MarshBerry’s 2026 Peak Performance Summit (Peak) was held on January 26–28, 2026 in Park City, Utah. Peak is a premier event for executives of specialty insurance firms, carriers and organizations operating across the wholesale brokerage and delegated authority ecosystem. This year’s event brought together more than 130 industry leaders to exchange perspectives, share best practices and engage in candid discussions about the future of specialty insurance.
MarshBerry leaders and industry panelists addressed the most pressing issues facing the market today, including evolving economic conditions, underwriting discipline, technology-driven innovation, merger and acquisition (M&A) activity, valuation dynamics and the growing importance of scale and specialization. Attendees also gained actionable insight into how the specialty market is changing, and what it will take to compete and win in the years ahead.
Here are some highlights from this year’s Peak Performance Summit:
State of the Industry
MarshBerry’s CEO, John Wepler, opened the Summit by describing today’s insurance environment as a feeding frenzy. Financial services remains one of the most sought-after investment sectors with insurance at the center. Despite the industry’s strength, owners continue to sell at a rapid pace. Why? According to Mr. Wepler, the past 15 years have been the culmination of several positive factors creating a supercycle, but signs of a turning point are emerging, prompting many to capitalize while conditions remain favorable.
Concerns around scale, technology, data analytics, specialization, artificial intelligence and talent retention are driving firms toward private capital partnerships. The industry’s resilience through multiple stress tests has increased comfort with institutional capital, allowing owners to retain equity while securing growth capital. As a result, the race for scale has and is accelerating, over the last 10 years private equity-backed firms are growing at roughly 23% annually, compared to approximately 7% for independents.1
Layered onto these dynamics is a broader landscape of uncertainty, including regulatory shifts, tax policy, economic volatility and geopolitical change. Many brokers lack the growth mindset required to compete, and lifestyle-oriented firms face increasing pressure as margins tighten.
Looking ahead to 2026, demand continues to outstrip supply, debt markets remain wide open and monetary policy has become more accommodative. Despite challenges around organic growth, Mr. Wepler emphasized that the year ahead is shaping up to be another “barn burner,” with clear separation in value between firms that are able, and willing, to evolve.
State of the E&S Market
Gerard Vecchio, Managing Director at MarshBerry, provided an in-depth look at the evolving specialty Excess & Surplus (E&S) market, emphasizing how the segment has become a powerful engine for unlocking shareholder value through better risk management and risk mitigation. He highlighted the core advantages of E&S—nuanced risk selection, pricing flexibility, the ability to exclude underpriced or uninsurable risks, and a comparatively light regulatory framework. All of this has fueled rapid growth and has strengthened the market’s appeal as a compelling alternative to the admitted marketplace.
Parallel with the brisk expansion of the E&S market, rapidly emerging risks are reshaping underwriting expectations and accelerating the transformation of the managing general agent (MGA) marketplace. MGAs and new programs are now required to have more data, longer validation periods, refined underwriting guidelines, cautious use of AI, and greater financial commitment from underwriting teams. And despite the early signs of a softening E&S market, Mr. Vecchio warned that “when you are starting a new program, you will need more data, the costs for experienced underwriters will be greater, and if you think premiums are adequate to cover loss costs, they may not be before long.”
Mr. Vecchio also moderated a panel in which capacity providers discussed how successful MGA partnerships are built on specialization, data transparency and alignment. Improved analytics, collaborative underwriting guidelines and proactive communication have reduced loss surprises, positioning disciplined and highly focused MGAs to better navigate cycle shifts alongside their capacity partners.
How Technology is Driving Value
Tobias Milchereit, Director at MarshBerry, moderated a panel discussion focused on unlocking value through tech-driven innovation across the insurance distribution ecosystem. Panelists shared why the insurance industry continues to attract investor interest, citing its consistent recurring revenue, highly fragmented structure, lack of standardized workflows and critical role in the global economy—creating significant opportunity for transformation.
The discussion emphasized that insurers and MGAs can learn from other industries by standardizing processes, automating repeatable tasks and treating workflows as products. Aligning on the right metrics and integrating systems across the value chain were highlighted as key enablers of efficiency and scalability. Panelists agreed that artificial intelligence represents a structural shift for the industry, with the potential to productize insurance and create an end-to-end flywheel from submission through bind.
From an operator’s perspective, technology has enabled firms to scale without adding headcount, reinforcing productivity and profitability. However, panelists cautioned that technology strategies must start with clarity—identifying bottlenecks, understanding data flows and deciding thoughtfully between buying and/or building technology. “Data should be treated as a first-class citizen,” one panelist noted, underscoring the importance of unified systems and actionable analytics.
