How to Sell an Insurance Agency in Texas (2026)

Small Texas agencies sell for 1 to 2 times annual commissions. Agencies clearing $1M or more in profit sell for 7 to 14 times profit.

• Texas takes nothing from your gain. The state constitution bans a tax on an individual’s capital gains.
• A buyer taking 10% or more files with the state first. Build that step into your closing date.
• A licensed officer or partner has to stay inside the agency. Your buyer needs one lined up for day one.

Is Now a Good Time to Sell?

Yes. Texas has its own agency buyers, and they’re buying Texas agencies close to home.

• Local firms are buying. Fort Worth’s Higginbotham bought a West Texas agency in October 2025.
• National firms are here too. Gallagher bought agencies in Austin and El Paso within four months.
• The prep is the long part. Three to six months of it before you talk to anyone.

What Insurance Agencies Sell For in Texas

Smaller books are priced off what you collect in commissions each year. Once there’s real profit after paying someone to run it, buyers multiply that instead.

No named source publishes agency prices for Texas alone, so these are national figures. Ask anyone quoting a Texas-only number where it came from.

Start from your own profit and value an insurance agency.

What Moves Your Number

• How many clients stay. Keep 90% three years running and you price near the top of your tier.
• Commercial mix. Bigger accounts, stickier clients, and buyers pay for both.
• Carrier spread. One carrier past 40% of your revenue is the concentration buyers price hardest.

For the tier detail, see insurance agency sale multiples and how to value an agency.

Who Is Allowed to Own Your Agency

Texas doesn’t require the owners to hold a license. It requires a licensed person inside the agency, and it checks everyone who takes control.

Under Insurance Code 4001.106, an agency gets its license when at least one officer or active partner is licensed. Everyone else doing agent work needs their own license too.

• Compare that to New York. There the regulator has said an unlicensed person may be a partner, with no filing when control changes.
• Compare it to dentistry. In Texas, only licensed dentists may own a dental practice.
• The agency carries its own cover. The same section requires insurance against the agency’s own mistakes of at least $250,000.

The Limit Is on Commissions

An insurer or agent can’t pay a commission to an unlicensed person for agent work, under Insurance Code 4005.053. Renewal commissions can still reach someone whose license has lapsed.

Whether that rule touches money held back in your deal is a question for a Texas lawyer. It covers pay for agent work, not the price of an agency.

The Filing Your Buyer Makes Before Taking Control

This is the step New York doesn’t have, and the one most likely to move your closing date.

Under Insurance Code 4001.253, nobody may take control of a licensed agency until they’ve filed with the Texas Department of Insurance under oath.

1. Control starts at 10% of the voting stock or voting rights. In a partnership, any partner with management rights counts.
2. The buyer files a personal history form for each person taking control.
3. They certify that none of those people has been disciplined by a financial or insurance regulator.
4. They certify the agency will still qualify for its license the moment control changes.
5. The change counts as approved if the department hasn’t proposed to deny it before day 61.

Read step five again. Day 61 runs from the date the department has everything it asked for, not from the first thing your buyer sends.

The filing goes in on Form FIN531. An investor-backed buyer lists its whole ownership chain on it, up to the person at the top.

When the Department Can Say No

After notice and a hearing, the department may turn a change down for three reasons.

• The agency would no longer qualify for the licenses it holds today.
• The new owners aren’t fit to run it, judged on competence, trustworthiness, experience and integrity.
• The deal would break the law of Texas, another state, or the United States.

The 30-Day Notices

Separately, the agency tells the department within 30 days when an officer, director, partner, member or manager is added or removed. That’s Insurance Code 4001.252.

If you’re the licensed officer and you leave at closing, your buyer needs a replacement that day. The department must revoke, suspend or refuse to renew the license of an agency that stops qualifying.

Your Carriers After the Sale

Insurers and agents report each additional appointment within 30 days, under Insurance Code 4001.202. A termination for cause is reported immediately.

No carrier publishes how long its own review of a new owner takes. Ask each of yours directly, the week the offer is signed.

The Six-Month Notice You Could Lose

A property and casualty insurer can’t end a contract that has run two years or more without six months’ written notice. That’s Insurance Code 4051.353.

A replacement contract keeps that protection only if there’s been no material change in the agency’s ownership. The law doesn’t define material, so have a Texas lawyer read it against your deal.

