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Rank 8
H. Wade Reece, chairman and CEO
BB&T INSURANCE SERVICES INC.
2011 GROSS REVENUES
$1.17 billion 0.4%
2011 BROKERAGE REVENUES
$1.10 billion
Despite positive premium growth and a handful of acquisitions, BB&T Insurance Services Inc. lost some ground in 2011, slipping to No. 8 in Business Insurance's annual rankings of the nation's largest insurance brokers from the No. 7 spot it held last year.
Gross revenues increased by 0.4% for the Raleigh, N.C.-based bank-owned insurance broker to $1.17 billion in 2011.
Still, Daytona Beach, Fla.-based Brown & Brown Inc.'s 2011 brokerage buying spree, along with increases in coastal property insurance rates, pushed it ahead of BB&T in the BI rankings for the first time.
Brown & Brown made 17 acquisitions during 2011 vs. BB&T's three: Atlantic Risk Management Corp., a commercial property/casualty and employee benefits broker with expertise in construction surety and telecommunications based in Columbia, Md.; The Precept Group Inc., an employee benefits consultant and actuarial firm based in San Ramon, Calif.; and Liberty Benefits Inc., a San Jose, Calif.-based employee benefits broker.
But BB&T's $570 million acquisition of The Crump Group, which closed in April, could turn things around for next year, especially if predictions of market firming come to fruition, according to industry sources.
"Margins are tougher in the wholesale...