UNITED STATES

SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION

Washington, D.C. 20549

FORM 10-K

(Mark one)

☒ ANNUAL REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934

For the fiscal year ended December 31, 20212022

or

☐ TRANSITION REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(d) OF THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934

Commission File Number: 001-16503

WILLIS TOWERS WATSON PUBLIC LIMITED COMPANY

(Exact name of registrant as specified in its charter)

Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act:

Securities registered pursuant to Section 12(g) of the Act: None

Indicate by check mark if the registrant is a well-known seasoned issuer, as defined in Rule 405 of the Securities Act. Yes ☑ No ☐

Indicate by check mark if the registrant is not required to file reports pursuant to Section 13 or Section 15(d) of the Act. Yes ☐ No ☑

Indicate by check mark whether the Registrant (1) has filed all reports required to be filed by Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the Registrant was required to file such reports), and (2) has been subject to such filing requirements for the past 90 days. Yes ☑ No ☐

Indicate by check mark whether the Registrant has submitted electronically every Interactive Data File required to be submitted pursuant to Rule 405 of Regulation S-T (§ 232.405 of this chapter) during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the Registrant was required to submit and post such files). Yes ☑ No ☐

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a large accelerated filer, an accelerated filer, a non-accelerated filer or a smaller reporting company. See the definitions of ‘large accelerated filer’, ‘accelerated filer’ and ‘smaller reporting company’ in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act.

If an emerging growth company, indicate by check mark if the registrant has elected not to use the extended transition period for complying with any new or revised financial accounting standards provided pursuant to Section 13(a) of the Exchange Act. ☐

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has filed a report on and attestation to its management’s assessment of the effectiveness of its internal control over financial reporting under Section 404(b) of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act (15 U.S.C. 7262(b)) by the registered public accounting firm that prepared or issued its audit report. ☑

If securities are registered pursuant to Section 12(b) of the Act, indicate by check mark whether the financial statements of the registrant included in the filing reflect the correction of an error to previously issued financial statements. ☐

Indicate by check mark whether any of those error corrections are restatements that required a recovery analysis of incentive-based compensation received by any of the registrant’s executive officers during the relevant recovery period pursuant to §240.10D-1(b). ☐

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a shell company (as defined in Rule 12b-2 of the Act). Yes ☐ No ☑

The aggregate market value of the voting common equity held by non-affiliates of the Registrant, computed by reference to the last reported price at which the Registrant’s common equity was sold on June 30, 20212022 (the last day of the Registrant’s most recently completed second quarter) was $29,461,050,49821,628,207,514.

As of February 18, 2022,16, 2023, there were outstanding 117,745,623106,577,635 ordinary shares, nominal value $0.000304635 per share, of the Registrant.

DOCUMENTS INCORPORATED BY REFERENCE

WILLIS TOWERS WATSON PUBLIC LIMITED COMPANY

INDEX TO FORM 10-K

For the year ended December 31, 20212022

Certain Definitions

The following definitions apply throughout this annual reportAnnual Report on Form 10-K unless the context requires otherwise:

1

Disclaimer Regarding Forward-looking Statements

We have included in this document ‘forward-looking statements’ within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, which are intended to be covered by the safe harbors created by those laws. These forward-looking statements include information about possible or assumed future results of our operations. All statements, other than statements of historical facts, that address activities, events or developments that we expect or anticipate may occur in the future, including such things asas: our outlook,outlook; the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on our business,business; future capital expenditures,expenditures; ongoing working capital efforts,efforts; future share repurchases,repurchases; financial results (including our revenue, costs or margins), and the impact of changes to tax laws on our financial results, existing and evolving business strategies, and acquisitions and dispositions, including transitional arrangements in effect subsequent to the completed sale of Willis Re to Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. (‘Gallagher’),; demand for our services and competitive strengths, goals,strengths; strategic goals; the benefits of new initiatives,initiatives; growth of our business and operations,operations; our ability to successfully manage ongoing leadership, organizational, and technology changes, including investments in improving systems and processes,processes; our ability to implement and realize anticipated benefits of any cost-savings initiatives including the multi-year operational Transformation program,program; and plans and references to future successes, including our future financial and operating results, short-term and long-term financial goals, plans, objectives, expectations and intentions are all forward-looking statements. Also, when we use words such as ‘may,’ ‘will,’ ‘would,’ ‘anticipate,’ ‘believe,’ ‘estimate,’ ‘expect,’ ‘intend,’ ‘plan,’ ‘probably,’‘may’, ‘will’, ‘would’, ‘anticipate’, ‘believe’, ‘estimate’, ‘expect’, ‘intend’, ‘plan’, ‘probably’, or similar expressions, we are making forward-looking statements. Such statements are based upon the current beliefs and expectations of the Company’s management and are subject to significant risks and uncertainties. Actual results may differ from those set forth in the forward-looking statements. All forward-looking disclosure is speculative by its nature.

A number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from the results reflected in these forward-looking statements are identified under ‘Risk Factors’ in Item 1A of this Annual Report on Form 10-K. These statements are based on assumptions that may not come true and are subject to significant risks and uncertainties.

Although we believe that the assumptions underlying our forward-looking statements are reasonable, any of these assumptions, and therefore also the forward-looking statements based on these assumptions, could themselves prove to be inaccurate. Given the significant uncertainties inherent in the forward-looking statements included in this Annual Report on Form 10-K, our inclusion of this information is not a representation or guarantee by us that our objectives and plans will be achieved.

Our forward-looking statements speak only as of the date made and we will not update these forward-looking statements unless the securities laws require us to do so. With regard to these risks, uncertainties and assumptions, the forward-looking events discussed in this document may not occur, and we caution you against unduly relying on these forward-looking statements.

2

PART I.

ITEM 1. BUSINESS

The discussion of the general development of our business in this Item 1 Business provides an update on the material changes to our business since our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2019, filed with the SEC on February 26, 2020 (the ‘2019 Form 10-K’), which included a complete description of our business as of December 31, 2019. We incorporate herein the description of our business, including as specified in the discussion in this Item 1 below, by reference to the 2019 Form 10-K, available at https://www.sec.gov/ix?doc=/Archives/edgar/data/0001140536/000156459020006736/wltw-10k_20191231.htm#ITEM_1_BUSINESS

The Company

WTW is a leading global advisory, broking and solutions company that provides data-driven, insight-led solutions in the areas of people, risk and capital. LeveragingUtilizing the global view and local expertise of our more than 44,00046,000 colleagues serving more than 140 countries and markets, we help organizations sharpen strategies, enhance organizational resilience, motivate workforces and maximize performance. 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. Working closely with our clients, we uncover opportunities for sustainable success.

Our clients operate on a global and local scale in a multitude of businesses and industries throughout the world and generally range in size from large, major multinational corporations to middle-market domestic and international companies. Our clients include many of the world’s leading corporations, including approximately 92%93% of the FTSE 100, 91%89% of the Fortune 1000, and 90% of the Fortune Global 500 companies. We also advise the majority of the world’s leading insurance companies. We work with major corporations, emerging growth companies, governmental agencies and not-for-profit institutions in a wide variety of industries, with many of our client relationships spanning decades. No one client accountedNone of the Company’s customers individually represented more than 10% of its consolidated revenue for a significant concentration of revenue in each of the years ended December 31, 2022, 2021 2020 and 2019.2020. We place insurance with more than 2,500 insurance carriers, none of which individually accounted for a significant concentration of the total premiums we placed on behalf of our clients in 2022, 2021 2020 or 2019.2020.

Segment Reorganization

With effect fromOn January 1, 2022, weWTW realigned to provide aits comprehensive offering of services and solutions to clients across two business segments: Health, Wealth and& Career (‘HWC’), and Risk and Broking (‘RB’).& Broking. These changes were made in conjunction with changes in the WTW leadership team, including the appointment of a new chief executive officer who succeeded the prior CEO as the chief operating decision maker on that date. Prior to January 1, 2022, we operated across four segments: Human Capital and Benefits; Corporate Risk and Broking; Investment, Risk and Reinsurance; and Benefits Delivery and Administration. Following the realignment, the two new segments consist of the following businesses:

Below are the percentages of revenue generated by each segment for each of the years ended December 31, 2022, 2021 and 2020. These percentages exclude revenue that has been classified as discontinued operations in our Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the first quarterconsolidated statements of fiscal year 2022, segment results will be presented on a retrospective basis to reflect the reorganization.comprehensive income.

Willis Re Divestiture

The following presents descriptions of our reorganized segments:

On August 13, 2021, WTW entered into a definitive agreement to sell its treaty-reinsurance businessHealth, Wealth & Career

The Health, Wealth & Career (‘Willis Re’HWC’) to Arthur J. Gallagher & Co.segment provides an array of advice, broking, solutions and technology for employee benefit plans, institutional investors, compensation and career programs, and the employee experience overall. Our portfolio of services support the interrelated challenges that the management teams of our clients face across human resources (‘Gallagher’HR’) for total upfront cash consideration of $3.25 billion plus an earnout payable in 2025 of up to $750 million in cash, subject to certain adjustments. The deal was subject to required regulatory approvals and clearances, as well as other customary closing conditions, and was completed on December 1, 2021 (‘Principal Closing’). Althoughfinance.

HWC is the majoritylarger of the Willis Re businesses transferred to Gallagher at Principal Closing, the assets and liabilities of certain Willis Re businesses were not transferred to Gallagher at the time due to local territory restrictions (‘Deferred Closing’). The Deferred Closing is expected to be completed no later than the endtwo segments of the second quarter of 2022,Company. Addressing four key areas, Health, Wealth, Career and all net earnings ofBenefits Delivery & Outsourcing, the Deferred Closing businesses accumulated between the Principal Closingsegment is focused on addressing our clients’ people and Deferred Closing are payablerisk needs to Gallagher at that time. We recognizedhelp them succeed in a preliminary pre-tax gain of $2.3 billion upon completion of the sale.global marketplace.

3

Health

The Health & Benefits (‘H&B’) business provides strategy and design consulting,plan management service and support, broking and administration across the full spectrum of health, wellbeing and other group benefit programs, including medical, dental, disability, life, voluntary benefits and other coverage. Our reach extends from small/mid-market clients to large-market and multinational clients, across the full geographic footprint of the Company, and to most industries. We can address our clients’ needs in more than 140 countries.

Our consultants help clients make strategic decisions on topics such as optimizing program spend; evaluating emerging vendors, point solutions and coverage options (including publicly-subsidized health insurance exchanges and private exchanges in the U.S.); and dealing with above-inflation-rate increases in healthcare costs. We also assist clients in selecting the appropriate insurance carriers to cover benefit risks and administer the programs. In connectionaddition to our consulting and broking services, we manage a number of collective purchasing initiatives, such as pharmacy and stop-loss, that allow employers to realize greater value from third-party service providers than they can achieve on their own.

With Global Benefits Management, our suite of global services supporting medical, dental and risk (e.g., life, disability) programs, we have a tailored offering for multinationals. This offering includes a flexible set of ready-made solutions, proven technology and an integrated approach to service delivery that translates to a globally consistent, high-quality experience for our clients.

A meaningful portion of revenue in this business is from recurring work, though contracts may be annual or multi-year. Given the balance of revenue across consulting, broking and solutions, our revenue is somewhat weighted to the first quarter.

Wealth

Our wealth-related businesses include Retirement and Investments.

The Retirement business provides actuarial support, plan design, and administrative services for all forms of pension and retirement savings plans. Our colleagues help our clients assess the costs and risks of retirement plans on cash flow, earnings and the balance sheet, the effects of changing workforce demographics on their retirement plans, and retiree benefit adequacy and security. We offer clients a full range of integrated retirement consulting services and solutions to meet the needs of all types of employers, including those that continue to offer defined benefit plans and those that are reexamining their retirement benefit strategies. We help multinationals coordinate plan design and actuarial services across their complex global plans. We bring in-depth data analysis and perspective to their decision process, because we have tracked the retirement designs and financing strategies of companies around the world over many decades.

For clients that want to outsource some or all of their pension plan management, we offer broking services, as well as integrated solutions that can combine investment discretionary management, pension administration, core actuarial services, and communication and change management assistance.

Retirement relationships are generally long-term in nature, and client retention rates for this business are high. A significant portion of the revenue in this business is from recurring work, with multi-year contracts that are driven by the heavily regulated nature of pension plans and our clients’ annual needs for these services. Revenue for the Retirement business in some geographies is somewhat seasonal, as much of our work pertains to calendar-year plan administration, financing, reporting and compliance; thus, revenue is typically more weighted to the first and fourth quarters of the fiscal year.

Our Investments business provides advice and discretionary investment management solutions to defined benefit and defined contribution pension plans as well as to a range of other client types including insurers, endowments and foundations, and private wealth investors. We provide a solution to a significant business problem faced by our clients, namely sustaining the resources and skills required to deliver a financial services product in highly competitive capital markets. We offer a flexible approach that adapts to a wide range of client needs and circumstances, with the transaction,objective of higher returns, lower risk and lower costs within each client’s unique situation.

Our solutions range from single asset class activity, through complete management of entire pension plan assets including sophisticated liability hedging programs.

We bring together a broad array of specialist investment knowledge and skills across all asset classes, a high-quality execution platform, a cost advantage through our scale, and expert advisors with experience across all client types from the largest plans in the world to small corporate pension plans.

We have long-term relationships with our Investments clients, with the majority of our revenue driven by retainer contracts.

4

Career

Our career-related offerings include advice, data, software and products to address clients’ total rewards and talent issues across the globe delivered through our Work & Rewards and Employee Experience businesses.

Within our Work & Rewards business, we reclassifiedhelp clients determine the resultsbest ways to get work done, the skills needed for jobs, and how to reward it. We address executive compensation and broad-based rewards. We advise our clients’ management and boards of directors on all aspects of executive pay programs, including base pay, annual bonuses, long-term incentives, perquisites and other benefits. Our focus is on aligning pay plans with an organization’s business strategy and driving desired performance. Our solutions incorporate proprietary market benchmarking data and software to support compensation administration.

Our Employee Experience business focuses on the provision of solutions including employee insight and listening tools, talent assessment tools and services, communication and change management services.

Revenue for our career-related businesses is partly seasonal in nature, with heightened activity in the second half of the Willis Re operationscalendar year during the annual compensation, benefits, and survey cycles. While these businesses enjoy long-term relationships with many clients, work in several practices is often project-based and can be sensitive to economic changes. The businesses benefit from regulatory changes affecting our clients that require strategic advice, program changes and communication, as discontinued operationswell as the focus on our consolidated statementsESG as a component of comprehensive incomeexecutive and have reclassified Willis Re assetsboard pay, the redefinition of jobs, work location and liabilitiescareer paths as held for sale on our consolidated balance sheets. Willis Re was previously includedtechnology disaggregates work, and the recalibration of pay and the employee experience amidst shifting labor markets.

Benefits Delivery & Outsourcing

Our Benefits Delivery & Outsourcing businesses include Benefits Delivery & Administration (‘BDA’) and Technology and Administration Solutions (‘TAS’).

The BDA business provides primary medical and ancillary benefit exchange and outsourcing services to active employees and retirees across both the group and individual markets, primarily in the Investment, U.S.

A significant portion of the revenue in this business is recurring in nature, driven by either the commissions from the policies we sell, or from long-term service contracts with our clients that typically range from three to five years. Revenue across this business is seasonal and is generally higher in the fourth quarter as it is driven when typical annual enrollment activity occurs.

BDA provides services via two related offerings:

Benefits Outsourcing is focused on serving active employee groups for clients across the U.S. Working closely with other HWC businesses, we use our proprietary technology to provide a suite of health and welfare and pension administration outsourcing services, including tools to enable benefit modeling, decision support, enrollment and benefit choice. Drawing on expertise in H&B and Retirement to create high-performing benefit plan designs, we believe we are well-positioned to help clients of all sizes simplify their benefits delivery, while lowering the total costs of benefits and related administration.

Individual Marketplace offers decision support processes and tools to connect consumers with insurance carriers in private individual and Medicare markets. Individual Marketplace serves both employer-based and direct-to-consumer populations through its end-to-end consumer acquisition and engagement platforms, which tightly integrate call routing technology, an efficient quoting and enrollment engine, a customer relations management system and deep links with insurance carriers. By leveraging its multiple distribution channels and diverse product portfolio, Individual Marketplace offers solutions to a broad consumer base, helping individuals compare, purchase and use health insurance products, tools and information for life.

Our TAS business provides pension outsourcing services to hundreds of clients across multiple industries. Our TAS team focuses on clients outside of the U.S. where our services are supported by high quality administration teams using robust technology platforms. Given the nature of the work, our revenue is distributed generally evenly across the year.

With ongoing servicing requirements and multi-year contracts in place, we have high client retention rates. We are the leading administrator among the 200 largest pension plans in the U.K., as well as a leader in Germany.

For both our defined benefit and defined contribution administration services, we use highly-automated processes and technology to enable benefit plan members to access and manage their records, perform self-service functions and improve their understanding of their benefits. Our technology also provides trustees and HR teams with timely management information to monitor activity and service levels and reduce administration costs.

5

Risk & Broking

The Risk & Broking (‘R&B’) segment provides a broad range of risk advice, insurance brokerage and Reinsurance segment.consulting services to clients worldwide ranging from small businesses to multinational corporations.

The segment comprises two primary businesses:

Corporate Risk & Broking (‘CRB’)

The ‘CRB’ business places more than $25 billion of premiums into the insurance markets on an annual basis, and delivers integrated global solutions tailored to client needs, underpinned by data and analytics through a balanced matrix of global lines of business across all of the Company’s three geographical areas: North America, Europe (including Great Britain) and International.

The global lines of business include:

Property and Casualty — Property and Casualty provides property and liability insurance brokerage services across a wide range of industries and segments including real estate, healthcare and retail. We also arrange insurance products and services for our affinity client partners to offer to their customers, employees, or members alongside, or in addition to, their principal business offerings.

Aerospace — Aerospace provides specialist expertise to the aerospace and space industries. Our aerospace business provides insurance broking, risk management services, contractual and technical advisory expertise to aerospace clients worldwide, including the world’s leading airlines, aircraft manufacturers, air cargo handlers and other airport and general aviation companies. The specialist InSpace team is also prominent in providing insurance and risk management services to the space industry.

Construction — Our Construction business provides services that include insurance broking, claims, loss control and specialized risk advice for a wide range of construction projects and activities. Clients include contractors, project owners, public entities, project managers, consultants and financiers, among others.

Global Markets Direct & Facultative — Operating in the major wholesale reinsurance hubs across the world, including London, Bermuda, Singapore, Hong Kong and Shanghai, solutions are delivered both directly to clients for the most complex property and casualty risks and as facultative reinsurance placements where we serve as an intermediary for insurance companies. Facultative solutions are provided across various classes of risk for our insurer clients, some of which may also be direct clients of WTW. The aim is to deliver optimum results for our clients by getting the right risk to the right market by the right broker, be it local, wholesale or facultative every time.

Financial, Executive and Professional Risks (‘FINEX’) — FINEX encompasses all financial and executive risks, delivering client solutions that range from management and professional liability, employment practices liability, crime, cyber and M&A-related insurances to risk consulting and advisory services. Specialist teams provide risk consulting and risk transfer solutions to a broad spectrum of clients across a multitude of industries, as well as the financial and professional service sectors.

Financial Solutions — Financial Solutions provides insurance broking services and specialized risk advice related to credit and political risk and crisis management, including terrorism, kidnap and ransom and contingency risk. Clients include international banks, leasing companies, commodity traders, export credit agencies, multinational corporations and sporting institutions.

Surety — The Global Surety team provides expertise in placing bonds across all industries and around the world. A surety bond is a financial instrument that guarantees contractual performance, statutory compliance, and financial assurance for domestic and international companies.

Marine — Marine provides specialist expertise to the maritime and logistics industries. Our Marine business provides insurance broking services related to hull and machinery, cargo, protection and indemnity, fine art and general marine liabilities, among others. Our Marine clients include, but are not limited to, ship owners and operators, shipbuilders, logistics operations, port authorities, traders, shippers, exhibitors and secure transport companies.

Natural Resources — Our Natural Resources practice encompasses the oil, gas and chemicals, mining and metals, power and utilities and renewable energy sectors. It provides sector-specific risk transfer solutions and insights, which include insurance broking, risk engineering, contractual reviews, wording analysis and claims management.

Insurance Consulting and Technology (‘ICT’)

ICT is a global business that provides advice and technology solutions to the insurance industry. We leverage our industry experience, strategic perspective and analytical skills to help clients measure and manage risk and capital, improve business performance and

A number of services are continuing under a cost reimbursement Transition Services Agreement (‘TSA’) in which WTW is providing Gallagher support including real estate leases, information technology, payroll, human resources and accounting. These services are expected to be provided for a period not to exceed two years.6

Termination of the Proposed Combination with Aon plc

On March 9, 2020, WTWcreate a sustainable competitive advantage. Our services include software and Aon plc (‘Aon’) issued an announcement disclosing that the respective boards of directors of WTWtechnology, risk and Aon had reached agreement on the terms of a recommended acquisition of WTW by Aon. Under the terms of the agreement each WTW shareholder would receive 1.08 Aon ordinary shares for each WTW ordinary share. At the time of the announcement, it was estimated that upon completion of the combination, existing Aon shareholders would own approximately 63%capital management, products and existing WTW shareholders would own approximately 37% of the combined company on a fully diluted basis.

The transaction was approved by the shareholders of both WTWproduct pricing, financial and Aon during meetings of the respective shareholders held on August 26, 2020. On June 16, 2021, the U.S. Department of Justice filed suit in U.S. District Court in the District of Columbia against WTWregulatory reporting, financial and Aon, seeking to enjoin the proposedcapital modeling, M&A, outsourcing and business combination between the two companies (among other relief). On July 26, 2021, WTW and Aon announced they had terminated the business combination agreement and that Aon had agreed to pay WTW $1 billion in connection with such termination, which was received by WTW on July 27, 2021 (the ‘Termination’ or the ‘Termination Agreement’). The $1 billion income receipt has been included in transaction and integration, net in the consolidated statements of comprehensive income. Under the Termination Agreement, WTW and Aon on behalf of themselves and certain other related and affiliated parties, each agreed to release the other from all claims and actions arising out of or related to the business combination agreement and the transactions contemplated thereby, subject to certain exceptions.management.

