Marsh & McLennan Companies

Developments leading to current structure

In 1997, the company significantly boosted its insurance brokerage business with a $1.8 billion acquisition of Johnson & Higgins, which, at the time, was one of MMC’s biggest competitors in its brokerage business. The purchase occurred during a time of consolidation in the industry, and pushed Marsh & McLennan back above Aon as the world’s largest insurance broker.^{[10] [11]}

Throughout the 2000s, the company further transformed and focused its operating strategy through various acquisitions and divestment at its subsidiaries, including:

• In 2000, Marsh & McLennan’s HR consulting unit, Mercer, acquired Delta Consulting Group for its organizational development and change management expertise.^[12]

• In 2003, the company acquired Oliver Wyman, a management consultancy with a large financial services industry clientele.^[13] The Oliver Wyman acquisition served to transform MMC from a company known mostly for its insurance brokerage services into one with a full-fledged management consulting practice that competes with McKinsey, Boston Consulting, and others.^[1]

• In 2007, Marsh & McLennan sold its Putnam Investments mutual fund business to Power Financial Corp. for $3.9 billion in a divestment meant to focus the parent company on its risk and human capital businesses.^[9]

• Also in 2007, the company announced that its insurance brokerage unit, Marsh, had received the first license for a wholly owned foreign company to operate an insurance brokerage business in China.^[14]

• In 2010, the company sold Kroll, its corporate intelligence and investigative unit, to Altegrity Inc. for $1.13 billion. Prior to this final deal and divestiture, Marsh & McLennan had been selling off smaller divisions within Kroll to further focus on its core risk and consulting businesses.^[15]

In July 2017, Marsh & McLennan Cos. Inc. was ranked first in Business Insurance's world's largest brokers list.^[7]

2004 bid-rigging investigation

In 2004, Marsh, the company's insurance brokerage unit, was embroiled in a bid rigging scandal that plagued much of the insurance industry, including brokerage rivals Aon and Willis Group, and insurer AIG.^[16] In a lawsuit, Eliot Spitzer, then New York State’s attorney general, accused Marsh of not serving as an unbiased broker, leading to increased costs for clients and higher revenues for Marsh. In early 2005, Marsh agreed to pay $850 million to settle the lawsuit and compensate clients whose commercial insurance it arranged from 2001 to 2004.^[17]

Much of Marsh & McLennan's corporate strategy since 2005 stemmed from an effort to recover from this tumultuous period, eventually leading to the firm's current organization and simplified focus on insurance services and consulting.^[18]

September 11 attacks

At the time of the September 11 attacks in the United States in 2001, the corporation held offices on eight floors of the North Tower of the World Trade Center, from 93 to 100.^[19] When American Airlines Flight 11 crashed into the building, their offices spanned the entire impact zone, from floors 93 to 99.^[20] Everybody present in their offices on that day of the attack died as all stairwells at impact zone were destroyed/blocked by the crash, and the firm lost 295 employees and 63 contractors.^[1]

Risk and insurance services

• Marsh, which provides insurance broking and risk management consulting. John Doyle has been the president and CEO since 2017.
• Guy Carpenter, a risk and reinsurance intermediary

Consulting

• Mercer, offering health, retirement, talent, and investment consulting services
• Oliver Wyman Group, a collection of management consulting firms (including Oliver Wyman, Lippincott, and NERA Economic Consulting)