TWFG, Inc.

TWFG, Inc.

NNASDAQ:TWFG
27.25
USD
-1.78
(-6.13%)
2.24EPS
39.59P/E
307.77MMarket Cap
Nov 18Next Earn

Q1 FY2026 · Earnings Call TranscriptMay 7, 2026

Operator

Good morning. My name is Desiree, and I will be your conference operator today.

At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the TWFG first quarter 2026 conference call. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise.

After the speakers' remarks, there will be a question-and-answer session. If you would like to ask a question during this time, simply press * then 1 on your telephone keypad.

If you would like to withdraw your question, please press * then 1 again. This call is being recorded and will be available for replay on the company's website.

Before we begin, let me remind you that today's discussion may contain forward-looking statements and actual results may differ materially from those discussed. For more information regarding forward-looking statements, please refer to the company's press releases and SEC filings.

Also on calls today, our speakers will reference certain non-GAAP financial measures, which we believe will provide useful information for investors. The company has posted the reconciliations of the non-GAAP financial measures discussed during this call in the tables accompanying the company's earnings press release located on the investor section of the company's website at www.twfg.com.

It is now my pleasure to introduce Mr. Gordy Bunch, founder, chairman, and CEO of TWFG.

Sir, the floor is yours.

Gordy Bunch

Thank you and good afternoon, everyone. Thank you for joining us today to discuss TWFG's first quarter 2026 results.

Joining me on today's call is Janice Zwinggi, our Chief Financial Officer. After my remarks, Janice will walk through our financial performances in more detail, and then we'll open the call for questions.

I am pleased to report that TWFG delivered a strong first quarter that demonstrates the underlying strength and scalability of our platform. Our results reflect a softening market environment, continued disciplined execution across our businesses, and the benefits of our strategic investments in technology, our new MGA programs, and our talent acquisition.

For the first quarter 2026, we delivered a solid 35.3% revenue growth, driven by a combination of double-digit organic growth and contributions from our prior and current year acquisitions. This growth reflects momentum across both our insurance services and MGA platforms.

Written premiums grew 23.5%, with strong performances in renewal retention and new business growth. From a profitability perspective, we delivered 650 basis points margin expansion.

This expansion reflects our operating leverage, higher margin profile of our MGA platform, and disciplined execution on integration of our recent acquisitions. There are near-term margin benefits with TWFG MGA Florida take-out program during the run-off period, where policies assumed have the commission without a corresponding commission expense.

This margin benefit will decline as more take-out policies renew with new full-term premiums and a normal commission expense. The market has improved meaningfully compared to a year ago.

Carriers have re-entered key personal and commercial lines markets where capacity had been constrained, pricing trends are moderating, and underwriting discipline remains strong across the industry. This creates an ideal environment for a diversified platform like ours to expand.

Our business model, spanning retail agencies, corporate branches, and proprietary MGA programs, is uniquely positioned to capitalize on these dynamics. Whether in a hard or soft market cycle, our independent agent network provides stable, recurring revenue and deep carrier and client relationships, creating a competitive advantage difficult to replicate.

Our strategy remains consistent and disciplined. We're executing across four core priorities: to deliver double-digit organic growth, execute accretive M&A, investing in technology and platform improvements for our agents' productivity, deploying capital with discipline across all these investments.

On the acquisition front, we completed two strategically important transactions in the first quarter. In March, we acquired Lofton & Wells Insurance, which became a corporate location in Memphis, Tennessee.

This addition provides scale to our Tennessee operations and positions us in a region with significant long-term growth opportunities. We also completed the acquisition of Asset Protection Insurance Associates, a Texas-based MGA specializing in insurance solutions for property owners and real estate investors across the United States.

APIA brings deep underwriting expertise, an expanded distribution network, and access to additional program opportunities. This enhances our MGA's capabilities and supports continued margin expansion.

Last week, we closed on the acquisition of Fortress Insurance Services out of Iowa, establishing another foothold agency in the Midwest. From a technology standpoint, we continue to prioritize investments that make our platforms more efficient and our clients better served.

Our proprietary technology remains a competitive advantage, allowing us to rapidly develop and implement new capabilities, whether built internally or integrated with best-in-class third-party solutions. Our capital position remains solid, providing significant flexibility to invest in growth and pursue strategic opportunities.

