Reliance Global Group Inc

About Reliance Global Group, Inc.

Reliance Global Group, Inc. (formerly known as Ethos Media Network, Inc.) was incorporated in Florida on August 2, 2013. In September 2018, Reliance Global Holdings, LLC, a related party (“Reliance Holdings”), purchased a controlling interest in the Company. Ethos Media Network, Inc. was renamed Reliance Global Group, Inc. on October 18, 2018.

We operate as a company managing assets in the insurance markets, as well as other related sectors. Our focus is to grow the Company by pursuing an aggressive acquisition strategy, initially and primarily focused upon wholesale and retail insurance agencies. We are led and advised by a management team that offers over 100 years of combined business expertise in insurance, real estate and the financial service industry.

In the insurance sector, our management has extensive experience acquiring and managing insurance portfolios in several states, as well as developing specialized programs targeting niche markets. Our primary strategy is to identify specific risk to reward arbitrage opportunities and develop these on a national platform, thereby increasing revenues and returns, and then identify and acquire undervalued wholesale and retail insurance agencies with operations in growing or underserved segments, expand and optimize their operations, and achieve asset value appreciation while generating interim cash flows.

As part of our growth and acquisition strategy, we remain active in M&A markets and anticipate completing insurance agency/brokerage transactions throughout the course of 2024 and beyond. As of December 31, 2023, we have acquired nine insurance agencies. During 2022, the Company acquired Barra & Associates, LLC., an unaffiliated full-service insurance agency, which we rebranded to RELI Exchange and expanded its footprint nationally.

The Company also developed and launched 5MinuteInsure.com (“5MI”), a proprietary direct to consumer InsurTech platform which went live during the summer of 2021. 5MI is a business to consumer website which enables consumers to compare and purchase car and home insurance in a time efficient and effective manner. The platform is currently live in 44 states and offers coverage with more than thirty carriers.

Over the next 12 months, we plan to expand and grow our footprint and market share both through organic growth, and by expansion through additional acquisitions in various insurance markets.

Our competitive advantage includes the ability to:

The RELI Exchange Business to Business (“B2B”) InsurTech platform and partner network for insurance agents and agencies also:

In addition, we have a vast mentorship program behind the scenes, to upskill our sales teams. Once people are registered, we enroll them in our mentorship program, and coach them to bring new business.

RELI Exchange is a complete, private label system where agents have more flexibility in how they choose to brand themselves, compared to competitor platforms that require agents to work under the platform’s brand name. In effect, agents have a greater sense of ownership on our platform, and the feeling that comes with a well-financed agency.

Insurance Market Overview

There are three main insurance sectors: (1) property/casualty (P/C), which consists mainly of auto, home, and commercial insurance; (2) life/health (L/H), which consists mainly of life insurance and annuity products; and (3) accident and health, which is normally written by insurers whose main business is health insurance. The insurance industry plays a huge role in the U.S. economy (Source: OECD Insurance Statistics).

The U.S. remained the world’s largest insurance market, with a 40% market share of global direct premiums written in 2023, with premiums of $2.8 trillion, and Swiss Re forecasts that premiums will grow by an average 9% per annum over the next decade, stronger than the 7.5% annual average of 2015–2023 (Source: beinsure, Top Ranking the World’s Largest Insurance Markets 2024).

Insurance Agency Industry Overview

Insurance agencies act as intermediaries between insurance carriers and consumers. Unlike carriers, agencies do not bear insurance risk. The market has grown steadily including a sharp increase in 2019 due to macroeconomic growth, beneficial legislation, COVID treatments, and positive trends within the insurance sector. While inflation and other factors have impacted the industry, it has continued to grow through 2021. The market flattened in 2022 (12.15% of US GDP in 2022 vs. 12.20% in 2021), with a positive outlook due to the increased use of AI. Results may be impacted by changes to federal interest rates, with the federal funds rate skyrocketing from about 0% in early 2022 to 5.33% in February 2024, the highest rate in over 20 years (Source: St. Louis Federal Reserve,Federal Funds Effective Rate).