As AI adoption accelerates, the panel stressed the need for high-quality data, thoughtful implementation and transparency to preserve trust and relationships. Ultimately, there is no question that firms which are on the cutting edge of leveraging technology will be best positioned to drive sustainable and profitable growth in the future.
Specialty M&A Market: Overview and Outlook
Pete Kampf, Vice President at MarshBerry, shared an update on specialty intermediary M&A trends and valuation dynamics, and insight into what’s ahead in 2026.
Deal activity rebounded in 2025, with 149 transactions announced compared to 120 in 2024,2 driven in part by a nearly 50%3 increase in P&C specialty sellers year over year. Despite this uptick, overall transaction volume remains below recent highs, reinforcing the continued scarcity of high-quality specialty assets, a dynamic that has helped push specialty valuations even higher.
The buyer landscape continues to evolve. Approximately 60 unique buyers were active in the specialty P&C space in 20251, with newly capitalized entrants reshaping competition. Notably, the unique buyer count has increased despite six of the top ten buyers from a decade ago no longer being in existence, underscoring how dramatically the buyer market has evolved. Private equity continues to play a central role in the market creating new specialty platforms, and strategic buyers also remain highly active, both driving some of the most significant transactions that took place in 2025. What’s the takeaway? There is continued strong confidence in the sector and sustained investor conviction.
Divestitures and spin-outs have a growing role as buyers seek to unlock value from niche specialty operations. In parallel, valuations reached all-time highs in 2025, with the valuation gap between specialty and retail intermediaries continuing to widen as specialty deals on average achieved a 4.7x valuation premium when compared to retail deals in 2025.5
Looking ahead, acquisition appetite is expected to remain robust, with steady deal capacity supported by a new wave of buyers, ongoing capital availability and continued premium flow into the E&S and delegated authority markets. Key variables to watch include P&C pricing trends, interest rates and upcoming capital events for private equity-backed firms.
Behind the Headlines: Specialty Valuations Crushing All-Time Highs
George Bucur, Managing Director at MarshBerry, explored how scale, capital and strategic optionality are redefining success and unlocking unprecedented values in the specialty intermediary market. He introduced the concept of the “evolutionary path,” highlighting the growing number of firms targeting, and achieving, $1 billion in P&C premium volume. In 2025, MarshBerry estimates 27 specialty intermediaries surpassed this threshold ($1 billion in P&C premium).6 The overarching commonality between these firms: backed by capital, whether public or private (e.g. private equity).
There has been a sustained influx of private capital into the insurance industry over the past 15 years and buyer appetites and expectations have fundamentally changed over that time. While the 2010–2021 era prioritized rapid revenue accumulation, today’s environment, shaped by inflation and higher interest rates, demands more disciplined, resilient business growth strategies. Despite this shift, the specialty sector has continued to generate outsized growth and valuations. Notably, as of late, private equity has been outbidding strategic buyers for large and diversified delegated authority platforms, reflecting confidence in these firms’ scalability and margin profile. Delegated authority valuations have risen due to being niche focused, offering differentiated products, having scalable economics and the scarcity of these high-quality companies.
The recent wave of large public broker acquisitions underscores continued confidence in specialty, but many public buyers may now have limited capacity for sizable near-term deals. As a result, capital markets are being forced to become increasingly creative in their exit strategies, utilizing club deals, continuation vehicles, spin-offs and divestitures.
Delegated authority platforms will likely continue to grow in an increasingly competitive environment. Inorganic expansion, while still relevant, is unlikely to be a primary growth catalyst given the scarcity of quality targets and heightened buyer competition. Organic growth may also prove more challenging as the market softens. As a result, incubation, particularly through the recruitment and development of underwriting talent, may be one of the most impactful, cost effective and sustainable growth paths for the intermediary industry.
Mr. Bucur also moderated a panel in which specialty industry leaders emphasized that shareholder value is driven by niche specialization, consistent underwriting profitability and strong carrier alignment. Panelists cautioned against emphasizing short-term growth at the cost of medium to long-term underwriting underperformance. They highlighted disciplined partnerships, thoughtful timing of liquidity events and leveraging AI as an efficiency tool, as means to achieving the long-term desired growth results of these intermediaries and their carrier partners.
MarshBerry’s Peak Performance Summit
If you attended this year’s Peak Performance Summit and wish to discuss any of the topics or strategies for unlocking growth or value, please email or call Gerard Vecchio, Managing Director, Specialty Practice Co-Head, at 212.972.4886, or George Bucur, Managing Director, Specialty Practice Co-Head, at 440.392.6543.
If you are interested in attending next year, learn more about this invite-only event.