Before turning to Janice, I want to address the topic of AI becoming a central conversation in our industry's future. AI, if you look at the SEC filings across insurance brokers over the past five years, is an increasing reference in everybody's earnings releases and conversations.

Machine learning mentions have increased tenfold in that time span. Not by accident, the industry is embracing the change, and many people have questions on how AI matters.

It does matter, and it will have an impact on the industry. It's whether your company is positioned to harness it strategically and implement it in a way that is beneficial across your distribution and your platforms.

Last quarter, we shared our perspective that AI will improve the independent distribution channel for those that can embrace and implement the technology. Today, I want to update you on our progress on why we believe TWFG is best positioned as a net beneficiary of this evolution.

We've made significant investments in AI leadership and capabilities. Over the past year, we appointed a Chief Technology Officer focused specifically on AI strategy, cloud architecture, and platform modernization.

We've grown our technology team to 44 dedicated professionals: software engineers, infrastructure specialists, and product developers, representing a third of our non-sales corporate employee base. Critically, we are investing in proprietary AI solutions that, embedded with our 25 years of underwriting knowledge and data assets, we are deploying AI tools like Claude to make each engineer more productive, and we are being intentional about how we deploy engineering talent towards revenue generation and competitive advantage, creating efficiencies, not just a cost reduction.

We do have competitive advantages in the AI space. First, proprietary data.

Our MGA and agency platforms have accumulated millions of underwriting data points and decisions over the past 25 years. In an AI-driven environment, that data becomes more valuable, not less.

It creates a structural competitive moat, difficult for competitors to repeat. Second, we own our technology.

We build and control our core platforms. This means we're not dependent on third-party vendors or constrained by standardized solutions.

When new AI capabilities emerge, we can integrate them quickly or build them ourselves. That flexibility is a genuine competitive advantage.

Third, balanced deployment. Unlike others pursuing pure automation, we are deploying AI to amplify what our people do best.

For our agents, AI accelerates quote turnaround time, automates routine account management, and identifies coverage gaps, freeing them to build relationships and provide trusted advice. For our underwriting teams, AI improves risk assessment, velocity of decision-making, and precision.

For our operations, it drives efficiencies that we expect will translate directly into margin expansion over time. The enduring competitive advantage remains human expertise, community presence, and professional judgment.

Our agents are embedded in their communities. They show up when clients face their most vulnerable moments, whether it's catastrophic loss, a complex coverage question, or a claim dispute.

We are at an inflection point. The companies that will dominate insurance distribution aren't those choosing between AI or human advisory; they're the ones integrating both strategically.

TWFG owns our technology. We have deep insurance expertise.

We have the financial resources to invest, and we have a cultural commitment to innovation that's been part of our DNA for 25 years. We are positioned to be a net beneficiary of AI's continued evolution, and we're excited to demonstrate that to you at an upcoming Investor Day that we will host early in the fourth quarter.

With that, I will now turn the call over to Janice to walk through the financial details.

Janice Zwinggi

Thank you, Gordy, and good afternoon, everyone. I am pleased to report the following first quarter results, beginning with our top KPI, written premium.

Total written premium grew $87 million, or 23.5%, to $458.2 million, with strong performances in renewal retention and new business growth. We saw growth in renewals of $59 million, or 21%, and new business of $28 million, or 31% growth, with a consolidated retention of 92%.

This growth was driven by our acquisition strategy, notably the acquisition of TWFG MGA Florida and several corporate store locations, combined with strong underlying organic growth. Looking at our primary offering components, Insurance Services grew $46 million, or 14.5%, and the MGA had exceptional growth of $41 million, or 77.3%, over the prior-year period, primarily driven by the MGA Florida acquisition in the second quarter of last year.

Retention remains solid at 92%, a testament to the strength of our client relationships. Excluding the impact of recent acquisitions and certain book of business sales, our underlying retention would have been approximately 88%, which is in line with our historical retention rate.

Total revenues increased $19 million, or 35.3%, to $72.8 million, driven by a combination of organic revenue growth and strong contributions from our acquisitions. Commission income, which is our largest revenue component, grew $18.3 million, or 37.4%, to $67.1 million, reflecting expansion across both our Insurance Services and MGA platforms, supported by strong renewal and new business activity.

