Aon plc (NYSE:AON) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

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We’re a good 3.5, 4 years into a market cycle and I think those products are coming more to an equilibrium. And the last thing I would say about your question on commission fees and ties back to what Greg said is one of the benefits of being a fully transparent broker where we engage our clients in what we get paid for the value that we provide, we don’t really care whether it’s a commission or whether it’s a fee. What we really are driven by is are we providing value to clients and are we being paid fairly for that value. And so whether the cycle is up or down, it doesn’t really matter to us. We engage in those conversations in a fully transparent way and I think we have great relationships with our clients because of it.

Andrew Kligerman: Okay. So maybe just so I can interpret it that the 4%-plus revenue growth in commercial risk, 9%-plus in reinsurance. Both of them were more a function of what Aon was delivering as opposed to inflationary impacts on exposures and kind of a very firm pricing environment. I should think about it as more Aon and the very little of these market issues played through. Is that right ?

Eric Andersen: If you think about it — I’ll just use reinsurance as an example. It’s historically our smallest quarter and it’s not treaty driven. It’s driven around facultative placements, banking, our technology consulting group. So not really market-driven issues but more value issues in terms of usage of those tools to help clients manage their exposures.

Andrew Kligerman: Okay. And then just a quick one on the tax rate at 9%. Is that a sustainable tax rate? Or should we be thinking about it kind of drifting up a little bit towards, say, 12% last year in the quarter?

Christa Davies: So what we would say is we don’t give forward guidance on tax. But as I look back historically, exclusive of the impact of discrete items which can be positive or negative in any 1 quarter, our historical underlying rate for the last 5 years was 18%. And that’s the result of us being a global company domiciled in Ireland with a global cash management structure and a global capital structure. And so we’re really confident about where we are.

Andrew Kligerman: Confident. So should I be thinking more towards the 18% ?

Christa Davies: Again, we don’t give guidance going forward on tax rate but I can tell you that as we look back historically, our historical underlying rate for the last 5 years was 18%.

Operator: Our next question comes from the line of Jimmy Bhullar with JPMorgan.

Jimmy Bhullar: So first, just had a question on your — some of your comments on the reinsurance market. You mentioned a challenging environment for your clients, especially in property reinsurance. Are you expecting a similar trend for midyear renewals as well? Or do you expect any sort of shifts in capacity entering the market?

Eric Andersen: So Jimmy, right now, we have not seen a lot of new capacity enter the marketplace, although there is certainly a lot of whispers and discussion about whether there’s opportunity for additional capital to enter. So I would say as we go into the April 1 property renewals which are dominated by Japan and then June which is dominated by Florida. I think as we sit here today, you would have to think that those market dynamics will continue.

Jimmy Bhullar: Okay. And then just similarly, on commercial lines, obviously, pricing has been pretty good for a while. It seems like it’s softening a little bit, given the results that some of the carriers have reported. Are you seeing something similar in the market, too?

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