Three generations, one playbook, 500 acquisitions.
The family business
Brown & Brown started in 1939 when J. Adrian Brown partnered with his cousin in Daytona Beach, Florida, to sell insurance. What began as a small agency serving central Florida is now the seventh-largest insurance broker globally, with $4.7 billion in revenue and 16,000 employees across 500 locations.
The compounding happened across three generations: Adrian founded it, his son Hyatt scaled it, his grandson Powell now runs it. Each transition strengthened rather than disrupted. The playbook transferred because the playbook was simple.
The Hyatt years
J. Hyatt Brown bought the company from his father in 1963 for $75,000. He was 26 years old. Over the next four decades, he built the machine that still runs today.
The insight was structural. Insurance brokerages are local businesses. Clients care about relationships with their agent, not the name on the building. Corporate overhead destroys the economics. So Hyatt pushed everything down.
“For us, decentralisation means operating with little overhead. With corporate operating expenses comprising just 3% of total revenues, we’re the leanest in our industry. Purely administrative positions are virtually nonexistent within our organisation. From the executive office to customer service, everyone is responsible for sales and profitability.”
Three percent overhead. Every office runs its own P&L, down to the paper supplies. No programmes forced from headquarters. The freedom attracts good people; the accountability keeps them sharp.
Cultural fit first
Brown & Brown’s acquisition criteria sound soft but prove hard to replicate.
Powell Brown, who succeeded his father as CEO in 2009: “Cultural fit comes first, the way they relate to fellow brokers, insurance carriers and clients. Then we talk about how much we can pay.”
They target only profitable, well-run agencies with proven people. The filter is cultural, not financial — whether sellers would genuinely fit. Acquisitions account for nearly half of annual growth, but bad cultural fits destroy more value than good financials create.
The permanence matters. Unlike private equity, Brown & Brown doesn’t flip. Acquired agencies keep their identity, their people, their client relationships. The promise is the same one Constellation and Lifco make: we will never sell your business. Founders trust that promise because the track record proves it.
The public currency
Brown & Brown went public in 1993, and the listing changed the acquisition game. Public stock became acquisition currency. Instead of depleting cash for every deal, they could offer sellers equity in the combined entity — alignment that lasts beyond closing.
The strategy worked. From the 1993 IPO through 2021, when Brown & Brown joined the S&P 500, the company completed over 350 acquisitions. The pace accelerated as reputation compounded. Sellers sought them out; brokers knew which buyers kept their word.
In 2025, they announced their largest deal: $9.8 billion for Accession Risk Management Group, owner of Risk Strategies. The deal would make Brown & Brown one of the three largest global brokers. Sixty years of compounding, still accelerating.
Hyatt’s other career
Before becoming a full-time CEO, Hyatt Brown served in Florida politics. He was elected to the Florida House of Representatives in 1972 and became Speaker of the House in 1978. He used his business experience to reform the state pension fund and overhaul workers’ compensation.
The political career mattered for the business. It built relationships across Florida, raised visibility, and demonstrated that Brown & Brown’s leader could operate at scale. When Hyatt returned full-time to the company, he brought a network and credibility that accelerated growth.
Hyatt Brown was building a franchise, not just running a company. The personal brand reinforced the corporate brand. Both compounded.
What the dynasty teaches
Most serial acquirers depend on a founding genius. When the founder leaves, the model drifts. Brown & Brown offers a different pattern: a system so simple it transfers across generations.
The principles are few:
- Decentralisation to the extreme — 3% corporate overhead, every office a profit centre
- Cultural fit before financial fit — bad culture destroys value faster than good numbers create it
- Permanence as positioning — never sell, and sellers trust you with their life’s work
- Public stock as currency — equity alignment outlasts cash transactions
The second generation built the machine. The third generation runs it without modification. That’s the test: not how it performs under its creator, but whether the children can sustain it.
Hyatt is now in his eighties and remains chairman. Powell has run the company for fifteen years. The playbook works because it was designed to transfer.
Connects to Library: Process Power · Switching Costs
See also: The Addtech Succession — Same lesson: systems that transfer across leadership transitions outperform cults of personality. The Lifco Way — Same radical decentralisation, same permanence promise. The Judges Approach — Similar lean headquarters, similar acquisition discipline.