Organic revenues reached $54.3 million, up $5 million from the prior year, representing an organic growth rate of 10.1%. This organic growth reflects solid momentum across both of our platforms, underpinned by accelerating new business production, improved carrier capacity, and a moderating rate environment.

This growth demonstrates the underlying momentum of our core platforms, independent of acquisitions' contributions. Moving to operating expenses, commission expense grew $5.2 million, or 16.4%, to $37 million, reflecting strong production growth while maintaining consistent commission ratios.

Commission expense grew at a lesser degree as compared to commission income growth, due mainly to programs and corporate branches with zero or minimal commission expense. Salaries and employee benefits increased $1.7 million, or 20.8%, to $9.9 million, driven by headcount increases from acquisitions and corporate office investments to support long-term growth.

Other administrative expenses increased $2.7 million, or 56.4%, to $7.4 million, primarily driven by our completed acquisitions and ongoing investments in our technology initiatives. Depreciation and amortization expense increased to $6.2 million, reflecting purchase accounting from our acquisitions.

From a profitability and cash flow perspective, net income was up $6.2 million, or 90.8%, to $13.1 million, reflecting profitability on our core business growth and contributions from our acquisitions. Our net income margin improved to 18%, up from 12.7% in the first quarter of 2025.

Adjusted net income increased 75.2% to $16.2 million, with an adjusted net income margin of 22.2%, up from 17.1% in the first quarter of '25. Adjusted EBITDA grew 73.9% to $21.2 million, reflecting strong operating leverage across our platforms and the higher margin profile of our MGA operations.

The adjusted EBITDA margin expanded significantly by 650 basis points to 29.1%, compared to 22.6% in the prior-year quarter. This quarter-over-quarter improvement was driven by the favorable revenue mix shift towards higher-margin MGA business, continued cost discipline as we scale, and the accretive impact of our acquisitions.

From a cash perspective, cash flow from operating activities was $22.7 million, compared to $15.6 million in the prior-year quarter. Adjusted free cash flow was $15.2 million, up from $13.6 million in the first quarter of 2025, driven by increased net income and strong working capital management.

From a liquidity and capital resource perspective, our balance sheet remains strong. As of March 31st, we had $124.8 million in unrestricted cash and cash equivalents.

We have full unused capacity on our $50 million revolving credit facility, and only $3.5 million of term debt outstanding. On capital allocation, we remained disciplined.

Our $50 million share repurchase program announced in February has progressed significantly. We repurchased $16.7 million through March 31st, and have continued to be active in the market, bringing total repurchases to approximately $40 million as of today.

We have $10 million remaining capacity under the program. With that, I will now turn it back to Gordy for closing remarks.

Gordy Bunch

Thank you, Janice. As we look back at the first quarter 2026, I am very pleased with our execution.

Our team has delivered strong organic growth, meaningful margin expansion, and disciplined capital deployment, all hallmarks of our business model. What's particularly encouraging is that our success is not dependent on any single factor.

Rather, it reflects the strength and resilience of our diversified platform. Our independent agent network continues to win market share.

Our MGA platform is scaling efficiently while expanding margins. Our corporate branch model continues to demonstrate operational leverage, and our technology investments are making our agents more productive and our clients better served.

We believe TWFG is uniquely positioned for sustained growth in the current environment. The insurance industry is more complex and fragmented than ever.

Our agents provide trusted advice, deep carrier relationships, and local market expertise, attributes that become even more valuable as complexity increases. Our proprietary technology and data assets, built over 25 years, creates a competitive advantage that are difficult to replicate.

Our cultural advantage, what we call the TWFG family, continues to drive employee engagement, agent loyalty, and client retention. Looking ahead, we are reaffirming our full-year 2026 guidance.

We expect total revenues to grow 15% to 20%, reaching $285 million to $300 million. We anticipate organic revenue in the range of 10% to 15%, and we expect adjusted EBITDA margins to be in the range of 22% to 25%.

Our first-quarter results were consistent with these expectations. We believe the strength of our organic growth engine, continued momentum across both our agency and MGA platforms, and a favorable carrier environment support these targets.

In closing, I want to thank our employees, agents, carrier partners, and shareholders for their continued trust and commitment to TWFG. The years ahead will bring tremendous opportunities for all.