Available Information

The Company files annual, quarterly and current reports, proxy statements and other information with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the ‘SEC’).SEC. The SEC maintains a website that contains annual, quarterly and current reports, proxy statements and other information that issuers (including WTW) file electronically with the SEC. The SEC’s website is www.sec.gov.

The Company makes available, free of charge through our website, www.wtwco.com, our Annual Report on Form 10-K, our quarterly reports on Form 10-Q, our proxy statement, current reports on Form 8-K and Forms 3, 4, and 5 filed on behalf of directors and executive officers, as well as any amendments to those reports filed or furnished pursuant to the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (the ‘Exchange Act’) as soon as reasonably practicable after such material is electronically filed with, or furnished to, the SEC. Unless specifically incorporated by reference, information on our website is not a part of this Form 10-K.

The Company’s Memorandum and Articles of Association,Corporate Governance Guidelines, Audit and Risk Committee Charter, Operational Transformation Committee Charter, Human Capital and Compensation Committee Charter, and Corporate Governance &and Nominating Committee Charter are available on our website, www.wtwco.com, in the Investor Relations section, or upon request. Requests for copies of these documents should be directed in writing to the Company Secretary c/o Office of General Counsel, Willis Towers Watson Public Limited Company, Brookfield Place, 200 Liberty Street, New York, NY 10281.

General Information

WTW offers its clients a broad range of services and solutions to help them to identify and control their risks, and to enhance business performance by improving their ability to attract, retain and engage a talented workforce. Our risk control services range from strategic risk consulting (including providing actuarial analysis), to a variety of due diligence services, to the provision of practical on-site risk control services (such as health and safety or property loss control consulting), as well as analytical and advisory services (such as hazard modeling and climate risk quantification). We assist clients in planning how to manage incidents or crises when they occur. These services include contingency planning, security audits and product tampering plans. We help our clients enhance their business performance by delivering consulting services, technology and solutions that help them anticipate, identify and capitalize on emerging opportunities in human capital management, as well as offer investment advice to help them develop disciplined and efficient strategies to meet their investment goals.

As an insurance broker, we act as an intermediary between our clients and insurance carriers by advising our clients on their risk management requirements, helping them to determine the best means of managing risk and negotiating and placing insurance with insurance carriers through our global distribution network. We operate a private Medicare exchange in the U.S. Through this exchange and those for active employees, we help our clients move to a more sustainable economic model by capping and controlling the costs associated with healthcare benefits.

4

We are not an insurance company, and therefore we do not underwrite insurable risks for our own account.

We derive the majority of our revenue from either commissions or fees for brokerage or consulting services. We do not determine the insurance premiums on which our commissions are generally based. Commission levels generally follow the same trend as premium levels as they are derived from a percentage of the premiums paid by the insureds. Fluctuations in these premiums charged by the insurance carriers can therefore have a direct and potentially material impact on our results of operations. Our fees for consulting services are spread across a variety of complementary businesses that generally remain steady during times of uncertainty. We have some businesses, such as our health and benefits and administration businesses, which can be counter cyclical during the early period of a significant economic change.

ImpactRisks and Uncertainties of COVID-19 and Relatedthe Economic ImpactsEnvironment

Over the last two years,Beginning with the COVID-19 pandemic generally did notthere have a materialbeen adverse impact on our overall financial results. Initially, the pandemic had a negative impact on our revenue growth, primarilychanges in our businesses that are discretionary in nature, however we later saw an increased demand for these services, which improved revenue growth beginning in the second quarter of 2021. There continues to be increased demand for our services,global commercial activity, particularly those services that address the various challenges in the global supply chain and workforce availability, and significant volatility in the global financial markets including, among other effects, occasional declines in the equity markets, changes in interest rates and reduced liquidity on a global basis.

Supply and labor market disruptions caused by COVID-19, accommodative monetary and fiscal policy and the Russian invasion of Ukraine have contributed to significant inflation in many of the markets in which we operate. This impacts not only the costs to attract and disruptionsretain employees but also other costs to the supply chain. Whilerun and invest in our business. If our costs grow significantly in excess of our ability to raise revenue, our margins and results of operations may be materially and adversely impacted, and we may not be able to achieve our strategic and financial objectives.

Although we believe we have adapted to the unique challenges posed by the pandemicCOVID-19 surrounding how and where we do our work, we are also impacted by the negative effect on workforce availability, and this may make it difficult for uswhich could hamper our ability to meet thegrow our capacity on pace with

7

increasing demand from our clients. COVID-19 also poses a range of other risks and uncertainties for our business. For information regardingservices. We expect the impact of COVID-19 onmarket for talent to remain highly competitive for at least the next several months. We will continue to monitor the situation and assess any implications to our business and measures we have takenour stakeholders. Additional information about COVID-19 related risks is discussed in response, see Item 7 ‘Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations-Risks and Uncertainties of the COVID-19 Pandemic and the Related Economic Environment’ andPart I, Item 1A ‘Risk Factors-Strategic, Operational and Technology Risks-WeRisk Factors – ‘We have been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic and may be substantially and negatively impacted by itCOVID-19 or other pandemics in the future.’future’.

Business Strategy

As discussed under Item 1, ‘Business – The CompanyCompany’, we seek to be an advisory, broking and solutions provider of choice through an integrated global platform.

WTW is in the business of people, risk and capital. We believe that a unified approach to these areas can be a path to growth for organizations around the world. In that spirit, we bring theWe harness our collective power of our colleagues together – as ‘One WTW’ –to make smart connections to serve and support our clients.

We operate in attractive markets – both growing and mature – with a diversified platform across geographies, industries, segments and lines of business.

Our vision is to be the best advisory, broking and solutions company for the benefit of all our stakeholders – creating a competitive advantage and delivering sustainable, profitable growth.

We believe we can achieve this through executing on our three strategic priorities – grow, simplify and transform:

We care as much about how we work as we do about the impact that we make. This means commitment to a shared purpose and values, a framework that guides how we run our business and serve clients.

Through these strategies we aim to accelerate revenue, margin improvement, cash flow, earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (‘EBITDA’),EBITDA, and earnings growth, and to generate compelling returns for investors, by delivering tangible growth in revenue.

For more information about risks to our strategic plans, see Part I, Item 1A Risk Factors of this Form 10-K.

5

Principal Services

During the year ended December 31, 2021, we managed our business across four integrated reportable operating segments: Human Capital and Benefits; Corporate Risk and Broking; Investment, Risk and Reinsurance; and Benefits Delivery and Administration. Below are the percentages of revenue generated by each segment for each of the years ended December 31, 2021, 2020 and 2019. These percentages exclude revenue that has been classified as discontinued operations in our consolidated statements of comprehensive income.

Human Capital and Benefits

For a description of our Human Capital and Benefits (‘HCB’) segment, see the link above to the 2019 Form 10-K, and see ‘Human Capital and Benefits’ within Part I, Item 1 Business in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2019, filed with the SEC on February 26, 2020. There have been no material updates to the description of our HCB segment since the 2019 Form 10-K other than the updated information provided below.

Talent & Rewards — Our Talent & Rewards (‘T&R’) business provides advice, data, software and products to address clients’ total rewards and talent issues. T&R has operations across the globe, including centralized software development and analytics teams that support the efficient delivery of services to clients.

Within our Rewards line of business, we address executive compensation and broad-based rewards. We advise our clients’ management and boards of directors on all aspects of executive pay programs, including base pay, annual bonuses, long-term incentives, perquisites and other benefits. Our focus is on aligning pay plans with an organization’s business strategy and driving desired performance. Our solutions incorporate market benchmarking data and software to support compensation administration.

Our Talent line of business focuses on the employee experience with solutions including employee insight and listening tools, talent assessment tools and services, communication and change management services and HR software to help companies administer and manage their talent management programs and analyze talent trends.

Revenue for the T&R business is partly seasonal in nature, with a meaningful amount of heightened activity in the second half of the calendar year during the annual compensation, benefits and survey cycles. While T&R enjoys long-term relationships with many clients, work in several practices is often project-based and can be sensitive to economic changes. The business benefits from regulatory changes affecting our clients that require strategic advice, program changes and communication. Additional areas of growth for T&R include the increasing focus on Environmental, Social, and Governance as a component of executive and board pay, the redefinition of jobs and career paths as technology disaggregates work, and the recalibration of pay and the employee experience amidst shifting labor markets.

Corporate Risk and Broking

The WTW Corporate Risk and Broking (‘CRB’) segment provides a broad range of risk advice, insurance brokerage and consulting services to clients worldwide ranging from small businesses to multinational corporations, and places more than $25 billion of premiums into the insurance markets on an annual basis. The segment delivers integrated global solutions tailored to client needs and underpinned by data and analytics through a balanced matrix of global lines of business across all of the Company’s regions. The global lines of business as of December 31, 2021 included:

Property and Casualty — Property and Casualty provides property and liability insurance brokerage services across a wide range of industries and segments including real estate, healthcare and retail. We also arrange insurance products and services for our affinity client partners to offer to their customers, employees, or members alongside, or in addition to, their principal business offerings.

6

Aerospace —Aerospaceprovides specialist expertise to the aerospace and space industries. Our aerospace business provides insurance broking, risk management services, contractual and technical advisory expertise to aerospace clients worldwide, including the world’s leading airlines, aircraft manufacturers, air cargo handlers and other airport and general aviation companies. The specialist InSpace team is also prominent in providing insurance and risk management services to the space industry.

Construction — Our Construction business provides services that include insurance broking, claims, loss control and specialized risk advice for a wide range of construction projects and activities. Clients include contractors, project owners, public entities, project managers, consultants and financiers, among others.

Facultative — Facultative capabilities exist for each of CRB’s offerings to serve as a broker or intermediary for insurance companies seeking to arrange reinsurance solutions across various classes of risk for their clients, some of which may also be broking clients of WTW.

Financial, Executive and Professional Risks (‘FINEX’) — FINEX encompasses all financial and executive risks, delivering client solutions that range from management and professional liability, employment practices liability, crime, cyber and M&A-related insurances to risk consulting and advisory services. Specialist teams provide risk consulting and risk transfer solutions to a broad spectrum of clients across a multitude of industries, as well as the financial and professional service sectors.

Financial Solutions — Financial Solutions provides insurance broking services and specialized risk advice related to credit, surety, terrorism and political risk to clients that range from corporate to professional services firms and financial institutions including, but not limited to, banks, export credit agencies, multilaterals/development finance institutions, private equity funds and special purpose vehicles.

Marine —Marineprovides specialist expertise to the maritime and logistics industries. Our Marine business provides insurance broking services related to hull and machinery, cargo, protection and indemnity, fine art and general marine liabilities, among others. Our Marine clients include, but are not limited to, ship owners and operators, shipbuilders, logistics operations, port authorities, traders, shippers, exhibitors and secure transport companies.

Natural Resources — Our Natural Resources practice encompasses the oil, gas and chemicals, mining and metals, power and utilities and renewable energy sectors. It provides sector-specific risk transfer solutions and insights, which include insurance broking, risk engineering, contractual reviews, wording analysis and claims management.

Investment, Risk and Reinsurance

For a description of our Investment, Risk and Reinsurance (‘IRR’) segment, see the link above to the 2019 Form 10-K, and see ‘Investment, Risk and Reinsurance’ within Part I, Item 1 Business in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2019, filed with the SEC on February 26, 2020. There have been no material updates to the description of our IRR segment since the 2019 Form 10-K other than the updated information provided below.

During 2021 and 2020, WTW completed divestitures of certain businesses within its IRR segment, including its Willis Re business. See Note 3 — Acquisitions and Divestitures within Item 8 of this Annual Report on Form 10-K for further information.

Benefits Delivery and Administration

For a description of our Benefits Delivery and Administration (‘BDA’) segment, see the link above to the 2019 Form 10-K, and see ‘Benefits Delivery and Administration’ within Part I, Item 1 Business in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2019, filed with the SEC on February 26, 2020. There have been no material updates to the description of our BDA segment since the 2019 Form 10-K.

Human Capital

Colleague experience – Our colleague experience is an important differentiating factor for WTW. It is designed to provide colleagues with a strong sense of purpose and belonging where everyone is heard and valued, the opportunity to build great connections with people and leaders, meaningful and interesting work,and meaningful work, developmentopportunities to grow and thrive with recognition opportunities,and reward in return. This means we strive to foster an inclusive environment where everyone can be their authentic selves, innovateself, where we encourage curiosity, innovation and lead in the market, provide the tools and flexibility colleagues need in how and where they do their work, help colleagues feel connected to their work and why they do it, make our processes efficient, have a continuous improvement mindset and leverage best practices, ensure managers actively engage with colleagues, assessan environment where we are bold in our thinking and reward colleagues, and ensure colleagues are heard and valued.care about the impact we have.

Our values, vision, purpose, and new visionColleague Value Proposition (‘CVP’) - we’re Authentic, Curious and refreshed purpose, including our new brand in 2022,Bold, set the tone for what to expect at WTW. And,In addition, our ‘grow, simplify and transform’ strategic priorities are supportingenhance our focus on how to continually support and improve, as appropriate, our colleague experience. We evaluate process efficiencies,rewards offerings, system upgrades and rewards offeringsprocess efficiencies as well as the tradeoffs that may

7

be required. We further considercontinually explore how we can work with flexibility in an on-going hybrid model, and fuel innovation, among other things, to continually attract, engage and retain the most accomplished and aspiring talent.

8

Headcount – Our success depends on our ability to attract, retain, and motivate the most accomplished and aspiring talent in the industry. The number of employees by segment foras of the year ended December 31, 20212022 is approximated below:

The number of employees by geography as of the year ended December 31, 20212022 is approximated below:

Voluntary turnover excluding seasonal employees (rolling 12-month attrition) was 15.2%has stabilized in 20212022 (15.2%) compared to 8.7% in 2020. The turnover rate for 2020 was abnormally low; pre-C2021 (15.2%). Pre-Covid-19 attrition typically averaged around 12.0%. The increase in attrition in 2021 compared andwe have seen voluntary turnover begin to 2020 and 2019 was attributable, in large part, to both uncertainty associated with the planned combination with Aon, which was terminated in July, and, to a lesser extent, generally increased movement in global talent markets. The prolonged period of uncertainty introduced by the pending transaction, and continuingdecline in the period following the terminationlatter part of that transaction, drove attrition higher, particularly in certain business units where job insecurity or other uncertainty was most elevated. For example, attrition in CRB North America and Europe was elevated because the perceived risk of business divestiture needed to secure regulatory approval was high. Additionally, in Corporate where deal-related synergy savings were expected to be most concentrated, colleagues sought employment elsewhere in order to avoid role redundancy.2022.

Hiring – Hiring in 20212022 increased significantly partly due to hiring in 2020 that was deferred due toas the pandemic and business conditions and partly due to increasedstabilized, demand for our services.services increased and we returned to our historical experience as an employer of choice. Hiring and internal movement for 2021,statistics, summarized below, consistent with prior years excludes seasonal colleagues in Tranzact and Individual Marketplace as the volumes are material and fluctuate significantly:

Inclusion and Diversity (‘I&D’) – We believe that when our individual talents are combined, we unlock our collective potential. We further believe that we are better together because each of us is different. WTW aims to ensure that our values and I&D commitments are reflected in every interaction. To support this, we’re focusing on three key areas:

8

A key underlying theme of these priorities is a sharpened focus on our female talent and an aspirational goalour aim to increase gender balanceoverall diversity in leadership levels across the Company. This focus directly supports the statement we made when we joined the Paradigm for Parity® (‘P4P’) coalition in 2016. P4P is committed to reaching gender parity in leadership by 2030.and throughout our talent pipeline.

At December 31, 2021,2022, we had the following global female representation, and in the U.S. where we have the most complete data, we had the following ethnic and racial diversity representation:

As of January 1, 2022, three new independent directors joined our9

The current board of directors, with a fourth new independent director to join on April 1, 2022. This creates a further diverse board (as self-identified), of which, as of April 1, 50% will beis 44% female, including the Human Capital and Compensation Committee Chair. Our new board as of that date, will also havehas representation from the LGBT+ community and the Black and Asian communities, and also hasincludes members with non-U.S. citizenship, including the Audit and Risk Committee Chair.

Additionally, effective April 1, 2023, three new independent directors will join the board. Further, two current directors will not be standing for re-election at the Company’s 2023 Annual General Meeting. Assuming all of the Company’s nominees are elected and have joined the board, the board’s composition as of the conclusion of the 2023 Annual General Meeting will then be 40% female and will continue to include representation from the LGBT+ and Black communities as well as directors with non-U.S. citizenship.

Our executive officers have I&D objectives as part of their individual performance component, comprising a portion of their short-term incentive awards. Each year our leaders cascade I&D objectives throughout the organization, and we continue to reinforce objective and fair processes that mitigate bias in all of our talent programs and processes. Examples of key activities include:

Total rewards – We invest significant resources in our most important asset, our colleagues. We generally seek to offer market competitive rewards packages comprising of a mix of base salary and incentives aligned to our pay-for-performance philosophy plus benefits that support health and wellbeing as well as the ability to plan for the future. In 2022, WTW commenced a companywide review of total rewards, encompassing compensation, benefit offerings and lifestyle support. It entails an assessment of data attained through surveys, interviews, focus groups and external benchmarking.

Our total rewards programs align to our commitment to colleague health and wellbeing, ensuring our peoplecolleagues are protected in the event of accident or illness, have sufficient paid time off and can accumulate capital for personal needs and retirement. We also understand

Work Styles – In the need for flexibility inpast few years, we have adapted the modern workplace and provide modifiedway we work, arrangements and schedules where practical (e.g., flex time, part-time, work-from-home) that enable and supportenabling colleagues to stay focused on their clientswork across a wide variety of different environments. In 2022 we officially launched WTW Work Styles, our approach to recognizing that there are many different approaches to work, which includes three distinct colleague working solutions; office-based, hybrid and business needsremote. This new framework has flexibility at its core, and balance their personal commitments.

COVID-19 response – In 2021, we continued to support the health and safety of colleagues by:

9

The failure to successfully attract and retain qualified personnel could materially adversely affect our results of operations and prospects. For more information see Part I, Item 1A Risk Factors of this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

Competition

We face competition in all fields in which we operate, based on factors including global capability, product breadth, innovation, quality of service and price. We compete with companies such as Accenture plc, Aon plc, Arthur J. Gallagher & Co., Brown & Brown Inc., Cognizant Technology Solutions Corporation, Marsh & McLennan Companies, Inc. (‘Marsh & McLennan’) and Robert Half International Inc., as well as with numerous specialty, regional and local firms. Competition for business is intense in all of our business lines and in every insurance market, and in some business lines Marsh & McLennan and Aon plc and other competitors have greater market share than we do.

Competition on premium rates has also exacerbated the pressures caused by a continuing reduction in demand in some classes of business. For example, rather than purchase additional insurance through brokers, some insureds have been retaining a greater proportion of their risk portfolios than previously. Industrial and commercial companies increasingly rely upon their own subsidiary insurance companies, known as captive insurance companies, self-insurance pools, risk retention groups, mutual insurance companies and other mechanisms for funding their risks, rather than buy insurance. Additional competitive pressures have arisen and are expected to continue to arise from the entry and expansion of new market participants, such as banks, accounting firms, new brokers and insurance carriers themselves, offering risk management or transfer services.

The human capital and risk management consulting industries are highly competitive. We believe we have developed competitive advantages in providing HR consulting and risk management consulting services. We face strong competition from numerous sources, including from large consulting firms, accounting firms and specialized firms focused on these services as further identified below. See Part I, Item 1A Risk Factors – ‘Demand for our services could decrease for various reasons, including a general economic

10

downturn, increased competition, or a decline in a client’s or an industry’s financial condition or prospects, all of which could substantially and negatively affect us’, for a description of competition-related risks that may affect demand for the Company’s services.

Our largest competitors in the pension consulting industry are Mercer HR Consulting (a Marsh & McLennan company) and Aon plc. In addition, we face vigorous competition from numerous other companies in the global HR consulting industry.

Our major competitors in the insurance consulting and software industry include Milliman, Oliver Wyman (a Marsh & McLennan company), the big four accounting firms (Deloitte LLP, Ernst & Young, PricewaterhouseCoopers, and KPMG), and SunGard. Aon plc, Buck Consultants (an HIG Capital Company), Connextions (a United Healthcare company) and Mercer (a Marsh & McLennan company). Automatic Data Processing and Fidelity are among our largest competitors in the insurance exchange industry. With the implementation of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, we also compete with the public exchanges currently run by the U.S. federal, and state governments. We also compete with providers of account-based health plans and consumer-directed benefits such as WageWorks and HealthEquity.

The market for our services is subject to change as a result of economic, regulatory and legislative changes, technological developments, and increased competition seefrom established and new competitors. Regulatory and legislative actions, along with continuously evolving technological developments, will likely have the link above togreatest impact on the 2019 Form 10-K, and see ‘Competition’ withinoverall market for our exchange products. See Part I, Item 1 Business1A Risk Factors – ‘Our business will be negatively affected if we are not able to anticipate and keep pace with rapid changes in government laws or regulations, or if government laws or regulations decrease the need for our Annual Reportservices or increase our costs’ and related risk factors for a description of legal, non-financial regulatory, and compliance risks to the Company.

We believe the primary factors in selecting an HR consulting or risk management services firm include reputation; the ability to provide measurable increases to shareholder value and return on Form 10-Kinvestment; geographic scope; quality of service; and the ability to tailor services to clients’ unique needs.

