Remote Property Claims Consulting Firm, National Insurance Clientele

$1.3M

Revenue

$645K

SDE

3.7x

Multiple

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Full Editorial Writeup

This is a fully remote consulting firm serving the property insurance claims market. It sells specialized third-party review and analysis on disputed or complex large-loss claims: scope assessment, cost analysis, invoice review, and mitigation oversight. Engagements start when a carrier or independent adjuster needs an objective outside perspective to resolve a claim, and the firm delivers written reports, cost summaries, and scope documentation that push all parties toward resolution. Clients are insurance carriers, independent adjusters, and other claim-side parties across the United States.

The operational footprint is deliberately light. There is no office, no owned real estate, and no vehicle fleet, which is a large part of why the business converts $1.305M of revenue into $645K of SDE, a roughly 49 percent owner-earnings margin. The team is eight people (2 full-time, 6 contractors) covering field consulting, business development, marketing, AR, accounting, and internal review, plus a bench of independent consultants that extends geographic reach without adding fixed cost.

What makes it notable is the retention story: the seller reports zero client attrition since inception, and a recent business development hire brought an established industry network that is already generating new engagements. The knock is owner dependence, the seller is still active in service delivery, so the buyer is underwriting whether the team plus a network can carry the load. At 3.71x SDE, this is priced as a lean, high-margin professional services firm with real key-person and referral-concentration risk to diligence.

Why we like it

Earnings quality is strong on the surface: $645K SDE on $1.305M revenue is a ~49 percent margin, and with no office, no real estate, and no fleet, the cost base is almost entirely people. That means incremental engagements drop through at high rates and there is little fixed overhead to carry in a slow quarter.
The moat is expertise plus relationships. Carriers and adjusters retain independent claims reviewers they trust on complex, disputed, large-loss claims, and the listing reports zero client attrition since inception. Switching away from a reviewer who already knows your book and produces defensible documentation carries real friction.
Demand is genuinely countercyclical to the broader economy. Property claims volume is driven by weather events, catastrophes, and loss complexity, not consumer spending, so this cash flow does not soften in a recession the way discretionary services do. If anything, disputed and complex claims tend to rise when everyone is fighting over dollars.
There is a clear operator path to scale without capital. The independent consultant network model lets a buyer add capacity in new markets on a variable-cost basis, and a recent BD hire is already opening carrier relationships. This is a services firm you grow with people and referrals, not machines or inventory.

How to improve it

Map and de-risk the owner's book in the first 90 days. Document exactly which clients and referral sources the seller personally controls, then run structured warm-handoff introductions during the 6 to 12 month transition so those relationships transfer to the team rather than walking with the seller.
Formalize recurring engagement flow. Pursue master service agreements or preferred-vendor status with the largest carrier clients so review work is routed automatically rather than won claim by claim. Converting ad hoc referrals into standing panel placements makes revenue more predictable and defensible at exit.
Systematize the delivery process into a repeatable playbook. Build templated scoping, costing, and reporting workflows so new independent consultants can be onboarded fast and produce consistent output. This directly reduces key-person risk and is the gating factor for scaling the consultant network.
Add capacity in underserved geographies through the contractor model. Identify high-claim-volume states where the firm is thin and recruit vetted independent consultants on a variable-cost basis. This expands addressable engagements without adding fixed payroll or overhead.
Build a referral partnership engine. Formalize relationships with law firms, public adjusters, restoration contractors, and carrier claims departments who repeatedly need independent review. Structured referral partnerships diversify lead sources beyond the recent BD hire and reduce concentration in any single channel.
Layer in lightweight recurring or retainer offerings. Explore monthly review retainers or panel-membership arrangements with high-volume carriers to smooth the lumpiness of project-based revenue. Even a modest recurring base raises the quality of earnings and the multiple a future buyer will pay.
Tighten reporting and productize deliverables. Standardize report formats and turnaround SLAs, then price on value and speed rather than hourly effort. Faster, more consistent deliverables improve client stickiness and support price increases on the existing book.

Diligence notes

Quantify owner dependence precisely. The seller remains active in service delivery, so determine what share of revenue and reporting output the owner personally produces versus the team. If the owner is doing a meaningful chunk of billable review work, that labor must be replaced and the true SDE to a buyer is lower than stated.
Test the zero-attrition and revenue concentration claim. Pull a client-by-client revenue breakdown for the last three years and confirm no single carrier or adjuster represents an outsized share. Strong retention is only valuable if it is spread across multiple clients rather than propped up by one or two large accounts.
Scrutinize the durability of the recent BD hire's network. Several new engagements are reportedly tied to relationships that person brought in, so verify whether those relationships belong to the company or the individual. Confirm the BD person is under a solid comp and non-solicit arrangement and is staying post-close.
Validate the SDE build and add-backs. Get the actual P&L, contractor payments, and owner add-backs behind the $645K figure, since a six-contractor model can hide labor costs that would need to grow with volume. Confirm margins are structural and not a function of the owner under-paying themselves or the field team.
Assess revenue seasonality and catastrophe dependence. Because claims volume tracks weather and cat events, request monthly revenue over several years to understand how much of the run rate depends on major loss years. Understand whether a quiet weather cycle materially compresses engagements and cash flow.

Source

Originally listed on BizBuySell. View original listing →