Insurance carriers and related activities
This subsector comprises establishments primarily engaged in underwriting annuities, insurance policies and reinsurance, and the retailing of insurance and the provision of related services to policy holders. Industries are defined in terms of the type of risk being insured against, such as death, loss of employment due to age or disability, and property damage. Establishments that pool risk invest premiums to build up a portfolio of financial assets to be used against future claims. Contributions and premiums are set on the basis of actuarial calculations of probable payouts based on risk factors from experience tables and expected investment returns on reserves. — Statistics Canada, NAICS 2022A
- Establishments · CanadaA
- 11,752
- Under 10 employeesA
- 71%
- Establishments · USA
- 180,971
- Employment · USA
- 2,866,585
- Payroll · USA
- $274.8B
Size and shape
How many businesses there are and how small they are. Fragmentation is the first thing an entrant — or anyone selling software into this industry — needs to know, and it is one of the few things that is actually measured.
Canadian establishments by number of employeesA
Of 11,752 Canadian establishments with employees, 71% have fewer than ten — mostly small operators.
Where they areA
Largest four provinces by establishment count. Establishments with employees only — sole operators with no payroll are not in this table, so in trades and personal services the true number of businesses is higher.
Measured, not forecast: the share of US establishments opening in one year that were still active later. It counts good operators and bad ones together, which is exactly why it is the honest answer to “what are the odds”. It is for the whole sector rather than this market, and the ten-year figure comes from an older cohort because no younger one has reached ten years.
How businesses here compete
The structural profile of subsector 524, which every industry beneath it inherits. This is analyst judgment from how the subsector is organised — not research into this industry, and not a measurement.
Carrying risk needs regulatory capital. Brokerage is the enterable side — a recurring-commission book that is bought and sold at known multiples and is being rolled up by private equity.
- Who sets the price
- Carriers set rates and commissions; regulators approve.
- The software it runs on
- Carrier core systems; broker management systems for agencies.
Market screens and studies
Market-entry records filed along this branch of the hierarchy. A record at or beneath this code is about this industry; one above it is about something wider that contains it.
Software serving this industry
The vertical software markets filed along the same branch — who sells to these businesses and who they would have to displace — and then the generic categories every business buys whatever it does.
Policy administration, billing and claims for a carrier is the insurance equivalent of a core banking replacement: multi-year, regulator-visible, and undertaken about once a generation. Guidewire's 25–30% share of Tier 1 and 2 carriers rests on that replacement cycle rather than on product superiority, and the mid-market is already contested by a Vista-backed Duck Creek and two international challengers. Distinct from the broker-side study at 524210 — different buyer, different system, an order of magnitude more capital.
The pain is real and documented; the customer base is shrinking and the transaction volume driving the wedge is declining 5.1% year over year. A hated incumbent is not the same as a vulnerable one.
And what every business buys · 25 generic categories
Sold to every industry rather than this one, so they are filed against the software industry's own code. The same few vendors recur across most of them.
Companies in this industry · 23
Every company this research names that is filed here or beneath — the operators, and the vendors that sell to them — largest disclosed revenue first. The rank is within the company’s own six-digit industry.
| Company | Filed under | Revenue | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|
| Arthur J. GallagherPrivate | Insurance agencies and brokerages524210 | $13.9B | 1/16 |
| Brown & BrownPrivate | Insurance agencies and brokerages524210 | $5.9B | 2/16 |
| GuidewireNYSE:GWRE | Insurance carriers5241 | $1.4B | 1/7 |
| AgencyBlocPrivate | Insurance agencies and brokerages524210 | — | 3/16 |
| Applied SystemsPrivate | Insurance agencies and brokerages524210 | — | 4/16 |
| BrokerLinkPrivate | Insurance agencies and brokerages524210 | — | 5/16 |
| Duck Creek TechnologiesNYSE:DCT | Insurance carriers5241 | — | 2/7 |
| EISPrivate | Insurance carriers5241 | — | 3/7 |
| EZLynxPrivate | Insurance agencies and brokerages524210 | — | 6/16 |
| HawkSoftPrivate | Insurance agencies and brokerages524210 | — | 7/16 |
| HubPrivate | Insurance agencies and brokerages524210 | — | 8/16 |
| InsurityPrivate | Insurance carriers5241 | — | 4/7 |
| JenesisPrivate | Insurance agencies and brokerages524210 | — | 9/16 |
| MajescoMJCO | Insurance carriers5241 | — | 5/7 |
| Modern LifePrivate | Insurance agencies and brokerages524210 | — | 10/16 |
And 8 more on the companies page.
Who works here
The occupations employed in Finance and insurance, most concentrated in it first. The share is measured against the whole sector, not this industry — the published cross-tabulation stops there.
Tagged to this industry
Concentrated in this sectorA
These jobs are mostly done here. An operator in this industry is competing for them against others in the same industry, not against the whole economy.
And the jobs every business has
Found across at least fourteen of the twenty sectors. But note the shape of this industry: 71% of establishments have fewer than ten employees, and at that size most of these roles are one person wearing several hats, or bought in from outside.
Inside this industry
2 rows sit directly beneath 524, and 24 in all once every level is counted. Each has a base report of its own.
| Code | Industry | Establishments · CA | What is known |
|---|---|---|---|
| 5241 | Insurance carriers | 1,686 | Insurance Carrier Core Systems |
| 5242 | Agencies, brokerages and other insurance related activities | 10,066 | Insurance Agency Management SystemsInsurance Brokerage Book Acquisition |