With that, operator, please open the line for questions.

Operator

Thank you. We will now begin the question-and-answer session.

If you have dialed in and would like to ask a question, please press *1 on your telephone keypad to raise your hand and join the queue. If you would like to withdraw your question, simply press *1 again.

If you are called upon to ask your question and are listening via speakerphone on your device, please pick up your handset to ensure that your phone is not on mute when asking your question. Please press *1 to join the queue.

Our first question comes from the line of Paul Newsome with Piper Sandler. Your line is open.

Paul Newsome

Good morning. Was wondering if you had any thoughts about what could happen with your organic growth sort of over the course of the year.

It came in at the low end of your guidance for this quarter. Doesn't mean it's going to do that for the rest of the year.

Is there anything that would suggest that this is not the right run rate for the rest of the year?

Gordy Bunch

Good question, Paul. We know we have some structural tailwinds coming into the second quarter that is informing our guidance on organic growth being that 10% to 15%.

We should have outsized or double-digit, high double-digit organic in the second quarter, given what we know that structural advantage has coming into the second quarter. The 10.1% is a good result for the first quarter, given the softening market and pricing and expanding beyond auto into property.

We feel very confident in the full guidance that we've provided, which is why we're reaffirming that 10% to 15%, knowing we've got good structural tailwinds for organic in the second quarter and looking towards the back half, looking for that to continue.

Paul Newsome

This is a little bit more of a modeling question, but it's related to the organic growth. The biggest piece that reconciles your revenue growth with the organic growth is this acquisition adjustment number.

It's been last couple of quarters, 10, 14-ish. At least my math suggests that that needs to drop off to reconcile for the rest of the year to have sort of organic in your range, but also revenue in the range.

Maybe I'm getting my math wrong, but should that piece be dropping off, given the acquisitions you've announced?

Gordy Bunch

Acquisitions drop off after they've been in our operations for 12 months. That's that board organic adjustment where we're removing things that were not part of the prior 12-month organic calc, and then adding back in plus their base from the prior year to reset how we do the organic calc.

For those who are unfamiliar, anything we acquire, the first 12 months of operations of the acquired portfolio remains in an inorganic calculation. It's excluded from our 10.1% organic for the first quarter.

Then we buy things throughout the calendar year, there's going to be differences and adjustments quarter-to-quarter depending on the date we closed the acquisition. On organic, it's a component of our retention of prior-year business plus new business, which we had strong retention and good new business growth that supported the 10% as a whole for the first quarter.

Paul Newsome

Great. Appreciate the help.

Thank you.

Operator

Our next question comes from the line of Tommy McJoynt with KBW. Your line is open.

Tommy McJoynt

Hi, good afternoon. A question on the margin, and we can look at it on either adjusted EBITDA or a net income margin basis.

We've seen a nice uplift the past couple quarters and especially into the first quarter here. Could you spend some time helping us think about how much that tailwind from the MGA and in the Florida side has been, and as we think about modeling margin the rest of the year, when does that start to fall off?

Is it kind of a gradual decrease through the rest of the year to get to the target range, or is it a sharper step-off? Thanks.

Gordy Bunch

We know that we have the favorable economics of the take-out impacts, which gives us the commission income without the commission expense. We had take-outs from June of last year, October of last year, November of last year, small one in December, and then an even smaller one in February.

The larger of the take-outs were June and October, they will fade as we get through the calendar year 2026. We'll have small remnants of benefit in the back half of the year from the latter, smaller take-outs.

Then we do have other factors that come into play. At this point through the first quarter, we're looking at reaffirming the guidance, that 22% to 25%.

We know that we have investments in technology, we have growth in other business units coming in, and then as those policies start to renew, we will have full-term commission expenses against those policies that we didn't have in the prior period. We're being very disciplined in how we are viewing the long term.

We think that we're being exactly where we want to be at this point. If we see another quarter like the first quarter, then we would potentially look at raising guidance coming into our next release.

Tommy McJoynt

Got it. Thanks for the explanation there.

Then switching over, when we think about your acquisition appetite, you held true to your expectations for starting M&A a bit on the earlier end this year as compared to last year. Is there anything preventing you from getting even more aggressive?

