If one pattern defines the agency-size curve, it's the revenue mix. The smallest agencies are personal-lines shops; the largest are commercial-and-benefits houses. The five-year series shows this isn't a single-year quirk — it's the structural shape of the industry. This is the revenue-composition slice of the Best Practices trend data; the companion BPS trend reference indexes all seven themes.
§ 01 · The shift with scalePersonal out, commercial in.
Personal-lines commission falls from about half of revenue at the smallest tier to under 10% at the largest; commercial P&C rises from 38% to 55% over the same span. The pattern held in every year of the series — it is the most consistent structural fact in the study.
| 2022 revenue mix | Commercial | Personal | Total L&H |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under $1.25M | 43.7% | 44.8% | 3.5% |
| $2.5M–$5M | 50.0% | 28.1% | 8.5% |
| $5M–$10M | 54.6% | 21.7% | 11.3% |
| $10M–$25M | 55.5% | 16.3% | 16.4% |
| Over $25M | 55.2% | 9.3% | 24.5% |
Two ends of the size curve.
The smallest agency is personal-lines-led; the largest is commercial-and-benefits-led. Bar widths are exact percentages of revenue.
§ 02 · The benefits buildGroup medical scales with size.
The mirror image of falling personal lines is a rising benefits practice. Total life-and-health revenue climbs from about 4% of the book at the smallest tier to 25% at the largest, with group medical alone reaching 11–15% in the upper tiers. Building a benefits practice requires specialized staff, carrier relationships, and employer-market access — all of which correlate strongly with scale.
§ 03 · Contingent stabilityThe steady line.
Against all that shifting, contingent and bonus income held remarkably steady — 5–10% of revenue across every tier and year. It's a normalized income category, not a swing factor — though, because it's carrier-discretionary, a buyer normalizes it out of recurring revenue regardless of tier.
- The defining size pattern. Personal lines falls from ~50% to ~9% of revenue as agencies scale; commercial rises from 38% to 55%.
- Consistent across all five years. The commercial-personal shift is the study's most stable structural fact.
- Benefits build with scale. Total life-and-health climbs from ~4% to ~25%; group medical reaches 11–15% in the upper tiers.
- Contingent income is steady. 5–10% across all tiers and years — normalized out of recurring revenue in diligence.
- 2022 commercial acceleration. Commercial commission share rose across tiers, sharpest at the smallest band.
The benchmark is the baseline, not the price.
Best Practices benchmarks don't value an agency — they're the operating baseline a valuation is built on. Revenue mix is a quality signal: a book weighted toward commercial lines reads as more durable and harder to disintermediate than a personal-auto-heavy one, and a buyer prices that into the multiple. For a mid-market acquirer, the data also points to a concrete play — a sub-$5M target with a thin benefits line has visible upside to 8–15% group medical through the acquirer's carrier relationships.
The way revenue mix flows into a normalized earnings figure is the financial & transactional mechanics reference.
What BPS measures. The Best Practices Study tracks the operating and financial results of top-performing agencies, segmented by revenue tier. This brief reflects the 2018–2022 revenue-composition series.
Percentages of revenue. Each line is expressed as a percentage of total agency revenue.
Total life & health. Group medical plus other group plus individual life-and-health and overrides.
Frequency. The study publishes annually. Milly Books refreshes this brief with each new edition.