Alliant Insurance Services has added Brian Minkler to its Employee Benefits Group as senior vice president and Justin Sorensen, ARM, to its Mergers and Acquisitions vertical as executive vice president. The two hires extend a deliberate build-out of specialty practices at a firm that reported $5.72 billion in brokerage revenue in 2025 - a 14.4% increase over the prior year - ranking sixth among US brokers by revenue in Business Insurance's 2026 rankings and remaining the largest PE-backed brokerage in the country.
Minkler brings more than a decade of experience helping organizations optimize human capital, employee benefits and total rewards strategies, with a background spanning venture-backed, PE-backed and high-growth companies on compensation, benefits and retirement design, as well as workforce management, payroll, compliance and employee experience. Prior to joining Alliant he served as a compensation advisory consultant with a national employee benefits consulting firm and held leadership roles at one of the world's largest human resources services organizations.
The hire arrives as employer health costs reach levels that make sophisticated benefits advisory a strategic rather than administrative function. KFF data put the average family premium at $26,993 in 2025, and Mercer projects average total employer health costs will exceed $18,500 per employee in 2026 - conditions that are driving demand for advisers who can align benefits design with cost containment and workforce retention simultaneously rather than optimising for any single variable.
Sorensen, based in Chicago, will deliver strategic risk and insurance solutions to a nationwide client base within Alliant's M&A vertical, drawing on cross-disciplinary expertise across commercial property and casualty and employee benefits. He brings more than 20 years of risk and insurance industry experience across Fortune 500 corporations, venture-backed and PE-backed organisations, startups, middle-market firms and large multinationals. Prior to joining Alliant he held senior broking and advisory roles at several of the world's largest brokers.
The cross-disciplinary background is the analytically significant detail. PE-backed portfolio companies navigating transactions need transactional risk coverage - representations and warranties, tax liability, contingent risk - alongside employee benefits advisory that survives the ownership change intact. An adviser who spans both disciplines is more useful to that client than two separate specialists who do not speak to each other, which is the integration model Alliant's M&A vertical appears to be building toward. OPTIS Partners recorded 695 US insurance agency transactions in 2025, with PE-backed and hybrid buyers driving 73% of all deals - a volume of activity that sustains demand for exactly the integrated advisory capability Sorensen brings.
Alliant is headquartered in Newport Beach, California, with more than 100 offices across the US.