The Back-Tax Certificate

Texas has no advance form like New York’s. Instead, Tax Code 111.020 makes the buyer hold back enough of the price to cover tax you owe.

The hold-back ends when you produce a receipt or a certificate saying nothing is due. Here’s how the Comptroller’s certificate works.

1. You and the buyer request it together, on Form 86-114. Both of you sign.
2. Request it before closing. After that it no longer protects the buyer.
3. It’s free. A clean account usually clears in about 10 business days.
4. An audit of your records can stretch that to 90 days.

Only the buyer is protected. You still owe anything that surfaces later, so clear it before you sign rather than after.

Unemployment Tax Travels With the Business

A buyer who takes over your business also takes on any unemployment tax you still owe the state, under Labor Code 204.086. No certificate covers it, so settle it first.

What You Will Owe in Taxes

Nothing to the state. Texas bans an income tax on individuals, and since November 2025 its constitution also bans a tax on an individual’s capital gains.

• Compare Pennsylvania’s flat 3.07%. On a $1 million gain, that’s $30,700 you keep in Texas.
• Compare New York City. A seller there pays about $107,260 in state and city tax on the same gain.
• Federal tax still applies. Expect 15% to 20% on the gain.
• The agency itself can still owe franchise tax. If it closes after an asset sale, a final report is due within 60 days.
• How the price is split decides what you keep. Argue that before you sign, not after.

For the structure detail, see asset sale versus stock sale for an agency.

Who Buys Texas Insurance Agencies

• Higginbotham, based in Fort Worth, joined with Stephens Insurance Services in October 2025. It’s a founder-built West Texas agency, and three of its people stay on.
• Gallagher bought DMc Insurance Partners in Austin in December 2024. Both principals stay on in their current office.
• Patriot Growth partnered with Ladd Gardner Aviation Insurance of Addison in May 2025. It writes nothing but aviation cover.
• Gallagher also bought Litchfield Special Risks in El Paso in March 2025, a wholesale broker working through retail agents.

For the tradeoffs, see who buys agencies and what each type pays.

How Long It Takes

For the detail on each stage, see how long it takes to sell an insurance agency.

How to Get Your Agency Ready

• Know how many clients stay, three years running. If you don’t have the number, a buyer will build it, and it won’t flatter you.
• Get any single carrier under 40% of revenue. Start placing new business elsewhere a year ahead.
• Decide who holds the licensed officer seat after you leave, and say so early in every conversation.
• Price your tail cover. Ask for a 5-year and a 7-year quote so you know the number before you weigh offers.
• Get three years of accountant-prepared books with your personal spending separated out.
• Clear your state tax and unemployment tax accounts before the certificate request goes in.

Are You Ready to Sell? Score Your Agency

Should You Use a Broker, a Marketplace, or Sell Direct?

Several of the firms buying Texas agencies are based in Texas and easy to reach. Finding them is most of what a commission buys you.

An agency specialist charges 5% to 8%, where a general business broker takes 8% to 12%.

A buyer who knows you have no alternative has no reason to open with their best number. See what brokers charge and how a direct sale runs.

Agency Broker Fee Calculator

Selling an Insurance Agency in Dallas-Fort Worth or Austin

The buyers are based here, which shortens the list of people you need to call.

• Higginbotham is in Fort Worth, and Patriot's aviation deal was in Addison, north of Dallas.
• National firms are active. Gallagher's Austin deal kept both owners in their current office.
• The rules don't change by city. Agency licensing and the 10% filing are state law.

Selling an Insurance Agency Elsewhere in Texas

West Texas and El Paso trade too, and both regions saw a sale in 2025.

• Buyers travel for a good book. A Fort Worth firm went to West Texas for Stephens.
• Specialist books sell. The El Paso deal was a wholesale transportation and property book.
• The 0% applies statewide. The ban on taxing your gain is in the Texas constitution.

Frequently Asked Questions

Next Steps

1. Work out who will hold the licensed officer seat after you leave.
2. Pull three years of retention numbers and get any carrier over 40% down.
3. Get your tail cover quoted at 5 and 7 years.
4. Clean up the books, and request your Certificate of No Tax Due with your buyer before closing.
5. Pick your route. There are six routes that skip the commission, and four are free.
6. Send us your details for a free valuation. We match Texas agencies with vetted buyers before you commit.

Selling in another state? See our guides on how to sell an insurance agency in California, in New York, in New Jersey and in Pennsylvania.