An insurance agency or broker solicits, writes, and binds policies through many different insurance companies, as they are not directly employed by any insurance carrier. Thus, insurance agencies can decide which insurance carriers they would like to represent and which products they would like to sell. They are like a retail shop that sells insurance services and products created by the insurance carrier. The main difference between a broker and an agent has to do with who they represent. An agent represents one or more insurance companies, acting as an extension of the insurer. A broker represents the insurance buyer.

An insurance carrier, on the other hand, is a manufacturer of insurance services and products that the insurance agencies sell. They control the underwriting process, claims process, pricing, and the overall management of the insurance products. Insurance carriers do not sell their products through direct agents, but only through independent agencies. Insurance policies are created and administered by the insurance carrier.

A key operating difference between agencies and carriers is the risk profile. The potential financial risks to the insurance industry caused by unforeseen events such as natural disasters are the responsibility of the carriers (and their re-insurers). Agencies and brokers bear no insurance risk. Furthermore, increased damage caused by natural disasters generally boosts demand for insurance and results in possible premium increases. Since insurance brokers and agents are a central part of the distribution of these products, they normally benefit from this increase in demand and premiums despite damaged profit margins among these upstream underwriters and carriers. (Source: IBISWorld Insurance Brokers & Agencies Industry in the US, January 2023). Natural disasters are inherently difficult to forecast, but any increase in the frequency of these events has the potential to boost insurance policy volumes, particularly for property and casualty products.

This risk difference is key, especially considering volatile weather patterns and an increased rate of natural disasters. The economic costs of 2023’s natural disaster events was $380 billion, up from $313 billion in 2022 (Source: Statista,Cost of natural disaster losses worldwide from 2000 to 2023, by type of loss). Insurance only covered 42% of the total damages from 421 natural disaster events in 2022 (Source: AON,Testimony of Eric Anderson, President of Aon, before the United States Senate Committee on Budget, Wednesday, March 22, 2023).

Key external drivers for insurance industry performance include factors such as motor vehicle registrations, the homeowner rate, and per capita disposable income. The industry is in a hardening cycle, which leads to growth. There are still effects from the COVID-19 measures, with shifting sales trends expected to boost profitability while lowering marginal costs. Additionally, businesses rebounding from COVID-19 are reported to translate to a consistent stream of new insurance customers (Source: IBISWorld,Insurance Brokers & Agencies Industry in the US, January 2023).

In 2023, the global insurance brokerage & agency market had an estimated value of $436 billion, and is forecasted to grow 7.2% to $468 billion in 2024 and to $613 billion by 2028 (Source: Research and Markets, Insurance Brokers & Agents Global Market Report 2024). The insurance distribution industry continues to prove its resiliency and the growth is reflected in continued robust mergers and acquisition (M&A) activity within the sector, despite decreases as compared to recent prior years. Total deal volume in 2023 was $78 billion, 41% lower than in 2022, with a 15% drop in total deals to 1,062 M&A deals in 2023. That said, there were 22 mega-deals of over $1 billion in 2023, a 38% increase over 2022 (Source: GlobalData, Insurance M&A Deals 2023 – Top Themes – Thematic Intelligence). The drop in deal volume was due to a 40-year high in inflation, rising capital costs and tightening budgets. As rate increases have already peaked, companies may allocate more capital to acquisitions. In 2024, there is an expected influx of private equity money into insurance M&A. (Source: Deloitte, 2024 insurance M&A outlook: Climbing the leaderboard).

The global InsurTech market size was valued at $16.6 billion in 2023 and is expected to grow to $336.5 billion by 2032, including the highest CAGR of 41.0% between 2023 and 2032 (Market.us, Global Insurtech Market By Type (Auto, Business, Health, and Other Types), By Deployment (On-Premise, and Cloud Based), By Technology, By Services, By End-User, By Region and Companies - Industry Segment Outlook, Market Assessment, Competition Scenario, Trends, and Forecast 2023-2032). The increasing need for digitization of insurance services is expected to propel the market growth. Insurtech is the usage of technology innovations particularly designed to make the existing insurance model more efficient. By using technologies such as AI and data analytics, InsurTech solutions allow products to be priced more competitively. Insurance companies are widely adopting these solutions to drive cheaper, better, and faster operational results. Hence, the insurance industry is witnessing increased investment in technology. The outbreak of COVID-19 had a positive impact on the market. Numerous insurance companies are reconsidering their long-term strategies and short-term needs. COVID-19 and its impacts have accelerated the implementation of online platforms and new mobile applications to meet consumer needs. (Sources: Grand View Research, Insurtech Market Size, Share & Growth Report, 2021-2028 and 2022 - 2030).

