Brown & Brown

Brown & Brown benefits from multiple, mutually reinforcing advantages. Switching costs are meaningful: mid‑market and specialty clients embed the broker into annual renewal, risk engineering, claims advocacy, regulatory navigation, and program design.

Those human and data relationships are not trivial to replicate, particularly in complex commercial lines. Scale and efficient distribution increase access to markets, speed to quote, and negotiating leverage with carriers, while programs (MGU) provide niche underwriting expertise and fee economics less dependent on the market cycle.

Brand and trust matter in insurance placement and claims resolution, where reputational capital and carrier relationships accumulated over decades are hard to copy. There is a mild marketplace effect between clients and carriers but it is not a pure network effect.

Risks to the moat include digital disintermediation in simple personal and very small commercial lines, and carrier consolidation. Brown & Brown’s breadth across retail, wholesale, and programs, global footprint of 700+ locations and 23,000+ teammates, and consistent organic growth indicate a durable, if not impregnable, moat.