For technology-focused MGAs, the promise of cutting-edge AI and digital underwriting can help draw a buyer’s attention. Their specialty capabilities also continue to make them attractive M&A targets.
But at least one acquirer believes broker relationships and distribution capabilities will distinguish commercially viable MGAs from other players.
MarshBerry recorded 149 US specialty intermediary (wholesale brokers, MGAs, managing general underwriters and program administrators) transactions in 2025, up 24% from 120 in 2024. Its definition. In a narrower P&C specialty market tally published November 3, the adviser reported 52 transactions announced by 41 distinct buyers through September 2026.
According to Naveen Anand (pictured), president of Octave Partners, powerful technology can support an MGA’s growth, but its appeal as a purchase depends on whether it also has distribution support, market access and a defensible position.
“What we find in some cases is that folks have built extremely powerful technology and capability, but don’t have the distribution support or access to the market,” Anand told Insurance Business. “Those tend to be more challenging issues for us in terms of M&A candidates.”
For Anand, technology’s value depends on the business built around it.
“We look for an MGA that has a clear reason to win. They should have specialist expertise, disciplined underwriting, a broker distribution capability where brokers continue to come back to them for their support.”
Octave Partners is the M&A division of Octave Specialty Group, which owns and operates MGA businesses across the US, UK and Bermuda and reported more than $1.3 billion in premium production in 2025.
It acquires specialist MGAs and managing general underwriters in niche markets, alongside the group’s Octave Ventures division, which launches new underwriting businesses. Anand said the group’s portfolio comprised 22 MGAs.
The emphasis on differentiation also appears in recent industry findings. MarshBerry’s September 2026 analysis said buyers continued competing for specialty firms with niche expertise, unique market access and capabilities that are difficult to replicate, while examining earnings quality and sustainable growth more closely.
Read more: MGA premiums hit $128 billion, but tech gains require judgment
Anand sees technology and AI playing a major role in helping MGAs scale, improve efficiency and gain better underwriting insight from their data. Market experience remains equally important, he said.
He examines renewal retention, loss performance over time and the depth of the management team around the founder. Those measures help him assess whether an MGA can keep performing as conditions change.
Rapid expansion without a mature performance record raises a different concern. An MGA can be growing and profitable on paper before its longer-term underwriting performance is established.
“That may not be a good long-term bet because they may not have been the right fiduciary to their capacity providers in that scenario,” Anand said.
Softer property pricing is putting an MGA’s ability to adapt under closer scrutiny. Falling interest rates are coinciding with higher replacement costs, creating pressure on the underlying underwriting economics.
However, the environment does not change Octave Partners’ appetite acquire a business with a strong specialist position, said Anand. He could accept slower growth and potentially lower profitability from an MGA whose leaders understand how to navigate the cycle.
“If you build a strategy on just timing the market from an M&A standpoint, it’s not one that I found to be successful over time,” he said. “Good businesses are good businesses, and they find a way to navigate tough markets.”
The pressures also differ by line. While property faces falling rates, Anand said casualty still needs increases to keep pace with social inflation and other loss costs. Octave’s portfolio is spread roughly equally across property, casualty and specialty, and accident and health, a structure he said was designed to provide growth opportunities as different markets move through their cycles.
Within individual MGAs, Anand sees experienced leadership and a relatively lean expense base as advantages. Smaller, focused businesses can change direction or pull back when the underwriting conditions warrant it.
Read more: How a softening market could stress-test MGAs in 2026
In property, growth might involve shifting between excess and primary business, targeting smaller commercial accounts or broadening distribution. Complementary products can also strengthen an MGA’s usefulness to existing brokers.
One MGA in Octave’s portfolio recently added an inland marine product to its excess and surplus lines capability, said Anand.
“We did that thoughtfully with a view that it broadens their reach, gives them more shelf space with brokers, makes them more important to a broker coming to them across multiple products versus just one product,” he said. “That’s a way for an MGA to continue to find ways to grow in a more challenging market.”
