What data should an insurance agency buyer request before closing?
Abe Harbid, 26 October 2026
Before closing, request the agency’s full book export from its management system, at least twelve months of carrier commission statements, the producer roster with each producer’s split terms and policy credits, the carrier code list with direct and agency bill noted, and the agency’s own revenue figures for the period the deal is priced on. Ask for raw exports in whatever form the system produces, not summaries. Those files let the buyer test the deal’s revenue before signing and start integration on day one.
The request list
| Item | Form to ask for | What it tests |
|---|---|---|
| Book of business export: clients, policies, carriers, lines, dates, premium, commission rate, producer | The system’s own export file, all active policies | Whether the book matches the revenue in the deal model |
| Carrier commission statements, 12 months or more | As received from carriers, every carrier | Whether commission actually paid matches the book |
| Producer roster and agreements | Names, codes, split terms, book ownership, any non-compete | Comp cost after the deal, and retention risk |
| Policy credits by producer, including split policies | From the system, plus any side spreadsheet | Who the revenue depends on |
| Carrier code list, direct bill and agency bill noted | From the system and accounting | Which commission flows change after the deal |
| Contingent and bonus commission history | Carrier letters or statements | Revenue that may not repeat |
| Retention: policies renewed and lost by year | Computed from the export, or the agency’s report | The quality of the book, not only its size |
Why raw exports, not summaries
A summary tells you what the seller believes the book is. An export lets you check it. Commission revenue computed from the export, compared with commission received on carrier statements, shows gaps a summary would hide: policies on the books that no carrier pays on, statement lines for policies not in the export, rates that differ from what carriers apply. That comparison is the same reconciliation the platform will need after closing, so doing it during diligence is not extra work. It is the first step of integration done early.
Handle the data as nonpublic information
A book export carries nonpublic information about the agency’s clients. Many states have adopted the NAIC Insurance Data Security Model Law, which requires licensees to protect such information and to oversee the third-party service providers that handle it; an NAIC brief from August 2025 counts 28 jurisdictions [1][2]. In practice:
- Share only with people and firms covered by the NDA and named in it.
- Where a vendor only needs to test structure and quality, give it a de-identified sample: names, addresses and policy numbers replaced, everything else kept.
- Agree where the files are stored and when they are deleted if the deal does not close.
Our diagnostic can run on a de-identified sample for this reason. See security and data handling.
Write delivery into the purchase agreement
The data you test in diligence will be stale by closing. Put in the purchase agreement that the seller delivers a fresh full export, the latest statements and the current producer roster at close, in the same form. Integration teams lose weeks chasing files that a clause would have delivered on day one. What to do with them in the first 90 days is in our data checklist.
Questions
What data should an insurance agency buyer request before closing?
The full book export, 12 months or more of carrier commission statements, the producer roster with split terms and policy credits, the carrier code list with direct and agency bill noted, contingent commission history, and retention by year.
Why ask for commission statements if the book export shows commission?
The export shows what the agency expects to be paid. Statements show what carriers actually paid. The gap between the two is where diligence finds problems.
Can a vendor test the data without seeing client names?
Yes. A de-identified sample keeps the structure and the problems in the data while removing names, addresses and policy numbers. Our diagnostic accepts one.
Should data delivery be in the purchase agreement?
Yes. Require a fresh export, current statements and the producer roster at close, in the same form as in diligence, so integration starts on day one.
More answers on Insights. To run the export and statement comparison on a target or a recent acquisition, start with the diagnostic.
Sources
- NAIC, "Cybersecurity" insurance topic page, on the Insurance Data Security Model Law (#668) (accessed 26 October 2026). content.naic.org
- NAIC, "The NAIC Insurance Data Security Model Law", government affairs brief, August 2025 (accessed 26 October 2026). content.naic.org