Hagerty

Hagerty

Founded in 2009 as the formal corporate entity for a business whose roots trace to a Traverse City, Michigan marine-insurance agency, Hagerty evolved under third-generation CEO McKeel Hagerty to dominate the North American collector-car insurance market. The firm went public in December 2021 via a SPAC merger with Aldel Financial, retaining the Hagerty family as controlling shareholders through super-voting Class B common stock. Hagerty writes physical-damage coverage on classic autos, motorcycles, boats and trucks — a specialty property-casualty line where agreed-value policies replace standard actual-cash-value terms. It operates as a full-stack managing general agent (MGA) alongside the carrier Hagerty Reinsurance Limited, which retains a portion of underwriting risk. Asset classes include admitted insurance, surplus-lines coverage, a recurring-membership Drivers Club, and digital-media properties built around the Hagerty brand. A 2022 agreement transferred former insurer-of-record Essentia Insurance Company to Markel Corporation, keeping Hagerty as the MGA and brand (per Markel, September 2022). Its marketplace unit, seeded by the 2021 acquisition of Broad Arrow Group, runs live auctions and private-sale advisory for high-end collectibles. Hagerty operates from its Traverse City headquarters with underwriting and technology offices in Dublin, Golden, Colorado, and Toronto. March 2025: The firm appointed Paul Rehrig as CFO, succeeding a retiring predecessor, as reported by The Insurer in March 2025. Adjacent vehicles include the Hagerty Drivers Foundation, a 501(c)(3) supporting automotive heritage and youth programs. Revenue has grown primarily through written premium expansion and membership fees rather than asset-management-style capital deployment. Hagerty's structural differentiator is its integrated model: an insurance carrier feeds a loyalty platform, which in turn supplies audience-scale content and live events, producing a data flywheel that insurers and auction houses rarely link. The public-company governance — combined with McKeel Hagerty's continued control via dual-class shares — places succession and strategic independence directly in the hands of a named operator rather than a committee of external allocators.