NAICS 52421Industry · 5-digitnational market2 market records

Insurance agencies and brokerages

SoftwareInsurance Agency Management Systems 524210

This industry comprises establishments primarily engaged in selling insurance and pension products. The staff of these agencies and brokerages are not employed by the insurance carriers they represent. — Statistics Canada, NAICS 2022A

Establishments · CanadaA: 8,339
Under 10 employeesA: 74%
Establishments · USA: 135,100
Employment · USA: 807,633
Payroll · USA: $68.0B

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

1–44,13550%

5–92,03424%

10–191,15114%

20–497359%

50–991802%

100–199671%

200–499250%

500+120%

Of 8,339 Canadian establishments with employees, 74% have fewer than ten — mostly small operators.

Where they areA

Ontario3,37440%

British Columbia1,43717%

Quebec1,33416%

Alberta96512%

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.

How many new establishments are still tradingA

Finance and Insurance, US · opened 2020

85.2%

1 year

65.1%

3 years

53.8%

5 years

38.4%

10 years

opened 2015

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.

national competitionhigh capitalUNVERIFIEDinherited from 524 Insurance carriers and related activities

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.

Operating businessScreenedfiled at 524210

Insurance Brokerage Book AcquisitionStructure decides

binding constraint: entry cost

Brokerage books are bought by consolidators using cheap acquisition debt and carrier contingent commissions an individual buyer does not earn, which sets a price a first-time acquirer cannot match without overpaying. Carrier appointments and provincial licensing gate entry, and the retiring-broker succession wave that makes this look accessible is the same wave the consolidators are systematically working. The agency management software at this code is studied separately.

NAICS 5242106 vendors named10 sourced figuresOpen →

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.

Vertical softwareFull studyfiled at 524210

Insurance Agency Management SystemsWait

Incumbent Applied Systems (Epic) and Vertafore (AMS360)

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.

NAICS 5242105 vendors named3 sourced figuresOpen →

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 · 16

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
AgencyBlocPrivate	Insurance agencies and brokerages524210	—	3/16
Applied SystemsPrivate	Insurance agencies and brokerages524210	—	4/16
BrokerLinkPrivate	Insurance agencies and brokerages524210	—	5/16
EZLynxPrivate	Insurance agencies and brokerages524210	—	6/16
HawkSoftPrivate	Insurance agencies and brokerages524210	—	7/16
HubPrivate	Insurance agencies and brokerages524210	—	8/16
JenesisPrivate	Insurance agencies and brokerages524210	—	9/16
Modern LifePrivate	Insurance agencies and brokerages524210	—	10/16
NavacordPrivate	Insurance agencies and brokerages524210	—	11/16
NowCertsPrivate	Insurance agencies and brokerages524210	—	12/16
QQCatalystPrivate	Insurance agencies and brokerages524210	—	13/16
VertaforePrivate	Insurance agencies and brokerages524210	—	14/16
Westland InsurancePrivate	Insurance agencies and brokerages524210	—	15/16

And 1 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.

Concentrated in this sectorA

Insurance, real estate and financial sales occupations Mostly one sector 51.9%

Auditors, accountants and investment professionals Mostly one sector 43.1%

Computer, software and Web designers and developers Mostly one sector 7.6%

Managers in engineering, architecture, science and information systems Mostly one sector 6.4%

Judges, lawyers and Quebec notaries One industry 3.2%

Library, correspondence and other clerks Mostly one sector 3.1%

Service supervisors Mostly one sector 2.8%

Electrical, electronics and computer engineers Mostly one sector 2.8%

College and other vocational instructors One industry 2%

Cashiers and other sales support occupations One industry 1.8%

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

Accounting, insurance and related business administrative occupations Across the economy 25.8%

Customer and information services representatives Across the economy 23.9%

Financial, insurance and related administrative support workers Across the economy 13.8%

Survey, statistical and data entry occupations Across the economy 9.1%

Administrative services managers Across the economy 8.9%

Administrative and financial supervisors Across the economy 8%

Technical occupations in computer and information systems Across the economy 7.2%

Legislative and senior managers Across the economy 6.6%

Office administrative assistants - general, legal and medical Across the economy 5.5%

Administrative, property and payroll officers Across the economy 4.5%

Found across at least fourteen of the twenty sectors. But note the shape of this industry: 74% 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.

All 162 occupations →

Inside this industry

1 row sits directly beneath 52421. Each has a base report of its own.

Code	Industry	Establishments · CA	What is known
524210	Insurance agencies and brokerages	8,339	Insurance Agency Management Systems Insurance Brokerage Book Acquisition

Alongside it, under 5242 Agencies, brokerages and other insurance related activities

Code	Industry	Establishments · CA	What is known
52429	Other insurance related activities	1,727	screened at 5242