How Commission Revenue Quality Affects Insurance Agency Value

Executive summary. For insurance agencies, revenue quality is often more important than revenue size. Buyers and valuation professionals look beyond gross commissions to determine how predictable, transferable, and sustainable those commissions are over time. Contingency commissions, direct bill versus agency bill revenue, and the stability of client relationships can materially affect EBITDA multiples, discounted cash […]

Insurance Agency Business Valuation Guide

Executive Summary: Independent insurance agency valuation depends on more than a simple revenue multiple. Buyers and lenders typically look at commission income quality, retention rate, carrier appointment depth, and recurring contingency income to determine whether cash flow is durable and transferable. For Chicago agency owners, these drivers can materially change valuation outcomes because local deal […]

Investment Bank and Advisory Firm Business Valuation

Investment banks and boutique advisory firms are valued differently than traditional operating businesses because their worth depends less on physical assets and more on recurring fee revenue, banker productivity, client relationships, and the durability of future deal flow. For Chicago business owners considering a sale, recapitalization, partner buyout, or strategic exit, the central valuation questions […]

Community Bank Business Valuation Guide

Executive Summary. Community banks are typically valued through a combination of price-to-book, price-to-tangible-book, and price-to-earnings multiples, with the final result heavily influenced by asset quality, capital strength, earnings consistency, and especially deposit franchise quality. For Chicago business owners, buyers, and bank boards, understanding these drivers is essential because even similar-sized institutions can trade at meaningfully […]

Multifamily Real Estate Developer Valuation

Executive Summary: Multifamily real estate developer valuation is the process of estimating what a development company is worth based on its pipeline, projected projects, land positions, margin profile, market exposure, and the timing of future cash flows. For Chicago business owners, the central question is not just how many apartment units a developer expects to […]

Specialty Trades Business Valuation: Electrical, Plumbing, and HVAC

Executive Summary: Specialty trades businesses, including electrical, plumbing, and HVAC contractors, are typically valued using a combination of earnings-based methods and operating metrics that reflect customer stability, workforce capacity, and revenue quality. For Chicago business owners, the most important drivers of value are adjusted Seller’s Discretionary Earnings (SDE) or EBITDA, recurring service agreements, the depth […]

HOA Management Business Valuation Methods

Executive Summary: HOA management business valuation centers on recurring revenue quality, client retention, and operating efficiency. For buyers and lenders, the key questions are how many communities the company serves, what it earns in monthly management fees per door, whether reserve study revenue is recurring or project-based, and how resilient the client base is in […]

Property Management Company Business Valuation Guide

Property management company business valuation depends on more than a simple revenue multiple. For third-party managers, value is typically driven by the number of units under management, recurring management fee revenue, ancillary income streams, and the stability of underlying contracts. Buyers also evaluate profitability, retention, and concentration risk, because a company with steady fees and […]