Organic growth calculator · Free tool
Calculate your agency's organic growth.
Four numbers from your income statement give you the growth figure buyers, bankers and peer studies use: revenue growth without bought books, sold books or contingents.
Your organic growth
Organic growth—Without books bought or sold, and without contingents
Revenue growth as reported, including contingents: —
Rule of 20: —. The Best Practices Study treats 20 or more as the mark of a top-performing agency.
Fill in the four numbers to see your organic growth.
For context: in the Big “I” / Reagan Best Practices Study 2026 update (Aug 2026), high-performing agencies grew 6.2% to 10.2% organically, depending on revenue band. Reagan's quarterly survey put the average for agencies and brokers at 7.1% in Q4 2025 (Insurance Journal, May 2026). Rate increases are part of all of these figures.
Read the result
Growth from the book you already had.
Organic growth leaves out what you bought, what you sold and contingents, so you can compare it year on year and with other agencies. A single acquisition or a good contingent year can move total revenue growth by more than a year of selling.
Organic growth
This year's commissions and fees, less revenue from recently bought books and contingents, against last year's, less revenue from sold books and contingents.
(this year − bought − contingents) ÷ (last year − sold − contingents) − 1
Bought and sold books
A bought book counts once you can compare it with the same months a year earlier. A sold book comes out of both years, so the sale doesn't read as shrinkage.
bought: only months you also owned it a year earlier
Contingents
Contingent, profit-sharing and bonus commissions depend on carriers' loss results, not on the business you wrote or kept. They come out of both years.
out of last year and this year
Rate is still in it
Organic growth includes the rate increases carriers took. To see how much came from new clients and how much from price, look beneath the number with the Book premium bridge below.
rate + exposure + retention + new business
What's beneath the number? · Book premium bridgeDid the growth come from new clients or from price?
Organic growth includes carriers' rate increases. To see what left, what renewed at a new price and what was new, compare your book's premium at two dates. Read the note on growth and rate increases →
What changed in the book's premium?
Opening bookAnnual in-force premium at the first snapshot
−
Lost clientsClients who hold no policy today, at last year’s premium
−
Lines droppedLines that staying clients no longer hold
=
RetainedWhat stayed, before any price change
±
Rate and exposureDerived: the change on policies that renewed; coverage and mix changes are inside it
±
RewritesThe price change on rewritten policies
=
Renewal businessLast year’s book as it renewed, at this year’s price
+
New businessNew clients and new lines
+
AcquiredBooks the agency bought
+
ReturningThe same policy, back after a gap in your records. Not lost, not new
=
Closing bookAnnual in-force premium at the second snapshot
Fill in the opening and closing book, lost clients, lines dropped and new business to build the bridge.
What changed overall?
Read the opening-to-closing change against what left, what renewed and what arrived. A bigger book does not by itself show that the agency won more business.
renewal business + new business + acquired + returning = closing
What left?
Lost clients hold no policy at the closing date. Lines dropped belong to clients who stayed. A policy rewritten to the same coverage, or moved to another carrier, is neither.
opening − lost clients − lines dropped = Retained
What did the rest renew at?
This calculator derives rate and exposure as the remainder from your inputs. The arithmetic ties by construction; it does not verify the source records. More detail is needed to separate rate, exposure and coverage.
renewal business − retained − rewrites
Are we comparing like with like?
Use the same agency scope and annual in-force premium basis at both dates. Written premium, commission and other bases answer different questions and should not be mixed into this bridge.
annual premium at both endpoints
Before drawing a conclusion.
- Classify arrivals before calling them new business. New business is new clients and new lines, former clients who came back included. It leaves out rewrites, acquired books and policies back after a gap in the records.
- Investigate rate and exposure before assigning a cause. It combines carrier rate, exposure, audits and coverage changes.
- Check the reason with the agency. Two dated snapshots show what moved; they do not establish why a client left.
- Read new vs lost with care. Above 100% means new business more than replaced what left; it says nothing about price.
Related questions
Asked alongside this one.
What is the formula for organic growth in an insurance agency?
This year's commissions and fees, less revenue from recently bought books and less contingents, divided by last year's commissions and fees less revenue from sold books and less contingents, minus one. Express it as a percentage.
Read the note →Do contingent commissions count toward organic growth?
No. The industry convention takes contingent, profit-sharing and bonus commissions out of both years, because they depend on carriers' loss results rather than on the business the agency wrote or kept.
Read the note →How long is an acquired book left out of organic growth?
Until you can compare it with the same months a year earlier. Count a bought book's revenue only for months you also owned it a year before; after a full year of ownership, it counts like the rest.
Read the note →What is a good organic growth rate for an independent agency?
In the Big “I” / Reagan Best Practices Study 2026 update (Aug 2026), high-performing agencies grew 6.2% to 10.2% depending on revenue band. Reagan's quarterly survey put the average for agencies and brokers at 7.1% in Q4 2025 (Insurance Journal, May 2026).
Read the note →From a calculation to the management review
See organic growth beside your peers.
Keelridge compares your organic growth and Rule of 20 with the Big “I” / Reagan Best Practices Study figures for your revenue band. When a full prior year is missing, it leaves out the growth figures and the Rule of 20 and says why. Each month, the Monthly brief ranks what to decide, each issue with the profit, plan or book story behind it.
See how pipeline and book growth differ →