With regard to the marketplace for individuals and active employee exchanges, we believe that clients base their decisions on a variety of factors that include the year ended December 31, 2019, filedability of the provider to deliver measurable cost savings, a strong reputation for efficient execution, a provider’s capability in delivering a broad number of configurations to serve various population segments, and an innovative service delivery model and platform.

For our traditional consulting and risk management services and the rapidly evolving exchange products, we believe we compete favorably with the SEC on February 26, 2020.respect to these factors.

Regulation

Our business activities are subject to legal requirements and governmental and quasi-governmental regulatory supervision in all countries in which we operate. Also, such regulations may require individual or company licensing to conduct our business activities. While these requirements may vary from location to location, they are generally designed to protect our clients by establishing minimum standards of conduct and practice, particularly regarding the provision of advice and product information, as well as financial criteria. We are also subject to data privacy regulations that apply to health, medical, financial and other types of personal information belonging to our employees, clients and their employees and other third parties across most jurisdictions, including, among others, the E.U. and U.K. General Data Protection Regulations, the Personal Information Protection Law (‘PIPL’) in many countries.China and privacy legislation in certain U.S. states. Our most significant regulatory regions are further described below:

United States

Our activities in connection with insurance brokerage services within the U.S. are subject to regulation and supervision by state authorities. Although the scope of regulation and form of supervision may vary from state to state, insurance laws in the United States are often complex and generally grant broad discretion to supervisory authorities in adopting regulations and supervising regulated activities. That supervision generally includes the licensing of insurance brokers and agents and the regulation of the handling and investment of client funds held in a fiduciary capacity. Our continuing ability to provide insurance brokerage in the states in which we currently operate is dependent upon our compliance with the rules and regulations promulgated by the regulatory authorities in each of these states. Additionally, some of our private exchange activities, including our TRANZACT business which focuses on direct-to-consumer Medicare policy sales, are overseen by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, which is part of the Department of Health and Human Services. Furthermore, certain of our activities are subject to regulation under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (‘HIPAA’), which is enforced by the Office for Civil Rights within the Department of Health and Human Services. As we implement and expand our direct-to-consumer sales and marketing solutions through our Benefits Delivery and& Administration business, we are subject to various federal and state laws and regulations that prescribe when and how we may market to consumers (including,

11

(including, without limitation, the Telephone Consumer Protection Act and other telemarketing laws and the Medicare Communications and Marketing Guidelines issued by the Center for Medicare Services).

Certain of our activities are governed by other regulatory bodies, such as investment and securities licensing authorities. Our activities in connection with investment services within the United States are subject to regulation and supervision at both the federal and state levels. At the federal level, certain of our operating subsidiaries are regulated by the SEC through the Investment Company Act of 1940 and the Investment Advisers’ Act of 1940 and by the Department of Labor through the Employee Retirement Income Security Act, or ERISA. In connection with the SEC regulations, we are required to file certain reports, and are subject to various marketing restrictions, among other requirements. In connection with ERISA regulations, we are limited in the actions we can take for plans for which we serve as fiduciaries, among other matters. Our U.S. investment activities are also subject to certain state regulatory schemes, and some activities also are subject to regulation by the Commodities and Futures Trading Commission under the Commodities Exchange Act.

Our Willis Re Securities business, which was sold to Gallagher in December 2021, operated through its wholly-owned subsidiary, Willis Securities, Inc., a U.S.-registered broker-dealer and member of FINRA/SIPC, primarily in connection with advising on alternative risk financing transactions and investment banking services.

Our activities in connection with Third Party Administrator (‘TPA’) services in the United States are also subject to regulation and supervision by many state authorities. Licensing requirements and supervision vary from state to state. As with insurance brokerage services, our continuing ability to provide these services in states that regulate our activities is dependent upon our compliance with the rules and regulations promulgated from time to time by the regulatory authorities in each of these states.

10

United Kingdom

In the U.K., our business is regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (‘FCA’).

The FCA has a sole strategic objective: to ensure that the relevant markets function well. Its operational objectives are to secure an appropriate degree of protection for consumers, to protect and enhance the integrity of the U.K. financial system, and to promote effective competition in the interests of consumers. The FCA has a wide range of rule-making, investigatory and enforcement powers (including the power to censure and fine) and conducts monitoring visits to assess our compliance with regulatory requirements. In addition, the FCA extended the Senior Managers and Certification Regime (‘SMCR’) which became effective on December 9, 2019 in relation to our U.K. FCA-regulated businesses. The SMCR is designed to drive improvements in culture and governance within financial services firms and to deter misconduct by increasing individual accountability to the FCA. WTW is also subject to the UK General Data Protection Regulation (‘UK GDPR’) subsequent to Brexit.

Brexit will generally cause an increase inNew regulations and modifications to existing regulations that are specific to the U.K. have and will continue to result in differences from the regulatory requirements of the E.U. See Part I, Item 1A Risk Factors, for a description of Brexit-related risks to the Company.

Furthermore, as a result of Brexit, the WTW Brexit broking solution (the U.K. Branch of Willis Towers Watson SA/NV) will behas been required to seek authorization from the FCA as a third country branch. This application for full authorization is due for submission bywas submitted in March 31, 2022 and once approved bywe are currently awaiting approval from the FCA,FCA. This will result in an increase in FCA supervision in the future with additional requirements for the branch in key areas such as SMCR.

European Union

In 2005, the European Union Insurance Mediation Directive introduced rules to enable insurance and reinsurance intermediaries to operate and provide services within each member state of the E.U. on a basis consistent with the E.U. single market and customer protection aims. Each E.U. member state in which we operate is required to ensure that the insurance and reinsurance intermediaries resident in their country are registered with a statutory body in that country and that each intermediary meets professional requirements in relation to their competence, good repute, professional indemnity cover and financial capacity. The E.U. issued a newan additional Insurance Distribution Directive that expands the 2005 directive, and all E.U. member states in which we operate were required to enact the directive and adopt local country laws by October 1, 2018.

The ‘Whistleblower Protection Directive’, on the protection of persons who report breaches of E.U. law, entered into force on December 16, 2019 (Directive 2019/1937). This Directive includes reporting procedures for these persons. The new rules will require the creation of safe channels for reporting both within an organization - private or public - and to public authorities. They will also provide protection to whistleblowers against retaliation.

In addition, our Willis Re Securities business, which was sold to Gallagher in December 2021, provided advice on securities or investments in the European Union and Australia through our U.K. wholly-owned subsidiary, Willis Towers Watson Securities Europe Limited, which is authorized and regulated by the FCA.

WTW is also subject to the E.U. General Data Protection Regulation (‘GDPR’), which became effective in May 2018. The GDPR is a comprehensive regime that significantly increases our responsibilities when handling personal data, including, without limitation, requiring us to conduct privacy impact assessments, restricting the transmission of data and requiring public disclosure of significant data breaches.

Other

Certain of our entities that undertake pension scheme management are subject to MiFID (Markets in Financial Instruments Directive) and MiFIR (the Markets in Financial Instruments Regulation). In addition, revisions to MiFID (‘MiFID II’) took effect in January 2018. These revisions are aimed at strengthening investor protection and improving the function of financial markets. MiFID II imposes a variety of requirements that include, among others, rules relating to product governance and independent investment advice, responsibility of management bodies, inducements, information and reporting to clients, cross-selling, remuneration of staff, and best

12

execution of trades for clients. Further, some of our entities are also authorized and regulated by certain financial services authorities in countries such as Sweden, Ireland, the Netherlands and the U.K.

All companies carrying on similar activities in a given jurisdiction are subject to regulations which are not dissimilar to the requirements for our operations in the U.S. and U.K. We do not consider these regulatory requirements as adversely affecting our competitive position.

Across most jurisdictions we are subject to various data privacy laws and regulations that apply to health, medical, financial and other types of personal information belonging to our clients, their employees and third parties, as well as our own employees. For example, China is a jurisdiction where a comprehensive Personal Information Protection Law (‘PIPL’) has recently been enacted, and our local entity is subject to this regulation.

11

Across many jurisdictions we are subject to various financial crime laws and regulations through our activities, activities of associated persons, the products and services we provide and our business and client relationships. Such laws and regulations relate to, among other areas, sanctions and export control, anti-bribery, anti-corruption, anti-money-laundering and counter-terrorist financing.

Our failure, or that of our employees, to satisfy the regulatory compliance requirements or the legal requirements governing our activities, can result in disciplinary action, fines, reputational damage and financial harm.

See Part I, Item 1A Risk Factors, for an analysis of how actions by regulatory authorities or changes in legislation and regulation as well as compliance with evolving laws, including with respect to data privacy, cybersecurity, and Brexit, in the jurisdictions in which we operate may have an adverse effect on our business.

Information about Executive Officers of the Registrant

The executive officers of the Company as of February 24, 20222023 were as follows:

Kristy D. Banas (age 50)51) - Ms. Banas has served as Chief Human Resources Officer since August 16, 2021. Prior to that, she served as the Senior Director, Global Talent Advisor for Human Capital & Benefits from March 2019 to August 2021. She also served as Senior Director and Head of Global Total Rewards, HR Integration and the HR Business Office from November 2016 to March 2019. From January 2016 to November 2016, Ms. Banas served as Senior Director and Global HR Leader, WTW Operations and Technology. From July 2011 to January 2016, Ms. Banas served as Senior Vice President, Global HR Director for WTW Corporate Functions, and was the Executive HR Sponsor for Global Operations Improvement. Ms. Banas was Vice President and Global HR Partner with XL Capital/ XL Global Services / XL Insurance from November 2001 to June 2011. Ms. Banas has a BS in Business Management from Fairfield University and a partial MS in Human Resource Management from the University of Connecticut.

Anne D. Bodnar (age 65)66) - Ms. Bodnar has served as Chief Administrative Officer at WTW since May 31, 2019 and also served as Chief Human Resources Officer from January 4, 2016 through August 16, 2021. Previously, Ms. Bodnar served on Towers Watson’s Management Committee since January 2015 and as Towers Watson’s Chief Administrative Officer since January 1, 2010. Ms. Bodnar previously served as Managing Director of HR at Towers Perrin beginning in 2001. From 1995 to 2000, Ms. Bodnar led Towers Perrin’s recruiting and learning and development efforts. Prior to that, she was a strategy consultant in Towers Perrin’s Human Capital business. Earlier in her career, Ms. Bodnar held several operational and strategic planning roles at what is now JPMorgan Chase. Ms. Bodnar graduated cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from Smith College and has an M.B.A. from Harvard Business School.

Alexis Faber (age 45) - Ms. Faber has served as Chief Operating Officer at WTW since August 30, 2021. Previously, she served as Chief Operating Officer for Corporate Risk & Broking from March 2018to August 2021. Prior to that, Ms. Faber served as Global Head of Financial Lines since January 2016, Head of FINEX for North America since April 2014, Risk Control and Claim Advocacy Practice Leader for North America since July 2012, Chief Operating Officer for Willis North America since August 2009 and as Chief Operating Officer for the Executive Risks practice since September 2006. Prior to that, Ms. Faber served as Regional Finance Officer for North America since July 2004, and as Financial and Operations Controller for Global Specialties, North America since August 2003. Before joining WTW, Ms. Faber worked in investment banking at Schroder Salomon Smith Barney and at Citigroup. Ms. Faber holds a bachelor’s degree in economics from Williams College and an M.B.A from Columbia Business School.

Matthew S. Furman (age 52)53) - Mr. Furman has served as General Counsel at WTW since January 4, 2016. Previously, Mr. Furman served as Executive Vice President and Group General Counsel at Willis Group Holdings, where he was a member of the Operating Committee since April 2015. From 2007 until March 2015, Mr. Furman was Senior Vice President, Group General Counsel-Corporate and Governance, and Corporate Secretary for The Travelers Companies, Inc. From 2000 until 2007, Mr. Furman was an attorney at Goldman, Sachs & Co. in New York, where he was Vice President and Associate General Counsel in the finance and corporate legal group. Prior to that, he was in private practice, with almost six years’ experience at Simpson Thacher & Bartlett in New York. Mr. Furman also serves as a Trustee of the Jewish Theological Seminary and a Director of the Legal Aid Society. He previously served as a member of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s Investor Advisory Committee, where he served on the Executive Committee and chaired the Market Structure Subcommittee. He holds a bachelor’s degree magna cum laude from Brown University and a law degree magna cum laude from Harvard Law School.

Adam L. Garrard (age 56)57) - Mr. Garrard has served as Head of Risk and Broking since January 1, 2022. Previously, Mr. Garrard served as Head of Corporate Risk and Broking, and International since August 14, 2019. Prior2019 and, prior to that, he served as Head of International at WTW since January 4, 2016. Previously, Mr. Garrard served as Chief Executive Officer for Willis Group Holdings in Asia since

13

September 2012. Prior to that, Mr. Garrard served as Chief Executive Officer for Willis in Europe since January 2009, Chief Executive Officer for Willis in Australasia since May 2005 and Chief Executive Officer for Asia since January 2002. Mr. Garrard has resided in Singapore, Shanghai, Sydney and London while undertaking his Chief Executive Officer roles. After graduating from De Montfort University withPrior to joining WTW in 1994, Mr. Garrard started his insurance career at SBJ Stephenson Insurance Brokers in 1992 as a graduate trainee. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration in 1992, Mr. Garrard joined SBJ Stephenson Insurance Brokers before joining Willis in 1994.business administration from De Montfort University.

Julie J. Gebauer (age 60)61) - Ms. Gebauer has served as Head of Health, Wealth and Career at WTW since January 1, 2022. Previously, Ms. Gebauer served as Head of Human Capital & Benefits at WTW since January 4, 2016 and, prior to that, as Managing Director of Towers Watson’s Talent and Rewards business segment since January 1, 2010. Beginning in 2002, Ms. Gebauer served as a Managing Director of Towers Perrin and led Towers Perrin’s global Workforce Effectiveness practice and the global Towers Perrin-International Survey Research Corporation line of business. Ms. Gebauer was a member of Towers Perrin’s Board of Directors from 2003 through 2006. She joined Towers Perrin in 1986 as a consultant and held several leadership positions at Towers Perrin, serving as the Managing Principal for the New York office from 1999 to 2001 and the U.S. East Region Leader for the Human Capital Group from 2002 to 2006. Ms. Gebauer is a Fellow of the Society of Actuaries. Ms. Gebauer graduated Phi Beta Kappa and with high distinction from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln with a bachelor’s degree in mathematics and was designated a Chancellor’s Scholar.

12

Carl A. Hess (age 60) 61) - Mr. Hess has served as Chief Executive Officer at WTW since January 1, 2022 and, prior to that, served as President since August 16, 2021. Mr. Hess was formerly Head of Investment, Risk and Reinsurance from October 27, 2016 to August 16, 2021. Previously, Mr. Hess served as the Co-Head of North America at WTW since January 4, 2016. Prior to that, Mr. Hess served as Managing Director, The Americas of Towers Watson since February 1, 2014, and before that, he served as the Managing Director of Towers Watson’s Investment business since January 1, 2010. Before his service at Towers Watson, Mr. Hess worked in a variety of roles for over 20 years at Watson Wyatt, lastly as Global Practice Director of Watson Wyatt’s Investment business. Mr. Hess is a Fellow of the Society of Actuaries and the Conference of Consulting Actuaries and a Chartered Enterprise Risk Analyst. He has a bachelor’s degree cum laude in logic and language from Yale University.

Andrew J. Krasner (age 46)47) - Mr. Krasner has served as Chief Financial Officer at WTW since September 7, 2021. From February 2021 to August 2021, Mr. Krasner served as Chief Financial Officer for Assured Partners. From June 2018 to January 2021, Mr. Krasner was Global Treasurer and Head of M&A of WTW, and from 2012 to June 2018, was Head of M&A, responsible for the Company’s Treasury operations and M&A, joint venture, divestiture, and strategic investment activity. Mr. Krasner started with Legacy Willis in June 2009 as Senior Vice President, working on the client side with Willis Capital Markets & Advisory between June 2009 to June 2012. Prior to joining WTW, Mr. Krasner was a Principal with Banc of America Securities from October 2003 to June 2009, an Associate with Deutsche Bank from July 2002 to October 2003 and a Senior Associate with PricewaterhouseCoopers from August 1997 to August 2000. Mr. Krasner has a B.S. degree in applied economics and business management and an M.B.A. with distinction from Cornell University. He is also a Certified Public Accountant.

Anne Pullum (age 39)40) - Ms. Pullum has served as Head of Europe at WTW since August 30, 2021 and, prior to that, as Head of Western Europe from May 31, 2019 to August 30, 2021. Previously, she served as the Chief Administrative Officer and Head of Strategy and Innovation since October 27, 2016. Beginning on January 4, 2016, Ms. Pullum served as WTW’s Head of Strategy, where she has played a key role in determining the Company’s strategy and worked across all business segments and functional areas. Previously, Ms. Pullum served as the Head of Strategy for Willis Group since May 2014. Before joining Willis, Ms. Pullum worked at McKinsey & Company, where she served financial services and natural resource clients since October 2010. Prior to that, Ms. Pullum conducted economic research at Greenspan Associates in Washington, D.C. and served as an analyst in the Goldman Sachs Equities Division in London. Ms. Pullum holds an M.B.A. from INSEAD and a bachelor’s degree in international economics from Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service.

Imran Qureshi (age 51)52) - Mr. Qureshi has served as Head of North America at WTW since August 30, 2021. Prior to that, he served as the Co-Leader, U.S. from February 2017 to August 30, 2021. He also chaired the North American Inclusion & Diversity Council during this time. He served as Region Leader, U.S. Midwest from February 2017 to October 2019, and was Market Leader, Greater Chicago and Wisconsin from February 2016 to February 2017. Mr. Qureshi was Managing Consultant of the Chicago office from January 2013 to January 2016, and has been with WTW in other roles since March 1999. Mr. Qureshi is currently a board director at The Executives' Club of Chicago. Previously, he was the board chair of the Human Resources Management Association of Chicago, and he served on the M&A Faculty of WorldatWork where he taught M&A and taught the International Benefits Course for the International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans. In 2004, Mr. Qureshi was honored by Business Insurance magazine as one of “40 Under 40 People to Watch” in the commercial insurance and risk/benefits management services industries. He also has lectured on governance and globalization at The Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University and The University of Chicago Booth School of Business. Mr. Qureshi holds a bachelor’s degree in pure mathematics and statistics with honors from the University of Manchester in the U.K. and has an actuarial background.

Gene H. Wickes14

Pamela Thomson-Hall (age 69)54) - Mr. WickesMs. Thomson-Hall has served as the Head of Benefits Delivery and AdministrationInternational at WTW since April 1,August 30, 2021. Previously, she served as Head of CEEMEA since July 2018, Managing Director of International since January 2017 and Chief of Staff of International since January 2016. Prior to that, Mr. WickesMs. Thomson-Hall served as an Executive SponsorProgram Director for business integration since September 2014 and before that, as General Counsel of the combined WTW Merger integration teamInternational since January 4, 2016. Previously, he served as the Managing Director of the Benefits business segment of Towers Watson from January 1, 2010 until the closing of the WTW merger. Prior to that, he served as the Global Director of the Benefits practice of Watson Wyatt beginning in 2005 and as a member of Watson Wyatt’s Board of Directors from 2002 to 2007. Mr. Wickes was Watson Wyatt’s Global Retirement Practice Director in 2004 and the U.S. West Division’s Retirement Practice Leader from 1997 to 2004. Mr. Wickes joined Watson Wyatt in 1996 as a senior consultant and consulting actuary.April 1999. Prior to joining Watson Wyatt, he spent 18 years with Towers Perrin, where he assisted organizations with welfare, retirement,WTW, Ms. Thomson-Hall worked as a solicitor for Clyde & Co and executive benefit issues. Mr. Wickes is a FellowDLA Piper. Ms. Thomson-Hall holds an LLB from the University College London and completed her LPC at the College of the Society of Actuaries and a member of the Conference of Consulting Actuaries, and he has a B.S. in mathematics and economics, an M.S. in mathematics and an M.S. in economics, all from Brigham Young University.

13

Law.

Board of Directors

A list of the members of the Board of Directors of the Company as of this date of this Annual Report on Form 10-K and their principal occupations isare provided below:

*Not standing for reelection at the Company’s upcoming annual general meeting of shareholders to be held in the second quarter of 2023.

As of April 1, 2023, the following persons will join the Board of Directors of the Company:

1415

ITEM 1A. RISK FACTORS

Executive Summary of Risk Factors

The following contains a summary of each of our risk factors. For the complete disclosure of each risk factor contained herein, please click on the respective summary.

Strategic and Operational and TechnologyTransformation Risks

Business Environment Risks

Human Capital Risks

Intellectual Property, Technology, Cybersecurity and Data Protection Risks

16

Legal, Non-Financial/Regulatory and Compliance Risks

Legal, Non-Financial/Tax Regulatory and Compliance Risks

15

Financial and Related Regulatory Including Tax, Risks

16Tax Risks

Risks Related to Being an Irish-Incorporated Company

17

Risk FactorsRISK FACTORS

Our financial performance, including our business results, financial condition, result of operations, cash flows and price of our ordinary shares, is subject to various risks and uncertainties, including as described in this Item 1A of Part I of our Annual Report. In addition to the factors discussed elsewhere in this Annual Report on Form 10-K, the following are some of the important factors that could cause our actual results to differ materially from those projected in any forward-looking statements. These risk factors should be carefully considered in evaluating our business. The descriptions below are not the only risks and uncertainties that we face. Additional risks and uncertainties that are presently unknown to us could also impair our business operations, financial condition or results. If any of the risks and uncertainties below or other risks were to occur, our business operations, financial condition or results of operations could be materially and adversely impacted. Risks in this section are grouped into categories; the headings of these categories are inserted for convenience of reference only and are not intended to be a part of or to affect the meaning or interpretation of any of the risk factors described herein. Many risks affect more than one category, and the risks are not in order of significance or probability of occurrence solely because they have been grouped by categories. With respect to the tax-related consequences of acquisition, ownership, and disposal of ordinary shares, you should consult with your own tax advisors.

