Case studies

Highstreet Insurance Partners

Based in Traverse City, Michigan, Highstreet Insurance Partners (Highstreet) provides a broad array of business insurance & risk management; employee benefits & human capital management; financial & retirement services; and personal insurance solutions.

Our journey with Highstreet began in 2018 when, as part of Huron’s ExecFactor® program, we established the company in partnership with seasoned industry executive Scott Wick to pursue a buy-and-build strategy in the insurance agency sector. Our vision was to build the acquirer of choice for dynamic growth-oriented agencies based in small and midsize towns across America.

We closed our first agency acquisition, Traverse City, MI-based Peterson McGregor & Associates, in mid-2018 and never looked back.  Over the next 2 years, we accelerated our level of M&A activity every year acquiring 5 agencies in 2019, 10 in 2020, and 7 in just the first 4 months of 2021. 

To support such rapid scaling, we established a professional corporate office in Traverse City, MI adding industry veterans Dave Tuit as CFO and Scott Goodreau as COO, as well as full M&A and accounting teams.  We instituted a systematic program to drive contingent commissions, educated producers on cross-selling, and built industry specialization in areas like agribusiness and transportation.  

In April 2021, we announced the sale of a majority interest in Highstreet to Boston-based private equity firm, Abry Partners.  By our exit, we had closed and integrated 24 acquisitions of community-based agencies in 8 states coast-to-coast while growing revenue by more than 10x – cementing Highstreet’s rank among the top 100 largest insurance agencies in the United States based on revenue.