Marsh & McLennan Companies, Inc. (NYSE:MMC) Q3 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

Property was at 7%. These rates were roughly in line with the prior quarter. We saw some softness in FINPRO lines. FINPRO lines came down by 6% in the third quarter. They were down 8% in the quarter before. So, I don’t think that’s a trend yet, but it’s certainly less. And as you mentioned in the introduction, John, our cyber index came down by 2%, and it was up by 1% in the quarter, so three percentage point delta between the courses. So, it’s a relatively calm market that we’ll see on casualty.

John Doyle: Yes. Thanks, Martin. What I would also say, David, and I mentioned this to Jimmy, but clearly, the cost of risk is rising, right? So, whether it’s a frequency of cat events, including extreme weather, casualty loss costs, whether it’s core inflation, social inflation, some of the underwriting community referring to as legal system abuse, the growth in litigation funding, concerns for our clients for sure and the underwriting community as well. Thanks, David.

Operator: Our next question comes from the line of Rob Cox with Goldman Sachs.

Robert Cox : Thanks, for taking my question. So, I think last quarter, there were some comments that I interpreted as expectations for the level of margin expansion to accelerate in RIS in the second half, but it was just a bit lower. So just curious if you could talk about the puts and takes with respect to the margin relative to and whether it’s still fair to assume that the second half of the year will have stronger margin expansion than 2Q?

John Doyle: Yes. Sure, Rob. Again, margins and outcome, it’s not our primary objective. Our focus is on growing earnings and free cash flow over time. We’re not trying to optimize margin expansion in any period, certainly in any business in any period. We do expect solid margin expansion in 2023, which will be our 16th consecutive year of margin expansion. There were FX headwinds in RIS’ margins in the third quarter. But again, I’m pleased with the progress that we’ve made there. And as I mentioned in my prepared remarks, again, we expect good solid margin expansion in 2023.

Robert Cox : Got it. And maybe just a follow-up. I think some peers have highlighted expectations for medical costs to increase. So, I was hoping if you could discuss the trends you’re seeing in the health and benefit space and expectations as we look into 2024.

John Doyle: Sure, Rob. I’ll ask Martine to comment in a second, but we’ve had good growth in our health and benefits business at Mercer in our business internationally, which is Mercer Marsh Benefits and at MMA. It is a pressure point, clearly, for our clients in this economy. And so, clients more and more looking to us for solutions there. Martine, maybe you could share some insights.

Martine Ferland: Yes. Thank you, Robert, for the question. Thank you, John. Indeed, medical inflation is increasing. And as John just said, it’s an advantage for our clients. At the same time, it’s not a big part of our revenue sources because a lot of our clients are on fee-based or those kinds of things. When — we’re also working a lot with clients to try to control those costs, control those increases. Because, as you may know, in the health benefit space, very, very often, employers would share the cost with the employee base. So, in this time of our inflation, they’re pretty concerned about passing on those costs. So, we’re looking at design of the plan, access in a different way, leveraging technology, et cetera. So, there’s many different ways that our clients — that we can help our clients address those increase in costs. And it’s impacting revenue a little bit, but honestly, it’s a small part for us given all of the counterpoints.

Operator: And our next question comes from the line of Meyer Shields of KBW.

Meyer Shields: Good morning. Two quick questions, if I can. First, John, you talked about macroeconomic uncertainty. I’m wondering how that impacts near-term visibility typically for Mercer in terms of revenue?