Marsh McLennan’s 85,000-plus professionals earned a cool $5 billion in revenue during the final three months of 2022.

That number is 2% lower than the revenue the firm generated in the year-ago period. But on an underlying basis, that is when not taking into account factors that investors usually ignore when evaluating a firm’s financial performance, Marsh McLennan grew revenues by 7%.

 “2022 was an outstanding year for Marsh McLennan,” remarked Marsh McLennan boss John Doyle. “We achieved these strong results while continuing to invest in our talent and capabilities, both organically and through acquisitions.”

Marsh McLennan generates revenue through a long list of subsidiaries that operate in many different parts of the professional services market. The company is active in, among other areas, the management consulting, insurance and financial services sectors.

Marsh McLennan’s management consulting business operates under the brand Oliver Wyman. Its financial performance during the fourth quarter was one of the bright spots in the firm’s earnings call.

Oliver Wyman boosted revenue by 8% to $765 million on an underlying basis. In other words, its growth exceeded the growth of Marsh McLennan as a whole.

Marsh McLennan’s other main consulting subsidiary is Mercer. Mercer has two primary lines of business: it advises companies on workforce management, with a particular emphasis on employee benefits, and provides investment support services.

Mercer’s fee income totaled $1.3 billion during the fourth quarter. That’s up 5% on an underlying basis, while the part of Mercer which provides employee career management advice to big companies grew 12%.

Marsh McLennan’s profits also improved in the fourth quarter.

Profit was up 13% on an adjusted basis to $1 billion, which represents a faster growth rate than the pace at which the firm’s revenue grew in the same period. This can be explained by the fact Marsh McLennan’s leadership managed to boost the firm’s adjusted operating margin by more than 3% to 25.6% in the past year.

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