World Insurance Associates
Full-service insurance brokerage
Year of Investment
2020
Sector(s)
Business & Consumer Services
Status
Current
Website
worldinsurance.com(Link opens in new window)Headquarters
Iselin, NJ
Team
Founded in 2011 by CEO Rich Eknoian, World offers comprehensive insurance coverage, risk management strategies, benefits consulting services, wholesale insurance distribution, and retirement/wealth advisory services for businesses and individuals. With a nationwide footprint, World has become one of the country’s fastest-growing insurance brokerages through a combination of organic growth and agency acquisitions.
Investment Summary
We invested in World in 2020 as the company’s first private equity sponsor, enabling the company to accelerate its pace of M&A, deepen its management team, and standardize its operations. World completed a significant recapitalization and liquidity event in 2023, with Charlesbank retaining half its stake and continuing as co-lead investor. The management team and employee shareholders also remain major shareholders of World.
As a founder-run company, World has benefited tremendously from our Charlesbank partnership. In addition to financial firepower, they've supported us in implementing best practices in M&A, talent management, marketing, operations and technology to help us achieve our potential.”
World Insurance Associates Founder & CEO Rich Eknoian
M&A
We worked closely with management to augment the company’s M&A execution and integration teams and standardize their processes, in turn propelling World into one of the fastest-growing US insurance brokerages. The company has completed hundreds of acquisitions since our 2020 investment. We also supported World in pursuing scale strategic acquisitions that added complementary wholesale insurance brokerage and retirement/wealth management business lines.
Strategic Human Resources
Together with founder & CEO Rich Eknoian, we designed an executive team that would enable World to achieve its potential. Since our investment, we have supported the recruitment of key executive roles such as World’s Retail President, COO, CFO, and Chief Business Development Officer, and we helped build out M&A teams for each business segment.
Financing
Our Capital Markets team helped World raise over $1.5 billion of term loan debt to support its accelerated M&A pace. We also assisted with the company’s 2023 recapitalization, which provided World with over $1 billion of dry powder to support continued growth.
Marketing, Operations and Technology
Our Portfolio Resources Group helped World to refresh its brand and website to elevate World’s market positioning. We also helped build out a technology and operational roadmap that has enabled World to further enhance its fully integrated and centralized platform.
Case Studies are for informational purposes only and intended for management teams and owners considering partnering with the Firm. They should not be relied upon for investment decision-making. Information regarding the Firm’s investment products is not provided on the website and is only offered privately. Case Studies are not to be considered a complete list of all investments made or currently held by the Firm. They may contain opinions of former and present portfolio company executives; such executives are not compensated by the Firm directly for such statements, but all such persons had or continue to have economic relationships with the Firm, including potential incentive awards for performance. It should not be assumed that the portfolio companies discussed in these case studies were profitable or that future portfolio companies or experiences will be comparable.