Strategic and Operational and TechnologyTransformation Risks

Our success largely depends on our ability to achieve our global business strategy as it evolves, and our results of operations and financial condition could suffer if the Company were unable to successfully establish and execute on its strategy and generate anticipated revenue growth and cost savings and efficiencies.

Our future growth, profitability, and cash flows largely depend upon our ability to successfully establish and execute our global business strategy. As discussed under Item 1, ‘Business - Business Strategy’, we seek to be an advisory, broking and solutions provider of choice through an integrated global platform. While we have confidence that our strategic plan reflects opportunities that are appropriate and achievable, there is a possibility that our strategy may not deliver projected long-term growth in revenue and profitability due to inadequate execution, incorrect assumptions, global or local economic conditions, competition, changes in the industries in which we operate, sub-optimal resource allocation or any of the other risks described in this ‘Risk Factors’ section. In addition, our strategy continues to evolve, and it is possible that we will be unable to successfully execute the associated strategy changes, due to factors discussed above or elsewhere in this ‘Risk Factors’ section. In pursuit of our growth strategy, we may also invest significant time and resources into new product or service offerings, and there is the possibility that these offerings may fail to yield sufficient return to cover their investment. The failure to continually develop and execute optimally on our global business strategy could have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition and results of operations.

We may not be able to fully realize the anticipated benefits of our growth strategy.

We have stated certain goals at our 2021 Investor Day and our outlook for the next several years, including with respect to our cash flows, our growth and margin targets, and our share repurchases. Newrepurchases, and in 2022, in light of the completion of the divestiture of our Russian subsidiaries to local management (and updated conditions and assessments about the impact of the divestiture on future revenue and expenses), we recast our previously stated outlook and financial targets.

Our initiatives aiming to implement suchour recast targets and future financial objectives pose potential operational risks and may result in distraction of management and employees. We cannot be certain whether we will be able to realize benefits from current revenue-generating or cost-saving initiatives and ultimately realize our objectives. There can be no assurance that our actual results will meet these recast financial goals.

We have been impacted byOur ability to successfully manage ongoing organizational changes could impact our business results, where the COVID-19 pandemic andlevel of costs and/or disruption may be substantiallysignificant and negatively impacted by itchange over time, and the benefits may be less than we originally expect.

We have in the future.

The COVID-19 pandemic has had an adverse impact on global commercial activity,past few years undergone several significant business and organizational changes, including the global supply chain,multi-year operational transformation programs and at times has contributeda new management and organizational structure, among others. There are also a number of other initiatives planned or ongoing to strain in financial markets, including, among other effects, significant volatility in equity markets, changes in interest ratestransform and reduced liquidity on a global basis. It has also resulted in increased travel restrictions and extended shutdowns of businesses in various industries including, among others, travel, trade, tourism, healthupdate our systems and food supply,processes and significantly reduced overall economic output. Asgain efficiencies. In addition, our strategy continues to evolve, and such thereevolution may result in further organizational changes or more or different investments than we currently anticipate. In connection with all these changes, we may manage a number of large-scale and complex projects. Such projects may include multiple and connected phases, many of which may be dependent on factors that are outside of our control. While we plan to undertake these types of large, complex projects based on our determination that each is a risknecessary or desirable for the execution of the Company’s business strategy, we cannot guarantee that COVID-19 and its variants could have a substantial negative impact on client demand and cash flow in certain orthe collective effect of all of these projects will not adversely impact our businesses.

COVID-19 risks magnify other risks discussed inbusiness or results of operations or that the benefits will be as we originally expected. Effectively managing these organizational changes (including ensuring that they are implemented on schedule, within budget and without interruption to the existing business, or that transitions to new systems do not create significant control vulnerabilities during the period of transition) is critical to retaining talent, servicing clients and our business success overall. We may have difficulty attracting, training, and retaining the talent that we need to successfully manage this report and any of our other SEC filings. For example, the effectiveness of external parties, including governmental and non-governmental organizations, in combating the spread and severity of COVID-19 and its variants could have a material impact on demand for our business. In addition, steps taken by market counterparties such as (re)insurance carriers to limit their exposures to COVID-19 and related risks could have an impact on their willingness to provide or renew coverage for our clients on historical terms and pricing, which could again impact demand for our business. Coverage disputes arising outchange. Further, many of the pandemic, somerisks described herein increase during periods of which have already emerged, could also increase our professional liability risk by increasing the frequency and severity of allegations by others that, in the course of providing services, we have committed errors or omissions for which we should have liability. Also, travel restrictions have caused the postponement, modification or cancellation of various conferences and meetings around the world and adversely impacted sales activity. The rapid development and fluidity of the COVID-19 pandemic, including the continued development, availability, distribution and acceptance of effective vaccines and the emergence of vaccine-resistant variants, precludes any prediction as to the duration of the COVID-19 pandemic and the ultimate adverse impact of COVID-19 on our business. Nevertheless, COVID-19 continues to present material uncertainty and risk with respect to demand for our products and services.

In addition, COVID-19 has disrupted certain aspects of our business and could continue to disrupt, possibly materially, our business operations and the services we provide, as well as the business operations of our clients, suppliers and other third parties with whom

1718

significant organizational change and transformation. The failure to effectively manage such risks could adversely impact our resources or business or financial results.

Our growth strategy depends, in part, on our ability to make acquisitions. We face risks when we interact. As an increasing percentageacquire or divest businesses, and we could have difficulty in acquiring, integrating or managing acquired businesses, or with effecting internal reorganizations, all of which could harm our business, financial condition, results of operations or reputation.

Our growth depends in part on our ability to make acquisitions. We may not be successful in identifying appropriate acquisition candidates or consummating acquisitions on terms acceptable or favorable to us. We also face additional risks related to acquisitions, including that we could overpay for acquired businesses and that any acquired business could significantly underperform relative to our expectations. In addition, we may not repurchase as many of our colleagues continueoutstanding shares as anticipated due to work remotely, we face resiliency risks, such as the risk that our information technology platform could potentially be inadequate to support increasing demand,acquisition activity or investment opportunities, as well as other market or business conditions. If we are unable to identify and successfully make, integrate and manage acquisitions, our business could be materially adversely affected. In addition, we face risks related to divesting businesses, including that we may not receive adequate consideration in return for the risk that unusual working arrangements could impact the effectiveness of our operations or controls. Economic disruption caused by COVID-19 or other factors may impact the pace at which we make information technology-based investments, anddivested business, we may continue to make fewer information technology-based investments than previously anticipated, which could potentially create business operational risk. In addition, we depend on third-party platforms and other infrastructurebe subject to provide certain of our products and services, and such third-party infrastructures face similar resiliency risks. These factors have exposed us to increased phishing and other cybersecurity attacks as cybercriminals try to exploit the uncertainty surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as an increase in the number of points of potential attack, such as laptops and mobile devices (both of which are now being used in increased numbers as many of our employees work remotely), to be secured. A failure to effectively manage these risks, including to promptly identify and appropriately respond to any cyberattacks, may adversely affect our business.

Also, a potential COVID-19 infection of any of our key colleagues could substantially and negatively impact our operations. Further, it is possible that COVID-19 causes us to close down call centers and other processes on which we rely, or impacts processes of third-party vendors on whom we rely, which could also materially impact our operations. Resultant changes in financial markets could also have a material impact on our own hedging and other financial transactions, which could impact our liquidity. In addition, it is possible that COVID-19 restrictions could create difficulty for satisfying our legal or regulatory filing or other obligations, including with the SEC and other regulators.

Supply and labor market disruptions caused by COVID-19 as well as other factors, such as accommodative monetary and fiscal policy, have contributed to significant inflation in manyliabilities of the markets in whichdivested business after its divestiture (including with respect to work we operate. This impacts not onlymight have performed on behalf of the costs to attract and retain employees but also other costs to run and invest in our business. If our costs grow significantly in excess of our ability to raise revenues, our margins and results of operations may be materially and adversely impacteddivested business), and we may not be able to achieve our strategic and financial objectives.reduce overhead or redeploy assets or retain colleagues after the divestiture closes. For example, we completed the divestiture of the Willis Re business to Gallagher in 2022 which may give rise to such risks including those risks associated with managing transition arrangements.

AllIn addition, we cannot be certain that our acquisitions will be accretive to earnings or that our acquisitions or divestitures will otherwise meet our operational or strategic expectations. Acquisitions involve special risks, including the potential assumption of unanticipated liabilities and contingencies and difficulties in integrating acquired businesses, and acquired businesses may not achieve the levels of revenue, profit, or productivity we anticipate or otherwise perform as we expect. In addition, if the operating performance of an acquired business deteriorates significantly, we may need to write down the value of the foregoing eventsgoodwill and other acquisition-related intangible assets recorded on our consolidated balance sheet.

We may be unable to effectively integrate an acquired business into our organization and may not succeed in managing such acquired businesses or the larger company that results from such acquisitions. The process of integrating an acquired business may subject us to a number of risks, including, without limitation, an inability to retain the management, key personnel and other employees of the acquired business; an inability to establish uniform standards, controls, systems, procedures and policies or to achieve anticipated savings; and exposure to legal claims or regulatory censure for activities of the acquired business prior to acquisition.

With respect to any such acquisition transactions, we face the risk related to the potential outcomes,impacts of the transaction and integration on relationships, including with employees, correspondents, suppliers, clients and competitors, as well as the risk related to contingent liabilities (including litigation) potentially creating material liabilities for the Company. The following risks, in combinationaddition to those described above, may also adversely affect our ability to successfully implement and integrate these acquisitions: material changes in U.S. and foreign jurisdiction regulations (including those related to the healthcare system and Medicare and insurance brokerage, pension advisory, and investment services); changes in general economic, business and political conditions in relevant markets, including changes in the financial markets; significant competition in the marketplace; and compliance with other risk factors includedextensive and evolving government regulations in this Annual Report on Form 10-K, could cause a substantial negative effect onthe U.S. and in foreign jurisdictions.

If acquisitions are not successfully integrated and the intended benefits of the acquisitions are not achieved, our business, financial condition and results of operations could be materially adversely affected, as well as our professional reputation. We also own an interest in any perioda number of associates and depending on their severity,companies where we do not exercise management control and we are therefore limited in our ability to direct or manage the business to realize the anticipated benefits that we could also substantially and negatively affect our financial condition. Furthermore, such potential material adverse effects may lag behind the developments related to the COVID-19 pandemic. Such events and outcomes also could potentially impact our reputation with clients and regulators, among others.achieve if we had full ownership.

The sale of Willis Re to Gallagher, including transitional arrangements, and pending transactions, creates incremental business, operational, regulatory and reputational risks.

The completion of the agreed-upon transaction to sell our Willis Re business to Gallagher, which has occurred in many but not all jurisdictions globally, entails important risks, including, among others: the risk that the post-closing transition arrangements, which are complex, may impose costs or liabilities or may give rise to errors in execution, be distracting to our management, or cause disruption to our business or our relationships with clients, employees, suppliers, regulators, competitors, and other third parties; the risk that the triggers for the potential earnout payment may not be met; the risk that transaction and/or transition costs may be greater than expected, including as a result of the complexity of the transition arrangements or conditions that regulators may put on any approvals ofin domestic and international jurisdictions across the transaction in jurisdictions that have not yet closed; the potential impact of the consummation of the transaction and transition arrangements on relationships, including with employees, suppliers, regulators, clients, competitors and other third parties;globe; the risk that management’s attention is diverted from other matters during the post-closing period and in the period prior to closing in jurisdictions where closing has yet to occur;period; the risk that litigation associated with the Gallagher transaction or with contingent liabilities we have retained, if any, arises; the risk, as described more below, that we are unable to obtain the requisite regulatory approvals or satisfy all of the other conditions required to consummate the Gallagher transaction in remaining jurisdictions on the terms and expected schedule, if at all; the risk of disruptions from the completion of the Gallagher transaction and transition arrangements that impact our business, including current plans and operations, including the risk of exacerbating existing disruptions or challenges we face; and other risks in this Annual Report on Form 10-K and in our other SEC filings.

19

Our business performance and growth plans could be negatively affected if we are not able to effectively apply technology, data and analytics to drive value for our clients through technology-based solutions or gain internal efficiencies through the effective application of technology, analytics and related tools.

Our success depends, in part, on our ability to develop and implement technology, data and analytic solutions that anticipate, lead or keep pace with rapid and continuing changes in technology both for internal operations and for maintaining industry standards and meeting client preferences. We may not be successful in anticipating or responding to these developments in a timely and cost-effective manner or in attracting and maintaining personnel with the necessary skills in this area. Additionally, our ideas may not lead to the desired internal efficiencies or be accepted in the marketplace. In addition, we may not be able to implement technology-based solutions as quickly as desired if, for example, greater resources are required than originally expected or resources are otherwise needed elsewhere. The effort to gain technological and data expertise and develop new technologies or analytic techniques in our business requires us to incur significant cost and attract qualified technical talent who are in high demand. Our competitors are seeking to develop competing or new technologies, and their success in this space may impact our ability to differentiate our services to our clients through the use of unique technological solutions. In certain cases, we may decide, based on perceived business needs, to make investments that may be greater than we currently anticipate. If we cannot offer new technologies or data and analytic services or solutions as quickly or effectively as our competitors, or if our competitors develop more cost-effective technologies or analytic tools, it could have a material adverse effect on our ability to obtain and complete client engagements.

Business Environment Risks

Demand for our services could decrease for various reasons, including a general economic downturn, increased competition, or a decline in a client’s or an industry’s financial condition or prospects, all of which could materially adverselysubstantially and negatively affect us.

We can give no assurance that theThe demand for our services willmay not grow or be maintained, or thatand we willmay not be able to compete successfully with our existing competitors, new competitors or our clients’ internal capabilities. Client demand for our services may change based on the clients’ needs and financial conditions, among other factors.

Our results of operations are affected directly by the level of business activity of our clients, which in turn is affected by the level of economic activity in the industries and markets that they serve. For example, any changes in U.S. trade policy (including any increases in tariffs that result in a trade war), recessionary conditions in some of the markets where we do business, inflationary conditions, ongoing stock market volatility or an increase in, or unmet market expectations with respect to, interest rates could adversely affect the general economy. As a result, global financial markets may continue to experience disruptions,

18

including increased volatility and reduced credit availability, which could substantially impact our results. Likewise, COVID-19 and related economic disruptiondisruptions have impacted and could have a material adverse impact on global demand from our clients, in addition to the potential impact of pandemics onas well as our own operations as discussed elsewhere in this report. While it is difficult to predict the consequences of any deterioration in global economic conditions on our business, any significant reduction or delay by our clients in purchasing our services or insurance or making payment of premiums could have a material adverse impact on our financial condition and results of operations. In addition, the potential for a significant insurer to fail, be downgraded or withdraw from writing certain lines of insurance coverages that we offer our clients could negatively impact overall capacity in the industry, which could then reduce the placement of certain lines and types of insurance and reduce our revenue and profitability. The potential for an insurer to fail or be downgraded could also result in errors and omissions claims by clients.

In addition, the markets for our principal services are highly competitive. Our competitors include other insurance brokerage (including direct-to-consumer Medicare brokerage), human capital and risk management consulting and actuarial firms, and the human capital and risk management divisions of diversified professional services, insurance, brokerage and accounting firms and specialty, regional and local firms.

Competition for business is intense in all of our business lines and in every insurance market, and some competitors have greater market share in certain lines of business than we do. Some of our competitors have greater financial, technical and marketing resources than us, which could enhance their ability to finance acquisitions, fund internal growth and respond more quickly to professional and technological changes. New competitors, as well as increasing and evolving consolidation or alliances among existing competitors, have created and could continue to create additional competition and could significantly reduce our market share, resulting in a loss of business for us and a corresponding decline in revenue and profit margin. In order to respond to increased competition and pricing pressure, we may have to lower our prices, which would also have an adverse effect on our revenue and profit margin.

20

In addition, existing and new competitors (whether traditional competitors or non-traditional competitors, such as technology companies) could develop competing technologies or product or service offerings that disrupt our industries. Any new technology or product or service offering (including insurance companies selling their products directly to consumers or other insureds) that reduces or eliminates the need for intermediaries in insurance sales transactions could have a material adverse effect on our business and results of operations. Further, the increasing willingness of clients to either self-insure or maintain a captive insurance company, and the development of capital markets-based solutions and other alternative capital sources for traditional insurance needs, could also materially adversely affect us and our results of operations.

An example of a business that may be significantly impacted by changes in customer demand is our retirement consulting and actuarial business, which comprises a substantial portion of our revenue and profit. We provide clients with actuarial and consulting services relating to both defined benefit and defined contribution pension plans. Defined benefit pension plans generally require more actuarial services than defined contribution plans because defined benefit plans typically involve large asset pools, complex calculations to determine employer costs, funding requirements and sophisticated analysis to match liabilities and assets over long periods of time. If organizations shift to defined contribution plans more rapidly than we anticipate, or if we are unable to otherwise compensate for the decline in our business that results from employers moving away from defined benefit plans, our business, financial condition and results of operations could be materially adversely affected. Furthermore, large and complex consulting projects, often involving dedicated personnel, resources and expenses, comprise a significant portion of this business, which are based on our clients’ discretionary needs and may be reduced based on a decline in a client’s or an industry’s financial condition or prospects. We also face the risk that certain large and complex project contracts may be reduced or terminated based on dissatisfaction with service levels, which could result in reduced revenue, write-offs of assets associated with the project, and disputes over the contract, all of which may adversely impact our results and business.

In addition, the demand for many of our core benefit services, including compliance-related services, is affected by government regulation and taxation of employee benefit plans. Significant changes in tax or social welfare policy or other regulations could lead some employers to discontinue their employee benefit plans, including defined benefit pension plans, thereby reducing the demand for our services. A simplification of regulations or tax policy could also could reduce the need for our services.

Our abilitybusiness, financial condition, results of operations, and long-term goals may continue to successfully managebe adversely affected, possibly materially, by negative impacts on the global economy and capital markets resulting from the war between Russia and Ukraine or any other geopolitical tensions.

U.S. and global markets are experiencing volatility and disruption as a result of the war between Russia and Ukraine. Although the length and impact of the ongoing organizational changessituation is highly unpredictable, as the war in Ukraine continues, it has and could impactcontinue to lead to further market disruptions.

Additionally, during the first quarter of 2022, we announced our intention to transfer ownership of our Russian subsidiaries to local management who will operate independently in the Russian market. Due to the sanctions and prohibitions on certain types of business results, where the leveland activities, we deconsolidated our Russian entities on March 14, 2022. The transfer of costs and/or disruption may be significant and change over time,our Russian subsidiaries to local management was completed on agreed-upon terms on July 18, 2022, and the benefits may be less than we originally expect.

We havetransfer was registered in Russia on July 25, 2022. The deconsolidation in the past few years undergone several significantfirst quarter of 2022 resulted in a loss of $57 million. Further, total net assets impaired, including accounts receivable balances related to our Russian business and organizational changes, including multi-year operational improvement programs and a new management structure, among others. Therethat are also a number of other initiatives planned or ongoing to transform and update our systems and processes and gain efficiencies. In addition, our strategy continues to evolve, and such evolution may result in further organizational changes or more or different investments than we currently anticipate. In connection with all these changes, we may manage a number of large-scale and complex projects. Such projects may include multiple and connected phases, many of which may be dependent on factors that areheld outside of our control. While we planRussian entities, were $81 million during the year ended December 31, 2022. The Russian entities comprised approximately 1% of consolidated WTW revenue for 2021, primarily within our Risk & Broking segment. Our Russian operation was a high-margin business and the lost profits from our Russian operations have impacted and are anticipated to undertake these typescontinue to impact operating income and cash flow.

Sanctions imposed by the U.S., the E.U., the U.K. and other countries on Russia, as well as Russian counter-sanctions, are extensive. Additional sanctions and penalties have also been enacted, proposed and/or threatened. Russian actions and the resulting sanctions could adversely affect the global economy and financial markets and lead to instability and lack of large, complex projects basedliquidity in capital markets. The ramifications of the hostilities and sanctions, however, may not be limited to Russia and Russian companies but may spill over to and negatively impact other regional and global economic markets (including Europe and the United States), companies in other countries (particularly those that have done business with Russia) and various sectors, industries and markets for securities and commodities globally, such as oil and natural gas. Accordingly, the actions discussed above and the potential for a wider conflict could increase financial market volatility and could cause severe negative effects on regional and global economic markets, industries, and companies. In addition, Russia may take retaliatory actions and other countermeasures, including cyberattacks and espionage against other countries and companies around the world, which may negatively impact such countries and companies. The extent and duration of the Russian actions or future escalation of such hostilities, the extent and impact of existing and future sanctions, market disruptions and volatility, and the result of any diplomatic negotiations cannot be predicted. For additional sanctions-related risks, also see ‘Sanctions imposed by governments, or changes to such sanction regulations (such as sanctions imposed on Russia), and related counter-sanctions, could have a material adverse impact on our determination that each is necessaryoperations or desirable for the executionfinancial results’ below.

Any of the Company’sabove-mentioned factors, or other geopolitical tensions, could adversely affect our business, prospects, financial condition, and operating results. The extent and duration of the crisis, sanctions and resulting market disruptions are impossible to predict, but could be substantial.

1921

business strategy, we cannot guaranteeWe have been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic and may be substantially and negatively impacted by COVID-19 or other pandemics in the future.

The COVID-19 pandemic has had an adverse impact on global commercial activity, including the global supply chain, and at times has contributed to strain in financial markets, including, among other effects, significant volatility in equity markets, changes in interest rates and reduced liquidity on a global basis. It has also resulted in increased travel restrictions and extended shutdowns of businesses in various industries including, among others, travel, trade, tourism, health systems and food supply, and significantly reduced overall economic output. As such, there is a risk that the collective effect ofCOVID-19 and its variants could continue to have a negative impact, potentially substantial, on client demand and cash flow in certain or all of our businesses.

