Every acquisition programme has a policy, usually unwritten: we don't buy agencies where one carrier is more than a third of the book without looking hard at the contingent agreement; we don't sign without retention agreements for anyone holding a quarter of the revenue. InsightRollup writes that policy down as acquisition controls in Rules Studio, where a practice leader can read, test and publish them.
The eight controls that ship
| Rule | When | Then |
|---|---|---|
CARRIER_CONCENTRATION | One carrier holds more than 35% of premium | Refer to the practice leader |
KEY_PRODUCER | One producer holds more than 25% of revenue | Refer to the practice leader |
REVENUE_SHORTFALL | Book revenue more than 5% below the seller's | Refer (critical) |
RENEWALS_90D | More than 35% of revenue renews in the next 90 days | Warn |
LOW_RETENTION | Client retention below 85% | Warn |
VOLATILE_REVENUE | Contingent and supplemental income above 15% of revenue | Warn |
DATA_QUALITY | More than 5% of book rows have data issues | Warn |
UNAPPOINTED_CARRIERS | More than 20% of premium with carriers the acquirer isn't appointed with | Warn |
Anatomy of a rule
A rule is when (conditions over the engine's headline figures, matched all, any or none, grouped as needed), then (warn, refer to a lead, or block until resolved, with a reason and to whom), applies to (every acquisition, or scoped by state and more), and about (name, type, priority, severity, effective dates, why it exists). The banner says it in plain words: when book revenue against the seller's is less than −0.05 → refer to a lead.
Draft, test, publish
An edit never changes a live rule in place: it is a draft until a practice leader publishes it, and each publish is a new version in the history. The test panel runs the draft against one acquisition and shows whether it would fire and with what.
Where the outcomes go
the headline figures"] C --> W["warn: shown in the rail"] C --> R["refer: supervisor agent
prepares the lead's sign-off"] C --> B["block: signing refused
until resolved"] R --> S{"Sign-off waiting?"} S -->|"yes"| X["Signed stage refused"]
For the deal team
The thresholds you apply are visible to everyone on the deal, with the reason written next to them.
For IT
Rules are the shared insight_rules engine through the broker Studio; acquisition_control is this product's rule type and vocabulary.
For corp-dev leadership
Acquisition policy changes are versioned, tested and published by a named person.
Questions we get asked
Who can change a rule?
Practice leaders and compliance. Deal leads can read rules and see their hits.
Can a rule block signing?
Yes: a rule whose effect is block stops the move to Signed until it is resolved. The shipped controls warn or refer.
Keep reading
An acquisition copilot that reads the book
Ask about the agency on screen; the answer comes from the engines' figures.
Read article
The seller's revenue the book won't support
An asking multiple of 2.9×, and a book 8.2% short of the seller's figure.
Read article
Two producers, 55% of the revenue
Key-person risk turned into retention agreements before signing.
Read article