There is something particularly energising about this point in the insurance calendar. The second half of the year is when conversations that have been quietly developing begin to acquire more substance. Underwriters look ahead to the following year, business plans start appearing on desks and, somewhere between renewal discussions and 2027 budgeting, a number of experienced insurance professionals will be asking themselves a rather bigger question: could I build something of my own?
The MGA market has long attracted entrepreneurial underwriters who believe they can serve a particular class, customer group or distribution channel differently. Many have deep expertise and strong broker relationships. Some have spotted opportunities that larger organisations struggle to pursue. Others simply reach the point where they want greater control over underwriting strategy and the business surrounding it.
As we move towards the end of 2026, we should expect a healthy pipeline of those ambitions to emerge. But an excellent underwriting idea and a viable MGA business are not synonymous. Founders quickly encounter the less glamorous realities of establishing a company: regulation, compliance, capacity, governance, technology, distribution and capital. They must articulate their proposition convincingly to capacity providers while demonstrating underwriting discipline, credible controls and a clear route to profitable growth.
That task becomes more exacting in softer market conditions. Pricing pressure and competition inevitably sharpen the questions being asked of new entrants. Capacity providers can afford to be discriminating. A founder needs more than enthusiasm and a persuasive presentation; the underlying proposition must withstand scrutiny.
This is where the wider delegated authority community has an important role to play.
We should want ambitious underwriters to start businesses. New MGAs can bring specialism, creativity and fresh thinking into the market, particularly where emerging risks or underserved customer groups require expertise that does not sit comfortably within conventional structures. Yet entrepreneurship should not require founders to navigate every early-stage challenge in splendid isolation. Access to experienced people can prevent expensive wrong turns. Regulatory insight can help turn an intimidating process into something navigable. Conversations with insurers, brokers, suppliers and fellow MGAs can test assumptions before they become embedded in a business plan. Even the opportunity to hear how somebody else tackled a similar problem can be surprisingly consequential.
There is also a degree of serendipity involved in building an insurance business. The useful introduction at an industry event, the conversation with a capacity provider whose appetite happens to align, or the founder who shares a hard-earned lesson over coffee cannot always be engineered into a spreadsheet. Being part of the market while you are building your proposition matters.
Encouragingly, the infrastructure around start-ups is evolving. The MGAA, for example, offers an Incubator MGA Membership giving emerging MGAs access to its broader network, regulatory and market insight, professional development and industry events while they establish themselves. Initiatives of this kind recognise something important: support is particularly valuable before a business has acquired scale, rather than only afterwards.
That support should never remove the granularity demanded of a founder’s thinking. Nor should a strong network become a substitute for underwriting discipline. The best emerging MGAs will still need to answer difficult questions about differentiation, capacity, distribution, oversight and governance and sustainable returns.
What the market can provide is a better environment in which those questions are asked.
That feels especially relevant as 2027, despite current market conditions, as business plans begin to take shape. Somewhere today, talented underwriters are sketching propositions, speaking discreetly to potential partners and considering whether the idea they have carried for several years could become a company.
There is something propitious about that pipeline. The MGA market has prospered because individuals have been prepared to back specialist knowledge with entrepreneurial conviction. Its next chapter will depend on another generation being willing to do the same.
Supporting the continued growing appetite of MGA incubator businesses, the MGAA has welcomed twice as many new incubator members over the past twelve months than the year before – start-up businesses keen to connect with an ecosystem of potential investors, capacity providers, brokers and specialist partners, alongside a built-in network of experts who can help them navigate the realities of building a new MGA.
We expect that figure to rise further next year - conservatively we expect MGAA Incubator membership to rise by 35% in 2027 - and this could accelerate if the market rating environment improves as more entrepreneurial underwriters explore opportunities to turn their ideas and expertise into independent businesses.
They will need ambition, certainly. But giving that ambition access to experience, connections and practical support may be one of the most useful investments the delegated authority market can make, and something which the MGAA is here to provide.