COVID-19 risks magnify other risks discussed in this report and any of our other SEC filings. For example, the effectiveness of external parties, including governmental and non-governmental organizations, in combating the spread and severity of COVID-19 and its variants could have a material impact on demand for our business. In addition, steps taken by market counterparties such as insurance carriers to limit their exposures to COVID-19 and related risks could have an impact on their willingness to provide or renew coverage for our clients on historical terms and pricing, which could again impact demand for our business. Coverage disputes arising out of the pandemic, some of which have already emerged, could also increase our professional liability risk by increasing the frequency and severity of allegations by others that, in the course of providing services, we have committed errors or omissions for which we should have liability. The continued fluidity of the COVID-19 pandemic, including the ongoing development, availability, distribution and acceptance of effective vaccines and the emergence of vaccine-resistant variants, precludes any prediction as to the duration of the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and the ultimate adverse impact of COVID-19 on our business. As a result, the COVID-19 pandemic continues to present material uncertainty and risk with respect to demand for and delivery of our products and services.

In addition, COVID-19 has disrupted certain aspects of our business and could continue to disrupt, possibly materially, our business operations and the services we provide, as well as the business operations of our clients, suppliers and other third parties with whom we interact. As an increasing percentage of our colleagues continue to work remotely, we face resiliency risks, such as the risk that our information technology platform could potentially be inadequate to support increasing demand, as well as the risk that unusual working arrangements could impact the effectiveness of our operations or controls. Economic disruption caused by COVID-19 or other factors may impact the pace at which we make information technology-based investments, and we may continue to make fewer information technology-based investments than previously anticipated, which could potentially create business operational risk. In addition, we depend on third-party platforms and other infrastructure to provide certain of our products and services, and such third-party infrastructures face similar resiliency risks. These factors have exposed us to increased phishing and other cybersecurity attacks as cybercriminals try to exploit the uncertainty surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as an increase in the number of points of potential attack, such as laptops and mobile devices (both of which are now being used in increased numbers as many of our employees work remotely), to be secured. A failure to effectively manage these projects will notrisks, including to promptly identify and appropriately respond to any cyberattacks, may adversely affect our business.

Also, a potential COVID-19 infection of any of our key colleagues could substantially and negatively impact our operations. Further, it is possible that COVID-19 causes us to close down call centers and hubs and other processes on which we rely, or impacts processes of third-party vendors on whom we rely, which could also materially impact our operations. Resultant changes in financial markets could also have a material impact on our own hedging and other financial transactions, which could impact our liquidity. In addition, it is possible that COVID-19 restrictions could create difficulty for satisfying our legal or regulatory filing or other obligations, including with the SEC and other regulators.

As noted above, supply and labor market disruptions caused by COVID-19 as well as other factors, such as accommodative monetary and fiscal policy, have contributed to significant inflation in many of the markets in which we operate. For additional economic risks, also see ‘Macroeconomic trends, including inflation, increased interest rates and trade policies could continue to adversely affect our business, or results of operations or thatfinancial condition’ below. This impacts not only the benefits willcosts to attract and retain employees but also other costs to run and invest in our business. If our costs grow significantly in excess of our ability to raise revenues, our margins and results of operations may be asmaterially and adversely impacted and we originally expect. Effectively managing these organizational changes (including ensuring that they are implementedmay not be able to achieve our strategic and financial objectives.

All of the foregoing events or potential outcomes, including in combination with other risk factors included in this Annual Report on schedule, within budgetForm 10-K, could cause a substantial negative effect on our results of operations in any period and, without interruptiondepending on their severity, could also substantially and negatively affect our financial condition. Furthermore, such potential material adverse effects may lag behind the developments related to the existing businessCOVID-19 pandemic. Such events and outcomes also could potentially impact our reputation with clients and regulators, among others.

Damage to our reputation, including due to the failure of third parties on whom we rely to perform services or that transitions to new systems do not create significant control vulnerabilities during the periodpublic opinions of transition)third parties with whom we associate, could adversely affect our businesses.

Maintaining a positive reputation is critical to retaining talent, servicingour ability to attract and maintain relationships with clients and colleagues. Damage to our reputation could therefore cause significant harm to our business success overall. and prospects. Harm to our reputation can arise from numerous

22

sources, including among others, employee misconduct, litigation or regulatory action, failure to deliver minimum standards of service and quality, compliance failures, allegations of conflicts of interest and unethical behavior. Such harm could also arise from negative public opinion or political conditions arising from our association with third parties in any number of activities or circumstances. Negative perceptions or publicity, whether or not true, may result in harm to our prospects. In addition, the failure to deliver satisfactory service and quality performance, on time and within budget, in one line of business could cause clients to terminate the services we provide to those clients in many other lines of business. This risk has increased as the Company has become larger and more complex and as we take on increasingly complicated projects for our clients (such as complex outsourcing engagements and technology solutions development/implementation projects that require a significant amount of dedicated personnel resources and expenses).

In addition, as part of providing services to clients and managing our business, we not only depend on a number of third-party service providers and suppliers today, but we expect to engage the services of new third parties in the future as we continue to implement our operational transformation programs. Our ability to perform effectively depends in part on the ability of these service providers to meet their obligations, as well as on our effective oversight of their performance. The quality of our services could suffer, or we could be required to incur unanticipated costs if our third-party service providers do not perform as expected or their services are disrupted. This could have a material adverse effect on our reputation as well as our business and results of operations.

Our business may be harmed by any negative developments that may occur in the insurance industry or if we fail to maintain good relationships with insurance carriers.

Many of our businesses are heavily dependent on the risks described hereininsurance industry. Any negative developments that occur in the insurance industry may have a material adverse effect on our business and our results of operations. In addition, if we fail to maintain good relationships with insurance carriers, it may have a material adverse effect on our business and results of operations.

The private health insurance industry in the U.S. has experienced a substantial amount of consolidation over the past several years, resulting in a decrease in the number of insurance carriers. In the future, it may become necessary for us to offer insurance plans from a reduced number of insurance carriers or to derive a greater portion of our revenue from a more concentrated number of carriers as our business and the health insurance industry continue to evolve. The termination, amendment or consolidation of our relationships with our insurance carriers in the U.S. or in any other jurisdiction could harm our business, results of operations and financial condition.

Macroeconomic trends, including inflation, increased interest rates and trade policies could continue to adversely affect our business, results of operations or financial condition.

Global economic events and other factors, such as accommodative monetary and fiscal policy and the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, have contributed to significant inflation in many of the markets in which we operate. In particular, inflation in the United States, Europe and other geographies has risen to levels not experienced in recent decades and we are seeing its impact on various aspects of our business, which in some cases have, or could in the future, negatively affect our business and financial condition. In order to combat inflation and restore price stability, a number of central banks around the world have raised interest rates and are expected to keep increasing interest rates in 2023. Increased inflation and interest rates may hinder the economic growth in a number of markets where we do business, and has had, and may continue to have, far reaching effects on the global economy. This weakness in the economy and the possibility of a global recession has had, and may continue to have, a negative effect on our business and financial condition, including on the value of our ordinary shares.

Moreover, U.S. and global economic conditions have created market uncertainty and volatility. Such general economic conditions, such as inflation, stagflation, political volatility, costs of labor, cost of capital, interest rates and tax rates, affect our operating and general and administrative expenses, and we have no control or limited ability to control such factors. If our costs grow significantly in excess of our ability to raise revenue, our margins and results of operations may be materially and adversely impacted and we may not be able to achieve our strategic and financial objectives. These conditions also affect our clients’ businesses and the markets that they serve and may reduce demand for our services, increase during periodsdemands for pricing accommodations or cause a higher rate of significant organizational change. The failure to effectively manage such risksdelays in the collection of, or losses on, our accounts receivable, which could adversely affect our results of operations.

Further, the continued slowdown in the global economy, including a recession, or in a particular region or industry, inflation or a tightening of the credit markets could negatively impact our resourcesbusiness, financial condition and liquidity, including our ability to continue to access preferred sources of liquidity when we would like, and our borrowing costs could increase. In particular, further tightening of the credit markets could limit our ability to obtain external financing to fund our operations and capital expenditures, if and when needed. In addition, we could experience losses on our holdings of cash and investments due to failures of financial institutions and other parties. Thus, a continued deterioration or prolonged period of negative or stagnant macroeconomic conditions in the U.S. and globally could adversely affect our business, results of operations or financial results.condition.

Changes23

Human Capital Risks

We depend on the continued services of our executive officers, senior management team, and skilled individual contributors, and any changes in our management structure and in senior leadership could affect our business and financial results.

AsOur success and future performance has depended largely upon the continued services of January 1, 2022, Carl Hess succeeded John Haleyour executive officers, senior management, and other highly skilled personnel. We have relied on our leadership team to execute on our business plan, for strategy, growth, research and development, marketing, sales, provision, maintenance, and support of our products and services, and general and administrative functions, and on mission-critical individual contributors. From time to time, our executive management team and the groups of skilled individual contributors may change from the hiring or departure of executive officers or such contributors, which could disrupt our business. The employment agreements with our executive officers (to the extent our officers are party to such agreements) and other key personnel will not require them to continue to work for us for any specified period; therefore, they could terminate their employment at any time. The loss of one or more of our executive officers, senior management, or other key employees (including any limitation on the performance of their duties or short-term or long-term absences as a result of COVID-19) could significantly delay or prevent the achievement of our chief executive officerdevelopment and previously announced changes to our management structure became effective. Additionally, on September 7, 2021, Andrew Krasner succeeded Michael J. Burwell as our chief financial officer. Leadership transitions can be difficult to manage and may cause disruptions to our operations. strategic objectives.

A leadership transition may also increase the likelihood of turnover among our employees and result in changes in our business strategy, which may create uncertainty and negatively impact our ability to execute our business strategy quickly and effectively. Leadership transitions may also impact our relationships with customers and other market participants, and create uncertainty among investors, employees, and others concerning our future direction and performance. Any significant disruption, uncertainty or change in business strategy could adversely affect our business, operating results and financial condition.

The loss of key colleagues or a large number of colleagues could damage or result in the loss of client relationships and could result in such colleagues competing against us.

Our success depends on our ability to attract, retain and motivate qualified personnel, including key managers and colleagues. In addition, our success largely depends upon our colleagues’ abilities to generate business and provide quality services. Our ability to provide services our clients demand requires such skills and training, in insurance, actuarial, human resources and other areas, which are also in high demand among our competitors. The market for employees in our industry is extremely competitive, and competitors for talent increasingly attempt to hire, and to varying degrees have been successful in hiring, our employees or employment candidates. In particular, our colleagues’ business relationships with our clients are a critical element of obtaining and maintaining client engagements. Labor markets have continued to tighten globally, and we have experienced intense competition and increased costs for certain types of colleagues, especially as new entrants in the insurance business (among others), continue to expend significant resources in their own hiring. Also, in the past, andincluding following the announcement and the termination of the proposed Aon plc combination, we have lost colleagues who manage substantial client relationships or possess substantial experience or expertise; if we lose additional colleagues such as those, or if we lose a large number of other colleagues, it could result in such colleagues competing against us. Voluntary attrition in a number of business lines remains elevated, and it may take longer than expected to hire new colleagues to replace colleagues who have left and/or these new colleagues may be subject to restrictive covenants that impact the amount of business they can generate while those covenants are in effect. Further, the increased availability of remote working arrangements has also expanded the pool of companies that can compete for our employees and employment candidates. Our operational transformation efforts require us to attract, onboard, and retain individuals relevant for those efforts and we may not be able to do that successfully. The failure to successfully attract and retain qualified personnel could materially adversely affect our ability to secure and complete engagements or could disrupt our business or cause increased operational risk, which would materially adversely affect our results of operations and prospects.

Failure to maintain our corporate culture, including in a remote or hybrid work environment, could damage our reputation.

We aim to foster a culture that is based on a strong client focus, an emphasis on teamwork, integrity, mutual respect and striving for excellence. Our colleagues are the cornerstone of this culture, and acts of misconduct by any colleague, and particularly by senior management, could erode trust and confidence and damage our reputation among existing and potential clients and other stakeholders. Our business is managing people, risk and capital, and our success depends on our ability to develop and promote an ethical culture of trust, integrity and other important qualities in which our colleagues are comfortable speaking up about potential misconduct. While we do not believe we have experienced any material adverse cultural impacts as a result of our remote and hybrid work environment, this may manifest over time. As a result, remote and hybrid work arrangements may negatively impact our ability to maintain and promote our culture and increase related risks.

24

Intellectual Property, Technology, Cybersecurity and Data Protection Risks

Data and cyber security breaches or improper disclosure of confidential company or personal data could result in material financial loss, regulatory actions, reputational harm, and/or legal liability.

We depend on information technology networks and systems to process, transmit and store electronic information and to communicate among our locations around the world and with our alliance partners, insurance carriers/markets, clients and third-party vendors. Additionally, one of our significant responsibilities is to maintain the security and privacy of our clients’ confidential and proprietary information and the personal data of their customers and employees. Our information systems, and those of our third-party service providers and vendors, are vulnerable to an increasing threat of continually evolving cybersecurity risks. We are the target of computer viruses, hackers, distributed denial of service attacks, malware infections, ransomware attacks, phishing and spear-phishing campaigns, and/or other external hazards, as well as improper or inadvertent workforce behavior which, could expose confidential company and personal data systems and information to security breaches.

Many of the software applications that we use in our business are licensed from, and supported, upgraded and maintained by, third-party vendors. Our third-party applications include, but are not limited to, enterprise cloud storage and cloud computing application services provided and maintained by third-party vendors. These third-party applications store or may afford access to confidential and proprietary data of the Company, our employees and our clients. We have processes designed to require third-party vendors that provide IT outsourcing, offsite storage and other services to agree to maintain certain standards with respect to the storage, protection and transfer of confidential, personal and proprietary information. However, this data is at risk of compromise or unauthorized access or use in the event of a breakdown of a vendor’s data protection processes, a data breach due to the intentional or unintentional non-compliance by a vendor’s employee or agent, or as a result of a cyber-attack on the product, software or information systems of a vendor in our software supply chain. Any compromise of the product, software, data or infrastructure of a Company vendor, including a software or IT vendor in our supply chain, could in turn result in the compromise of Company data or infrastructure or result in material operational disruption. Further, the risk and potential impact of a data breach on our third-party vendors’ products, software or systems increase as we move more of our data and our clients’ data into our vendors’ cloud storage, engage in IT outsourcing, and consolidate the group of third-party vendors that provide cloud storage or other IT services for the Company. Over time, the

20

frequency, severity and sophistication of the attacks against us and our vendors have increased, including due to the use of artificial intelligence for purposes of cybercrime, and the broader range of threat actors, including state-sponsored actors and hacker activists.

We and our vendors regularly experience cybersecurity incidents, including successful attacks from time to time, and we expect that to continue going forward. Cybersecurity incidents include those resulting from human error or malfeasance, implantation of malware and viruses, phishing and spear-phishing attacks, unauthorized access to our information technology networks and systems, and unauthorized access to data or individual account funds through fraud or other means of deceiving our colleagues, clients, third-party service providers and vendors. We have experienced successful attacks, by various types of hacking groups, in which personal and commercially sensitive information, belonging to the Company or its clients, has been compromised. However, none of these cybersecurity incidents or attacks to our knowledge have been material to our business or financial results. We cannot assure that such cybersecurity incidents or attacks will not have a material impact on our business or financial results in the future. When required by law, we have notified individuals, clients and relevant regulatory authorities (such as insurance/financial services regulators and privacy regulators) of such cybersecurity incidents or attacks.

We maintain policies, procedures and administrative, physical and technological safeguards (such as, where in place, multifactor authentication and encryption of data in transit and at rest) designed to protect the security and privacy of the data in our custody and control. However, such safeguards are time-consuming and expensive to deploy broadly and are not necessarily always in place or effective, and we cannot entirelyeliminate the risk of data security breaches, improper access to, takeover of or disclosure of confidential company or personally identifiable information. We may not be able to detect and assess such issues, or implement appropriate mitigation or remediation, in a timely manner. We are engaged in an ongoing effort to enhance our protections against such attacks; this effort will require significant expenditures and may not be successful. Our technology may fail to adequately secure the private information we hold and protect it from theft, computer viruses, hackers or inadvertent loss.

If any person, including any of our colleagues, intentionally or unintentionally fails to comply with, disregards or intentionally breaches our established controls with respect to such data or otherwise mismanages or misappropriates that data, we could be subject to monetary damages, fines, regulatory enforcement, and/or criminal prosecution. Unauthorized disclosure of sensitive or confidential client, supplier or employee data, whether through systems failure, accident, employee negligence, fraud or misappropriation, could damage our reputation and cause us to lose clients. Similarly, unauthorized access to or through our information systems or those we develop for our clients, whether by our colleagues or third parties, could result in significant additional expenses (including expenses relating to incident response and investigation, remediation work, notification of data security breaches and costs of credit monitoring services), negative publicity, operational disruption, legal liability andand/or damage to our reputation, as well as require substantial resources and effort of management, thereby diverting management’s focus and resources from business operations.

25

The methods used to obtain unauthorized access to, disable or degrade service or sabotage the Company’s systems are also constantly evolving, are increasingly sophisticated, and may be difficult to anticipate or detect. For example, the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation, (‘FBI’), the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, and other U.S. federal agencies continue to issue warnings about trends in cybercriminal and nation-state activity and other threats that are consistent with some of the types of incidents we have experienced. To our knowledge, these incidents have not had a material impact on our business or operations thus far. However, our reputation could be harmed and our business and results of operations could be materially and adversely affected if we were to be the target of such attacks in the future, or if, despite our controls and efforts to detect breaches, we were to be the victim of an undetected breach.

We have implemented and regularly review and update processes and procedures to protect against fraud and unauthorized access to and use of secured data and to prevent data loss. The ever-evolving threats mean that we and our third-party service providers and vendors must continually evaluate, adapt, enhance and otherwise improve our respective systems and processes, especially as we grow our mobile, cloud and other internet-based services. There is no guarantee that such efforts will be adequate to safeguard against all fraud, data security breaches, unauthorized access, operational impacts or misuses of data. For example, our policies, employee training (including phishing prevention training), procedures and technical safeguards may be insufficient to prevent or detect improper access to confidential, personal or proprietary information by employees, vendors or other third parties with otherwise legitimate access to our systems. In addition, we may not be able to implement such efforts as quickly as desired if, for example, greater resources are required than originally expected or resources and management’s focus are insufficient. Any future significant compromise or breach of our data security or fraud, whether external or internal, or misuse of client, colleague, supplier or company data, could result in additional significant costs, lost revenue opportunities, disruption of operations and service, fines, lawsuits, and damage to our reputation with our clients and in the broader marketmarket.

Our inability to comply with complex and evolving laws and regulations related to data privacy and cybersecurity could result in material financial loss, regulatory actions, reputational harm, and/or legal liability.

We are subject to numerous laws and regulations in the U.S. and foreign jurisdictions, only certain of which are named here, designed to protect the personally identifiable information of client and company constituents and suppliers, notably the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (‘GDPR’), which became effective on May 25, 2018, the California Consumer Privacy Act and its implementing regulations (‘CCPA’), which became effective on January 1, 2020, and the Virginia Consumer Data Protection Act (‘VCDPA’), which became effective on March 2, 2021. We are also subject to regulations from other countries that prohibit or restrict the transmission of data outside of such countries’ borders, and to various U.S. federal and state laws governing the protection of health, financial or other individually identifiable information. The GDPR, as well as other more recently-enacted privacy laws, significantly increased our responsibilities when handling personal data including, without limitation, requiring us to conduct privacy impact assessments, restricting the transmission of data, and requiring public disclosure of significant data breaches. Violations of the GDPR may result in possible fines of up to 4% of global annual turnover for the preceding financial year or €20 million (whichever is higher). A July 2020 judgment by the Court of Justice of the European Union on Schrems II has made cross border data transfers to organizations outside the European Economic Area more onerous and uncertain. Further, as a result of the U.K.’s withdrawal from the European Union (‘Brexit’), the data transfer regime between the U.K. and the European Economic Area is subject to some uncertainty if the U.K.’s data strategy diverges from the E.U.’s in the coming years. The Company is also subject to numerous U.S. and foreign marketing and telecommunications laws and regulations designed to protect consumers from unwanted or fraudulent communications. A violation of any such law may lead to litigation or regulatory liability, including substantial financial damages or fines.

Laws and regulations in this area are evolving and generally becoming more stringent, including, without limitation, the U.S. Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (‘HIPAA’), enforced by the Office for Civil Rights within the Department of Health and Human Services, and the New York State Department of Financial Services’ cybersecurity regulations outlining required security measures for the protection of data. Certain U.S. states have also recently enacted laws requiring certain data security and privacy measures of regulated entities, notably the CCPA and VDCPA. We expect that other U.S. states and other countries will follow in implementing their own data privacy and data security laws. For example, Brazil recently enacted the Lei Geral de Proteção de Dados Pessoais, a national data protection law modeled on the GDPR. The People’s Republic of China and India, among other countries, are also expected to enact data protection laws that could, among other things, restrict data transfers out of each of those countries.

Each of these evolving laws and regulations, in the United States and abroad, as well as laws applicable to the Company that are not named here, may be subject to evolving and conflicting interpretations, restrict the manner in which we provide services to our clients, divert resources from other important initiatives, increase the risk of non-compliance, impose significant compliance and other costs that are likely to increase over time, and increase the risk of fines, lawsuits or other potential liability, all of which could have a material adverse effect on our business and results of operations. Our failure to adhere to or successfully develop processes in response to legal or regulatory requirements, including legal or regulatory requirements that may be developed or revised due to

26

economic or geopolitical changes such as Brexit, and changing customer expectations in this area, could result in substantial legal liability and impairment to our reputation or business.