The Company therefore has strategically invested in its RELI Exchange and 5MinuteInsure.com online digital platforms as additional steps in expanding its national footprint which now also includes a client referral portal. As discussed above, RELI Exchange and 5MI are high-tech proprietary tools developed by the Company as business to business or business to consumer portals which enables agents/consumers to compare and purchase car home and life insurance in a time efficient and effective manner. These platforms tap into the growing number of online users and utilize advanced artificial intelligence and data mining techniques, to provide competitive insurance quotes in around 1-5 minutes, with minimal data input needed from the agent/consumer.

General Industry Outlook

Insurance brokers and agencies play a critical role within the insurance market by distributing policies and consulting insurance underwriters and consumers. This industry is a vital component to the larger insurance sector as industry operators act as intermediaries between insurance providers and downstream consumers. Operators generate income via commissions earned on policies sold. Given the transaction-based nature of the industry, revenue primarily depends on three factors: (1) policy (premium) pricing; (2) demand for insurance; and (3) the popularity of using agents and brokers in the distribution process.

As mentioned, the insurance broker and agency industry has grown steadily over the five years due to macroeconomic growth, beneficial legislation that has been passed, and positive trends in the insurance sector, achieving approximately $436 billion in revenues in 2023. As macroeconomic conditions improve over the next few years, revenue generated by industry operators is expected to increase to $613 billion in 2028 as businesses regain confidence in their financial stability, despite increased external competition from online insurance marketplace platforms.

Insurance carriers should not continue to depend on the positive (though uncertain) fundamental economic strength of years past to maintain positive balance sheet momentum. To succeed, carriers must address foundational challenges, which include remaining relevant despite systemic economic changes combined with expanding consumer preferences. Some of the issues that insurers must address will fall within the areas of mergers and acquisitions (M&A), technology, product development, talent, regulation, as well as tax reform, as described below.

Further complexity may come from several areas in 2024, including (Source: Accenture, 5 predictions for the insurance industry in 2024):

While the industry may need to address internal and external pressures, the impact from these issues will continue to fall within the individual insurer. Thus, since insurers have choice in their decision making process, potentially the most significant factor is likely to be how committed and prepared insurers are to quickly adjust to changes in the economy, society, and technology, and respond accordingly.

Insurance Options

Single-product platforms limit buyers’ choices and often lead to high costs or insufficient coverage. We’ve partnered with an extensive list of carriers and filter results for buyers according to their needs. This gets them the right coverage at a fair price. From there, they’re connected to an agent who onboards them with minimal friction.

Insurance Buyers

Insurance buyers want coverage that fits their needs at a fair price. They also want good customer service. We believe the independent insurance agents, combined with the RELI Exchange platform can serve these needs best. Our platform makes it easy to weigh the options and connect with a knowledgeable agent with the buyer’s interests in mind.

Expert Agents

We train our agents to evaluate coverages based on buyers’ needs, and to explain options in simple terms. Furthermore, service doesn’t stop there. People’s needs change during different life events, and we facilitate adjustments to their coverage when it matters most.

Agents can revolutionize their insurance businesses—or start a new one on RELI Exchange. They have the freedom to offer coverage from a variety of carriers, utilizing our cutting-edge technology, and proven sales system. This is particularly beneficial to captive insurance agents who previously found themselves limited to one carrier and pricing model. By offering more choices, agents now have more chances of closing business with interested buyers. By partnering with us, agents gain access to a variety of carriers, yet are able to streamline their workflows to focus on business development with support from our team and lower marketing costs.

Top Carriers

Insurance carriers want to maximize profits without detracting from the customer experience. The challenge is that it’s costly to distribute coverage through independent agents with varying levels of expertise. Some carriers choose the Captive Agent route to save on cost, but RELI Exchange offers a better alternative. We reduce overhead and scale distribution for carriers while maintaining good standards with our technology and back office support team.

