HUB International buys Rubino Enterprises, Spectra Management

Continuing its breakneck buying spree, HUB International has purchased Rubino Enterprises of Arlington, Mass., and Spectra Management of Sandy, Utah. The two brokerages are the latest to join HUB’s growing stable of employee benefits businesses.

Rubino Enterprises is the new name for TYG Insurance, which provides commercial and personal insurance services. Rubino will join Hub New England and principal Maurice Rubino will report to Charles Brophy, HUB New England’s CEO.

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Spectra is an employee benefits brokerage with an office in St. George, Utah. Its benefit package includes a retirement division that provides fiduciary risk management services, investment due diligence, plan and compliance review, provider services and benchmarking, and wealth management. Spectra will join Hub International Insurance Services Inc. and its CEO and President Brent Bennett will continue to oversee Spectra.

This week’s acquisitions, the details of which were not disclosed, are but the latest additions to HUB’s rapidly expanding benefits portfolio. Last year, it bought 49 benefit brokerage firms, second only to Acrisure, which acquired 92 brokerages in 2017, according to data from Chicago-based market research firm Optis Partners.

See also: Alera Group acquires brokerages at a furious rate

HUB and its newly acquired brokerages are capitalizing on a seller’s market, says Optis CPA Daniel Menzer,

“The market is good, the economy and the pricing are good, giving firms like HUB an attractive opportunity to buy brokers,” Menzer notes. “There are a lot firms competing to buy these companies and the pricing is very aggressive. This is good for sellers and the buyers are stepping up to the table.”

Adding to the deal-making frenzy, many benefit brokerage owners are looking to sell as they reach retirement age. “Basically, you have sellers who are a bunch of baby boomers,” Menzer explains, “and they are at the point where they have to do something. If they haven’t prepared an internal succession plan, the only other option is to sell.”

That said, Menzer doesn’t think we are in bubble for employee benefit brokerage M&A activity.

And when might this frenetic pace slow down? “I think there will be return to normalcy at some point,” Menzer acknowledges, “but [right now] there’s nothing in the global marketplace to hold buyers back. There are a lot of crazy things going on in the world, but not enough to make people retrench.”

HUB International declined to comment for this story.

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