In addition to government regulation, privacy advocates and industry groups may propose new and different self-regulatory standards that either legally or contractually apply to us. We also expect that there will continue to be new proposed laws and regulations concerning privacy, data protection and information security, but cannot yet determine the impact such future laws, regulations and standards may have on our business. New laws, amendments to or re-interpretations of existing laws and regulations, industry standards, contractual obligations and other obligations may require us to incur additional costs and restrict our business operations. Because the interpretation and application of laws and other obligations relating to privacy and data protection are still uncertain, it is possible that these laws and other obligations may be interpreted and applied in a manner that is inconsistent with our existing data management practices. If so, in addition to the possibility of fines, lawsuits and other claims, we could be required to fundamentally change our business activities and practices, which could harm our business. We may be unable to make such changes and modifications in a commercially reasonable manner or at all. Any inability to adequately address privacy concerns, even if unfounded, or comply with applicable privacy or data protection laws, regulations and policies, could result in additional cost and liability, damage to our reputation, or harm to our business.

Our inability to successfully mitigate and recover should we experience a disaster or other business continuity problem could cause material financial loss, loss of human capital, regulatory actions, reputational harm, and/or legal liability.

Should we or a third party on whom we rely experience a disaster or other business continuity problem, such as an earthquake, hurricane, terrorist attack, pandemic, including prolonged effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, security breach, ransomware or destructive malware attack, power loss, telecommunications failure or other natural or man-made disaster, our continued success will depend, in part, on the availability of our personnel, our office facilities, our outsourcing providers or other vendors, access to data, and the proper functioning of our computer, telecommunication and other related systems and operations. In such an event, we could experience operational challenges with regard to our operations.

A disaster on a significant scale or affecting certain of our key operating areas within or across regions, or our inability to successfully recover should we experience a disaster or other business continuity problem, could materially interrupt our business operations and cause material financial loss, loss of human capital, regulatory actions, reputational harm, damaged client relationships or legal liability, particularly if any of these problems occur during peak times.

Material interruption to or loss of our information processing capabilities or failure to effectively maintain and upgrade our information processing hardware or systems could cause material financial loss, regulatory actions, reputational harm, and/or legal liability.

Our business depends significantly on effective information systems. Our capacity to service our clients relies on effective storage, retrieval, processing and management of information. Our information systems also rely on the commitment of significant financial and other resources to maintain and enhance existing systems, develop and create new systems and products in order to keep pace with continuing changes in information processing technology or evolving industry and regulatory standards. We rely on being at the forefront of a range of technology options relevant to our business, including by staying ahead of the technology offered by our competitors, and attracting, developing, and retaining skilled individuals in the cybersecurity space. The market for such qualified individuals is competitive and we may be unable to hire the necessary talent to mitigate the foregoing risks.

In addition, many of the software applications, including enterprise cloud storage and cloud computing application services, that we use in our business are licensed from, and supported, upgraded and maintained by, third-party vendors. We are significantly increasing our use of such cloud services and expect this to continue over time. These third-party applications store confidential and proprietary data of the Company, our clients and our employees. A suspension or termination of certain of these licenses or the related support, upgrades and maintenance could cause temporary system delays or interruptions that could adversely impact our business. As a global organization, we occasionally acquire other companies or divest certain of our existing business lines and companies. These strategic business decisions may require us to manage complex integrations or dissolutions of information systems or the transfer of information from one system to another, and we may fail to identify vulnerabilities in our targets’ information systems or in integrated components of our respective information systems. These transactions may make us more susceptible to cyberattacks and could result in the theft of Company intellectual property, the compromise of Company, employee, and client data or operational disruption.

Any finding that the data we rely on to run our business is inaccurate or unreliable, that we fail to maintain effective and efficient systems (including through a telecommunications failure, failure to replace or update redundant or obsolete computer hardware, applications or software systems, or the loss of skilled people with the knowledge needed to operate older systems), or that we

27

experience cost overruns, delays, or other disruptions, could result in material financial loss, regulatory action, reputational harm or legal liability.

Limited protection of our intellectual property could harm our business and our ability to compete effectively, and we face the risk that our services or products may infringe upon the intellectual property rights of others.

We cannot guarantee that trade secret, trademark, and copyright law protections, or our internal policies and procedures regarding our management of intellectual property, are adequate to deter misappropriation of our intellectual property (including our software, which may become an increasingly important part of our business). Existing laws of some countries in which we provide services or products may offer only limited protection of our intellectual property rights. Also, we may be unable to detect the unauthorized use of our intellectual property and take the necessary steps to enforce our rights, which may have a material adverse impact on our business, financial condition or results of operations. We cannot be sure that our services and products, or the products of others that we offer to our clients, do not infringe on the intellectual property rights of third parties, and we may have infringement claims asserted against us or our clients. These claims may harm our reputation, result in financial liability, consume financial resources to pursue or defend, and prevent us from offering some services or products. In addition, these claims, whether with or without merit, could be expensive, take significant time and divert management’s focus and resources from business operations. Successful challenges against us could require us to modify or discontinue our use of technology or business processes where such use is found to infringe or violate the rights of others, or require us to purchase licenses from third parties, any of which could adversely affect our business, financial condition and operating results.

Legal, Non-Financial/Regulatory and Compliance Risks

From time to time, we receive claims and are party to lawsuits arising from our work, which could materially adversely affect our reputation, business and financial condition.

We depend in large part on our relationships with clients and our reputation for high-quality services to secure future engagements. Clients that become dissatisfied with our services may terminate their business relationships with us, and clients and third parties that claim they suffered damages caused by our services may bring lawsuits against us. We are subject to various actual and potential

21

claims, lawsuits, investigations and other proceedings relating principally to alleged errors and omissions in connection with the provision of our services or the placement of insurance and reinsurance in the ordinary course of business. We are also subject to actual and potential claims, lawsuits, investigations and proceedings outside of errors and omissions claims. See Note 15 - Commitments and Contingencies inwithin Item 8 inof this Annual Report on Form 10-K for examples of claims to which we are subject.

Because we often assist our clients with matters involving substantial amounts of money and complex regulatory requirements, including actuarial services, asset management, technology solutions development and implementation and the placement of insurance coverage and the handling of related claims, errors and omissions claims against us may arise that allege our potential liability for all or part of the substantial amounts in question. The nature of our work, particularly our actuarial services, necessarily involves the use of assumptions and the preparation of estimates relating to future and contingent events, the actual outcome of which we cannot know in advance. Our actuarial and brokerage services also rely on substantial amounts of data provided by clients, the accuracy and quality of which we may not be able to ensure. In addition, we could make computational, software programming or data management errors in connection with the services we provide to clients.

Clients may seek to hold us responsible for alleged errors or omissions relating to any of the brokerage advice and services we provide, including when claims they submit to their insurance carriers are disputed or denied. This risk is likely to be higher in circumstances, such as claims related to COVID-19 (some of which have already emerged), where there are significant disputes between clients and insurance carriers over coverage and clients allege claims against us. This risk also may be higher in circumstances where we have significant numbers of departures or new joiners or other disruptions to our business, such as changes in ways of working. Given that many of our clients have very high insurance policy limits to cover their risks, alleged errors and omissions claims against us arising from disputed or denied claims are often significant. Moreover, in certain circumstances, our brokerage, investment and certain other types of business may not limit the maximum liability to which we may be exposed for claims involving alleged errors or omissions; and as such, we do not have limited liability for the work we provide to the associated clients.

Further, given that we frequently work with large pension funds and insurance companies as well as other large clients, relatively small percentage errors or variances can create significant financial variances and result in significant claims for unintended or unfunded liabilities. The risks from such variances or errors could be aggravated in an environment of declining pension fund asset values and insurance company capital levels. In almost all cases, our exposure to liability with respect to a particular engagement is substantially greater than the revenue opportunity that the engagement generates for us.

Clients may seek to hold us responsible for the financial consequences of variances between assumptions and estimates and actual outcomes or for errors. For example, in the case of pension plan actuarial work, a client’s claims might focus on the client’s alleged reliance on actuarial assumptions that it believes were unreasonable and, based on such reliance, the client made benefit commitments

28

that it may later claim are not affordable or funding decisions that result in plan underfunding if and when actual outcomes vary from actuarial assumptions.

We also continue to create new products and services (including increasingly complex technology solutions) and to grow the business of providing products and services to institutional investors, financial services companies and other clients. The risk of claims from these lines of business and related products and services may be greater than from our core products or services, and such claims may be for significant amounts as we take on increasingly complicated projects, including those with complex regulatory requirements.

We also provide advice on both asset allocation and selection of investment managers. Increasingly, for many clients, we are responsible for making decisions on both of these matters, or we may serve in a fiduciary capacity, either of which may increase liability exposure. In addition, the Company offers affiliated investment funds, including in the U.S. and Ireland, with plans to launch additional funds over time. Given that our InvestmentInvestments business may recommend affiliated investment funds or affirmatively invest such clients’ assets in such funds under delegated authority, this may increase our liability exposure. We may also be liable for actions of managers or other service providers to the funds. Further, for certain clients, we are responsible for some portions of cash and investment management, including rebalancing of investment portfolios and guidance to third parties on the structure of derivatives and securities transactions. Asset classes may experience poor absolute performance, and investment managers may underperform their benchmarks; in both cases the investment return shortfall can be significant. Clients experiencing this underperformance, including from our affiliated investment funds, may assert claims against us, and such claims may be for significant amounts. In addition, our failure to properly execute our role can cause monetary damage to our clients or such third parties for which we might be found liable, and such claims may be for significant amounts. Our expected expansion of this business geographically and in new offerings will subject us to additional contractual exposures and obligations with investors, asset managers and third partythird-party service providers, as well as increased regulatory exposures. Overall, our ability to contractually limit our potential liability may be limited in certain jurisdictions or markets or in connection with claims involving breaches of fiduciary duties or other alleged errors or omissions.

The ultimate outcome of all of the above matters cannot be ascertained and liabilities in indeterminate amounts may be imposed on us. In addition, our insurance coverage may not be sufficient in type or amount to cover us against such liabilities. It is thus possible that future results of operations or cash flows for any particular quarterly or annual period could be materially adversely affected by an

22

unfavorable resolution of these matters. In addition, these matters continue to divert management and personnel resources away from operating our business. Even if we do not experience significant monetary costs, there may be adverse publicity associated with these matters that could result in reputational harm to the industries we operate in or to us in particular that may adversely affect our business, client or employee relationships. In addition, defending against these claims can involve potentially significant costs, including legal defense costs.

As a highly regulated company, we are subject from time to time to inquiries or investigations by governmental agencies or regulators that could have a material adverse effect on our business or results of operations.

We have also been and may continue to be subject to inquiries and investigations by federal, state or other governmental agencies regarding aspects of our clients’ businesses or our own businesses, especially regulated businesses such as our insurance broker, securities broker-dealer and investment advisory services. Such inquiries or investigations may consume significant management time and result in regulatory sanctions, fines or other actions as well as significant legal fees, which could have a material adverse impact on our business, results of operations and liquidity. Also, we may face additional regulatory scrutiny as we expand our businesses geographically and in new products and services that we offer.

Examples of these inquiries or investigations are set forth in more detail in Note 15 — Commitments and Contingencies inwithin Item 8 inof this Annual Report on Form 10-K. These include various ongoing civil investigation proceedings in respect of alleged exchanges of commercially sensitive information among competitors in aviation and aerospace insurance and reinsurance broking.

All of these items reflect an increased focus by regulators (in the U.K., U.S., and elsewhere) on various aspects of the operations and affairs of our regulated businesses. We are unable to predict the outcome of these inquiries or investigations. Any proposed changes that result from these investigations and inquiries, or any other investigations, inquiries or regulatory developments, or any potential fines or enforcement action, could materially adversely affect our business and our results of operations.

Our growth strategy depends, in part, on our ability to make acquisitions. We face risks when we acquire or divest businesses, and we could have difficulty in acquiring, integrating or managing acquired businesses, or with effecting internal reorganizations, all of which could harm our business, financial condition, results of operations or reputation.

Our growth depends in part on our ability to make acquisitions. We may not be successful in identifying appropriate acquisition candidates or consummating acquisitions on terms acceptable or favorable to us. We also face additional risks related to acquisitions, including that we could overpay for acquired businesses and that any acquired business could significantly underperform relative to our expectations. In addition, we may not repurchase as many of our outstanding shares as anticipated due to our acquisition activity or investment opportunities, as well as other market or business conditions. If we are unable to identify and successfully make, integrate and manage acquisitions, our business could be materially adversely affected. In addition, we face risks related to divesting businesses, including that we may not receive adequate consideration in return for the divested business, we may continue to be subject to the liabilities of the divested business after its divestiture (including with respect to work we might have performed on behalf of the divested business), and we may not be able to reduce overhead or redeploy assets or retain colleagues after the divestiture closes. For example, we completed the sale of Miller and the principal closing of the Willis Re business, and are in the process of completing the remaining closings of our sale of the Willis Re business, which may give rise to such risks including risks in managing transition arrangements.

In addition, we cannot be certain that our acquisitions will be accretive to earnings or that our acquisitions or divestitures will otherwise meet our operational or strategic expectations. Acquisitions involve special risks, including the potential assumption of unanticipated liabilities and contingencies and difficulties in integrating acquired businesses, and acquired businesses may not achieve the levels of revenue, profit or productivity we anticipate or otherwise perform as we expect. In addition, if the operating performance of an acquired business deteriorates significantly, we may need to write down the value of the goodwill and other acquisition-related intangible assets recorded on our consolidated balance sheet.

We may be unable to effectively integrate an acquired business into our organization and may not succeed in managing such acquired businesses or the larger company that results from such acquisitions. The process of integrating an acquired business may subject us to a number of risks, including, without limitation, an inability to retain the management, key personnel and other employees of the acquired business; an inability to establish uniform standards, controls, systems, procedures and policies or to achieve anticipated savings; and exposure to legal claims for activities of the acquired business prior to acquisition.

With respect to any such acquisition transactions, we face the risk related to the potential impacts of the transaction and integration on relationships, including with employees, correspondents, suppliers, clients and competitors, as well as the risk related to contingent liabilities (including litigation) potentially creating material liabilities for the Company. The following risks, in addition to those described above, may also adversely affect our ability to successfully implement and integrate these acquisitions: material changes in U.S. and foreign jurisdiction regulations (including those related to the healthcare system and Medicare and insurance brokerage services); changes in general economic, business and political conditions in relevant markets, including changes in the financial

23

markets; significant competition in the marketplace; and compliance with extensive and evolving government regulations in the U.S. and in foreign jurisdictions.

If acquisitions are not successfully integrated and the intended benefits of the acquisitions are not achieved, our business, financial condition and results of operations could be materially adversely affected, as well as our professional reputation. We also own an interest in a number of associates and companies where we do not exercise management control and we are therefore limited in our ability to direct or manage the business to realize the anticipated benefits that we could achieve if we had full ownership.

Ourinability to successfully recover should we experience a disaster or other business continuity problem could cause material financial loss, loss of human capital, regulatory actions, reputational harm or legal liability.

Shouldwe experience a disaster or other business continuity problem, such as an earthquake, hurricane, terrorist attack, pandemic, including prolonged effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, security breach, ransomware or destructive malware attack, power loss, telecommunications failure or other natural or man-made disaster, our continued success will depend, in part, on the availability of our personnel, our office facilities, access to data, and the proper functioning of our computer, telecommunication and other related systems and operations. In such an event, we could experience operational challenges with regard to our operations.

A disaster on a significant scale or affecting certain of our key operating areas within or across regions, or our inability to successfully recover should we experience a disaster or other business continuity problem, could materially interrupt our business operations and cause material financial loss, loss of human capital, regulatory actions, reputational harm, damaged client relationships or legal liability, particularly if any of these problems occur during peak times.

Interruption to or loss of our information processing capabilities or failure to effectively maintain and upgrade our information processing hardware or systems could cause material financial loss, regulatory actions, reputational harm or legal liability.

Ourbusiness depends significantly on effective information systems. Our capacity to service our clients relies on effective storage, retrieval, processing and management of information. Our information systems also rely on the commitment of significant financial and other resources to maintain and enhance existing systems, develop and create new systems and products in order to keep pace with continuing changes in information processing technology or evolving industry and regulatory standards. We rely on being at the forefront of a range of technology options relevant to our business, including by staying ahead of the technology offered by our competitors, and attracting, developing, and retaining skilled individuals in the cybersecurity space.The market for such qualified individuals is competitive and we may be unable to hire the necessary talent to mitigate the foregoing risks.

In addition, many of the software applications, including enterprise cloud storage and cloud computing application services, that we use in our business are licensed from, and supported, upgraded and maintained by, third-party vendors. We are significantly increasing our use of such cloud services and expect this to continue over time. These third-party applications store confidential and proprietary data of the Company, our clients and our employees. A suspension or termination of certain of these licenses or the related support, upgrades and maintenance could cause temporary system delays or interruptions that could adversely impact our business. As a global organization, we occasionally acquire other companies or divest certain of our existing business lines and companies. These strategic business decisions may require us to manage complex integrations or dissolutions of information systems or the transfer of information from one system to another, and we may fail to identify vulnerabilities in our targets’ information systems or in integrated components of our respective information systems. These transactions may make us more susceptible to cyberattacks and could result in the theft of Company intellectual property, the compromise of Company, employee, and client data or operational disruption.

Any finding that the data we rely on to run our business is inaccurate or unreliable, that we fail to maintain effective and efficient systems (including through a telecommunications failure, failure to replace or update redundant or obsolete computer hardware, applications or software systems, or the loss of skilled people with the knowledge needed to operate older systems), or that we experience cost overruns, delays, or other disruptions, could result in material financial loss, regulatory action, reputational harm or legal liability.

TheUnited Kingdom’s exit from the European Union, which occurred on January 31, 2020, and the risk that other countries may follow, could adversely affect us.

In2021, approximately 18% of our revenue from continuing operations was generated in the U.K., although only about 12% of revenue from continuing operations was denominated in Pounds sterling as much of the insurance business is transacted in U.S. dollars. Approximately 18% of our expenses from continuing operations were denominated in Pounds sterling. It remains difficult to predict with any level of certainty the impact that Brexit will have on the economy; economic, regulatory and political stability; and market conditions in Europe, including in the U.K., or on the Pound sterling, Euro or other European currencies, but any such impacts and others we cannot currently anticipate could materially adversely affect us and our operations. Among other things, we could experience: lower growth in the region due to indecision by businesses holding off on generating new projects or due to adverse market conditions; and reduced reported revenue and earnings because foreign currencies may translate into fewer U.S. dollars due to

24

the fact that we translate revenue denominated in non-U.S. currencies, such as Pounds sterling, into U.S. dollars for our financial statements. In addition, there can be no assurance that our hedging strategies will be effective.

On December 24, 2020, the E.U. and the U.K. agreed to the terms of a Trade and Cooperation Agreement (the ‘TCA’) that reflects certain matters agreed upon between the parties in relation to a broad range of separation issues, which provisionally applied as of January 1, 2021, and entered into force on May 1, 2021. While many separation issues have been resolved, some uncertainty remains in relation to the future regulation of financial services, among other matters. The TCA addresses issues related to financial services on a limited basis. The E.U. and the U.K have separately agreed to a Memorandum of Understanding to establish a framework for future regulatory cooperation. The British government and the E.U. will therefore continue over time to negotiate certain terms of the U.K.’s future relationship with the E.U. that are not addressed in the TCA. The Company is heavily invested in the U.K. through our businesses and activities. If the outcomes of Brexit and the TCA negatively impact the U.K., then it could have a material adverse impact on us. Brexit has resulted in greater restrictions on business conducted between the U.K. and E.U. countries and has increased regulatory complexities. There also remains uncertainty as to how changes to the U.K.’s access to the E.U. Single Market and the wider trading, legal, regulatory, tax, social and labor environments, especially in the U.K. and E.U., will be impacted over time, including the resulting impacts on our business and that of our clients. These changes may adversely affect our operations and financial results. For example, a loss of pre-Brexit passporting rights or other changed regulations relating to doing business in various E.U. countries by relying on a regulatory permission in the U.K. (or doing business in the U.K. by relying on a regulatory permission in an E.U. country) may over time increase our costs of doing business, or our ability to do so, and thereby adversely impact our operations and financial results.

We believe we have implemented appropriate arrangements for the continued servicing of client business in the countries most affected. These arrangements include the transaction of certain businesses and/or the movement of certain businesses outside of the U.K. However, various significant risks remain in relation to the effects of the post-Brexit arrangements between the E.U. and U.K. some of which have yet to be agreed upon, including the following, among others:

There is also a risk that other countries may decide to leave the E.U. We cannot predict the impact that any additional countries leaving the E.U. will have on us, but any such impacts could materially adversely affect us.

Allegations of conflicts of interest, including in connection with accepting market derived income (‘MDI’), may have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operation or reputation.

We could suffer significant financial or reputational harm if we fail to properly identify and manage potential conflicts of interest. Conflicts of interest exist or could exist any time the Company or any of its employees have or may have an interest in a transaction or engagement that is inconsistent with our clients’ interests. This could occur, for example, when the Company is providing services to multiple parties in connection with a transaction. In addition, as we provide more solutions-based services, there is greater potential for conflicts with advisory services. Managing conflicts of interest is an important issue for the Company, but can be a challenge for a large and complex company such as ours. Due to the broad scope of our businesses and our client base, we regularly address potential conflicts of interest, including, without limitation, situations where our services to a particular client or our own investments or other interests conflict, or are perceived to conflict, with the interests of another client. If these are not carefully managed, this could then lead to failure or perceived failure to protect the client’s interests, with attendant regulatory and reputational risks that could materially adversely affect us and our operations. There is no guarantee that all potential conflicts of interest will be identified, and undetected

25

conflicts may result in damage to our professional reputation and result in legal liability which may have a material adverse effect on our business. Identifying conflicts of interest may also prove particularly difficult as we continue to bring systems and information together and integrate newly acquired businesses. In addition, we may not be able to adequately address such conflicts of interest.

