Brown & Brown to Buy Accession Risk Management for $9.8 Billion

• By: Olivia Overman
• June 16, 2025

Brown & Brown Inc., the Florida-based insurance broker, has entered into an agreement to buy rival Accession Risk Management, the parent company of the specialty brokerage firm Risk Strategies and insurance wholesaler One80 Intermediaries, in a $9.8 billion cash-and-stock deal. The transaction is expected to close in the third quarter of 2025.

Boston-based Accession, established in 1997, is the ninth-largest privately held insurance brokerage in the U.S., with more than 5,300 employees in the U.S. and Canada, and a reported revenue of approximately $1.7 billion in 2024. It is the parent of Risk Strategies, which ranked 11th on Insurance Journal‘s 2024 Top 100 Property/Casualty Agencies list with a 2024 property & casualty revenue of approximately $1.3 billion. Last year, its total written premiums were $8.5 billion, including $7.8 billion in commercial lines premiums.

Following the close of the transaction, the Risk Strategies team will become part of Brown & Brown’s retail segment. Brown & Brown, the seventh largest global broker with nearly $4.3 billion in revenue, according to AM Best’s 2024 ranking, will combine its programs and wholesale brokerage segments into a new specialty distribution segment, with One80 Intermediaries joining this segment.

“Combining with Risk Strategies and One80 represents a unique opportunity to bring the best of both organizations to the forefront, enabling us to augment and strengthen our collective growth,” said J. Powell Brown, president and CEO of Brown & Brown.

The most recent announcement adds to a string of mega-mergers in the past year as industry players look to consolidate, including Arthur J. Gallagher’s acquisition of Woodruff Sawyer in March of 2025 and its agreement to acquire AssuredPartners in December 2024. And last September, Marsh McLennan announced its acquisition of McGriff Insurance Services for $7.75 billion.

While the first quarter of 2025 was the slowest quarter for insurance agency mergers & acquisitions since the second quarter of 2020, according to OPTIS Partners, 2025 may bring more mega-deals.  

Olivia Overman is IA content editor.