Companies of all types adjust their operations during challenging times, and the insurance brokerage industry is no different.

Prolonged soft insurance pricing coupled with the severe economic downturn have provided a difficult backdrop for brokers in 2009 as they seek ways to grow their businesses and adjust to their own challenges.

Whether it’s fighting for the right to again accept contingent commissions, launching a small-account initiative, divesting noncore operations, switching domiciles or devising an entirely new business model, the brokerage industry has seen much change during the past 12 months.

Perhaps the biggest industry news this year occurred in August, when Itasca, Ill.-based Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. said it negotiated a deal with Illinois authorities to amend its 2005 client-steering settlement that allows it once again to accept millions of dollars in contingent commissions.

Illinois’ attorney general and director of insurance acknowledged that because the contingent ban is not universal among agents and brokers, Gallagher may have been operating at a competitive disadvantage.

The move is seen as likely opening the door for similarly banned brokers—Marsh Inc., Aon Corp. and Willis Group Holdings Ltd.—to amend their settlements with other state authorities to resume collecting contingent commissions.

Also in response to what it said is an unlevel playing field, the New York Insurance Department is close to issuing new broker compensation disclosure regulations. Under its latest proposal, all agents and brokers in the state would be required to disclose their compensation to clients upon request.

Also making news, London-based Willis recently said it plans to redomesticate from Bermuda to Ireland for a more stable tax environment. The move comes after the broker said it would seek to sell a portion of its 48% stake in French brokerage Gras Savoye & Cie and sold its surplus lines agency Bliss & Glennon Inc.

Rather than a divestiture, Marsh has spent most of this year seeking the right agency platform to launch its new small-account initiative Marsh & McLennan Agency. Marsh, which historically has dominated the Fortune 500 marketplace but has an inconsistent record in the small-account space, is looking to its new agency for future growth.

Then there is Integro Ltd., the four-year-old brokerage that attempted to build a large-account alternative to Marsh, Aon and Willis amid the 2005 broker investigations. After various assumptions didn’t work out, Integro cut its costs and emerged this year as a smaller, multispecialty brokerage.

Change also has come to Brown & Brown Inc. After nearly 50 years at the helm, J. Hyatt Brown handed the reins of the family agency over to son J. Powell Brown in July.