Duliban Insurance Brokers, a division of McDougall Insurance Brokers, has combined operations with Insuranceland Inc., a Mississauga-based property and casualty brokerage with a strategic focus on group insurance.
The deal expands McDougall's footprint in the Greater Toronto Area and gives Duliban its first real entry into group insurance, a line it has not previously offered.
Insuranceland is led by Paul and Sophie Hainer, who will remain with the business post-transaction.
"Paul and Sophie are held in the highest regard, and I am extremely excited to pair their skills in group insurance with our operational know-how," said Jason Duliban, president of Duliban. He added that Duliban's year-plus as a McDougall division has "surpassed all expectations" in terms of the advantages of scale and the quality of opportunities for further acquisitions.
This is Duliban's second acquisition in roughly three years and its first since joining McDougall. The brokerage bought Mason Insurance Brokers, a 100-year-old Welland, Ontario firm, in August 2023 while still independent. It became a McDougall division itself in June 2025, a deal Jason Duliban and his brother Adam framed at the time as driven by long-term strategic alignment rather than short-term consolidation pressure.
McDougall's own growth has been considerably larger in scale. Since Definity Financial Corporation increased its ownership stake in McDougall from roughly 25% to 75% in October 2022, in a $251 million investment, McDougall has expanded through acquisitions including Alberta's Drayden Insurance and Ontario's McFarlan Rowlands, growing to more than 60 offices and over $900 million in P&C premiums under management.
The Insuranceland deal is a smaller, more targeted move by comparison, adding a specific capability, group insurance, rather than simply adding scale in a market McDougall already serves.
McDougall already has a GTA presence, so the more consequential part of this deal for Duliban specifically is capability, not territory. Group insurance is a distinct enough discipline, with its own underwriting relationships, plan design expertise and client servicing model, that acquiring an established player is a faster route into the space than building it internally. Lorne McDougall, vice-president of McDougall Insurance, framed the deal in terms familiar from the firm's prior acquisitions, noting "shared vision" and "common cultures".
Paul Hainer called the deal "a home run for Insuranceland's staff and clients" and pointed to the opportunity to build out the group insurance space alongside Duliban's broader operational resources.
For competing brokers and MGAs in the Toronto region, this deal is a reminder that McDougall's roll-up strategy, backed by Definity's capital, isn't slowing down and is increasingly targeting specific capability gaps rather than just geographic footprint. Brokerages with a defined specialty, like Insuranceland's group insurance focus, may find themselves attractive acquisition targets precisely because that specialization is harder for an acquirer to replicate organically than general P&C volume would be.
For independent brokers weighing their own succession or growth options, deals like this one signal that consolidators are willing to pay for expertise as much as for book size, which could shape valuation conversations for specialty-focused firms differently than for generalist ones.