In addition, insurance intermediaries have traditionally been remunerated by base commissions paid by insurance carriers in respect of placements we make for clients, or by fees paid by clients. Intermediaries also obtain other revenue from insurance carriers. This revenue, when derived from carriers in their capacity as insurance markets (as opposed to as corporate clients of the intermediaries where they may be purchasing insurance or reinsurance or other non-market-related services), is commonly known as market derived income or ‘MDI’. MDI is another example of an area in which allegations of conflicts of interest may arise. MDI takes a variety of forms, including volume- or profit-based contingent commissions, facilities administration charges, business development agreements, and fees for providing certain data to carriers.

MDI creates various risks. Intermediaries in many markets have a duty to act in the best interests of their clients and payments from carriers can incentivize intermediaries to put carriers’ or their own interests ahead of their clients. Accordingly, MDI may be subject to scrutiny by various regulators under conflict of interest, anti-trust, unfair competition, conduct and anti-bribery laws and regulations. While accepting MDI is a lawful and acceptable business practice, and while we have established systems and controls to manage these risks, we cannot predict whether our position will result in regulatory or other scrutiny and our controls may not be effective.

In addition, the Company offers affiliated investment funds, with plans to launch additional funds over time. Given that our Investment business may recommend affiliated investment funds or affirmatively invest such clients’ assets in such funds under delegated authority, there may be a perceived conflict of interest. While the Company has processes, procedures and controls in place intended to mitigate potential conflicts, such perception could cause regulatory inquiries, or could impact client demand and the business’ financial performance, and our controls may not be effective. In addition, underperformance by our affiliated investment funds could lead to lawsuits by clients that were invested in such funds.

The failure or perceived failure to adequately address conflicts of interest could affect the willingness of clients to deal with us, or give rise to litigation or enforcement actions. Conflicts of interest may also arise in the future that could cause material harm to us.

Damage to our reputation, including due to the failure of third parties on whom we rely to perform services or public opinions of third parties with whom we associate, could adversely affect our businesses.

Maintaining a positive reputation is critical to our ability to attract and maintain relationships with clients and colleagues. Damage to our reputation could therefore cause significant harm to our business and prospects. Harm to our reputation can arise from numerous sources, including among others, employee misconduct, litigation or regulatory action, failure to deliver minimum standards of service and quality, compliance failures, allegations of conflicts of interest and unethical behavior. Such harm could also arise from negative public opinion or political conditions arising from our association with third parties in any number of activities or circumstances. Negative perceptions or publicity, whether or not true, may result in harm to our prospects. In addition, the failure to deliver satisfactory service and quality performance, on time and within budget, in one line of business could cause clients to terminate the services we provide to those clients in many other lines of business. This risk has increased as the Company has become larger and more complex and as we take on increasingly complicated projects for our clients (such as complex outsourcing engagements and technology solutions development/implementation projects that require a significant amount of dedicated personnel resources and expenses).

In addition, as part of providing services to clients and managing our business, we rely on a number of third-party service providers. Our ability to perform effectively depends in part on the ability of these service providers to meet their obligations, as well as on our effective oversight of their performance. The quality of our services could suffer, or we could be required to incur unanticipated costs if our third-party service providers do not perform as expected or their services are disrupted. This could have a material adverse effect on our reputation as well as our business and results of operations.

Our business performance and growth plans could be negatively affected if we are not able to effectively apply technology, data and analytics to drive value for our clients through technology-based solutions or gain internal efficiencies through the effective application of technology, analytics and related tools.

Our success depends, in part, on our ability to develop and implement technology, data and analytic solutions that anticipate, lead or keep pace with rapid and continuing changes in technology both for internal operations and for maintaining industry standards and meeting client preferences. We may not be successful in anticipating or responding to these developments in a timely and cost-effective manner or in attracting and maintaining personnel with the necessary skills in this area. Additionally, our ideas may not lead to the desired internal efficiencies or be accepted in the marketplace. In addition, we may not be able to implement technology-based solutions as quickly as desired if, for example, greater resources are required than originally expected or resources are otherwise needed elsewhere. The effort to gain technological and data expertise and develop new technologies or analytic techniques in our business requires us to incur significant cost and attract qualified technical talent who are in high demand. Our competitors are seeking

26

to develop competing or new technologies, and their success in this space may impact our ability to differentiate our services to our clients through the use of unique technological solutions. In certain cases, we may decide, based on perceived business needs, to make investments that may be greater than we currently anticipate. If we cannot offer new technologies or data and analytic services or solutions as quickly or effectively as our competitors, or if our competitors develop more cost-effective technologies or analytic tools, it could have a material adverse effect on our ability to obtain and complete client engagements.

Our business may be harmed by any negative developments that may occur in the insurance industry or if we fail to maintain good relationships with insurance carriers.

Many of our businesses are heavily dependent on the insurance industry. Any negative developments that occur in the insurance industry may have a material adverse effect on our business and our results of operations. In addition, if we fail to maintain good relationships with insurance carriers, it may have a material adverse effect on our business and results of operations.

The private health insurance industry in the U.S. has experienced a substantial amount of consolidation over the past several years, resulting in a decrease in the number of insurance carriers. In the future, it may become necessary for us to offer insurance plans from a reduced number of insurance carriers or to derive a greater portion of our revenue from a more concentrated number of carriers as our business and the health insurance industry continue to evolve. The termination, amendment or consolidation of our relationships with our insurance carriers could harm our business, results of operations and financial condition.

Legal, Non-Financial/Tax Regulatory and Compliance Risks

Our inability to comply with complex and evolving laws and regulations related to data privacy and cyber security could result in material financial loss, regulatory actions, reputational harm or legal liability.

We are subject to numerous laws and regulations in the U.S. and foreign jurisdictions, only certain of which are named here, designed to protect the personally identifiable information of client and company constituents and suppliers, notably the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (‘GDPR’) and the California Consumer Privacy Act and its implementing regulations (‘CCPA’). We are also subject to regulations from other countries that prohibit or restrict the transmission of data outside of such countries’ borders, and to various U.S. federal and state laws governing the protection of health, financial or other individually identifiable information. The GDPR, which became effective in May 2018, as well as other more recently-enacted privacy laws, significantly increased our responsibilities when handling personal data including, without limitation, requiring us to conduct privacy impact assessments, restricting the transmission of data, and requiring public disclosure of significant data breaches. Violations of the GDPR may result in possible fines of up to 4% of global annual turnover for the preceding financial year or €20 million (whichever is higher). A July 2020 judgment by the Court of Justice of the European Union on Schrems II has made cross border data transfers to organizations outside the European Economic Area more onerous and uncertain, pending definitive guidance by European Union authorities. Further, as a result of the U.K.’s withdrawal from the European Union (‘Brexit’), the data transfer regime between the U.K. and the European Economic Area is subject to some uncertainty if the U.K.’s data strategy diverges from the E.U.’s in the coming years. The Company is also subject to numerous U.S. and foreign marketing and telecommunications laws and regulations designed to protect consumers from unwanted or fraudulent communications. A violation of any such law may lead tolitigation or regulatory liability, including substantial financial damages or fines.

Laws and regulations in this area are evolving and generally becoming more stringent, including, without limitation, the U.S. Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (‘HIPAA’), enforced by the Office for Civil Rights within the Department of Health and Human Services, and the New York State Department of Financial Services’ cybersecurity regulations outlining required security measures for the protection of data. Certain U.S. states have also recently enacted laws requiring certain data security and privacy measures of regulated entities, notably the CCPA. We expect that both other U.S. states and other countries will follow in implementing their own data privacy and data security laws. For example, Brazil recently enacted the Lei Geral de Proteção de Dados Pessoais, a national data protection law modeled on the GDPR. The People’s Republic of China and India, among other countries, are also expected to enact data protection laws that could, among other things, restrict data transfers out of each of those countries.

Each of these evolving laws and regulations, in the United States and abroad, as well as laws applicable to the Company that are not named here, may be subject to evolving and conflicting interpretations, restrict the manner in which we provide services to our clients, divert resources from other important initiatives, increase the risk of non-compliance, impose significant compliance and other costs that are likely to increase over time, and increase the risk of fines, lawsuits or other potential liability, all of which could have a material adverse effect on our business and results of operations. Our failure to adhere to or successfully develop processes in response to legal or regulatory requirements, including legal or regulatory requirements that may be developed or revised due to economic or geopolitical changes such as Brexit, and changing customer expectations in this area, could result in substantial legal liability and impairment to our reputation or business.

27

In conducting our businesses around the world, we are subject to political, economic, legal, regulatory, cultural, market, operational and other risks that are inherent in operating in many countries.

In conducting our businesses and maintaining and supporting our global operations, we are subject to political, economic, legal, regulatory, market, operational and other risks. Our businesses and operations continue to expand into new regions throughout the world, including emerging markets. The possible effects of political, economic, financial and climate change related disruptions throughout the world could have an adverse impact on our businesses and financial results. These risks include:

29

Sanctions imposed by governments, or changes to such sanction regulations (such as sanctions imposed on Russia), and related counter-sanctions, could have a material adverse impact on our operations or financial results.

As described above, our businesses are subject to the risk of sanctions imposed by the U.S., the E.U., the U.K. and other governments. In the past year, there was an increase in U.S. designations in relation to Russia and China (including recent sanctions imposed on Russia by the U.S. as well as the E.U. and U.K. due to Ukraine), and there has also been an increased risk of counter-sanctions in some locations, such as China and Russia in response to the recently imposed sanctions. Touchpoints with sanctioned individuals, entities or locations can be difficult to identify and, given the increased scope of complexity of sanctions, there is an increased risk of non-compliance. We have also seen a maturing of the U.K. sanctions regime, which has navigated a differing path from the E.U. and U.S. sanctions regimes but largely with the same objectives. A number of volatile geopolitical events are likely to affect the implementation of sanctions such as the change of regime in Afghanistan, the escalation of sanctions towards Belarus, Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the uncertainty around the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, negotiations between the E.U., U.S. and Iran over a new nuclear deal as well as the continuing trade war between the U.S. and China with their sanctions and subsequent counter-sanctions. Some of these jurisdictions, such as China, or Russia, may be significant businesses for us. As a result, we cannot predict the impacts of any changes in the U.S., E.U., U.K. or other sanctions, and whether such changes could have a material adverse impact on our operations or financial results.

Our business will be negatively affected if we are not able to anticipate and keep pace with rapid changes in government laws or regulations, or if government laws or regulations decrease the need for our services or increase our costs.

A material portion of our revenue is affected by statutory or regulatory changes. An example of a statutory or regulatory change that could materially impact us is any change to the U.S. Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (‘PPACA’), and the Healthcare and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010, (‘HCERA’), which we refer to collectively as ‘Healthcare Reform’. While the U.S. Congress has not passed legislation replacing or fundamentally amending Healthcare Reform (other than changes to the individual mandate), such legislation, or another version of Healthcare Reform, could be implemented in the future. In addition, some U.S. political candidates and representatives elected to office in the recent election have expressed a desire to amend all or a portion of Healthcare Reform or otherwise establish alternatives to employer-sponsored health insurance or replace it with government-sponsored health insurance, often referred to as ‘Medicare for All’. Furthermore, various aspects of Healthcare Reform have been challenged in the judicial system with some success. The status of some of those challenges are in flux but could materially change U.S. healthcare. If we are unable to adapt our services to potential new laws and regulations, or judicial modifications, with respect to Healthcare Reform or otherwise, our ability to provide effective services in these areas may be substantially impacted. In addition, more restrictive marketing rules or interpretations of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, marketing rules, or judicial decisions that restrict or otherwise

28

change existing provisions of U.S. healthcare regulation, could have a material adverse impact on our healthcare-related businesses. In addition, as we implement and expand our direct-to-consumer sales and marketing solutions, we are subject to various federal and state laws and regulations that prescribe when and how we may market to consumers (including, without limitation, the Telephone Consumer Protection Act and other telemarketing laws and the Medicare Communications and Marketing Guidelines issued by the Center for Medicare Services (‘CMS’) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Service). Federal and state legislators and/or regulators recently have expressed concerns about existing methods of marketing individual health policies, particularly Medicare Advantage and Medicare Supplement policies, and CMS has recently expanded its regulation and oversight of the marketing of Medicare Advantage policies. Changes to these laws and/or regulations could negatively affect our ability to market directly to consumers or increase our costs or liabilities.

30

Many other areas in which we provide services are the subject of government regulation, which is constantly evolving. For example, our activities in connection with insurance brokerage services are subject to regulation and supervision by national, state or other authorities. Insurance laws in the markets in which we operate are often complex and generally grant broad discretion to supervisory authorities in adopting regulations and supervising regulated activities. That supervision generally includes the licensing of insurance brokers and agents and the regulation of the handling and investment of client funds held in a fiduciary capacity. Our continuing ability to provide insurance brokerage in the markets in which we currently operate is dependent upon our compliance with the rules and regulations promulgated from time to time by the regulatory authorities in each of these locations.

Changes in government and accounting regulations in the U.S. and the U.K., two of our principal geographic markets, affecting the value, use or delivery of benefits and human capital programs, may materially adversely affect the demand for, or the profitability of, our various services. In addition, we have significant operations throughout the world, which further subject us to applicable laws and regulations of countries outside the U.S. and the U.K. Changes in legislation or regulations and actions by regulators in particular countries, including changes in administration and enforcement policies, could require operational improvements or modifications, which may result in higher costs or hinder our ability to operate our business in those countries.

Our compliance systems and controls cannot guarantee that we comply with all applicable federal and state or foreign laws and regulations, and actions by regulatory authorities or changes in applicable laws and regulations in the jurisdictions in which we operate could have an adverse effect on our business.

Our activities are subject to extensive regulation under the laws of the U.S., the U.K., the E.U. and its member states, and the other jurisdictions around the world in which we operate. In addition, we own an interest in a number of associates and companies where we do not exercise management control. Over the last few years, regulators across the world are increasingly seeking to regulate brokers who operate in their jurisdictions. The foreign and U.S. laws and regulations applicable to our operations are complex, continually evolving and may increase the costs of regulatory compliance, limit or restrict the products or services we sell or subject our business to the possibility of regulatory actions or proceedings. These laws and regulations include insurance and financial industry regulations, antitrust and competition laws, economic and trade sanctions laws relating to countries in which certain subsidiaries do business or may do business (‘Sanctioned Jurisdictions’) such as Crimea, Cuba, Iran, Russia, Sudan, Syria and Venezuela, anti-corruption laws such as the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act,FCPA, the U.K. Bribery Act 2010, and similar local laws prohibiting corrupt payments to governmental officials and the Foreign Account Tax Compliance provisions of the Hiring Incentives to Restore Employment Act in the U.S., as well as laws and regulations related to data privacy, cyber security and telemarketing. Because of changes in regulation and company practice, our non-U.S. subsidiaries are providing more services with connections to various countries, including some Sanctioned Jurisdictions, that our U.S. subsidiaries are unable to perform.

In most jurisdictions, governmental and regulatory authorities have the ability to interpret and amend these laws and regulations and impose penalties for non-compliance, including sanctions, civil remedies, monetary fines, injunctions, revocation of licenses or approvals, suspension of individuals, limitations on business activities or redress to clients. While we believe that we have substantially increased our focus on the geographic breadth of regulations to which we are subject, maintain good relationships with our key regulators and our current systems and controls are adequate, we cannot assure that such systems and controls will prevent any violations of any applicable laws and regulations. While we strive to remain fully compliant with all applicable laws and regulations, we cannot guarantee that we will fully comply at all times with all laws and regulations, especially in countries with developing or evolving legal systems or with evolving or extra-territorial regulations. In particular, given the challenges of integrating operations, many of which are decentralized, we cannot assure that acquired or decentralized entities’ business systems and controls have prevented or will prevent any and all violations of applicable laws or regulations.

Allegations of conflicts of interest or anti-competitive behavior, including in connection with accepting market derived income (‘MDI’), may have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition, results of operation or reputation.

The ways in which insurance intermediaries are compensated receive scrutiny from regulators in part because of the potential for anti-competitive behavior and conflicts of interest. We could suffer significant financial or reputational harm if we fail to properly identify and manage any such potential conflicts of interest or allegations of anti-competitive behavior. Conflicts of interest exist or could exist any time the Company or any of its employees have or may have an interest in a transaction or engagement that is inconsistent with our clients’ interests. This could occur, for example, when the Company is providing services to multiple parties in connection with a transaction. In addition, as we provide more solutions-based services, there is greater potential for conflicts with advisory services. Managing conflicts of interest is an important issue for the Company, but can be a challenge for a large and complex company such as ours. Due to the broad scope of our businesses and our client base, we regularly address potential conflicts of interest, including, without limitation, situations where our services to a particular client or our own investments or other interests conflict, or are perceived to conflict, with the interests of another client. If these are not carefully managed, this could then lead to failure or perceived failure to protect the client’s interests, with attendant regulatory and reputational risks that could materially adversely affect us and our operations. There is no guarantee that all potential conflicts of interest will be identified, and undetected conflicts may result in damage to our professional reputation and result in legal liability which may have a material adverse effect on our business.

31

Identifying conflicts of interest may also prove particularly difficult as we continue to bring systems and information together and integrate newly acquired businesses. In addition, we may not be able to adequately address such conflicts of interest.

In addition, insurance intermediaries have traditionally been remunerated by base commissions paid by insurance carriers in respect of placements we make for clients, or by fees paid by clients. Intermediaries also obtain other revenue from insurance carriers. This revenue, when derived from carriers in their capacity as insurance markets (as opposed to as corporate clients of the intermediaries where they may be purchasing insurance or reinsurance or other non-market-related services), is commonly known as market derived income or ‘MDI’. MDI is another example of an area in which allegations of conflicts of interest may arise. MDI takes a variety of forms, including volume- or profit-based contingent commissions, facilities administration charges, business development agreements, and fees for providing certain data to carriers.

MDI creates various risks. Intermediaries in many markets have a duty to act in the best interests of their clients and payments from carriers can incentivize intermediaries to put carriers’ or their own interests ahead of their clients. Accordingly, MDI may be subject to scrutiny by various regulators under conflict of interest, anti-trust, unfair competition, conduct and anti-bribery laws and regulations. While accepting MDI is a lawful and acceptable business practice, and while we have established systems and controls to manage these risks, we cannot predict whether our position will result in regulatory or other scrutiny and our controls may not be effective.

In addition, the Company offers affiliated investment funds, with plans to launch additional funds over time. Given that our Investments business may recommend affiliated investment funds or affirmatively invest such clients’ assets in such funds under delegated authority, there may be a perceived conflict of interest. While the Company has processes, procedures and controls in place intended to mitigate potential conflicts, such perception could cause regulatory inquiries, or could impact client demand and the business’ financial performance, and our controls may not be effective. In addition, underperformance by our affiliated investment funds could lead to lawsuits by clients that were invested in such funds.

The failure or perceived failure to adequately address actual or potential conflicts of interest or allegations of anti-competitive behavior could affect the willingness of clients to deal with us or give rise to litigation or enforcement actions. Conflicts of interest or anti-competitive activities may also arise in the future that could cause material harm to us.

Changes and developments in the health insurance system in the United States could harm our business.

In 2010, the Federal government enacted significant reforms to healthcare legislation through Healthcare Reform. Many of our lines of business depend upon the private sector of the U.S. insurance system, its role in financing health care delivery, and insurance carriers’ use of, and payment of commissions to, agents, brokers and other organizations to market and sell individual and family health insurance plans. Healthcare Reform provisions have changed and will continue to change the industry in which we operate in substantial ways. Any changes to the roles of the private and public sectors in the health insurance system could also substantially change the industry.

29

Healthcare legislation and changes to government-funded healthcare programs remain a focus in Congress, while various aspects of Healthcare Reform have been challenged in the judicial system with some success. Any partial or complete repeal or amendment, judicial modifications or implementation difficulties, or uncertainty regarding such events, could increase our costs of compliance, prevent or delay future adoption or revisions to our business, and adversely impact our results of operations and financial condition. In addition, other members of Congress and certain state governments have expressed a desire to establish alternatives to employer-sponsored health insurance or replace it with government-sponsored health insurance, often referred to as ‘Medicare for All’. Given the uncertainties relating to the potential repeal and replacement of Healthcare Reform or other alternative proposals related to health insurance plans, the impact is difficult to determine, but it could have material negative effects on us, including:

Any of these effects could materially harm our business and results of operations. For example, various aspects of Healthcare Reform could cause insurance carriers to limit the types of health insurance plans we are able to sell and the geographies in which we are able

32

to sell them. In addition, the U.S. Congress may seek to find spending cuts, and such cuts may include Medicare. If cuts are made to Medicare, there may be substantial changes in the types of health insurance plans we are able to sell, especially through our Individual Marketplace business, which focuses on direct-to-consumer Medicare policy sales. Further, changes in customer demand for these Medicare policies, particularly differences in customer persistency and renewals from what we have currently assumed, could cause us to write down receivable assets we have booked. Changes in the law could also cause insurance carriers to exit the business of selling insurance plans in a particular jurisdiction, to eliminate certain categories of products or to attempt to move members into new plans for which we receive lower commissions. If insurance carriers decide to limit our ability to sell their plans or determine not to sell individual health insurance plans altogether, our business, results of operations and financial condition would be materially harmed.

Limited protection of our intellectual property could harm our businessIncreasing scrutiny and changing expectations from investors, clients and our abilitycolleagues with respect to compete effectively,our environmental, social and governance (‘ESG’) practices may impose additional costs on us or expose us to reputational or other risks.

There is increased focus, including from governmental organizations, investors, colleagues and clients, on ESG issues such as environmental stewardship, climate change, diversity and inclusion, racial justice and workplace conduct. Negative public perception, adverse publicity or negative comments in social media and other forums could damage our reputation if we facedo not, or are not perceived to, adequately address any one or more of these issues. Any harm to our reputation could impact colleague engagement and retention and the willingness of clients and others to do business with us.