Surely there's no shortage of targets out there in terms of potential agencies and acquisition targets that could be accretive, and you guys are sitting on plenty of capital. Anything stopping you guys from getting even more aggressive than the start of the ramp that we saw in the first part of this year?

Gordy Bunch

I would say that we have a very healthy pipeline having made the acquisitions we've had year-to-date, which we announced in the earnings release. We're going to be very selective in acquisitions for the balance of the calendar year.

The Fortress acquisition that we just announced today is a very sizable operation in Iowa. We want to make sure we get integration and orientation in TWFG family before we turn our eyes to the next deal.

There's nothing preventing us other than our own desire to make sure we do well with integration and making sure that we have solid post-acquisition traction and we don't end up doing too many deals that end up turning that into a less than beneficial outcome. Really want to focus on the assets we've acquired, APIA, the commercial MGA, getting it through its integration and orientation, and also looking at additional products that we can introduce into that business unit.

You're right, we have the capital, we have the credit revolver, we have the pipeline. Structurally, there's nothing preventing us from doing more the back half of the year.

It's really just us being optimistic and selective, knowing that we've achieved our objective for M&A for the calendar year 2026 guidance, and anything we do beyond here would move the guidance up. There could be potential upside from M&A activity, but we'd rather get through the things that we've already acquired before telling you we're going to do more and changing our guidance for the full year.

Tommy McJoynt

Makes sense. Thank you.

Operator

Next question comes from the line of Rowland Mayor with RBC Capital Markets. Your line is open.

Rowland Mayor

Hi, good evening. I wanted to just ask on the other side of Tommy's question.

Are there any volume limitations or structural limitations on your ability to buy back stock? If I'm doing the math right, I think you've bought back almost 15% of the Class A shares since the authorization was announced.

Gordy Bunch

There are 10b-18 volume restrictions that the SEC has and we have to adhere to those. We authorized a $50 million repurchase plan at our last release, and so structurally, you have those boundaries of the amount authorized by the board for repurchase plus the SEC 10b-18 limits.

Rowland Mayor

That's perfect. Thank you.

Then I did want to ask just on the M&A, was the Fortress deal included in the revenue guide? I don't know what timeline was for closing or getting through that process, but I was just curious if the $285 to $300 included an assumption for Fortress.

Gordy Bunch

Yes, when we gave you our guidance at the beginning of the year, we assumed that we would deploy a certain amount of capital acquiring a certain amount of revenue with a certain amount of EBITDA, and that's what goes into our total guidance for the calendar year. Fortress has gotten us to that full amount that we had in our full calendar year guidance.

Rowland Mayor

That's very helpful. Thank you so much.

Operator

Next question comes from the line of Mike Zaremski with BMO. Your line is open.

Mike Zaremski

Hey, good afternoon, thanks. First question is a follow-up on the excellent profit margin question and answer.

We can take it offline too if you'd like, but it sounded like there was more profits coming from the Florida take-outs, I guess, but you're not raising the profit margin guidance because you're going to kind of spend that expected extra profits on increased expenses later in the year. Is that the right way to think about it?

Gordy Bunch

I would look at it this way, Mike. When we gave you our guidance at the beginning of the year, we had an assumed retention rate of the portfolio.

As you are aware, Florida is a softening marketplace, and so we overachieved our retention of the renewal take-outs in the first quarter. We know pricing is going to be pressured in the state, we're remaining disciplined in how we're looking at the balance of the calendar year.

As I mentioned a little bit ago, if we get through the second quarter with similar success, that's going to require us to then update the guidance up as we would have overachieved now two quarters. We're being disciplined in how we're looking at that portfolio given its outsized economic benefit, and we know that Florida market is dealing with its own property pricing downward.

We're doing well, better than expected, and being disciplined and not looking to update at this release. If we get through the second quarter with similar outcome, then yes, there's upside to the margin on guidance.

Mike Zaremski

That's understood. Moving to organic growth, Gordy, you talked about the impact from improving availability and how it's having an impact on organic.

You talked about the soft market. Maybe you can kind of help tease out if that impact is becoming less, having less of an impact on organic or the same or more, and so we can kind of figure out rationally whether we should continue to kind of build in a bit of a very near-term headwind.

