Willis Towers Stock Price, News & Analysis

WTW's Commercial Lines Insurance Pricing Survey (CLIPS) reveals U.S. commercial insurance rates continued their upward trend in Q4 2024, showing a 5.6% aggregate price increase, down from 6.1% in Q3 2024.

Key findings include:

• Excess/Umbrella Liability recorded its highest price increase in three years
• Commercial Auto saw its highest price increase in CLIPS history, maintaining double-digit growth
• Commercial Property experienced a significant slowdown, showing moderate price increases compared to the previous quarter

Mid-market and small accounts demonstrated moderating price increases, while large account pricing remained stable. The survey compares premiums for policies underwritten in Q4 2024 to those from Q4 2023, providing year-over-year insights into the commercial insurance landscape.

WTW (NASDAQ: WTW) has announced that Paul Reilly will succeed Paul Thomas as Non-Executive Chair of the Board following the company's 2025 Annual General Meeting in May. Thomas, who has served as Non-Executive Chair since 2022, will retire and not seek re-election.

Reilly, who joined the WTW Board in October 2022, currently serves on the Corporate Governance and Nominating Committee and the Human Capital and Compensation Committee. He is the Executive Chair of Raymond James Financial, where he served as CEO from 2010 to 2025, and previously held positions as Executive Chairman of Korn/Ferry International and CEO at KPMG International.

CEO Carl Hess praised Thomas's leadership through significant transformations and expressed confidence in Reilly's ability to strengthen the Board and company, citing his extensive experience in global financial and professional services.

Willis, a WTW business, released its Crisis Management Annual Review revealing key security trends from 2024. The report shows that 26% of incidents reported to Alert:24 involved threats against individuals or assets, while 21% each were related to emergency political repatriations and kidnaps for ransom.

The review highlighted that 2024 saw record elections globally, with nearly 80% of incumbents losing ground due to poor economic performance and high inflation. Notable findings include increased violence against European officials, persistent lone-wolf terrorism threats in North America and Europe, and rising active assailant incidents in Asia-Pacific.

Regional analysis shows Africa leading with 27% of total incidents, followed by Latin America at 24%, with Haiti accounting for 20% of Latin American events. Overall incident notifications decreased by 21% in 2024 compared to 2023, reflecting a year of sustained conflict levels without new major crises emerging.

Willis (WTW) has announced a strategic partnership with Crowd Safety, a specialized team of consultants focusing on crowd safety management and event security. The collaboration aims to enhance Willis's crisis management services, particularly for clients handling events with 100,000+ attendees.

Crowd Safety brings expertise in strategic, tactical, and operational elements of crowd management, with their platform continuously evolving to address new challenges and emerging threats. The partnership will specifically benefit Willis's clients in the entertainment sector who face significant crowd security concerns.

The integration will complement Willis's existing in-house security risk advisory team, Alert:24, providing specialized safety and security strategies for large-scale events.

WTW (NASDAQ: WTW) has announced its Board of Directors' approval of a regular quarterly cash dividend of $0.92 per common share for the quarter ended December 31, 2024. This dividend represents a 5% increase from the previous quarter's payment. The dividend will be distributed on or around April 15, 2025, to shareholders who are on record as of March 31, 2025.

Willis, a WTW business (Nasdaq: WTW), has appointed Helen Campbell as Head of Property Wordings in North America. Based in Bermuda and reporting to Scott Pizzi, Head of Property Broking, North America, Campbell will oversee property policy language, terms, and conditions for both insurance and reinsurance businesses.

Campbell joins from Argo Group, where she served as Senior Vice President and Head of Contract Wordings. With over 25 years of industry experience, including previous roles at Ironshore Insurance and an earlier stint at Willis, she brings specialized technical expertise to the position. Her responsibilities will include analyzing and tailoring property policies to provide clients with clear understanding of coverage details related to their property exposures.

WTW (NASDAQ: WTW) has announced a strategic scientific partnership with Cornell University to assess and quantify global drought risks. The collaboration aims to develop more accurate drought prediction tools and datasets, focusing on identifying geographical 'hotspots' for climate-amplified drought.

The initiative addresses a critical global challenge, as two-thirds of the world's population experiences water stress seasonally. The research will be led by Prof. Toby Ault at Cornell's Atkinson Center for Sustainability, a leading expert in future drought under climate change. The partnership seeks to overcome current limitations in climate models that often underestimate drought severity, duration, and correlation.

This collaboration will particularly benefit water-dependent sectors such as food and beverage, energy production, and waterborne transport, helping businesses better prepare for water scarcity risks. The research emphasizes the increasing impact of climate change on drought conditions, notably affecting low-income and middle-income countries, particularly in agriculture-dominated regions.

Willis (NASDAQ: WTW) has appointed Guy Donahue as Cross Industry Midwest Property Broking Leader within Corporate Risk and Broking North America. Donahue, who joined on February 3, 2025, brings over 20 years of experience in commercial property insurance broking, with expertise across industries including mining, semiconductors, automotive manufacturing, and pulp and paper.

Prior to joining Willis, Donahue served as Senior Account Manager and Unit Manager for Midwest Property at Lockton Companies, where he managed a team of 11 brokers handling over 45 accounts. He previously held the position of Senior Vice President, Property Client Advisor at Marsh. In his new role, Donahue will focus on driving strategic initiatives, fostering client relationships, and leading property broking efforts across the Midwest region, reporting to Scott Pizzi, Head of Property Broking for CRB NA.

WTW (NASDAQ: WTW) has launched Expert, an AI-enabled assistant designed to help U.S. midsize businesses optimize their HR, compensation, and benefits operations. The new tool, announced on February 11, 2025, leverages generative AI technology and WTW's expertise to provide comprehensive support for HR teams.

Expert offers four key features: research capabilities for accessing market-leading compensation and benefits data; regulatory expertise with access to federal and state HR legislation; writing assistance for drafting communications and job descriptions; and a secure search engine for managing strategy and policy documents.

The platform includes WTW's proprietary human capital research, trend data, thought leadership, regulatory briefings, and case studies. According to Julie Gebauer, President of Health, Wealth & Career at WTW, Expert particularly targets time-constrained HR teams at midsize companies.