Clairvest Group has agreed to sell its minority stake in Acera Insurance Services Ltd. as part of Acera’s planned merger with Navacord Corp., a deal that would create what the firms describe as Canada’s largest privately held insurance brokerage, employee benefits, and wealth advisory business.
The combined entity is projected to represent $7.2 billion in insurance and employee benefits premium, $7.5 billion in retirement assets under management, more than 5,000 professionals, and over 150 locations nationwide, with Acera Insurance expected to transition to the Navacord brand over time.
Clairvest, through Clairvest and Clairvest Equity Partners VI, will exit its minority position while Acera’s CEO Lee Rogers (pictured above, left), chairman and president Andrew Kemp (pictured above right), the executive team, and employee shareholders are set to roll a significant portion of their equity into the combined entity.
The merger structure follows a plan of arrangement under Alberta corporate law and is expected to close in the first quarter of 2026, subject to regulatory, court, and shareholder approvals.
Clairvest said the sale of its interest in Acera is expected to increase CVG’s book value by approximately $4.00 per share over its carrying value as of September 30 upon closing.
Acera was created in September 2022 through the merger and recapitalisation of Rogers Insurance and CapriCMW. Since then, it has become one of Canada’s largest independent brokerages, with more than 750 employee shareholders and a nationwide footprint in property and casualty and group benefits lines serving both commercial and personal clients.
During Clairvest’s three-year partnership, Acera grew EBITDA by 70% and completed 24 tuck-in acquisitions, expanding its regional presence and service offering. Much of that growth has been positioned as a platform for the forthcoming integration with Navacord.
Navacord has also been reshaping its own network, recently consolidating six broker partners in British Columbia, Alberta, and Ontario under the Navacord brand in a move aimed at strengthening local expertise and providing a more consistent client experience across regions.
The Navacord–Acera combination will be led by Navacord founders T. Marshall Sadd and Shawn DeSantis alongside Acera founders Rogers and Kemp, who have longstanding experience in the Canadian market, particularly in Western Canada.
The merged brokerage is expected to focus on sectors such as construction, real estate, transportation, auto dealers, hospitality, and energy, alongside employee benefits and retirement services.
Commenting on the partnership period, Mitch Green, managing director at Clairvest, said: “We are very proud of what has been accomplished over the past three years. From the outset, Lee and Andrew demonstrated exceptional partnership and commitment to building a high-performance organisation.”
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Rogers said Clairvest’s backing was pivotal in catalysing the 2022 merger that formed Acera and in supporting its subsequent expansion across Canada. “We are grateful for the partnership and proud of what we’ve built together,” he said.
Ethan Wolfe, vice president at Clairvest, said Acera illustrates the firm’s entrepreneur-focused minority investment model, which is designed to support “transformative outcomes” while allowing management teams to retain control. He pointed to organisational alignment between investors, leadership, and employee shareholders as a factor in Acera’s performance.
The transaction also comes against a backdrop of slower but still active insurance M&A, with 520 agency and brokerage deals announced in the United States and Canada in the first three quarters of 2025, a 7% decline from the same period a year earlier.
Analysts have noted that “the deals are not cheap,” suggesting that strategic combinations like Navacord–Acera may reflect buyers’ focus on scale, specialisation, and disciplined deployment of capital in a higher-valuation environment.