Gordy Bunch

We have a lot of geography that TWFG operates in, and not every geography has the same rate change cadence or significance. If we look at the balance of the calendar year, we're looking at property rates, we all know the cat market is softening and that eventually goes through property repricing.

Our soft market cycle really started last year second quarter on the private passenger auto side. I would say that the property portion started softening more towards the end of the fourth quarter, early part of the first quarter.

They're kind of disconnected in the timing. We've assumed the softening market in our full-year guidance and are not expecting anything dramatic from a pricing standpoint to change that 10% to 15% guidance.

As we talked maybe two years ago when we were first coming out public and the market was hard, what happens is because carriers now offer us capacity and they all have new business incentives, the mix shift of total portfolio growth becomes less dependent on retention and more driven by exposure growth. New business overtakes policy premium retention.

We're kind of seeing that shift occurring in real time, where we might be renewing at a lower average premium, but we're also writing new business and having PIF growth that's offsetting that pricing headwind. For us, we're looking at that guidance has been very solid through the first quarter, and what we can see through today, which is why we're maintaining that range.

Mike Zaremski

That's helpful. Maybe just a last on the competitive environment.

Just curious, I know you're probably more of a bundled writer, but is the GEICO initiative having an impact on the organic or it's just too small to really move the needle?

Gordy Bunch

GEICO has become more relevant in our portfolio, not less. Again, it is price-advantaged.

Last year, even though it was allowing us to write more business, it was also moving policies from a higher average premium to a lower average premium. We still have significant growth with GEICO.

We look at their technology platforms and the product lines that they're still not fully released in every state as going to be a net beneficiary to us as they continue to expand into new geography and open up more lines of business. GEICO has been a positive, other than, like I said, the rate differential from incumbents allows us to retain the customer, allows us to write new business, but it is a lower average premium than the incumbent carriers.

Mike Zaremski

Understood. Thank you.

Operator

Next question comes from the line of Brian Meredith with UBS. Your line is open.

Brian Meredith

Thanks. Gordy, a couple questions here.

First one, just curious, what is the organic growth of your MGA business this quarter? Are you seeing a slowdown in business moving into the non-admitted market?

Gordy Bunch

As a first recap, the vast majority of our MGA is admitted. We're more of an admitted operation than an E&S one, and our admitted portfolios are growing.

As we've been able to introduce new products in new states, as we've expanded our own product in our core state, we are able to grow PIF and premium in both the admitted programs. On the E&S side, I would say for states like California, we're seeing less dependency on the E&S homeowners market as more the traditional carriers are starting to open up capacity in California.

That could change with some of the more recent actions from the DOI, but we've had a number of new admitted markets open up for new business in that state, which was not present last quarter. We don't really break out the organic by business unit, and Florida's got a combination of new business, new program, voluntary writings that aren't part of the calculations for inorganic versus organic.

Our full-year guidance includes basically a blend of all the different businesses coming together on a consolidated basis, we don't really have a breakout of that in between. We do know that coming into the second quarter, we're going to have a good benefit of policies renewing in the quarter that were not present in the prior period.

That acquisition is now past the 12th month, it's going to give us an outsized organic quarter for the second quarter.

Brian Meredith

Terrific. Second question, contingents.

Any views on what contingents could look like for the year?

Gordy Bunch

Great question. We're probably an outlier here.

We're being very disciplined in how we're viewing contingents. We entered the year knowing that the market was softening and expecting combined ratios and loss ratios to eventually be impacted by the lower rate environment.

If you track our contingent line, we're currently projecting a little bit lower on a premium to contingency basis, anticipating that there should be some loss ratio degradation by the lower rate environment. Far that hasn't manifested, but we're not looking to adjust our current contingent forecast.

We get more substantial confidence on that line after the third quarter. We get lock-in provisions and carriers then give us more substantial updates on where we're at in those profit-sharing agreements.

There could be upside in the fourth quarter as we live further into the calendar year and then those loss ratio-sensitive contingents become a lot clearer. We're taking a very disciplined approach in how we're approaching contingency in our guidance and in our forecasts.

Yes, there's some upside there should the combined ratios and loss ratios stay historically good.

Brian Meredith

Gotcha. Then one last one, Gordy.