The performance improvements and lower costs lead to higher customer retention and a better customer experience, which translates to a higher customer lifetime value and more profits for the carrier and the agent.

Leadership Team

Our leadership team has over 100 years of combined industry experience.

Ezra Beyman, Chairman & Chief Executive Officer, brings nearly three decades of entrepreneurial experience in real estate and fifteen years in insurance. His portfolio of commercial and residential properties at one point consisted of more than 40,000 residential units, as well as several insurance companies. In 1985, he founded his first mortgage brokerage, which rapidly grew into the third largest licensed mortgage brokerage in the United States of America by 2008. He also expanded to real estate acquisition, having grown his portfolio to over three billion dollars.

Scott Korman, Director, serves as President of Nashone, Inc., a private equity firm, which he founded in 1984. In this role, Mr. Korman is involved in financial advisory, M&A, and general management assignments. He is a founder and Managing Member and CEO of Illumina Radiopharmaceuticals LLC, CEO of Red Mountain Medical Holdings, Inc. Mr. Korman previously served as Chairman of Da-Tech Corporation, a Pennsylvania based contract electronics manufacturer and as Chairman and CEO of Best Manufacturing Group LLC, a leading manufacturer and distributor of uniforms, napery, service apparel, and hospitality and healthcare textiles. Mr. Korman also served as President and CEO of Welsh Farms Inc., a full-service dairy processor and distributor of milk, ice cream mix and ice cream products.

Ben Fruchtzweig, Director, brings decades of executive experience in accounting and financial services. He has served as Chief Comptroller/Financial Analyst at national financial services and investment companies. He received his NYS C.P.A. license in 1987 and has worked at Deloitte Haskins and Sells and other leading accounting firms. Currently, Mr. Fruchtzweig lectures on a variety of topics including business ethics. He also serves on a voluntary basis as a trustee of a non-profit private foundation, which serves to provide the needed financial support, services and guidance to qualifying individuals and families.

Sheldon Brickman, Director, brings over 25 years of M&A advisory and business development experience with more than $40 billion in deals value. He has worked for numerous multibillion-dollar insurance carriers, including assignments for such companies as AIG, Aetna and National General. Sheldon has assisted international companies (UAE, UK, Asia and Latin America), start-up operations, and regional insurance carriers. Mr. Brickman’s experience covers the property casualty and life/health markets, including working with insurance carriers, managing general agencies, wholesalers, retailers and third-party administrators.

Alex Blumenfrucht, Director, previously served as CFO of Reliance, and prior to that, served as an Audit & Assurance Professional at Deloitte & Touche, LLP where he successfully led audit teams on both public and privately held corporations. He brings extensive experience in internal controls, financial analysis and reporting for both private and publicly traded companies. Currently Alex serves as the CFO of a Private Equity backed company in the healthcare space. Additionally, he has served as a Board Member of an ESOP structured entity.

Joel Markovits, CPA, Chief Financial Officer, Joel joined Reliance Global Group in June 2021, bringing over 12 years of financial and accounting experience in both the public and private sectors. Prior to joining Reliance Global Group, Joel was a senior manager at KPMG LLP from April 2015 through May 2021, where he led some of the larger and more complex audit engagements, including serving as lead audit senior manager on a global $16 billion (annual revenues) enterprise reporting on both US GAAP and IFRS standards. He was also a data & analytics specialist and technology innovation leader at KPMG for its largest US Business Unit, overseeing the development and deployment of technological capabilities that enhance data analyses. Joel has been a Certified Public Accountant in the State of New Jersey since November 2013.

Yaakov Beyman - Executive Vice President, Insurance Division, oversees the overall insurance operations of Reliance, including strategy and developing/implementing operational tools. He holds insurance licenses in most of the continental United States, and is involved heavily in marketing, maintaining state of the art technological models, financial management and distributions, and entity creation and maintenance.

Grant Barra - Senior Vice President of Operations, Mr. Barra brings extensive insurance experience scaling businesses by employing innovative tactics to increase revenue and overall profitability. He founded Barra & Associates in 2008 and served as its CEO until it was acquired by Reliance in 2022 and subsequently rebranded as RELI Exchange. Concurrent with the acquisition, Mr. Barra was appointed as Reliance’s senior vice president of operations, where he’s responsible to oversee operations, innovation, and growth, amongst other senior responsibilities.

