RT Specialty is a wholesale insurance broker based in Chicago, Illinois. The firm connects retail agents and brokers with carrier markets for hard-to-place commercial and personal risks. It operates as the wholesale brokerage specialty of Ryan Specialty, a publicly traded international insurance services firm.
Website: rtspecialty.com
Head office address: 180 N. Stetson Avenue, Suite 4600, Chicago, Illinois 60601
Founded: 2010, Chicago
Company type: wholesale insurance brokerage
Parent: Ryan Specialty Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: RYAN)
Business focus: specialty wholesale brokerage for property, casualty, professional, and other hard-to-place coverage lines
Regions served: nationwide, with offices in most major US markets
Patrick G. Ryan founded parent company Ryan Specialty in 2010. He asked Tim Turner to build its wholesale brokerage arm from the ground up. Turner had already spent decades leading other wholesale brokerages in Chicago. RT Specialty grew mainly through acquisitions from that point on.
These deals turned a single Chicago office into a nationwide network of dozens of cities. The wholesaler has rarely gone a full year without closing at least one acquisition. Several years saw three or four close at once.
RT specializes in wholesale brokerage for risks that don’t fit standard carrier programs. Its brokers work across several major lines:
RT also serves a set of industry verticals, including transportation, construction, energy, and real estate, where brokers combine several of these lines for one client.
Two platforms sit alongside these lines. RT Binding Authority handles small and mid-sized accounts under delegated underwriting authority, built for faster turnaround. RT Connector gives retail agents a self-service digital marketplace to quote and bind certain coverages online.
Together, these lines let retail brokers place both routine and complex accounts through one wholesale partner. That beats working several specialty markets separately for a single client.
RT Specialty placed on Insurance Business’ Best Wholesale Brokers USA 2026 list. Retail producers rated it highly for geographical reach, reputation, and technical expertise.
Two of its people made IBA’s Elite Women list in 2026: an executive vice president and a Phoenix office president.
Earlier recognition includes IB’s 2016 ranking of Top E&S Wholesale Brokers. Even then, the firm was already counted among the larger players in the segment.
For more on other awards and special reports, visit IBA’s Best In Insurance page.
Insurance Business’s own wholesale-broker research has tracked a longer-term shift. More commercial risk that standard carriers won’t touch has moved into the excess and surplus lines market. Tighter underwriting and rising catastrophe exposure pushed retail brokers toward wholesalers who could still find capacity for hard-to-place accounts.
That kind of recognition has shown up more than once for RT Specialty, not just in 2026. The repeat mentions point to a pattern retail partners keep coming back to, rather than one standout year.
The wholesaler’s growth has followed a fairly steady formula. It acquires smaller regional players and folds them into its existing practice groups. Then it uses the added scale to negotiate better carrier terms. That pattern has held for more than a decade, through changes in ownership and leadership alike.
Check out RT Specialty’s latest news below this profile for fresher developments.
