Marsh & McLennan Companies (MMC) (NYSE: MMC (http://www.nyse.com/about/listed/lcddata.html?ticker=MMC)) is a US-based global professional services and insurance broker firm. In 2003, it had over 60,000 employees and annual revenues over $11 billion.

Segments

MMC is the parent company of

• Putnam Investments, a money management firm with a well-known mutual fund family;
• Marsh Inc., a risk and insurance services firm which generated $6.9 billion of MMC's 2003 revenue;
• MMC Capital, a private equity firm;
• Guy Carpenter & Company, a reinsurance intermediary, and
• Mercer, Inc., a collection of consulting firms generating $2.7 billion of MMC's 2003 revenue.

History

Burrows, Marsh & McLennan was formed by Henry W. Marsh and Donald R. McLennan in Chicago in 1905, becoming the world's largest insurance agency with annual premiums of $3 million ($59 million consumer price index adjusted). It was renamed Marsh & McLennan in 1906.

Marsh Inc.

Marsh Inc. is a global risk and insurance services firm. It is a subsidiary of MMC. In 2003, Marsh employed about 40,000 people, with annual revenues of $6.9 billion, up from $4.8 billion in 2001.

Marsh operates by collecting advisory fees from its clients — mainly large corporations but also small and mid-size businesses, municipal governments, school districts and some individuals — in exchange for locating property and casualty insurance coverage for them. At all relevant times, the Company stated that its "guiding principle is to consider (its) clients' best interests in all placements," and that it "(does not) represent the (companies)" and held itself out as a "trusted adviser and advocate, in effect representing their best interests in the market place."

Marsh in the news

• 295 employees were killed in the 9/11 terrorist attacks; they were working in Marsh's One World Trade Center offices located at the impact zone.
• On October 11, 2001 Marsh established a crisis consulting practice specializing in terrorism, with Ambassador L. Paul Bremer as Chairman. Marsh also announced a partnership with Control Risks Group LLC to provide political risk assessment.
• On October 14, 2004 the New York State Office of Attorney General Eliot Spitzer announced that it had commenced a civil action against Marsh for steering clients to preferred insurers with whom the Company maintained lucrative payoff agreements, and for soliciting rigged bids for insurance contracts from the insurers. The Attorney General announced in a release that two AIG executives pleaded guilty to criminal charges in connection with this illegal course of conduct and stated, "There is simply no responsible argument for a system that rigs bids, stifles competition and cheats customers."

Management

• Chairman, CEO: Michael G. Cherkasky
• CFO: Sandra S. Wijnberg
• SVP, Executive Resources and Development: Francis N. Bonsignore

Former

• CEO: Jeffrey W. Greenberg (- Oct 25, 2004)

External links

• MMC website (http://www.mmc.com/)

History

• Marsh & McLennan Companies - MMC's History (http://www.mmc.com/about/history.php)
• Marsh Affinity Group Services Insurance (http://www.seaburychicago.com/our_story_r.asp)

Data

• Yahoo! - Marsh & McLennan Companies, Inc. Company Profile (http://biz.yahoo.com/ic/10/10959.html)

Articles

• MMC CEO resigns (http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A61921-2004Oct25?language=printer)