Orange County’s largest insurance brokers reported 9.5% growth in 2022.
The 24 companies on this year’s list recorded $1.16 billion in revenue in Orange County. That rise follows a 15% increase in 2021 and a 9% bump in 2020.
The biggest jump on this year’s list was a 55% increase to $32.7 million for Epic Insurance Brokers & Consultants, which climbed one spot to No. 14.
San Francisco-based Epic Insurance, which has its local office in Newport Beach, specializes in retail property and casualty insurance and employee benefits, among other areas. The company’s headcount also rose 67% to 75. It also reduced its companywide office count to 81 from 110.
Top 3
Irvine-based Alliant Insurance Services Inc. continues to top the ranking, reporting its OC revenue climbed 16% to $270 million in 2022.
Some of Alliant’s OC revenue might not be an apples-to-apples comparison because they include sales made out of its Irvine office to elsewhere in the U.S.
A key factor in its OC growth was its biggest-ever acquisition in 2021 of Huntington Beach-based Confie, the largest personal lines insurance distributor in the U.S.
“That large acquisition rolled onto our books in 2022,” Alliant Chief Executive Tom Corbett told the Business Journal. “They’re a large operation.”
Companywide, Alliant’s grown to a $4 billion run rate with the help of both organic growth and acquisitions (see story, page 1).
No. 2 Marsh Risk & Insurance Services/Mercer, which has an Irvine office, reported a 2.6% increase in revenue to $121.3 million.
A year ago, Irvine’s Burnham Benefits Insurance Services doubled its revenue when its parent company, BRP Group Inc., acquired Tustin-based Wood Gutmann & Bogart Insurance Services LLC.
Growth has continued for Burnham as revenue climbed another 14% to $89.1 million, good for No. 3 on the list.
Employment Growth
The Business Journal ranked the 24 largest insurance brokers in the county, with a cutoff of $6 million in policies.
Fifteen firms reported revenue increases, including nine that saw more than 10% growth.
Only three firms reported a decline while five are Business Journal estimates.
The list also counts the number of licensed brokers, support staff and companywide offices, though those figures didn’t affect rankings.
The insurance brokers reported their number of property and casualty producers in OC jumped 15% to 452. They increased 9.4% last year after increasing 3.5% in 2021.
Revenue growth outpaced a still-notable increase in OC support staff, which rose 11% to 1,940, up from a 6.3% rise in the prior year.
A year ago, Deerfield, Ill.-based Orion Risk Management, boosted employment by 74% at the firm’s Newport Beach office. That paid off as revenue climbed 33% to $24 million; it climbed two spots to No. 15.
A notable increase in staff was 56% to 133 at Hub International Insurance Services Inc.
The organization acquired two OC agencies last year, helping its revenue climb 25%.
“Hub is very much an acquisitive organization,” Ann Wilson, Hub’s senior vice president overseeing Orange County and Los Angeles, told the Business Journal (see story, page 18).
Notables
- Kansas City, Kan.-based Lockton Insurance Brokers, which has an Irvine office, said its OC revenue increased 7.4% to $22 million. In 2021, its revenue had jumped 73%.
- San Francisco-based Woodruff-Sawyer & Co., which also has an office in Irvine, reported OC revenue rose 26% to $34.5 million. That increase follows a 48% jump in 2021.
- The biggest revenue decline was 9.9% to $18.4 million at Northwestern Mutual Orange County, which has an Irvine office.
