Insurance agency · 15 min
What is a book of clients worth?
An agency's clients renew year after year, so their future commissions can be bought and sold. What would someone pay for a book of clients, and could you afford to buy one?
Ticket 01 · The guess
What do big buyers pay?
Words to know
Sources and every number (2)
Sources
- Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. Form 10-K for 2024: Note 3, Business Combinations (acquisitions completed in 2024, purchase price, earnout payables, annualized revenues acquired) · Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. (filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission), 2024
- Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. Form 10-K for 2025: Item 1, Business (acquisitions since 2002, typical purchase price) and Note 3, Business Combinations · Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. (filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission), 2025
Every number
- 48 businesses
sec.gov ·2024 · Acquisitions Gallagher completed in 2024, as listed in its 10-K. - $1.7B
sec.gov ·2024 · Total recorded purchase price of the businesses Gallagher bought in 2024: cash, shares, escrow and the earnouts it expected to pay. - $386.5M
sec.gov ·2024 · Annualized revenues of the businesses Gallagher bought in 2024, as its 10-K estimates them. - $4.40
sec.gov ·2024 · Worked out from Gallagher's 2024 10-K: the total recorded purchase price of the businesses it bought in 2024, divided by their annualized revenue, both as the 10-K gives them, rounded to one decimal. The businesses were agencies, brokers and consultants. - $164.4M
sec.gov ·2024 · The earnout payables Gallagher recorded for its 2024 acquisitions: its estimate, at the time of buying, of what it would pay later. - $368.6M
sec.gov ·2024 · The most Gallagher could pay in earnouts on its 2024 acquisitions. - $1M–
$100M sec.gov ·2025 · What a single acquisition by Gallagher has typically cost, in its own words (10-K for 2025). - 780 acquisitions
sec.gov ·2025 · About how many acquisitions Gallagher completed from the start of 2002 through the end of 2025.