The relationship between brokers and their wholesale and carrier partners is entering a new phase – one shaped by consolidation, operational efficiency, and realigned expectations. At Patriot Growth Insurance Services, vice president of carrier and wholesale relationships Jorge Martinez (pictured) sits squarely at the center of this shift.
“Our organization, like many, are trying to reduce the amount of intermediaries that are used for operational efficiencies, you know, exposure or risk, and then obviously for compensation enhancement,” he said. “The fewer partners you have, you achieve more growth, and presumably you can negotiate better terms.”
That strategy isn’t unique to Patriot. But its accelerating pace is forcing a rethink of how value is delivered – and who owns it. Martinez sees the growing strain in how consolidated volume intersects with changing partner roles.
“There’s a little bit of heartburn from a wholesale perspective,” he said. “Yes, we appreciate you giving us all this what appears to be new business to me through consolidation, but we don’t actually want you pulling business out… why would we leave revenue on the table when we have access to cyber markets that we used to have to rely on an intermediary?”
The issue is partly one of perception: what looks like new premium to one party may just be re-routed legacy business. “We notice business that was placed with wholesalers that actually should go direct, but yet, that entity that was purchased didn’t have access to that market,” he said.
As firms scale, legacy relationships are being recast in light of new access and centralized strategy. “We've had a significant, like 100 plus transactions since we were founded,” Martinez said. That footprint allows Patriot to negotiate with more precision – and more leverage.
But consolidation isn’t always visible from the outside. Many agency partners still operate under local branding, making it harder for carriers to fully grasp the scope of the relationship. “What I found is that our partners don’t even fully recognize or appreciate the amount of business we do with them,” Martinez said. “Sometimes [they] don’t even fully understand the scope of the relationship.”
That’s not just a branding issue – it’s a strategic one. “Being proactive to educate a key leader or sponsor within their organization to help internally market within their organization who the broker is and why they should care,” he said.
Martinez pointed to data as a critical enabler in strengthening those connections. “We leverage our data to get very surgical in terms of who within our organization are the experts in particular lines of business or niches,” he said. “We literally give them the email and phone number of the person… if it’s related to logging or hospitality.”
That kind of granularity helps Patriot sidestep the friction that can come with scale – replacing general introductions with targeted expertise. For Martinez, strong partnerships aren’t built on volume alone. “They need to be built on insight.”
That same discipline is driving transformation inside broker organizations themselves. “Brokers are spending more time operationalizing their organizations,” he said. “They are consolidating all the agencies that they acquired onto a singular agency management system.”
From there, integration becomes faster – and more technical. Tools like Ivan’s book roll are making transitions cleaner and less dependent on manual input. “It will literally be direct API connections that will help the brokers consolidate even faster, without even needing input or effort on the front lines,” Martinez said.
Still, no amount of automation can replace upfront clarity – especially when it comes to changes in compensation or business flow. Martinez’s advice: don’t sugarcoat the trade-offs.
“Being upfront and frank on, ‘Okay, well, we're going to give you this, but we’re also going to pull this away from you where it makes sense financially and otherwise, to go direct to a standard marketplace,’” he said.
As brokers grow, the power balance with partners shifts. But that power only builds value if it’s managed with transparency – and used to deepen, not dilute, the relationships that still drive the business forward.
