In 2017, Alliant Insurance Services Inc. passed $1 billion in sales.
This year, the Irvine-based company is on a run rate to surpass $4 billion.
“It feels very good mainly because it verifies the success of our business plan,” Alliant Chairman and Chief Executive Tom Corbett told the Business Journal in an interview last week.
“We believe we’re doing it right and it shows up in the numbers.”
The growth certainly includes Orange County, where it reported a 16% increase to $270 million in 2022, placing it once again as the largest local insurance broker by far on the Business Journal’s annual list.
By comparison, the second-largest insurance broker, Marsh Risk & Insurance Services, reported a 2.6% growth to $121.3 million.
“We’ve seen a lot of organic growth in Orange County,” Corbett said.
A key factor in its OC growth was its biggest-ever acquisition in 2021 with the purchase of Huntington Beach-based Confie, the largest personal lines—covering losses resulting from death, injury, and property loss—insurance distributor in the U.S.
“That large acquisition rolled onto our books in 2022,” Corbett said. “They’re a large operation.”
Proprietary Insurance
Corbett in 1977 opened the Newport Beach office of Alliant as its only employee. At that time, he had “zero business, which was unnerving.”
Corbett, who originally planned a career in medicine, had switched to insurance for a variety of reasons, including supporting his family.
He differentiated himself by focusing on certain industries, beginning with municipalities and venturing into unusual areas like Indian nation tribes and valet parking lots.
Alliant designs proprietary insurance products for areas like health and workers’ compensation, and liability for specific industries such as construction firms. It pools customers’ premiums to seek the best possible rates from insurance companies.
It’s grown not only through dozens of acquisitions but also organic growth, which often topped double digit annually.
Corbett has driven the firm into the 10th largest insurance broker in the world and the fifth largest in the U.S.
Corbett was the Business Journal’s Businessperson of the Year in the finance category for 2018.
2022 Growth
Companywide, sales grew more than 20% in 2022 and Corbett expects overall sales to climb this year in the 15% to 20% range, with organic growth accounting for 10% to 13% of that.
Acquisitions thus far this year have added $300 million in annual sales, he said.
“We don’t set goals—we’re going to be bigger because of how we’re working,” he said.
“We’ve never been driven to be the biggest. Our vision is always to be the best. The size is just the report card.”
Because of the pandemic, the company’s adopted remote work and attendance at the office is “voluntary.” It’s established a “hoteling” system where workers reserve desks when they come into the office.
Alliant, which has long had its headquarters on Dove Street in Newport Beach, last year moved to the Irvine Towers office complex, downsizing its office space by about 20%.
“We actually shrank office space because of remote working. Financially, that’s an upside,” Corbett said. “More and more people will come to the office, but I don’t believe we’ll ever return to the way it was before the pandemic.”
Consumer Launch
The company is expanding into consumer insurance with a new operating group.
“There’s obviously a big consumer market with auto and personal lines and health insurance,” Corbett said. “We’re taking big steps down that road. That’s big shift for us over the last couple years.”
It also began a unit focused on reinsurance, which is where insurance companies themselves buy insurance to hedge their risks.
“It’s just getting off the ground now,” Corbett said.
The company, which has 10,000 employees spread over 931 offices, is mostly in the U.S. with some business in Canada. It’s contemplating overseas expansion.
“That’s an area where we are looking at; it’s time to think of expanding globally.”
New Hires
The company is majority owned by its employees and has investors such as sovereign wealth funds, pension funds and insurance investors.
The company often issues press releases to tout new hires.
“It’s gratifying to me because we’re attracting top people,” he said.
Corbett said he is particularly proud of the company’s efforts in diversity, equity and inclusion, also know as DEI.
The company started programs to help minorities earn degrees in insurance as well as become fellows in the industry.
While he’s been CEO for more than 30 years, Corbett said has no plans to retire.
“I’m enjoying what I’m doing,” he said. “I’ve been sitting in this chair for a very long time. I don’t have to be as hands on as I was 10 to 20 years ago.
“Just the fact that people are joining us in large numbers tell me that we’re doing something right here.”