Moshe Fishman, Director of Insurtech and Operations, brings a unique perspective to the insurance sales process. Prior to starting his own insurance agency, Mr. Fishman was a recognized guru in the travel industry leveraging the technology in the travel sector. This tech savviness has been applied into the insurance and financial services industries with the founding of Fishman Insurance Agency as well as Tekeno Financial. Mr. Fishman is one of the driving talents of the RELI Exchange & 5MinuteInsure.com InsurTech platforms.

Agency Partner network and proprietary InsurTech platform at ReliExchange.com

Our Go-to-Market Strategy

Our Go-to-Market high level goals include:

Target #1: Captive

Target #2: Agency Producers/CSRs

Target #3: New Agency Startups

Promotion

To meet our agency registration objectives, we have engaged in both inbound and outbound marketing. Outbound sales and marketing includes outreach on social media through posts and direct messages using tools on LinkedIn and other platforms, phone, email, and other methods of communication. Inbound marketing is primarily through driving traffic to our website through search engines, social media, and digital publicity campaigns. These combined tactics give us a constant influx of marketing qualified leads (MQL) and sales qualified leads (SQL) to predictably hit our target metrics each month.

Email Marketing

As we continue to build our database of customers and prospects, we will implement an effective email marketing campaign. This includes newsletters as well as content flows that drip out over time to keep people engaged. This content is pre-programmed to automatically fire at set intervals whenever someone registers for a list. Through automation, we continue to build rapport with people who eventually sign up for the service.

Public Relations

The digital marketing tactics that we use have the following benefits:

Social Media

As part of our content creation process, we’ve implemented a system for ongoing posts to social media channels such as LinkedIn. Tactics include:

Using platforms like LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter, we post regular content with the aim of growing our visibility and credibility through social media storytelling. Our goal is to maintain a consistent brand story for customers, prospects, stakeholders, and industry experts.

Planning, writing, creating, and posting a mixture of our available assets, plus curated topics on industry trends and influencer thought leadership to provide validation and exposure outside of our existing followers, to develop the company story.

Our initial focus is on LinkedIn, with expansion to other platforms as it makes sense.

Podcasts

We have appeared on several podcasts as subject matter experts, and will continue with outreach to increase exposure, visibility, brand awareness, and sales.

Website Search Engine Optimization

Our goal is to improve the website to drive more organic traffic through Google and other search engines. The two primary objectives are to create engaging content, and to improve the technical SEO of the website.

SEO growth opportunities include:

Product

Our best-in-class product offerings include the following:

Our value proposition is that we’re giving people a complete, white label business. Agents have a fast and easy website presence, get contracts with carriers they wouldn’t normally access, and they can get paid for referrals.

Price

Costs are very low. Access is approximately $90/month for agents, and $190/month for agency partners. This is a singular solution that gives people an all-in-one insurance agency.

For comparison, people used to pay about $50,000 to build out an insurance agency. Additionally, licensing can be around $750, with $100-200 in monthly expenditures. RELI Exchange removes these costly barriers to entry through technology.

With the RELI Exchange platform, our vision is to remove all barriers and activate contracted agents at scale. Being cost efficient for these agencies is key to our success. Unlike the franchise model, RELI Exchange is designed with low barriers to entry and a compelling value proposition. In addition, RELI Exchange significantly enhances competitive advantages through provided agency partners.

People (Target Audience)

We have identified several highly receptive target audiences, including:

The RELI Exchange Platform

The RELI Exchange platform is a revolutionary way to get insurance quotes without requiring users to undergo a complicated process of manually completing lengthy forms. With basic contact information, our proprietary tool can generate accurate home auto and life insurance quotes from credible providers in under 5 minutes, for free. Then, our platform connects each user with a fully trained and knowledgeable agent who guides them through the rest of the process to deliver the best coverage at the best price.

RELI Exchange is at the forefront of the digital transformation of the insurance industry. Our platform leverages unique technology, a proprietary database, and expert methodologies from experienced insurance agents to deliver a quality experience to agents and people looking to get insured.

