Alliant Insurance Services has continued to grow in challenging times. The company’s impressive growth recently earned it a slot on IBA’s Fast Brokerages list for 2022.
Recently, Alliant president Greg Zimmer chatted with IB TV about the company’s rapid growth and how it approaches acquisitions.
“One of the beauties of Alliant is our organic growth is always at the top of the charts,” Zimmer said. “So we start with organic growth … and then really, we’ve always viewed acquisitions as complementary to that organic growth. So we’re not an acquisition-focused business. We’re much more of an organic growth business, and we use acquisitions in a strategic manner to complement that very strong organic growth.”
When Alliant does make an acquisition, it approaches the deal thoughtfully.
“When you take a step back and look at Alliant, there are basically three components to the business,” Zimmer said. “We have our retail property-casualty piece, we have our employee benefits piece, and we have our MGA, so we’re really looking into three different marketplaces for opportunities.”
That disciplined strategy governs Alliant’s growth, Zimmer said.
“Again, strategic opportunities from an acquisition perspective that we really believe will be additive to that existing business,” he said. “So we’re by no means a serial acquirer. We’re not looking to make a million acquisitions. We’re really looking for those acquisitions that fit into our overall strategy and have the right components. They have the right leadership, they have the right cultural fit. They’re an equity-based culture or they want to be an equity-based culture. So there’s a number of metrics that we look at and benchmarks that we look for.
“But the good news from all of that is they work,” he said. “These businesses thrive once they become part of Alliant because we do the heavy lifting and the hard work to determine whether or not we think they will be a success within our business prior to acquiring them.”
