Top 100 2011 Privately Held Independent Agencies

About This Report: Despite lingering economic challenges and the ongoing soft insurance market, the nation’s leading independent insurance agencies fared much better in 2010 than in 2009.

Property/casualty premiums written in 2010 fell for 28 percent of the privately-owned agencies and brokerages on Insurance Journal‘s Top 100 Property/Casualty Independent Agencies list. That’s up from the 37 percent of agencies that showed declines in total P/C premium in 2009.

Even better, the majority (70 percent) of agencies in this year’s Top 100 showed year-over-year increases in total P/C premium for 2010 over 2009, compared to less than half (42 percent) of the agencies in last year’s list. And eight agencies saw their P/C premium volume increase by 20 percent or more.

Notable mentions include Confie Seguros and United Valley Insurance Services Inc., each of which posted increases in P/C premium of 30 percent or more.

This year’s list also includes 12 newcomers, including: Cook, Hall & Hyde Inc.; SIA of the Great Lakes; Oklahoma Agents Alliance; Sterling & Sterling Inc.; Risk Transfer; Brightway Insurance; Cobbs, Allen & Hall; PacWest Alliance Insurance Services Inc.; Ascension Insurance Inc.; Parker Smith and Feek Inc.; M&T Insurance Agency Inc.; and RCM&D Inc.

Insurance Journal wishes to thank all of those agencies and brokerages that were willing to share their information for the Top 100 report. The result is a glimpse at some of the nation’s top privately held independent insurance agencies and brokerages whose business volume is primarily retail, not wholesale. The more cooperation IJ receives, the more comprehensive this listing can be.

All information has been garnered from voluntary online submissions from agencies, brokerages and best estimates based on other public information sources. There may be agencies eligible for listing but for which no information was received or located. Also, submitted data was not independently verified.

See the Top 100 Insurance Agencies list here. For the full report, download the August 1, 2011 issue.

For more information, contact Andrea Wells at awells@insurancejournal.com.