Results for 2000 were driven, in part, by firming rates in certain lines of business. We also successfully landed nine new acquisitions, plus three more in the first two weeks of 2001.

Retail Division
Brown & Brown’s Retail Division continues to be a guiding force in our continued growth. The division’s six regions all experienced growth in sales as well as external growth through the mergers completed during the year. By closing the acquisition of the insurance operations of Riedman Corporation and of The Huval Agency in January 2001, we expanded geographically in all six of our regions. There are now 105 sales offices in 24 states.

The three Retail subdivisions -- National, Southwest and Florida -- all succeeded in growing their pre-tax income to new record levels, with Florida up 19%, Southwest rising 15% and National Retail up an outstanding 55%.

The challenge now is to ensure that our new operations attain our established levels of acceptable profitability in the shortest possible time frame. The entire Retail team is dedicated to successfully achieving this goal.

Brokerage Division
The Brokerage division achieved an impressive 49% growth in pre-tax income over 1999.

It is in this division where we first felt the positive impact of some rate stabilization. We also expanded this division through our Georgia startup, Peachtree Special Risk, and the acquisition of Risk Management Associates/Program Management Services in Florida. These two entities -- combined with our already existing brokerage operations, Champion Underwriters, Florida Intracoastal Underwriters, Ltd., Halcyon Underwriters and MacDuff Underwriters -- now provide Brown & Brown with a strong base in this area of operations.

National Programs Division
The specialty groups within both the Professional and Commercial divisions of National Programs began to show the positive impact of our previously discussed cost containment and program procedural reviews. Commercial Programs seems to have turned the corner, garnering a 66% increase in pre-tax income growth and increasing its pre-tax margin to 30%.

Professional Programs experienced an 8% drop in pre-tax income. The procedural moves to change carrier partners on some programs, realign the agent distribution force and finalize internal standards are complete. In the year 2001, we expect to see this group begin the rebound to its former levels of solid performance.

Services Division
Both United Self-Insured Services and Brown & Brown Benefits continue to provide steady growth. Combined, they achieved a 16% growth in their level of pre-tax margin. We expanded our role in this arena through the acquisition of Amerisys of Orlando, Florida, and Bensys of Lafayette, Louisiana. They are providers of managed health care services for workers’ compensation and employee benefit claimants.

This division, more than any other, continues to experience a very intense level of competition. Its continued success provides the most basic evidence of the value of the Brown & Brown culture.