In addition to providing customers with a great experience, RELI Exchange automates many processes for agents to free up their time to sell to new customers. The result is higher profitability with less work. Most importantly, mentorship is part of the RELI Exchange model, so that agents always receive the support they need to be successful.

System for Agent and Agency Partner Success

RELI Exchange agents have a distinct advantage over their captive counterparts when it comes to serving clients. They have access to multiple carriers in their markets, to provide more choices and solutions that fit their customers’ needs. Additionally, our automations and back-office support eliminate time spent on service requests and renewals, so agents can focus on sales growth.

We spent years developing our proprietary sales processes, backed up by an engaging mentorship program to maximize agent success. We provide every agent with comprehensive training, product and carrier knowledge, and cutting-edge technology. Plus, our back-office support team is readily available to train and assist agents at every step.

We actively recruit agents who are passionate about owning their own business and have a proven track record in business development. Our revenues are tied directly to their success, creating an environment that delivers consistent results.

Agents benefit from low startup costs and minimal overhead—no employees or physical location is required. In contrast, captive agents are often burdened with immediate hiring requirements, storefront leases, and advertising budgets. Moreover, our software platform delivers economies of scale so that fixed and variable costs are reduced for greater profitability.

Online Insurance and 5MinuteInsure.com

In August 2021, we launched 5MinuteInsure.com, which is a licensed online insurance agency that utilizes state of the art digital technology and seek to use this platform to develop business in the online insurance business which we believe represents an underutilized opportunity.

While 90% of customers are open to purchasing insurance online, 75% of the people who attempt to make online purchases report problems (Source: J.D. Power,Direct-to-Consumer Auto Insurers Take Top Honors in Shopping Study as New Normal Arrives for P&C Industry, J.D. Power Finds; Invoca,36 Insurance Marketing Statistics You Need to Know in 2023). Moreover, the current insurance purchasing processes is time consuming and lacks transparency. There are over 96 insurance companies paying thousands of affiliates to generate leads, paying as much as $120 per lead (Source: The Insurance Marketer,Best Life Insurance Affiliate Programs: How Much Can You Earn?; Lasso,The 96 Best Insurance Affiliate Programs of 2023). Consequently, most of the current online sites are simply lead generators, which result in false insurance quotes, constant spam and aggressive sales pitches. We believe consumers are looking for an online platform that will replicate the services they could obtain from a traditional brick and mortar insurance agency, thus driving business toward the online site as we all migrate to online in this post COVID world.

Another key benefit to online insurance is the ability to combine seamlessly with electronic capabilities in processing, such as 5MinuteInsure.com’s proprietary backend processing technology to support our traditional agency business. 5MinuteInsure.com will be used internally by all the Reliance Global Group affiliated agencies to offer more products to our existing client base. By implementing artificial intelligence, robotic process automation and automatic shopping for best rates at renewals, we believe we can dramatically reduce costs, and allow our agents to focus on selling new policies, creating a digitally empowered and scalable insurance agency model.

Specific benefits of the 5MinuteInsure.com platform include:

Thus, we believe in the specific benefits of the online insurance business, and we believe that 5MinuteInsure.com provides the platform to transform this segment of the industry.

Business Operations (OneFirm)

Reliance Global Group has adopted a ‘One-Firm’ approach, whereby the Reliance owned and operated agencies come together to operate as one cohesive unit which allows for efficient and effective cross-selling, cross-collaboration, and the effective deployment of the Company’s human capital. This strategy also aims to enhance the Company’s overall market presence across the U.S., with all business lines operating under the RELI Exchange brand. It’s expected to benefit agents and clients by improving relationships with carriers, leading to better commission and bonus contracts due to higher business volumes. The approach also strengthens the capability of RELI Exchange agency partners in securing diverse insurance policies and fosters increased cross-selling opportunities. This unified strategy positions the company for rapid scaling and integration of accretive acquisitions, expanding its industry reach.

Insurance M&A Overview

As noted above, M&A deal volume in the insurance agency market remains robust with $78 billion in deals during 2023, despite drops as compared prior recent years and 2024 is expected to bring more acquisition opportunities.

