robust amid an ongoing hard property cat market, a rejuvenated cat bond market and sustained demand from buyers.
Against this backdrop, the smaller challenger brokers continue to ramp up their operations and a cohort of challengers to the challenger brokers is now emerging, with a number of start-ups launched within the last two years beginning to make an impact further down the top 10.
Thus, while the rapid shifts of recent years have moderated, the industry remains poised for change amid ongoing growth dynamics, although tailwinds are expected to weaken in 2024.
Spotlight on the summit
Aon’s Reinsurance Solutions maintained its lead in the ranking for the sixth consecutive year, slightly widening the gap over second-placed Guy Carpenter.
The unit reported 10 percent organic growth in 2023, driven by strong retention, net new business generation and robust growth in core reinsurance.
Rival Guy Carpenter saw a 10 percent increase in underlying revenue for 2023, with growth peaking early in the year but slowing to 8 percent in Q3 and 9 percent in Q4, compared to Aon’s higher figures of 11 percent in Q3 and 14 percent in Q4.
Gallagher did not disclose a breakdown of revenues by business unit, but a note in its latest 10-K filing revealed Gallagher Re accounted for 12 percent of total brokerage revenue in 2023, implying an estimated $1,036mn in revenues for the reinsurance brokerage operations.
While the comparison against the estimate for 2022 directly obtained from sources implies a 4 percent annual increase, this is likely affected by the reclassification of business between one year and the next. Indeed, Gallagher publicly disclosed Gallagher Re’s organic growth at 12 percent in Q1, 11 percent in Q2, 20 percent in Q3 and 12 percent in Q4.
Meanwhile, Howden Tiger, recently rebranded as Howden Re, recorded an estimated $585mn in brokerage revenues in 2023 (including the Bowood business), a 30 percent year-on-year increase.
Sources attributed this growth to strong performances in Howden Capital Markets, SabRE and US specialty treaty.
It is worth noting that Howden Re’s parent company reports with a 30 September year-end, which places its revenue figures ahead of the majority of the other brokers in the ranking.
Growing off a smaller base
Fifth-placed Lockton Re remained one of the standout growth stories, with its top line understood to have grown by approximately 35 percent for the second consecutive year.
Similarly to Howden, Lockton Re’s parent reports with a 30 April year-end, also resulting in revenue figures reported ahead of most others.
The business – which has been building out since being rebooted in 2019 under a new management team led by Tim Gardner – launched its capital advisory practice and agriculture practice in 2023, adding 100 new staff members to take its total headcount beyond 400 employees globally.
It also opened new offices in Santiago (Chile), Mexico City, Munich and Dublin, as well as supporting US growth with new locations in San Francisco and Greensboro.
After being leapfrogged by BMS Re in 2022, Acrisure Re has risen again to sixth place with revenues estimated by this publication to be over $200mn in 2023, an increase of more than 33 percent compared to the previous year.
Sources said this growth was driven by strong organic expansion, particularly within the property cat practice in Florida.
Acrisure Re's Corporate Advisory and Solutions business, ARCAS, which was launched in 2021, is understood to have contributed significantly on both sides of the Atlantic, alongside growth in treaty and programs, particularly in the New York and London offices.
Meanwhile, BMS Re is understood to have lost some momentum last year compared to its 2022 growth.
A 2023 revenue number had not been confirmed at the time of publication, but in a message to staff in January this year BMS Group CEO Nick Cook acknowledged challenges in certain parts of the business even as overall revenues at the group level climbed by around 21 percent to nearly £300mn.
Although he congratulated BMS Re’s newly launched MGA unit ProLink Solutions and its facultative arm for their good results, he noted that challenges with the volume of new US account wins had “quite a material effect on our ability to hit budget this year”.
BMS Group’s US footprint largely relates to its BMS Re business.
For BMS Re we have included a growth rate estimate of around 15 percent – compared to 40 percent in 2022 – which would drop the firm to seventh position in our rankings, with an implied revenue for 2023 of $180mn, with all figures including the acquisition of Trean.
As reported by this publication at the end of January, BMS Re CEO Pete Chandler stepped down after four years at the helm of the unit, transitioning to vice-chairman. Last week, it was revealed that Aon Reinsurance Solutions’ Brad Melvin has been appointed as the new president and CEO of BMS Re US, starting in November.
Meanwhile, UIB revealed that reinsurance had accounted for approximately 90 percent of full group revenues, which surpassed £80mn for the first time in 2023, thus maintaining its eighth place in the ranking.
Growth was reported at 12.5 percent over 2022 for both facultative and treaty reinsurance, with double-digit growth in many offices, including Turkey, South Korea, India and Latin America. However, some parts of the group were impacted by the conflicts in Ukraine and Sudan.
“The financial situation and continued application of sanctions in these regions resulted in some lost revenue,” the company explained.
Also in the same position as in the previous year, Holborn reported net brokerage revenue of $68.5mn in 2023.
The firm saw good growth in crop, cyber and umbrella lines.
“We have made several hires across all areas of the company from adding senior staff to expanding internship programs in our efforts to perpetuate the firm as the only 100 percent employee-owned independent reinsurance intermediary,” the company said.
The firm added that new business opportunities were strong but that it remained selective when adding new ceding company clients.
Among the latest wave of challengers, McGill and Partners has made an entry into the top 10. Reinsurance revenue for 2023 was estimated at $61mn, snatching 10 th place from Ardonagh Group-owned Price Forbes Re (previously known as Inver Re) with revenues below the $60mn mark.
McGill and Partners’ growth momentum has continued into 2024, with H1 revenue understood to have reached $48mn, reflecting a 30 percent year-on-year increase which is expected to extend throughout the full year.
The cohort of new challengers also include Alliant Re, Augment Risk and Juniper Re, all of which were launched during 2023.