CEO lifts lid on strategic rebrand

CEO lifts lid on strategic rebrand | Insurance Business America

Insurance News

What’s next as firm hits significant milestone?

Insurance News

By
Gia Snape

Independent insurance distribution firm BRP recently marked a significant milestone in its evolution by rebranding as The Baldwin Group.

According to chief executive Trevor Baldwin (pictured), the strategic move reflects the company’s growth from its roots to become a major player in the insurance advisory business.

The first phase of the firm’s rebranding efforts includes the launch of a new website and its brand positioning, “Protecting the possible.”

“This rebranding signifies our holistic ‘one company, one culture’ approach and our brand promise of protecting the possible for our clients,” Baldwin said.

“Insurance is about enabling people to achieve and take risks to accomplish their dreams, doing things they would otherwise be unable to do without the financial safety net that insurance provides. [The rebrand] highlights the social good of insurance and how our innovation and delivery enable our clients to achieve their dreams.”

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The next stage of The Baldwin Group’s growth

The Baldwin Group delivers various business insurance, employee benefits, private client, and personal insurance advisory solutions through 40 regional brands.

Baldwin reflected on the company’s journey so far in an interview with Insurance Business. “I co-founded the business in 2011, and until 2016, we focused on organically building a platform for scale, cultivating a recognized culture as the destination for the best professionals in our industry,” he said.

The first major turning point came in 2016 when the company raised capital to accelerate its strategy of becoming the premier destination for top-tier insurance advisory businesses globally.

At the time, Baldwin said the insurance industry was undergoing rapid consolidation, driven by significant private equity interest. However, Baldwin envisioned an alternative path: to create a durable platform where like-minded insurance professionals could share collective experiences, knowledge, and capabilities.

“From the beginning, our strategy was to build a fully integrated platform with a common technology stack, organizational structure, market approach, business processes, and client journey frameworks to deliver our expertise, capabilities, and resources to clients seamlessly,” Baldwin said.

By 2019, this strategy had proven successful, necessitating additional capital to seize emerging opportunities. Taking the company public in 2019 marked a significant milestone as the first commercial insurance broker to IPO in over 20 years.

“Our strategy was obvious,” Baldwin said. “We were going to invest deeply in our P&L, cultivate the best talent, build leading technology platforms, and provide the most innovative resources.”

Underscoring the social good of insurance

The new brand, while ultimately a culmination of The Baldwin Group’s growth journey, is also meant to reflect the company’s mission, said Baldwin.

“Insurance provides a safety net that allows people to undertake ventures they otherwise couldn’t,” the CEO said. “We think it’s at the essence of our mission to ensure that we deliver the insurance solutions and frameworks that enable our clients to pursue their dreams, passions, and professional pursuits.”

The Baldwin Group’s operations are organized into three core segments: Insurance Advisory Solutions, Underwriting Capacity and Technology Solutions, and Main Street Insurance Solutions.

‘Episodic’ M&A and a focus on organic growth

Organic growth has been a critical indicator of the company’s health, and Baldwin stressed that the group will “remain focused on executing” strong organic growth as it moves forward.

“We’ve consistently grown two to five times faster than the industry on an organic basis. To me, organic growth is the top measure of health in an insurance distribution business,” he said. “It means clients honor us with renewals at an outsized rate, indicating they see value in our advice and solutions.”

Despite the emphasis on organic growth, mergers and acquisitions (M&A) remain part of the company’s strategy, albeit more selectively. Over the past year and a half, The Baldwin Group has intentionally paused its M&A activities due to rising capital costs.

“M&A will continue to be an important part of our story over time, but it’s got to make strategic and financial sense. We don’t feel compelled to do M&A to keep growing,” Baldwin said. “It will be episodic rather than programmatic.”

So, what’s next for the rebranding? On May 1, the overarching BRP brand was replaced by The Baldwin Group. Regional transitions in the Insurance Advisory Solutions segment are expected to be completed by the end of the year, followed by other segments early next year.

For clients, the changes will be minimal, mainly involving new email addresses and business cards. But Baldwin assured clients and insurance partners that the best is yet to come.

“We’ve integrated the business; we’ve been operating as one,” Baldwin said. “It only gets better as the Baldwin Group, signifying the end of the first phase of integrating the partnerships and acquisitions we’ve completed. This allows us to go to market as one company with one culture.”

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