The COVID-19 crisis may have an impact on the insurance industry for quite some time. Some factors to consider:

We cannot presently estimate the full financial impact of the unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic on our business or predict the related federal, state and local civil authority actions, which are highly dependent on the severity and duration of the pandemic; however, we see opportunities which may arise as to changes in the markets. Due to the uncertainties associated with the COVID-19 pandemic and the indeterminate length of time it will affect, we have taken proactive measures to secure our liquidity position to be able to meet our obligations for the foreseeable future.

Reliance Insurance Agency Brand Acquisitions:

Acquisition History

Insurance Agency Acquisition Strategy

Digitizing Bricks & Mortar Agencies

Employees

As of December 31, 2023, we employed 67 employees across all Company subsidiaries.

We believe that a diverse workforce is important to our success. We will continue to focus on the hiring, retention, and advancement of underrepresented populations, and to cultivate an inclusive and diverse corporate culture. In the future, we intend to continue to evaluate our use of human capital measures or objectives in managing our business such as the factors we employ or seek to employ in the development, attraction and retention of personnel and maintenance of diversity in our workforce.

The success of our business is fundamentally connected to the well-being of our people. Accordingly, we are committed to the health, safety and wellness of our employees. We provide our employees and their families with access to a variety of innovative, flexible and convenient health and wellness programs, including benefits that provide protection and security so they can have peace of mind concerning events that may require time away from work or that impact their financial well-being; that support their physical and mental health by providing tools and resources to help them improve or maintain their health status and encourage engagement in healthy behaviors; and that offer choice where possible so they can customize their benefits to meet their needs and the needs of their families.

We also provide robust compensation and benefits programs to help meet the needs of our employees. We believe that we maintain a satisfactory working relationship with our employees and have not experienced any labor disputes.

Competition

The insurance brokerage business is highly competitive, and numerous firms actively compete with us for customers and insurance markets. Competition is largely based upon innovation, knowledge, terms and conditions of coverage, quality of service and price. We believe that we’re well positioned to be highly competitive and continuously gain market share. Additionally, our focus on InsurTech is a game-changer in the industry and helps us stand-out vs. the competition.

The Merger and Acquisition of Insurance Agencies is a highly competitive industry, as well. Competition is due to many well-established companies having extensive experience in identifying and effecting business combinations who possess great technical, human, and financial resources. Several firms and banks with substantially greater resources and market presence compete with us. While we believe that there are numerous potential target businesses that we could acquire, our ability to compete in acquiring certain sizable target businesses might be limited.

Government Regulation

The business practices and compensation arrangements of the insurance intermediary industry, including our practices and arrangements, are regulated by various governmental authorities. Certain of our offices are parties to profit-sharing contingent commission agreements with certain insurance companies, including agreements providing for potential payment of revenue-sharing commissions by insurance companies based primarily on the overall profitability of the aggregate business written with those insurance companies and/or additional factors such as retention ratios and the overall volume of business that an office or offices place with those insurance companies. The legislatures of various states may adopt new laws addressing contingent commission arrangements, including laws prohibiting such arrangements, and addressing disclosure of such arrangements to insureds.

We and our employees must be licensed to act as brokers, intermediaries, or third-party administrators by state regulatory authorities in the locations in which we conduct business. Regulations and licensing laws vary by individual state and are often complex. The applicable licensing laws and regulations in all states are subject to amendment or reinterpretation by regulatory authorities, and such authorities are vested in most cases with relatively broad discretion as to the granting, revocation, suspension, and renewal of licenses. We believe that we are in compliance with the applicable licensing laws and regulations of all states in which we currently operate. However, the possibility still exists that we or our employees could be excluded or temporarily suspended from carrying on some or all of our activities in, or could otherwise be subjected to penalties by, a particular jurisdiction.

Nearly all states have insurance laws requiring personal property and casualty insurers to file rating plans, policy or coverage forms, and other information with the state’s regulatory authority. In many cases, such rating plans, policy, or coverage forms, must be approved prior to use and the regulator has the authority to disapprove a rate filing. While we are not an insurer, and thus not required to comply with state laws and regulations regarding insurance rates, our commissions are derived from a percentage of the premium rates set by insurers in conjunction with state law.