Aon → NFP
Two years after its planned merger with Willis Towers Watson was abandoned on regulatory grounds, Aon agreed to pay $13.4bn for NFP, a middle-market broker, benefits consultant and wealth manager owned by Madison Dearborn Partners and HPS — and within two years had sold most of the wealth arm back to Madison Dearborn.
Bought from Madison Dearborn and HPS in cash, equity and assumed liabilities, taking Aon into middle-market broking.
- Value
- $13.4B
- Announced
- December 2023
- Completed
- April 2024
- Sector
- Insurance
- Deal type
- acquisition
- Acquirer
- Aon (Ireland)
- Target
- NFP (United States)
Why it mattered
Aon called the middle market "large and fast-growing" and planned to reach it through its Aon Business Services platform, bringing its data and analytics to NFP's clients. NFP, founded in 1999, had more than 7,700 staff across property and casualty broking, employee benefits, wealth management and retirement plan advice. The price, announced on 20 December 2023, was an estimated $13.4bn at closing, about 15 times NFP's seller-adjusted EBITDA, to be paid with $7bn of cash and $6.4bn of Aon shares. NFP would run as an "independent but connected" platform under its chief executive, Doug Hammond, going to market as "NFP, an Aon company".
Aon had modelled its financial targets on a closing as late as June 2025; the deal closed on 25 April 2024, which Aon said brought the expected earnings accretion forward by a year. At completion the enterprise value was put at $13.0bn: $7.0bn of cash and assumed liabilities and 19.0 million Aon shares worth $6.0bn. Over the next eighteen months its rivals followed it into the same segment: Marsh McLennan bought McGriff for $7.75bn, Gallagher agreed to buy AssuredPartners for $13.45bn, and Brown & Brown agreed to buy Accession for about $9.8bn.
What it left behind
The cash came largely from $5bn of term debt raised in 2024, and the purchase added weight to Aon's accounts: amortisation and impairment of intangibles rose by $275m, or 55%, in 2025, mainly because of assets acquired with NFP. Aon then narrowed what it had bought. In September 2025 it agreed to sell most of NFP's wealth business — Wealthspire Advisors, Fiducient Advisors and Newport Private Wealth — to Madison Dearborn for about $2.7bn, or $2.2bn after tax, for businesses with $127m of EBITDA. The sale completed in the fourth quarter with a $1.2bn gain, which helped lift Aon's 2025 net income by 38% to $3.8bn. As of September 2026 NFP still trades as an Aon company. A broad purchase can be narrowed after closing when a natural buyer exists for the parts that do not fit; here the former sponsor took the wealth businesses back at a gain, leaving Aon with the risk and benefits work it calls core.