Marsh & McLennan Overview: The Marsh & McLennan Companies (MMC) include a leading insurance brokerage firm among its constituent parts:
- Marsh (insurance brokerage)
- Guy Carpenter (reinsurance intermediary)
- Mercer (human resources consulting)
- Oliver Wyman Group (management consulting)
Marsh & McLennan sold its Kroll division, a noted corporate security and investigative firm, in 2010. Kroll had been purchased by Marsh in 2004.
Size: Marsh & McLennan operates in over 100 countries. These figures are as of June, 2008, except as noted:
- Total Revenue = $11.4 billion (full year 2007)
- Total Employees = 55,000
- Marsh Revenue = $4.5 billion (full year 2007)
- Marsh Employees = 26,000
Positives: Marsh & McLennan is a leading U.S. insurance brokerage firm. It also has affiliated companies in other sectors, such as reinsurance, consulting and corporate security. Despite a 61% decline in year over year operating income in the first half of 2008, total employment has fallen by only 1,000.
Negatives: Marsh & McLennan has experienced management turmoil in 2008, with forced resignations among senior executives due to subpar financial results. In recent years, Marsh & Lennan has lost its longtime leadership position among U.S. insurance brokerage firms to Aon, leading to speculation about its being a takeover target.
In 2004, Marsh & McLennan CEO Jeffrey Greenberg resigned amid accusations of running bid rigging and kickback schemes with several insurance companies. Allegedly, Marsh & McLennan maximized its commissions and the favored insurers’ premiums by deceiving customers into overpaying for their policies. Other insurance brokers were implicated in similar schemes, but Marsh & McLennan was by far the largest. This incident severely tarnished the firm’s reputation.