Just want to go back to the good discussion you had on AI and completely agree with you. One of the debates that I'm having with some people is with AI and what's going on, not only the benefits you're seeing from an AI productivity perspective, will that, over time, force commission rates to decline, do you think, just given the efficiencies that y'all and agencies are generating, and maybe competition from AI-generated aggregators and stuff?

Gordy Bunch

I think it's too early to predict that that's an outcome. I did read the Chubb article that you're probably referencing.

Nobody yet knows the long-term cost of the AI tools, I think it's presumptuous to believe that all the AI tools are going to inherently create a cost savings. The amount of energy it takes to operate these server farms, and in many cases, the number of different microservice AI bots or AI agents you may have, and the token costs of using third-party AI, I don't know that anybody could accurately predict where the cost savings is going to be this early in the AI deployment.

I think certainly over time, we believe there will be efficiencies and there will be some margin expansion opportunities, but way too early to predict that. How does the agency economics shift the carrier commission schedules?

I think that we've proven that independent agency distribution provides underwriters with a superior portfolio, better retention, better loss ratios, and I don't see them immediately directing commission expenses downward in a very competitive marketplace. The industry is so fragmented, I don't know that that would be a wise move for a carrier to be looking at agency comp as an outcome of AI, because AI is improving their infrastructure and their costs, too.

They certainly might get some relief on how they can lower rate based on their expense ratios coming down, but I don't think that needs to come at the expense of distribution.

Brian Meredith

Makes sense. Thank you.

Operator

Our last question comes from the line of Pablo Singzon with JP Morgan. Your line is open.

Pablo Singzon

Hi, thank you. First question, I just want to confirm, the reason that organic will be strong in 2Q, I think part of the takeout books renewing into organic, right?

The sort of first part, and then I guess you also took out some books in the latter half of '25. Do they renew in the latter half of '26, or does everything renew at the same time, which is why 2Q is so strong?

Gordy Bunch

There's a couple points there, and I'll let Janice clean up what I don't cover. Yes, we have policies renewing in the second quarter that are going to help drive organic up to high double digits.

We also have a voluntary program, which is an entirely new form and distribution that was stood up from scratch, and everything that it generates is also organic, separate from the takeout. There's takeout going into renewal, and then there's voluntary writings, which is new business production from scratch, not a renewing of a takeout policy.

The takeouts are also accelerating their new business traction coming into this quarter. That's part of my structural tailwind I'm talking about, which gives us significant confidence in the guidance we've given for the full-year organic.

There are policies from all the various takeouts that go into various extended periods of the calendar, and Janice is much closer to how that plays out.

Janice Zwinggi

Yeah. Another thing, too, as far being disciplined on the retention rate that we're using.

On renewals and the new direct business, like Gordy mentioned, we're being disciplined on how much we're going to see because we haven't really seen cancellations coming through as of yet. I feel like with what we've got with the takeouts dropping off starting in July, on the June takeout, then October, November.

June and October were the largest ones, and then you'll start seeing the replacements on the renewals after that point in time. Again, we feel like a comfortable retention rate on those.

So

Gordy Bunch

The number of policies going into the third and fourth quarter are relatively de minimis.

Janice Zwinggi

Yes.

Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, that concludes the question-and-answer session. I would now like to turn the call back over to Gordy Bunch for closing remarks.

Gordy Bunch

Thank you for attending this afternoon's call. We appreciate all your thoughtful questions.

Really five things we want you guys to walk away with: our business is firing on all cylinders, total revenue up 35.3%, adjusted EBITDA up. This isn't just a quarter of luck, it's the compounding of strategic investments in technology, M&A, and the people that have helped make this company great for the last 25 years.

Our organic growth is strong, really 2x the industry, and we feel very compelled by the strategic tailwinds we have coming into the second quarter and throughout the remaining part of the year. Our MGA platform is scaling.

We're getting new programs and new distribution points in all the different business units. Reaffirming our full guidance for revenue growth, organic growth, and adjusted EBITDA.

Our capital allocation strategy is working: $40 million of the $50 million buyback executed, three acquisitions completed. We have cash on hand, an undrawn credit facility, a fortress balance sheet to continue to carry our trajectory forward.

We appreciate everybody for attending today, and look forward to our next call. Thank you.

Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, that concludes today's call. Thank you all for joining.

You may now disconnect.