Commercial insurance pricing is moving in buyers' favor, giving brokers more room to negotiate and remarket accounts. For the smallest independent agencies, however, the constraint isn't finding an attractive risk; it's finding enough carriers willing to see it.
"The issue these days is finding the right markets because you don't have the volume in order to access the carriers," said Patrick Sullivan (pictured), president of Union Bay Risk Advisors.
The access problem is becoming more visible precisely because the market is loosening. The Council of Insurance Agents & Brokers reported average commercial P&C premiums declined 2% in the second quarter of 2026, following a 1.2% decrease in Q1.
Property was substantially more competitive, with average premiums down 6.3%. Small accounts, however, recorded a far more modest 0.5% reduction, which seems to indicate softening is reaching the smallest end of the market last and least.
Sullivan said the change in carrier behavior is increasingly evident at the agency level.
"Right now, we're in a phase of the cycle where it appears to be loosening up a little bit," he told Insurance Business. "While there are still some lines and segments that don't have enough product out there, it's different than it was two years ago.
“The conversations now are, 'Hey, here's our price. If you find a better price, just bring it back to me. Don't change it just because someone else's price is lower. I could probably work with you.'"
The access challenge is playing out alongside continued consolidation of the independent agency sector, though the pace has slowed. North American insurance agency M&A saw 292 announced transactions in the first half of 2026, down 15% from the same period of 2025, according to OPTIS Partners. Second-quarter activity fell 25% year over year to 138 deals.
Some agencies respond by joining platforms to secure market access they can't command on their own volume. Union Bay is one such platform, and Sullivan said the firm continues to target small, founder-operated Main Street agencies, particularly owners who want to remain with the business after a transaction.
He argued that independence at a local level can remain valuable when backed by broader carrier relationships.
Where smaller agencies retain an edge, Sullivan said, is in exposure identification. "As a business grows, it gets exposed to more things, and it's pretty easy to find coverage holes and deficiencies in limits and coverage,” he said.
Cyber is one area where that conversation has changed noticeably among smaller commercial clients. Businesses that might once have dismissed cyber insurance because they were not technology companies increasingly recognize how dependent even traditional operations have become on digital systems.
Sullivan also cautioned against treating remarketing as an end in itself. "You could shop indefinitely, and there are tools now that can help you do that," he said. "But shopping isn't the only thing. There's more to it than just price. And that's where an insurance advisor comes in," he said. "Sometimes one insurer is the cheapest, but it might not be the best fit for that client.
"Having the right products and the right relationships with carriers is the real competitive advantage for agents right now.”
