Accounting
EBITDA
Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization — a common proxy for operating cash generation.
Definition
EBITDA strips out financing and tax structure, plus non-cash items, to compare operating performance across businesses or periods. It's also the most common base for valuation multiples in M&A — particularly in the insurance-agency space, where 'agency multiples' are quoted in terms of EBITDA.
When It Matters
Buying, selling, or financing a business. Benchmarking performance year over year.
Common Questions
What's a typical EBITDA multiple for an independent insurance agency?
Multiples vary by size, growth, and book quality, but high single digits to low double digits is a common range for healthy agencies in 2026 transactions.
R — Related Terms
Balance Sheet
Accounting — A snapshot at a single point in time of what a business owns (assets), owes (liabilities), and the owners' equity in it.
Accounts Receivable (AR)
Accounting — Money owed to your business by customers for goods or services already delivered.
Advisory Services
Accounting — Forward-looking financial guidance — strategy, planning, decision support — beyond the historical work of bookkeeping and tax preparation.