The value of a benchmark study isn't only in its headline numbers — it's in the secondary metrics that reveal where the channel is structurally heading. Industry analysts surfaced four of these from the latest study; each is a strategy signal hiding under the growth-and-margin coverage. The trend behind the headlines is the BPS trend analysis.
§ 01 · Producer-hiring success50% industry, 75% top quartile.
The old rule of thumb — one in two producer hires "makes it" — holds as the industry average for agencies above $5M. But top-quartile firms in the same band achieve nearly 75% success, measured over a five-year window, so it reflects sustained recruiting and development discipline, not luck. The consequence compounds: a firm whose producer-investment ROI is materially higher can confidently keep investing in growth, while an average firm hesitates — and the gap widens.
| The four deep tracks | Figure |
|---|---|
| Producer-hiring success (avg vs top quartile, >$5M) | ~50% vs ~75% |
| Agencies hiring zero producers ($5–$10M) | ~33% |
| Agencies hiring zero producers ($10–$25M) | >20% |
| Agency debt levels, 2024 vs 2019 (>$5M) | ~2× increase |
| Completed an acquisition ($25M+) | 44% |
§ 02 · The non-hiring patternBetting on attrition.
Despite producer hiring being widely understood as the engine of organic growth, large shares of mid-market agencies hired none in a single year — over 20% in the $10–$25M band and roughly a third in the $5–$10M band. In a market where leading firms treat recruiting as a core competency, the non-hirers are functionally betting on retention or attrition, a fragile foundation for defending a valuation. For a non-perpetuating owner, it's also a self-fulfilling signal: an agency that doesn't develop producers is producing its own non-perpetuation future.
§ 03 · Debt has doubledA new perpetuation finance.
Agencies above $5M are borrowing roughly twice what they did five years ago — driven by more available debt capital (lenders grew comfortable lending against commission streams) and a long window of low rates. The use of proceeds reshapes the perpetuation picture: the primary use is shareholder redemptions and the secondary is acquisitions, meaning ownership is increasingly being retired with debt rather than producer-financed equity. For buyers, the read is that independent acquirers carry more leverageable capital today than they did in 2019 — a $10M-revenue book can credibly pursue $1M–$3M tuck-ins on debt.
The headline metrics tell you how an agency did; the deep tracks tell you what it's becoming. An agency that stopped hiring producers and started funding buyouts with debt has written its next decade — whether it meant to or not.
§ 04 · Independents still winThe channel isn't only defensive.
Despite private-equity dominance and public-broker scale, private brokers keep getting deals done: 25% of $10–$25M study agencies and 44% of those above $25M completed an acquisition — both up from a few years earlier. In a market where institutional capital accounts for roughly 70% of total deal volume, that's a meaningful share of the cohort competing and winning. The signal for the marketplace is structural: a high-quality book listing should expect serious bids from independent and serial-acquirer buyers, not only PE-backed platforms. The buyer-archetype detail is in peer and alternative acquirers, and the new-normal context is the new-normal era.
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Terminology on this shelf
- Producer-hiring success rate
- The share of producer hires who "make it," measured over a five-year window — ~50% average, ~75% top quartile.
- Shareholder redemption
- A stock buyback used to retire ownership — increasingly funded by agency debt rather than producer equity.
- Non-hiring pattern
- The large share of mid-market agencies hiring zero producers in a year — a perpetuation-risk signal.
- Acquisition completion rate
- The share of study agencies that closed a deal in a year — 25% to 44% in the larger tiers.