Hilb Group has acquired a Florida-based, commercial-focused property and casualty insurance agency, expanding the Richmond, Virginia-based brokerage's presence in the Southeast region.
The transaction became effective July 1, 2026. The identity of the acquired agency and financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
The deal is the latest in a long-running string of acquisitions for Hilb Group, a portfolio company of The Carlyle Group. The company has now completed more than 200 acquisitions and operates over 125 offices across 32 states.
The Florida deal follows a busy first half of 2026 for Hilb Group.
The company acquired a Louisiana-based property and casualty agency effective July 1, a Kentucky-based property and casualty agency effective May 1, and a Pennsylvania-based property and casualty agency effective January 1, alongside a Virginia-based full-service agency on the same date.
In February, Hilb Group's acquisition of a South Carolina-based property and casualty and employee benefits agency marked the company's 200th deal since its founding in 2009, a milestone CEO Richard G. Spiro called "a testament to the commitment of our team and the continued growth of our company."
Florida's commercial property insurance market has been through a period of significant strain in recent years, driven by high litigation costs, elevated reinsurance pricing and repeated exposure to hurricane losses.
That picture has begun to shift. State officials say tort and insurance reforms have contributed to 17 new insurers entering the Florida market since their enactment, with Citizens Property Insurance Corporation, the state's insurer of last resort, cutting rates for 2026 for the first time since 2015 and its policy count falling to its lowest level in 14 years as coverage moves back into the private market.
The acquisition also lands at a notable inflection point for US commercial P&C pricing.
According to the Council of Insurance Agents & Brokers' Q1 2026 Commercial P&C Market Survey, average premiums fell across all account sizes for the first time since the third quarter of 2017, with commercial property leading the decline at an average drop of 5.5%. Roughly three-quarters of carriers reported increased property underwriting capacity, and the survey noted that catastrophe-exposed accounts in Florida, California and the Gulf Coast, while still priced firmly, are seeing improved terms and lower deductibles than a year earlier.
Analysts have flagged the mid-year reinsurance renewals in June and July as the next test of that trend, with a significant hurricane landfall carrying the potential to reverse it.
The deal also comes as US insurance distribution M&A activity has cooled from its post-pandemic peak.
According to OPTIS Partners, the industry recorded 148 agency and brokerage transactions in the first quarter of 2026, down 6% year over year and the lowest first-quarter total since 2016, extending a three-year decline from a peak of 1,108 deals in 2021 to a trailing 12-month pace of roughly 686. Private equity-backed and hybrid buyers, including Carlyle-backed platforms like Hilb Group, continued to account for the large majority of deals, representing 72% of transactions in the first quarter.
Against that backdrop, Hilb Group's continued acquisition pace, six disclosed deals so far in 2026, positions it among a smaller group of highly active consolidators that OPTIS Partners says now account for a disproportionate share of total deal volume, even as the broader market normalizes to a more measured cadence.
That divergence, a handful of well-capitalized buyers sustaining deal flow while the wider market cools, is likely to keep shaping which agencies find buyers and on what terms as the year continues.
