Ryan Specialty Group (NYSE: RYAN) is a Chicago-based provider of specialty insurance products and services for brokers, agents, and carriers. Patrick G. Ryan, the former chairman and CEO of Aon Corporation, founded the firm in 2010 to focus solely on hard-to-place risk.

Today it operates across wholesale brokerage, binding authority, and underwriting management, with a presence that reaches beyond the US into Canada, Europe, and the UK.

Website: ryanspecialty.com

Head office address: 155 North Wacker Drive, Suite 4000, Chicago, IL 60606

Founded: 2010, Chicago

Founder: Patrick G. Ryan

Company type: public company (NYSE: RYAN)

Business focus: wholesale brokerage, binding authority, and underwriting management for specialty insurance

Regions served: US, Canada, UK, and EU

History of Ryan Specialty Group

The firm traces its roots to a single idea, which is to build an organization devoted purely to specialty and hard-to-place risk. Ryan drew on four decades at Aon to pair wholesale brokerage with underwriting management under one roof from day one. It grew quickly through both new business wins and a steady run of acquisitions.

• 2010: Patrick G. Ryan founds the company in Chicago to combine wholesale brokerage with specialty underwriting management under one roof
• 2021: Ryan Specialty Group completes its initial public offering on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker RYAN and raises more than $1.3 billion
• 2022: the public holding company changes its name from Ryan Specialty Group Holdings, Inc. to Ryan Specialty Holdings, Inc.
• 2024: the firm completes its acquisition of Castel Underwriting Agencies, a London-based managing general underwriting platform
• 2024: it also adds US Assure, a Jacksonville, Florida, builder’s risk program dating to 1977, to the Ryan Specialty Underwriting Managers division

Both 2024 deals followed the same pattern the firm has used since its earliest years: grow organically, then add acquisitions that bring underwriting depth in a specific niche.

What does RSG offer?

The company organizes its work around three parts of the specialty insurance chain, each handled by a distinct arm.

• Ryan Turner Specialty (RT Specialty) handles wholesale brokerage, connecting retail brokers in all 50 states with markets for property, casualty, professional lines, personal lines, and workers’ compensation risks that don’t fit a standard policy
• RT Binding Authority gives retail brokers and agents local underwriting decisions backed by one of the industry’s largest national resource networks
• Ryan Specialty Underwriting Managers runs a group of managing general underwriters and national programs built around specific niches, from energy and healthcare to construction, marine, and hospitality

The company can carry a single risk from placement through underwriting because all three arms sit under one roof, rather than passing it to a separate organization partway through.

Awards and recognition

Insurance Business America (IBA) named Ryan Specialty Group to its Top Insurance Employers list in 2025, an honor that combines an employer questionnaire on benefits and culture with an independent survey of the company’s own staff.

RT Specialty, the firm’s wholesale arm, followed that up with a 2026 IBA 5-Star Wholesale Broker designation, rated by retail producers on measures such as technical expertise, responsiveness, and reputation.

For more on the other awards and special reports IBA publishes, visit IBA’s Best In Insurance page.

The wholesale distribution shift

Ryan Specialty Group’s growth lines up with a broader shift in how commercial risk gets placed in the country. IBA’s own 2025 report on wholesale brokers found that a third of surveyed retail brokers now send over half their business through wholesale partners, up from under a quarter the year before. RT Specialty, the firm’s wholesale arm, competes directly in that growing channel, and its repeat 5-Star recognition reflects that position. The 2021 listing on the NYSE gave the firm public capital to keep pace with that shift through further acquisitions, on top of its organic growth.

Want to see what RSG’s been up to lately? Check the news section below for its latest moves.