Relation Insurance Services will continue to pursue acquisitions and expects to hire more than 200 employees as it accelerates the buildout of its specialty business, Douglas Turk, president of specialty, said in an interview last week.
The Chicago-based company, which is the 30th-largest broker of U.S. business, according to Business Insurance’s latest rankings, announced it had hired a team of five financial lines executives from Aon’s NFP last week, building on previous investments in entertainment, aviation and transportation lines, he said.
Earlier this year, private equity firm BayPine acquired Relation from Aquiline, in a move that would allow the brokerage to continue to grow through strategic investments in acquisitions, recruitment of talent and expansion of its specialty capabilities.
Mr. Turk joined Relation last November to lead the brokerage’s specialty expansion. Since then, the company has identified 10 specialty sectors and product areas for investment and begun recruiting teams to build out those capabilities, he said.
Specialty is a “small part” of Relation’s overall business today but is expected to account for about 20% to 25% over time, Mr. Turk said. The company currently has about 50 specialty employees and expects to grow that number to 200 to 250 people, he said.
Relation reported $354 million in brokerage revenue in 2025, up 12.4% on 2024. Its business mix is about 49.4% commercial retail, 24.9% personal lines, 19.8% employee benefits, 5% services and 0.6% wholesale, according to Business Insurance data.
Relation entered the specialty expansion with an established foundation that included an entertainment team acquired through last year’s purchase of entertainment insurance brokerage Albert G. Ruben from Aon, in addition to aviation and transportation operations, Mr. Turk said.
The brokerage is focusing on the following specialty areas for investment: entertainment, aviation, financial lines, private equity, surety, transportation, real estate, hospitality and construction, health care, energy and fine arts, Mr. Turk said.
The strongest growth opportunities are in real estate, hospitality and construction, financial lines and entertainment, where existing client relationships in other business lines can be expanded through specialty offerings, Mr. Turk said. The recently hired financial lines team adds expertise in private equity transactions, tax insurance, contingent liability, directors and officers liability, errors and omissions liability and cyber coverage, he said.
A good specialty business should generate roughly double the revenue of a traditional retail brokerage business because it typically involves more sophisticated risks, larger premium volumes and direct relationships with insurance markets, he said.
Growth will come from both recruiting and acquisitions, and BayPine’s investment and strategic focus on specialty growth have strengthened Relation’s ability to attract talent, he said. “We’re building really this destination of top talent,” Mr. Turk said.
Relation is also developing an artificial intelligence-powered adviser platform intended to help employees identify specialty opportunities and connect clients with specialty teams. The proof-of-concept platform currently includes modules for surety, entertainment, cyber and aviation. The platform is intended to help employees quickly access specialty expertise, shorten the process of matching clients with specialists and insurance markets, and improve the information flow between generalist producers and specialty teams, he said. “Over time, this platform becomes that starting point of dialog and that starting point of advice,” Mr. Turk said.
Founded in 2007, Relation has about 1,350 employees across about 75 offices nationwide. It provides risk management and benefits consulting services to more than 230,000 clients, working with over 1,000 insurance markets.