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Brokers: The Engine Room — IRLA Chair Kevin Gill on Legacy’s Earlier Entry
Broker legacy teams have overtaken accounting firms as a main route for bringing deals to market, according to IRLA chairman Kevin Gill. Reserve build-ups, underwriting shifts and M&A now bring legacy into client conversations much earlier.
12 October 2026 • Page 3 • Market Insight
The Briefing
Kevin Gill, chairman of the Insurance & Reinsurance Legacy Association (IRLA) and a partner in EY’s financial services strategy and transactions team in London, says the way legacy deals reach the market has shifted. For years, many transactions were brought forward by restructuring teams at accounting firms. Today, broking houses have invested in teams that combine capital advisory with retrospective solutions, and Gill credits those dedicated broker teams with much of the legacy market’s growth over the past decade.
Because broker teams work across a client’s wider business, legacy now comes up earlier and more often, inside conversations that started for other reasons.
12 October 2026 • Page 3 • Market Insight
Market Context
Three Triggers. Gill points to three routes into legacy. The first is a build-up of reserves on the balance sheet, which creates a chance to transfer them and free up capital. The second is an underwriting change: when an insurer exits or shrinks a line, the remaining liabilities can be moved on to release capital and reduce volatility. The third is M&A, where more clients now bring in a broker alongside their M&A adviser, sometimes to deal with the part of a book an acquirer doesn’t want.
The brokers have built for this. Gallagher Re appointed a dedicated head of legacy in 2021 and added a UK head in 2025. Howden Re brought its legacy and investment banking teams together in 2023. Lockton Re expanded its Capital Advisory practice in 2025 to include retrospective and legacy expertise.
Quote
Broker teams are now “the engine room of driving legacy transactions to the marketplace.”
— Kevin Gill, Chairman, IRLA
— Tom Murphy, President, Sun Life Asset Management
12 October 2026 • Page 3 • Market Insight
JDC VIEW
If legacy is entering the conversation earlier, the work has to start earlier too. Gill notes that legacy draws on the same skills as the live market but makes far heavier demands on data. A reserve transfer is priced on the quality of the historical record behind it: claims histories, bordereaux and transaction data, often spread across systems that have been migrated more than once. Broker teams can bring a deal to market faster than ever, but the seller still has to show what’s in the book. The clients who prepare their data before the broker calls will be the ones who get the best terms.
Sources: Insurance Business UK, “Legacy is entering client conversations earlier for brokers”, 30 Sept 2026.
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