How Top Brokers Are Unlocking Growth in 2025 and Beyond: Lessons from the Reagan Best Practices Study
Enterprise agencies — those with $25M+ in revenue — face a paradox: the market is growing, yet operational complexity continues to drag on margins, talent retention, and client satisfaction.
The newly released The 2025 Best Practices Study conducted by Reagan Consulting and The Big "I" offers a window into how leading firms are navigating this moment. The findings reveal a common thread: growth comes from simplifying complexity, investing in automation, and building unified platforms.
AI Adoption On the Rise
60%+ of Best Practice enterprise agencies have invested in AI across customer facing, internal operations, and producer enablement applications.
- Accounting Automation: AI-enabled Direct Bill reconciliation automatically reconciled 80% of their statements without manual intervention - freeing up accounting teams to focus on strategic initiatives.
- Talent Retention: Producer turnover is a growing risk. Firms without structured development and modern tools see younger producers underperform — while tech-enabled peers average $65K more new business per producer under the age of 35.
- M&A Integration Costs: For acquisitive firms, post-close integration is a bottleneck. The study shows that without automation, data migrations can take 180 days vs. 45 with AI-enabled workflows.
The Shift Toward Unified Platforms
One of the clearest signals from the study: the days of point solutions are numbered. Three in four executives expect to consolidate systems into integrated ecosystems that bring accounting, client billing, and carrier payables into one view.
The payoff? Agencies that have already unified core operations reported 30% higher profitability than peers who continue to rely on fragmented tools.
Why Operations Shape Client Experience
It’s easy to think of operations as a “back-office” function. But the study shows a direct tie between operational excellence and client satisfaction.
- Firms that streamlined billing and payments reported 25% higher NPS scores
- Digital-first engagement drove stronger retention and cross-sell rates.
- Agencies investing in consultative services (cyber, ESG, benefits strategy) noted that transparent financial workflows built client trust.
The takeaway: client experience starts behind the scenes, in how agencies manage money movement and accounting workflows.
The 2026 Playbook for Enterprise Agencies
From the study, three priorities stand out for firms aiming to grow in 2026:
- Automate Back-Office Complexity – Free up talent and capital by eliminating manual reconciliation and commission tracking.
- Unify Financial Workflows – Move away from siloed systems toward integrated platforms that manage carrier payables, client billing, and revenue recognition.
- Connect Operations to Client Experience – Recognize that financial transparency and seamless payments are central to retention and growth.
Where Ascend Fits In
At Ascend, we believe these findings validate a transformation already underway: unified accounting and payments automation is no longer optional — it’s a competitive necessity.
By automating carrier payables, streamlining client billing, commission reconciliation, and delivering real-time transparency across financial workflows, agencies can:
- Maximize operational efficiency
- Accelerate revenue recognition
- Improve client trust and satisfaction
That’s what the next generation of growth will look like for enterprise agencies in 2025 and beyond.