"It's A Soft Market," Declares Willis CEO

"I think the second quarter is a perfect example of the durability of our company and a perfect example of our ability to operate in all seasons," said Joe Plumeri, chairman and chief executive officer of Willis. "We are in a soft market."

"I saw someone who said yesterday that we are in an impending soft market. This is not an impending soft market. This is a soft market," he emphasized.

Mr. Plumeri said the evidence is in the firm's performance, which he said was very good, but the numbers showed the rate environment displayed significant signs of decline.

"I read a lot that there are people who say that there is still discipline out there, but the fact of the matter is that the rates have gone down," said Mr. Plumeri. "They are at negative three percent."

Overall, he said, Willis is poised to continue to grow earnings by 15 percent "year in and year out." He credited the firm's ability to continue to bring in new business with current and future growth. He added that as long as the company spends less than it makes, it would also continue on the course of positive growth.

"We are never happy with anything we do here, but we believe we have done pretty good," he remarked.

For the past six months, net income increased 24 percent, or $47 million over the same period last year, going from $197 million, or $1.17 a share, to $244 million, or $1.44 a share. Revenues grew 14 percent, or $150 million, going from $1.05 billion to $1.2 billion.

Willis declared a quarterly cash dividend of 18.75 cents a share payable Oct. 13 to shareholders of record as of Sept. 30.

Mr. Plumeri said the firm has yet to see some of the benefits of the soft market. This would include the purchase of more insurance by clients as rates decline and more money becomes available, and increased rates on commissions. He said Willis was looking forward to this happening in the future.

On the subject of the contingency fee investigation by the New York Attorney General's Office, he said he has not heard much since the initial request for documents and that "it does not concern me" because the firm is complying with the regulations.

In late April, the office of Attorney General Eliot Spitzer subpoenaed documents of a number of brokers in the state, including Willis, in an inquiry concerning possible conflict of interest involved in brokers' acceptance of insurers' contingency fees.