Willis Towers Watson

Willis Towers Watson Public Limited Company operates as an advisory, broking, and solutions company worldwide. It operates through two segments, Health, Wealth and Career; and Risk and Broking. The company offers actuarial support, plan design, and administrative services for traditional pension and retirement savings plans; plan management consulting, broking, and administration services for health and group benefit programs; and benefits outsourcing services. It also provides advice, data, software, and products to address clients' total rewards and talent issues. In addition, the company offers risk advice, insurance brokerage, and consulting services in the areas of property and casualty, aerospace, construction, and marine. Further, it offers investment consulting and discretionary management services to insurance and reinsurance companies; insurance consulting and technology, risk and capital management, pricing and predictive modeling, financial and regulatory reporting, financial and capital modeling, merger and acquisition, outsourcing, and business management services; wholesale insurance broking services to retail and wholesale brokers; and underwriting and capital management, capital market, and advisory and brokerage services. Additionally, the company provides primary medical and ancillary benefit exchange, and outsourcing services to active employees and retirees in the group and individual markets, as well as delivers healthcare and reimbursement accounts, including health savings accounts, health reimbursement arrangements, flexible spending accounts, and other consumer-directed accounts. The company was formerly known as Willis Group Holdings Public Limited Company and changed its name to Willis Towers Watson Public Limited Company in January 2016. Willis Towers Watson Public Limited Company was founded in 1828 and is based in London, the United Kingdom.

The former Willis Towers Watson formed as a merger of equals between London based Willis Group and Arlington based Towers Watson. Towers Watson was formed as a merger between Towers Perrin and Watson Wyatt in 2009.WTW changed its Nasdaq stock ticker symbol from "WLTW" to "WTW" effective January 10, 2022.

The companies announced the merger on June 30, 2015 in a deal valued at $18 billion. Willis Towers Watson would maintain its domicile in Ireland and list on the New York Stock Exchange. Later in 2015, the company moved its domicile to Virginia in the US and delisted from the NYSE and relisted on the NASDAQ. Willis Group exercised its right to acquire the remainder of Gras Savoye and agreed to purchase 85% of Miller, the leading London independent wholesale insurance broker.

Critics of the deal pointed out that the original offer would not be beneficial to Towers Watson shareholders as they would receive a package of shares and a special cash dividend that is valued at $125.13 per share. This value was 9.3% lower than the trading price of Towers Watson's stock was at the time of the announcement of the deal. The revised offer in November increased the value to $130.26 per share, which was still lower than the trading price of Towers Watson shares at the time of the announcement. The deal also gave Willis Group shareholders more control despite the company having a lower market capitalization compared to Towers Watson.In an open letter, investment adviser Driehaus Capital Management urged Towers Watson shareholders to vote against a proposed merger. Driehaus argued that Towers Watson was worth between 39% and 53% more as a standalone company than by merging with Willis Group. It was also reported that Towers Watson CEO John Haley had disposed of his shares in the company in early March 2015 while the merger negotiations were ongoing.On 18 November 2015, the board of Towers Watson failed to get enough investor support for the deal, with only 40% of shareholders voting in favor of the proposed merger with Willis Group. This rejection led to Willis Group increasing its special cash dividend for Towers Watson shareholders to USD $10 per share. This revised offer was approved by Towers Watson shareholders on 11 December 2015.

The merger closed on January 5, 2016 once all regulatory approvals were received. Willis Towers Watson publicly announced their name change on January 5. Willis Group shareholders owned 50.1% while those of Towers Watson shareholders owned 49.9% of the combined company.On completion, Towers Watson CEO, John Haley, became the CEO, Willis Group CEO, Dominic Casserley, became the President and Deputy CEO while Willis Group Chairman, James McCann, became the chairman of the merged group with the twelve board seats shared equally between the two companies.

On 9 March 2020, Aon announced its planned acquisition of Willis Towers Watson for nearly $30 billion in an all-stock deal that would have created the world’s largest insurance broker. The deal was called off on 26 July 2021 after failing to reach agreement with the US Department of Justice.

In August 2021, Carl Hess was selected as the company’s president and next CEO to succeed on January 1, 2022 upon John Haley’s retirement. A new global leadership team was also announced in August 2021. In January 2022, Carl Hess formally succeeded John Haley as CEO and Willis Towers Watson became WTW.

Investors Starboard Value and Elliott Management were reported to have taken substantial stakes in the company in 2021.

In July 2022, Willis Towers Watson acquired Butterwire, a FinTech provider of data analytics, artificial intelligence and machine learning platforms.

We design and deliver solutions that manage risk, optimize benefits, cultivate talent, and expand the power of capital to protect and strengthen institutions and individuals. Our unique perspective allows us to see the critical intersections between talent, assets and ideas — the dynamic formula that drives business performance.