King Risk Partners has completed its latest Florida insurance agency acquisition, adding Lott & Gaylor Insurance – a Fort Myers-based firm with more than four decades of experience – as the Gainesville-based brokerage continues buying where many of its peers have stepped back.
The deal, announced November 10, 2026, adds an agency that provides personal and commercial insurance, employee benefits, and specialty lines to King Risk’s growing Florida footprint. Lott & Gaylor serves individuals, families, and businesses throughout Southwest Florida.
“Lott & Gaylor’s longstanding relationships and understanding of Southwest Florida’s insurance needs make the agency a strong addition to King Risk Partners. Their addition strengthens our presence in the market and creates new opportunities to share expertise, expand capabilities, and support continued growth,” said Scott Popilek, chief executive officer of King Risk Partners, headquartered in Gainesville, Florida.
Read more: King Risk Partners adds two Florida professional liability specialists
David Maxwell, president of Lott & Gaylor Insurance, said the firm chose a buyer that would sustain its client relationships rather than absorb them.
“Our business has grown by taking the time to understand our clients and helping them protect what matters most. We wanted a partner that would value those relationships and invest in our team’s future. King Risk Partners offers the resources, market access, and collaborative support to build on our foundation while continuing to deliver the personal service our clients expect,” Maxwell said.
Financial terms were not disclosed.
King Risk ranks as the 36th largest insurance brokerage in the US, according to the 2026 Insurance Journal Top 100 Agency Rankings, an independent industry benchmark. It is backed by private equity firms Lightyear Capital and BHMS Investments, which completed a growth investment in the company in April 2025, per Business Wire. That recapitalization provided the capital base for what has since become a sustained buying campaign – the firm completed 14 insurance agency acquisitions in 2025, its highest annual total on record and nearly double the eight it closed in 2024, as reported by Insurance Business.
The Lott & Gaylor deal continues a pattern of Florida brokerage acquisition activity in 2026. King Risk has also added two professional liability specialists in Florida this year and hired Colton Houseman as executive vice president of mergers and acquisitions (M&A) in August 2026, a structural move that makes acquisition a named operating function rather than a periodic activity.
Read more: Oakbridge deepens Florida presence with Earl Bacon Agency partnership
Southwest Florida has become a more attractive market for buyers since the state’s 2022 and 2023 legislative reforms took hold. According to Florida Realtors, citing an April 2026 report from the Insurance Information Institute, 18 new property insurers entered the Florida market following those reforms, competition increased, and more than 185 residential rate filings over the prior two years reflected either decreases or no change. For acquirers, an agency book in a stabilizing market with long-established client relationships represents a more predictable asset than it did two years ago.
That context helps explain why multiple national brokerages – including King Risk, Shepherd Insurance, Oakbridge, and Inszone – have made Florida insurance agency acquisitions in 2026.
The acquisition also runs against the broader deal-volume trend. Insurance agency M&A fell to its slowest pace in nearly eight years through the third quarter of 2026, with 439 transactions announced in the first three quarters – down 19% from the same period a year earlier, according to OPTIS Partners, a Chicago-based investment banking and financial consulting firm. Private equity-backed buyers accounted for 76% of those deals. The H1 2026 figures, published directly by OPTIS Partners via ACCESS Newswire in July 2026, confirmed the pace was the slowest start to a year since 2016.
Read more: Insurance agency M&A sinks to eight-year low as PE exits loom
For agency owners watching the market, the split in buyer behavior matters. Tim Cunningham, managing partner at OPTIS Partners, said in the firm’s H1 2026 M&A Activity Report that valuations are “remaining high for larger, well-run firms and softening some for others.” OPTIS also noted that a large number of agencies will still need to sell over the next five to 10 years, but the buyer pool is getting more selective about which ones it will pay a premium for.
King Risk’s continued activity in that environment signals where private equity capital is still moving, and which markets it considers worth entering.
