Enterprise Risk Associates has acquired Insurance Solutions of America, a national commercial broker serving fire protection contractors, in its first specialist agency deal and its sixth acquisition since the platform launched in 2024. The transaction closed May 8, 2026, with financial terms undisclosed.
The ISOA acquisition is analytically distinct from ERA's prior deals. Fire suppression, sprinkler, alarm and security contractors carry a specific and complex liability profile: completed operations liability for systems that fail after installation, errors and omissions exposure where system design is involved, and in some cases professional liability for engineering work - a combination that regularly drives placement into specialty or excess and surplus lines rather than admitted markets. An agency that has spent 19 years building underwriting relationships and client trust in that specific niche holds a position that is difficult to replicate through scale alone, which is the commercial logic of the acquisition.
ISOA was founded in 2007 by Scott Lugering and Amber LaSota as a commercial insurance brokerage and risk management consulting firm, operating from Oviedo, Florida, on a national basis across multiple states. Lugering built the business around earning client trust and developing genuine specialist expertise in the fire protection industry - a positioning that has defined the firm's growth over nearly two decades. Lugering will remain at the head of ISOA, with his team continuing to operate from the Oviedo office.
ERA was capitalised in 2024 by KZ Capital and Lamberg Management Inc. to acquire and consolidate independent insurance agencies. In December 2025 the company secured a financing facility of up to $150 million from Macquarie Capital Principal Finance to fund its acquisition strategy. Prior to the ISOA deal, ERA had completed five acquisitions across California, Florida and the Northeast, including NYC Metro Insurance, Ariston Brokerage and Barrood Agency - a generalist geographic roll-up pattern that the ISOA deal departs from by adding defined specialist expertise rather than distribution scale.
Adam Wolper, CEO of ERA, said the acquisition adds specialist depth in a niche where long-standing client relationships and underwriting knowledge define the service model, with ERA supporting ISOA's continued growth while preserving its established client relationships and service approach.
The US excess and surplus lines market surpassed $100 billion in direct premiums written for the first time in 2025, with S&P Global Market Intelligence putting the total at $105.31 billion, a 7.8% increase from the prior year. The growth reflects sustained demand for specialty placement in lines that admitted markets have restricted or exited - the same dynamic that makes fire protection contractor liability a recurring E&S placement rather than a standard commercial lines account.
Insurance agency M&A recorded 695 transactions in 2025, with P&C sellers accounting for 66% of all deals according to OPTIS Partners, and PE-backed and hybrid buyers driving 73% of those acquisitions as a shrinking pool of acquirers competes for agencies with specialist expertise. ERA's model preserves the local leadership and operational identity of acquired agencies while providing access to centralised resources and scale - a structure that matters most in niche practices where the principal's relationships and technical knowledge are the primary asset.
