Vertically integrated vs an MGA-only model
The MGA-only model is fast and asks you to build nothing, which is why most of this market is built that way. The integrated model adds owned demand, owned platforms, and eventually a proprietary product, and charges years of engineering for the privilege.
Quick verdict
Run MGA-only when time to production is the binding constraint: carrier contracts, recruiting, and licensed software get you selling this quarter with no engineering team and no platform risk. Build vertically integrated when the things you need are not purchasable, so owned demand, a comparative evaluation across the market, and a feedback loop from persistency back to a lead filter have to be built because nobody sells them.
Everything below about the MGA-only category is described at the level of what such organizations publicly document, rather than as a claim about any one organization. No company is named.
The MGA-only advantage
Speed, no technology build, and capital going into recruiting and marketing rather than into engineering.
The integrated advantage
Demand sold once, evaluation across the whole market, and eventually a product at the end of the chain.
Capability by capability
Structural categories rather than feature counts. Note that the integrated model includes an MGA, so several rows are the same on both sides by definition.
| Capability | Solved VenturesVertically integratedsix operating companies | MGA-onlyDistribution, no buildpublicly documented category |
|---|---|---|
| Time to first production | Years, layer by layerTwo platforms reached production before the product company started. | The category's central advantageContracts, recruiting, and licensed software get a business selling in a quarter. |
| Technology to build and maintain | A permanent obligationTelephony, dialer, CRM, and quoting are all engineering the group carries forever. | NoneLicensed tools, no engineering payroll, no platform risk. |
| Carrier appointments and contracting | OwnedSolved Solutions holds direct and top-level contracts and the hierarchy records behind them. | The core competenceThis is what the category is for, and it is genuinely good at it. |
| Commission and hierarchy management | OwnedLevels, advances versus as-earned, and statement reconciliation against placed policies. | The core competenceSame capability, and often with more years of practice behind it. |
| Where the leads come from | Generated in house, sold onceSolved Marketing owns acquisition, so there is no upstream vendor with a reason to resell. | Purchased from vendors or produced by the agentSome organizations publicly document in-house marketing programs; buying is the category norm. |
| Lead exclusivity guarantee | Structural rather than contractualExclusivity holds because there is no vendor above us who could resell the record later. | Depends on the vendor's own termsA resale promise from a buyer is only as strong as the supplier behind it. |
| Dialer, CRM, and compliance scoring | Operated by the groupFlat seat pricing, compliance scoring on recorded calls, and a roadmap we control. | Licensed from a vendorOften perfectly adequate, and the roadmap belongs to somebody else. |
| Telephony underneath the dialer | Owned interconnectsRoute selection, quality reporting, and escalation end with us rather than one hop up. | Whatever the dialer vendor resellsEscalation travels the chain, which is felt on a bad afternoon rather than in a contract. |
| Quoting across many carriers at once | Comparative and explainablePatented method; the AI Plan Recommender inside Solved Enroll, in private beta today. | Multi-carrier quoting tools exist and are widely usedComparative evaluation with a reconstructable ranking is the part that varies. |
| Feedback from persistency to the lead source | Direct, at program and filter levelThe hop that only exists when acquisition and placement are the same group. | Not available across a vendor boundaryA lead vendor never learns which of its sources produced business that stayed. |
| Proprietary product at the end of the chain | In development, pending state approvalSolved Insurance with Solved Re. Nothing is on sale. | Not part of the modelAn MGA-only organization places other companies' products by definition. |
| Capital requirement | High and slow to returnSix sets of fixed costs and a product company that waits on regulators. | Much lowerCapital goes into recruiting and marketing, which return faster than engineering. |
| Focus | Divided across six businessesThe failure mode is six things that are each almost good enough. | One business, one scoreboardRecruit, contract, produce. Easy to manage and easy to measure. |
| Exposure if a vendor changes terms | Limited to commodity inputsCloud, payments, and data are bought; the margin layers are not. | Concentrated in the tool stackA dialer price change or a lead vendor policy change lands directly on the operation. |
Comparisons describe the common shape of each category rather than any one product, and are based on publicly published materials.
Which model is right for you?
If you are choosing what to build, this is the comparison where the faster answer is usually the right one.
Choose the MGA-only model when
- Time to production is the binding constraint, and being contracted and selling this quarter is worth more than control
- You have no appetite for an engineering payroll, a platform roadmap, or the risk that a build misses
- Recruiting and contracting are your genuine strengths, and you would rather spend capital there
- Licensed tools are good enough for what you actually need, which is often the honest answer
- You want one business with one scoreboard rather than six operating rhythms to manage
Choose the integrated model when
- What you need is not purchasable, so exclusivity, comparative evaluation, and the persistency loop have to be built
- Lead quality has to be measurable against business that stayed rather than against whether a phone was answered
- You intend to hold the product eventually, which makes owning everything upstream of it the point
- You can fund years of building, and will sell each platform externally so its weakness cannot hide
- A change to a filter, a route, or a disposition rule should take days rather than a vendor negotiation
There is a third option for an agency: contract through Solved Solutions and get the platforms and the owned lead programs with the contract, which is the MGA-only experience without the build. See Solved Solutions.
What is still pre-launch on our side
A structural comparison is meaningless without this, so it appears on every comparison page rather than in a footnote.
FAQs
Integrated versus MGA-only: common questions
Is Solved Ventures an MGA?
It owns one. Solved Solutions is the FMO and contracting arm, and Solved Insurance operates as Solved Re, the products and MGA business, which is in development pending state approval. So the comparison is not us against the model; it is the MGA-only structure against a structure that includes an MGA plus five other companies.
What is the real advantage of the MGA-only model?
Speed, and the absence of a technology build. You can be contracted with carriers and producing this quarter, with licensed software bought rather than written, and with capital going into recruiting and marketing instead of into engineering. For most people entering this market that is not just the faster path, it is the correct one.
Then why build the platforms at all?
Because the things we wanted were not purchasable. Owned demand that is sold once, a comparative evaluation across many carriers at once with an explainable output, and a feedback loop from persistency back to a lead filter are not features of a licensed dialer or a licensed quoting tool. Each platform in the group started as an internal fix for a problem a licensed product could not solve.
Does the integrated model make an agent more productive?
That is the claim, and it is testable rather than rhetorical. A contracted producer gets exclusive leads from a company that generates them, a dialer and CRM that the same group operates, and quoting that collects the fact-find once. If that does not produce a measurable difference, the technology layers are a subsidy and we should be told so.
Which parts of your stack are pre-launch?
AgentTech Dialer and Solved Telephony are in production. Solved Marketing and Solved Solutions are operating. Solved Enroll is in private beta with a public rollout planned for 2027. Solved Insurance and Solved Re are in development, pending state approval, and nothing is on sale.
I run an agency. Do I have to choose?
No. Contract through Solved Solutions and you get the technology and the owned lead programs with the contract rather than as separate purchases, which is the MGA-only experience with the platforms attached. Building your own version of those platforms is a different and much larger decision, and for most agencies the answer to that one is no.
Something else? Contact us
If you already run distribution, this is not a competition.
Contract through Solved Solutions and the platforms and the owned lead programs come with it, rather than as three more vendors to manage.