Marsh McLennan says third-quarter consolidated revenue rose 6% to $US5.7 billion ($8.64 billion) and operating income grew 11% to $US1.1 billion ($1.67 billion).

Net income was $US747 million ($1.13 billion) for the period.

“This was a milestone quarter for Marsh McLennan as we delivered strong results,” president and CEO John Doyle said. “We remain on track for another great year.”

For January-September, consolidated revenue was up 7% to $US18.4 billion ($27.89 billion) and operating income grew 12% to $US4.7 billion ($7.12 billion).

At broker Marsh, revenue rose 9% in the third quarter to $US2.9 billion ($4.4 billion). By region, underlying revenue was up 6% in North America and 7% for international operations, including 5% in Asia-Pacific.

Reinsurance arm Guy Carpenter’s quarterly revenue was up 6% to $US381 million ($577 million ), while consultancy Oliver Wyman’s revenue increased 4% to $US810 million ($1.23 billion).

Mr Doyle says the market is “coming back in favour of our retail clients a bit at the moment”.

“I don’t view the last several years as a hard market,” he added in a call with analysts. “As challenging as it was for our retail clients, what we observed at Marsh was a period for insurers on average to catch up with the accelerating loss cost.  

“Not to say certain markets in a shorter period of time weren’t challenging. For example, when ransomware picked up in the cyber market and the underwriting community had not really priced for that kind of risk, the market jumped pretty quickly. But then it settled quite quickly as well.”  

Mr Doyle says the impact of hurricanes Helene and Milton highlighted the “meaningful disparity between economic loss and insured loss”, with Helene estimated to have the largest multiple of economic to insured loss of any US storm.  

“This protection gap imposes a meaningful burden on the economy, makes near-term recovery more challenging and undercuts resilience. In addition, rising frequency and severity of extreme weather events, higher property values and increased development in cat-prone areas are driving the need for greater protection.

“As these storms highlight, there is opportunity to do more through risk mitigation, event preparedness and alternative solutions such as community-based parametric products.”