Willis Towers Watson Public Limited Company (NASDAQ:WTW) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

Andrew Krasner: Yes. Sure. It’s Andrew. So we’re not going to get into the specific margins of specific products, but we are pleased with the level of profitability that we are seeing in that product and that business overall as it is a portfolio of different products, of course, primarily MA, but there is a nice balanced portfolio there as well.

Carl Hess: Yes. And I guess as far as the prospects, I mean, first of all, we have continuously run this business for sustainable growth, and that means looking for growth opportunities that are profitable rather than growth for growth’s sake. That philosophy has served us, I think, very well and it’s one we will be continuing. But the overall backdrop for that business remains very strong and our relationship with a variety of partners does position us well. From a macro perspective, I’ve cited this before, but when you have 10,000 people becoming newly eligible for Medicare every day, it is quite a tailwind for the industry. Medicare enrollment is projected to grow 7.6% per year over the decade. And the percentage of Medicare eligible people who buy an MA plan rather than just use traditional Medicare is rising, it’s expected to grow from just over 40% to more than 50% by 2030. So those are all, I think good conditions for our business.

Andrew Kligerman: Excellent. Thanks a lot.

Carl Hess: Thank you.

Andrew Krasner: Thank you, Andrew.

Operator: Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Rob Cox with Goldman Sachs. Your line is open.

Rob Cox: Hey, thanks. Just on the wealth segment, you talked about a number of tailwinds and noted that some of these projects could last years. So I’m curious if you could talk about how long you expect to benefit from sort of the stronger PRT levels and then really the regulatory-driven work?

Carl Hess: Yes. So whenever we have a change in regulation, there’s typically a multi-quarter bump as clients trying to analyze and determine actions to take with respect to the change in the environment. The improved funded status of pension plans that we’ve seen during 2022 gives them additional flexibility to consider risk transfer options. And while as I noted, there’s always chance for the economic climate and the funded status for those plans to change over time. That’s typically something we see a multi-quarter benefit from as well, right? And again, even if the fund as does change to economic conditions, that creates fresh volatility that clients need help €“ analyzing. So we think our strong position in all elements of servicing pension funds in the industry, we see some resilience to the results going forward.

Rob Cox: Got it. Thank you. And maybe just switching over to the transformation program. Any chance you could give us an update on kind of more finally, where these transformation savings are benefiting the margin between corporate and the two segments so far in the program?

Andrew Krasner: Yes. We’ve seen in your benefit from our strong transformation performance across the portfolio of businesses and in the corporate segment, what you’re seeing play out primarily in the corporate segment is the fact that would be a reinvestment need and then talent, things of that nature is not as pronounced as it was, for example, in Risk and Broking. Hence, the transformation savings there more than offset by the investment hiring and to a lesser extent, in HWC where there was margin expansion and the transformation savings were a driver of that. But again, there was some level of reinvestment there, just not to the same extent that you would have seen in Risk and Broking.

Rob Cox: Thanks. Appreciate the answers.