Top insurance brokers, No. 8: Acrisure LLC

2024 brokerage revenue: $3.95B
Percent increase: 1.7%

Acrisure LLC made comparatively few acquisitions last year but completed its global reorganization and rebranding, which it says paves the way for a new stage of growth in 2025 after only a slight rise in revenue in 2024.

Following hundreds of acquisitions over the past decade, the broker has emerged from its integration process, which started in 2023, said co-founder and CEO Gregory L. Williams.

The company is ready to “set aggressive goals around client service and innovation, with the goal of being our clients’ most trusted advisers and establishing Acrisure as the pre-eminent fintech solutions provider for millions of small and medium-sized businesses domestically and abroad,” he said.

“When we undertook this branding and integration effort, we knew it wasn’t for the faint of heart,” he said.

Grand Rapids, Michigan-based Acrisure significantly slowed its pace of acquisitions last year, with 24, down from 47 in 2023 and 116 in 2022, according to Optis Partners LLC.

Although Acrisure did not make any acquisitions in the first quarter of 2025, according to Optis, it made a splash in the second quarter in agreeing to buy Global Payments’ Heartland Payroll Services for $1.1 billion. The deal will expand Acrisure’s offerings into payroll and human capital management.

The acquisition also will add a large and diverse client base to the broker, Mr. Williams said.

Acrisure expanded into verticals in 2024 to address the growing tech-oriented needs of clients, such as payroll, compliance and billing, to streamline the operations of small and medium-sized businesses, he said.

Last year the broker launched Wholesure, a wholesale property/casualty business that includes a life and health business segment, and Acrisure Aerospace, an aerospace division led by managing partner Jason Riley that offers coverage from personal and commercial aircraft to rocket launches and other complex aerospace placements, Mr. Williams said.

Acrisure also bolstered its executive bench last year. Chief Financial Officer Aaron Miller joined in July from Abu Dhabi Investments Authority, where he was head of financial services in the private-equity department. Former New York Stock Exchange Vice Chairman John Tuttle joined Acrisure as president in September, Mr. Williams said.

In April, Acrisure named Mark Wassersug its chief technology officer. Mr. Wassersug is former chief information officer of Intercontinental Exchange, the parent company of the NYSE. Shawn Pelsinger, who formerly worked at Denver-based software company Palantir, joined Acrisure as chief administrative officer.

The broker also secured $2.1 billion in funding led by investors at Bain Capital LP that will allow it to “accelerate its evolution as a fintech-powered financial solutions platform” and advance its strategy to provide solutions to small and medium-sized businesses, Mr. Williams said. The funding deal valued Acrisure at $32 billion.

Acrisure reported $4 billion in gross revenue in 2024, a 1% increase over 2023, and $3.95 billion in brokerage revenue, up 1.7%. The company slipped one position to No. 8 in Business Insurance’s ranking of the world’s largest brokers.

“Acrisure has a very different business mix than a lot of other brokers we rate,” focusing on smaller companies, said Julie Herman, director at S&P Global Ratings in New York.

More than 70% of Acrisure’s employer clients have 50 or fewer employees, she said.

The broker is positioning itself to be a one-stop shop for small to mid-size businesses, Ms. Herman said.

“It’s very tech-forward and very much in a small account space where it’s trying to diversify outside of just insurance,” she said.

Acrisure “has been on a different journey than other brokers, but performing in line with expectations,” said Evelyn Ocas Salazar, New York-based assistant vice president at Moody’s Investors Service.

“This is one of those companies that have completely slowed down their M&A and gone from acquiring a lot of companies in 2021 and 2022 to 24 in 2024. It is a very drastic change in the pace of acquisitions,” she said.

Although the integration and rebranding process was costly, Ms. Salazar said Acrisure will see the benefits of consolidating 600 agencies across four regions in North America by the end of 2025.

The broker’s organic growth was in line with its competitors, and it has a B3 corporate family rating, Ms. Salazar said.