DATASORA

Aon confirmed the $17 billion purchase price for USI and framed the deal as the next build-out of its U.S. middle-market franchise after NFP.

• USI brings roughly $3bn of revenue, 10,500 employees, and about 200 offices.
• Greg Case called it the greatest value-creation chance of his 20-year tenure.
• KKR exits a 2017 platform investment — a rare full-sale of a scaled PE broker.

Desk note — Watch appointment strategy. Middle-market construction, WC, and package business is exactly the SME lane Sompo just doubled down on with Service Insurance Companies.

Gallagher Re bundled AI liability, data-center, cyber, and digital risk engineering into a single practice as brokers industrialize tech-risk placement.

• The practice sits inside Gallagher Re, not only retail — treaty and facultative clients are in scope.
• Data-center property and AI liability are colliding with traditional CAT and casualty panels.
• Follows Gallagher’s AssuredPartners digestion and its climb to the world’s third-largest broker.

Desk note — Sompo’s specialty and Aspen cyber / management-liability capabilities need a clear answer when Gallagher Re shops these risks in the fall.

Since launching Howden US in August 2025, the broker has hired an estimated 500+ staff from Marsh, Aon, WTW, Brown & Brown, and Alliant — and is defending a stack of poaching suits.

• Mike Parrish (ex-Marsh Florida) is U.S. CEO; Jim Hays is vice chairman.
• Marsh, Aon, WTW, Brown & Brown, and Alliant have all filed or defended related actions.
• Overnight raids on Brown & Brown’s legacy Hays Companies benefits operation escalated the fight in December 2025.

Desk note — Producer movement is a placement risk. When teams walk, submissions, expirations, and incumbent relationships walk with them — including Sompo’s.

Amwins’ 2026 state of the market: record capacity from carriers, MGAs, and syndicates on well-engineered risks — oversubscription is commonplace. Older locations, aging infrastructure, and environmental excess (eaten by auto claims) are the other book.

• Knowledgeable brokers are still getting rate down and terms up on clean accounts.
• Carriers are tightening deductibles and terms on older schedules.
• Environmental excess is thinner, in part because large auto claims consumed the tower.

Desk note — Two property markets, two environmental markets. The oversupply is the clean account. The white space is age, auto, and anything that looks like a nuclear-verdict class.