Investors, in particular, have increased their emphasis on the ESG practices of companies across all industries, including with respect to climate and human capital management. Certain investors have developed their own ESG ratings while others use third-party benchmarks or scores to measure a company’s ESG practices and make investment decisions or otherwise engage with the company to influence its practices in these areas. Additionally, our clients may evaluate our ESG practices and/or request that we adopt certain ESG policies in order to work with us. Also, organizations that provide ratings information to certain investors on ESG matters may assign unfavorable ratings to the Company, which may lead to negative investor sentiment and the diversion of investment capital to other companies or industries, which could have a negative impact on our stock price and our costs of capital.

New government regulations could also result in new or more stringent forms of ESG oversight and new mandatory and voluntary reporting, diligence and disclosure. As we work to align with the recommendations of the Financial Stability Board’s Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures, the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board, changes to applicable regulatory requirements, and our own ESG assessments and priorities, we may disclose additional metrics against which we may measure ourselves or be measured and tracked by others over time. Our failure to meet expectations or metrics, whether expectations or metrics set by us or by investors or other stakeholders, or to any other failure to make progress in this area on a timely basis, or at all, may negatively impact our reputation and our business.

The United Kingdom’s exit from the European Union, which occurred on January 31, 2020, and the risk that our services or productsother countries may infringe upon the intellectual property rights of others.follow, could adversely affect us.

We cannot guarantee that trade secret, trademark and copyright law protections, or our internal policies and procedures regarding our management of intellectual property, are adequate to deter misappropriationIn 2022, approximately 18% of our intellectual property (including our software, which may become an increasingly important partrevenue from continuing operations was generated in the U.K., although only about 11% of revenue from continuing operations was denominated in Pounds sterling as much of the insurance business is transacted in U.S. dollars or other currencies. Approximately 17% of our business). Existing lawsexpenses from continuing operations were denominated in Pounds sterling. It remains difficult to predict with any level of certainty the impact that Brexit will have on the economy; economic, regulatory and political stability; and market conditions in Europe, including in the U.K., or on the Pound sterling, Euro or other European currencies, but any such impacts and others we cannot currently anticipate could materially adversely affect us and our operations. Among other things, we could experience: lower growth in the region due to indecision by businesses holding off on generating new projects or due to adverse market conditions; and reduced reported revenue and earnings because foreign currencies may translate into fewer U.S. dollars due to the fact that we translate revenue denominated in non-U.S. currencies, such as Pounds sterling, into U.S. dollars for our financial statements. In addition, there can be no assurance that our hedging strategies will be effective.

On December 24, 2020, the E.U. and the U.K. agreed to the terms of a Trade and Cooperation Agreement (the ‘TCA’) that reflects certain matters agreed upon between the parties in relation to a broad range of separation issues, which provisionally applied as of January 1, 2021, and entered into force on May 1, 2021. While many separation issues have been resolved, some countriesuncertainty remains in which we providerelation to the future regulation of financial services, or products may offer onlyamong other matters. The TCA addresses issues related to financial services on a limited protectionbasis. The E.U. and the U.K have separately agreed to a Memorandum of Understanding to establish a framework for future regulatory cooperation. The British government and the E.U. will therefore continue over time to negotiate certain terms of the U.K.’s future relationship with the E.U. that are not addressed in the TCA. The Company is heavily invested in the U.K. through our intellectual property rights. Also, we may be unable to detectbusinesses and activities. If the unauthorized useoutcomes of our intellectual propertyBrexit and take the necessary steps to enforce our rights, which mayTCA negatively impact the U.K., then it could have a material adverse impact on us.

Brexit has resulted in greater restrictions on business conducted between the U.K. and E.U. countries and has increased regulatory complexities. Uncertainty remains as to how changes to the U.K.’s access to the E.U. Single Market and the wider trading, legal, regulatory, tax, social and labor environments, especially in the U.K. and E.U., will be impacted over time, including the resulting impacts on our business financial condition or resultsand that of operations. We cannot be sure that our services and products, or the products of others that we offer to our clients, do not infringe on the intellectual property rights of third parties, and we may have infringement claims asserted against us or our clients. These claims may harm our reputation, result in financial liability, consume financial resources to pursueFor example, the loss of pre-Brexit passporting rights or defend, and prevent us from offering some services or products. In addition, these claims, whether with or without merit, could be expensive, take significant time and divert management’s focus and resources from business operations. Successful challenges against us could require us to modify or discontinue our use of technology or business processes where such use is found to infringe or violate the rights of others, or require us to purchase licenses from third parties, any of which could adversely affect our business, financial condition and operating results.

The laws of Ireland differ from the laws in effect in the United States and may afford less protection to holders of our securities.

It may not be possible to enforce court judgments obtained in the U.S. against us in Ireland, basedregulatory limitations on the civil liability provisions of the U.S. federal or state securities laws. In addition, there is some uncertainty as to whether the courts of Ireland would recognize or enforce judgments of U.S. courts obtained against us or our directors or officers based on the civil liabilities provisions of the U.S. federal or state securities laws or hear actions against us or those persons based on those laws. We have been advised that the U.S. currently does not have a treaty with Ireland providing for the reciprocal recognition and enforcement of judgments in civil and commercial matters. Therefore, a final judgment for the payment of money rendered by any U.S. federal or state court based on civil liability, whether or not based solely on U.S. federal or state securities laws, would not automatically be enforceable in Ireland.

As an Irish company, we are governed by the Irish Companies Act, which differs in some material respects from laws generally applicable to U.S. corporations and shareholders, including, among others, differences relating to interested director and officer transactions and shareholder lawsuits. Likewise, the duties of directors and officers of an Irish company generally are owed to the

3033

company only. Shareholdersability to conduct business in various E.U. countries by relying on a regulatory permission in the U.K. (or, conversely, doing business in the U.K. by relying on a regulatory permission in an E.U. country) may increase our costs of Irish companies generally do notdoing business or our ability to conduct business in impacted jurisdictions. These Brexit-related changes may adversely affect our operations and financial results.

We believe we have a personal rightimplemented appropriate arrangements for the continued servicing of action against directors client business in the countries most affected. These arrangements include the transaction of certain businesses and/or officersthe movement of certain businesses outside of the company and may exercise such rights of action on behalfU.K. However, various significant risks remain in relation to the effects of the company onlypost-Brexit arrangements between the E.U. and U.K. some of which have yet to be agreed upon, including the following, among others:

There is also a risk that other countries may decide to leave the E.U. We cannot predict the impact that any additional countries leaving the E.U. will have on us, but any such impacts could materially adversely affect us.

Financial and Related Regulatory Including Tax, Risks

We have material pension liabilities that can fluctuate significantly and adversely affect our financial position or net income or result in other financial impacts.

We have material pension liabilities, some of which represent unfunded and underfunded pension and postretirement liabilities. Movements in the interest rate environment, investment returns, inflation or changes in other assumptions that are used to estimate our benefit obligations and other factors could have a material effect on the level of liabilities in these plans at any given time. Most pension plans have minimum funding requirements that may require material amounts of periodic additional funding and accounting requirements that may result in increased pension expense. For example, in 2018 we were required to recognize a £31 million ($40 million) pension settlement expense related to the accelerated recognition of certain accumulated losses in one of our U.K. pension schemes following the transfer out of assets of certain plan participants. Depending on the above factors, among others, we could be required to recognize further pension expense in the future. Increased pension expense could adversely affect our earnings or cause earnings volatility. In addition, the need to make additional cash contributions may reduce our financial flexibility and increase liquidity risk by reducing the cash available to meet our other obligations, including the payment obligations under our credit facilities and other long-term debt, or other needs of our business.

Our outstanding debt could adversely affect our cash flows and financial flexibility, and we may not be able to obtain financing on favorable terms or at all.

WTW had total consolidated debt outstanding of approximately $4.6$4.7 billion as of December 31, 2021,2022, and our interest expense was $211$208 million for the year ended December 31, 2021.2022.

34

Although management believes that our cash flows will be sufficient to service this debt, there may be circumstances in which required payments of principal and/or interest on this debt could adversely affect our cash flows and this level of indebtedness may:

The terms of our current financings also include certain limitations. For example, the agreements relating to the debt arrangements and credit facilities contain numerous operating and financial covenants, including requirements to maintain minimum ratios of consolidated EBITDA to consolidated cash interest expense and maximum levels of consolidated funded indebtedness in relation to consolidated EBITDA, in each case subject to certain adjustments. The operating restrictions and financial covenants in our credit facilities do, and any future financing agreements may, limit our ability to finance future operations or capital needs or to engage in other business activities.

A failure to comply with the restrictions under our credit facilities and outstanding notes could result in a default or a cross-default under the financing obligations or could require us to obtain waivers from our lenders for failure to comply with these restrictions. The occurrence of a default that is not cured, or the inability to secure a necessary consent or waiver, could cause our obligations with respect to our debt to be accelerated and have a material adverse effect on our business, financial condition or results of operations.

The maintenance and growth of our business depends on our access to capital, which will depend in large part on cash flow generated by our business and the availability of equity and debt financing. Also, we could be at risk to rising interest rates in the future to the extent that we borrow at floating rates under our existing borrowing agreements or refinance existing debt at higher rates. There can be no assurance that our operations will generate sufficient positive cash flow to finance all of our capital needs or that we will be able to obtain equity or debt financing on favorable terms or at all, which could have a material adverse effect on us.

31

A downgrade to our corporate credit rating and the credit ratings of our outstanding debt may adversely affect our borrowing costs and financial flexibility and, under certain circumstances, may require us to offer to buy back some of our outstanding debt.

A downgrade in our corporate credit rating or the credit ratings of our debt would increase our borrowing costs, including those under our credit facilities, and reduce our financial flexibility. Real or anticipated changes in our credit ratings will generally affect any trading market for, or trading value of, our securities. Such changes could result from any number of factors, including the modification by a credit rating agency of the criteria or methodology it applies to particular issuers, a change in the agency’s view of us or our industry, or as a consequence of actions we take to implement our corporate strategies. If we need to raise capital in the future, any credit rating downgrade could negatively affect our financing costs or access to financing sources. A change in our credit rating could also adversely impact our competitive position.

In addition, under the indentures for our 4.625% senior notes due 2023, our 3.600% senior notes due 2024, our 4.625%4.400% senior notes due 2023,2026, our 4.650% senior notes due 2027, our 4.500% senior notes due 2028, our 2.950% senior notes due 2029, our 6.125% senior notes due 2043, our 4.400% senior notes due 2026, our 2.125% senior notes due 2022, our 4.500% senior notes due 2028, our 5.050% senior notes due 2048, our 2.950% senior notes due 2029, and our 3.875% senior notes due 2049, if we experience a ratings decline together with a change of control event, we would be required to offer to purchase these notes from holders unless we had previously redeemed those notes. We may not have sufficient funds available or access to funding to repurchase tendered notes in that event, which could result in a default under the notes. Any future debt that we incur may contain covenants regarding repurchases in the event of a change of control triggering event.

If a U.S. person is treated as owning at least 10% of our shares, such a holder may be subject to adverse U.S. federal income tax consequences.

Under current U.S. federal tax law, many of our non-U.S. subsidiaries are now classified as ‘controlled foreign corporations’ (‘CFCs’) for U.S. federal income tax purposes due to the expanded application of certain ownership attribution rules within a multinational corporate group. If a U.S. person is treated as owning (directly, indirectly or constructively) at least 10% of the value or voting power of our shares, such a person may be treated as a U.S. shareholder with respect to one or more of our CFC subsidiaries. In addition, if our shares are treated as owned more than 50% by U.S. shareholders, we would be treated as a CFC. A U.S. shareholder of a CFC may be required to annually report and include in its U.S. taxable income, as ordinary income, its pro-rata share of Subpart F income, global intangible low-taxed income, and investments in U.S. property by CFCs, whether or not we make any distributions to such U.S. shareholder. An individual U.S. shareholder generally would not be allowed certain tax deductions or foreign tax credits that would be allowed to a corporate U.S. shareholder with respect to a CFC. A failure by a U.S. shareholder to comply with its reporting obligations may subject the U.S. shareholder to significant monetary penalties and may extend the statute of limitations with respect to the U.S. shareholder’s U.S. federal income tax return for the year for which such reporting was due. We cannot provide any assurances that we will assist investors in determining whether we or any of our non-U.S. subsidiaries are CFCs or whether any investor is a U.S. shareholder with respect to any such CFCs. We also cannot guarantee that we will furnish to U.S. shareholders any or all of the information that may be necessary for them to comply with the aforementioned obligations. U.S. investors should consult their own advisors regarding the potential application of these rules to their investments in us.

Legislative or regulatory action or developments in case law in the U.S. or elsewhere could have a material adverse impact on our worldwide effective corporate tax rate.

We cannot give any assurance as to what our effective tax rate will be in the future, because of, among other things, uncertainty regarding the tax policies of the jurisdictions where we operate. Our actual effective tax rate may vary from expectations, and that variance may be material. Additionally, the tax laws of Ireland and other jurisdictions could change in the future. There may be an enactment of additional, or the revision of existing, state, federal and/or foreign regulatory and tax laws, and/or a development of case law as well as regulations and policy changes in the U.S. or abroad. Any such changes could cause a material change in our effective tax rate.

Further, it is possible that significant changes to the U.S. tax policies may be proposed, and legislative action may be taken by the U.S. Congress which, if ultimately enacted, could limit the availability of tax benefits or deductions that we currently claim, override tax treaties upon which we rely, or otherwise affect the taxes that the U.S. imposes on our worldwide operations. Regulations or administrative guidance from the U.S. Treasury Department that are currently proposed or newly issued in the future could have similar consequences. Such changes could materially adversely affect our effective tax rate and/or require us to take further action, at potentially significant additional expense, to seek to preserve our effective tax rate. In addition, if proposals were enacted that have the effect of limiting our ability as an Irish company to take advantage of tax treaties with the U.S., we could incur additional tax expense and/or otherwise experience business detriment.

In addition, the U.S. Congress, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (‘OECD’), the World Trade Organization and other government agencies in non-U.S. jurisdictions where we and our affiliates do business have had an extended focus on issues related to the taxation of multinational corporations. One example is in the area of base erosion and profit shifting, where payments are made between affiliates from a jurisdiction with high tax rates to a jurisdiction with lower tax rates. Several jurisdictions have enacted legislation that is aligned with, and in some cases exceeds the scope of, the recommendations in the OECD’s 2015 reports addressing 15 specific actions as part of a comprehensive plan to create an agreed set of international rules for fighting base erosion and profit shifting. On October 8, 2021, the OECD announced an international agreement with more than 130 countries to implement a global minimum effective corporate tax rate of 15% for certain large multinational companies starting in

32

2023. The agreement also introduced rules that would result in the reallocation of certain taxing rights from multinational companies from their home countries to the markets where they have business activities and earn profits, regardless of physical presence, and could impact certain tax measures in the European Union. As a result, the tax laws in the U.S., Ireland, and other countries in which we and our affiliates do business could change on a prospective or retroactive basis, and any such changes could adversely affect us and our affiliates.

Our significant non-U.S. operations, particularly our London market operations, expose us to exchange rate fluctuations and various other risks that could impact our business.

A significant portion of our operations is conducted outside of the U.S. Accordingly, we are subject to legal, economic and market risks associated with operating in foreign countries, including devaluations and fluctuations in currency exchange rates; imposition of limitations on conversion of foreign currencies into Pounds sterling or U.S. dollars or remittance of dividends and other payments by foreign subsidiaries; hyperinflation in certain foreign countries; adverse or unexpected impacts of fiscal and monetary policies of foreign countries; imposition or increase of investment and other restrictions by foreign governments; and the requirement of complying with a wide variety of foreign laws. Additionally, and as noted above, the unknown impacts of Brexit may expose us to additional exchange rate fluctuations in the Pounds sterling.

We report our operating results and financial condition in U.S. dollars. Our U.S. operations earn revenue and incur expenses primarily in U.S. dollars. In our London market operations however, we earn revenue in a number of different currencies, but expenses are

35

almost entirely incurred in Pounds sterling. Outside of the U.S. and our London market operations, we predominantly generate revenue and expenses in local currencies.

Because of devaluations and fluctuations in currency exchange rates or the imposition of limitations on conversion of foreign currencies into U.S. dollars, we are subject to currency translation exposure on the profits of our operations, in addition to economic exposure. Furthermore, the mismatch between Pounds sterling revenue and expenses, together with any net Pounds sterling balance sheet position we hold in our U.S. dollar-denominated London market operations, creates an exchange exposure. While we do utilize hedging strategies to attempt to reduce the impact of foreign currency fluctuations, there can be no assurance that our hedging strategies will be effective.

Changes in accounting principles or in our accounting estimates and assumptions could negatively affect our financial position and results of operations.

We prepare our financial statements in accordance with U.S. GAAP. Any change to accounting principles, particularly to U.S. GAAP, could have a material adverse effect on us or our results of operations.

U.S. GAAP accounting principles require us to make estimates and assumptions that affect the reported amounts of assets and liabilities, and the disclosure of contingent assets and liabilities at the date of our financial statements. We are also required to make certain judgments that affect the reported amounts of revenue and expenses during each reporting period. We periodically evaluate our estimates and assumptions, including those relating to revenue recognition, valuation of billed and unbilled receivables from clients, discretionary compensation, incurred-but-not-reported liabilities, restructuring, pensions, goodwill and other intangible assets, contingencies, share-based payments and income taxes. We base our estimates on historical experience and various assumptions that we believe to be reasonable based on specific circumstances. Actual results could differ from these estimates, and changes in accounting standards could have an adverse impact on our future financial position and results of operations.

In addition, we have a substantial amount of goodwill on our consolidated balance sheet as a result of acquisitions we have completed. We review goodwill for impairment annually or whenever events or circumstances indicate impairment may have occurred. Application of the impairment test requires judgment, including the identification of reporting units, assignment of assets, liabilities and goodwill to reporting units and the determination of the fair value of each reporting unit. A significant deterioration in a key estimate or assumption or a less significant deterioration to a combination of assumptions, or the sale of a part of a reporting unit, could result in an impairment charge in the future, which could have a significant adverse impact on our reported earnings.

Our quarterly revenue and cash flow could fluctuate, including as a result of factors outside of our control, while our expenses may remain relatively fixed or be higher than expected.

Quarterly variations in our revenue, cash flow and results of operations have occurred in the past and could occur as a result of a number of factors, such as: the significance of client engagements commenced and completed during a quarter; seasonality of certain types of services; the number of business days in a quarter; colleague hiring and utilization rates; our clients’ ability to terminate engagements without penalty; the size and scope of assignments; our ability to enhance our billing, collection and working capital management efforts; differences in timing of renewals; non-recurring revenue from disposals and book-of-business sales; and general economic conditions.

33

We derive significant revenue from commissions for brokerage services, but do not determine the insurance premiums on which our commissions are generally based. Commission levels generally follow the same trend as premium levels, as they are a percentage of the premiums paid by the insureds. Fluctuations in the premiums charged by the insurance carriers can therefore have a direct and potentially material impact on our results of operations. Due to the cyclical nature of the insurance market and the impact of other market conditions on insurance premiums, commission levels may vary widely between accounting periods. A period of low or declining premium rates, generally known as a ‘soft’ or ‘softening’ market, generally leads to downward pressure on commission revenue and can have a material adverse impact on our commission revenue and operating margin. We could be negatively impacted by soft market conditions across certain sectors and geographic regions. In addition, insurance carriers may seek to reduce their expenses by reducing the commission rates payable to insurance agents or brokers such as us. The reduction of these commission rates, along with general volatility and/or declines in premiums, may significantly undermine our profitability. Because we do not determine the timing or extent of premium pricing changes, it is difficult to accurately forecast our commission revenue, including whether they will significantly decline. As a result, we may have to adjust our plans for future acquisitions, capital expenditures, dividend payments, loan repayments and other expenditures to account for unexpected changes in revenue, and any decreases in premium rates may adversely affect the results of our operations.

In addition to movements in premium rates, our ability to generate premium-based commission revenue may be challenged by disintermediation and the growing availability of alternative methods for clients to meet their risk-protection needs. This trend includes a greater willingness on the part of corporations to self-insure, the use of captive insurers, and the presence of capital markets-based solutions for traditional insurance and reinsurance needs. Further, the profitability of our risk and broking businesses

36

depends in part on our ability to be compensated for the analytical services and other advice that we provide, including the consulting and analytics services that we provide to insurers. If we are unable to achieve and maintain adequate billing rates for all of our services, our margins and profitability could decline.

A sizeable portion of our total operating expenses is relatively fixed or may even be higher than expected, encompassing the majority of administrative, occupancy, communications and other expenses, depreciation and amortization, and salaries and employee benefits excluding fiscal year-end incentive bonuses. Therefore, a variation in the number of client assignments and collection of accounts receivable, or in the timing of the initiation or the completion of client assignments, or our inability to forecast demand, can cause significant variations in quarterly operating results and could result in losses and volatility in our stock price.

Increasing scrutinyWhile we have incorporated provisions for the use of successor benchmarks in our existing external and changing expectations from investors, clients and our colleagues with respect to our environmental, social and governance (‘ESG’) practices may impose additional costs on us or expose us to reputational or other risks.

There is increased focus, including from governmental organizations, investors, colleagues and clients, on ESG issues such as environmental stewardship, climate change, diversity and inclusion, racial justice and workplace conduct. Negative public perception, adverse publicity or negative comments in social media and other forums could damage our reputation if we do not, or are not perceived to, adequately address any one or more of these issues. Any harm to our reputation could impact colleague engagement and retention and the willingness of clients and others to do business with us.

Investors, in particular, have increased their emphasis on the ESG practices of companies across all industries, including with respect to climate and human capital management. Certain investors have developed their own ESG ratings while othersintercompany floating-rate facilities which use third-party benchmarks or scores to measure a company’s ESG practices and make investment decisions or otherwise engage with the company to influence its practices in these areas. Additionally, our clients may evaluate our ESG practices and/or request that we adopt certain ESG policies in order to work with us. Also, organizations that provide ratings information to certain investors on ESG matters may assign unfavorable ratings to the Company, which may lead to negative investor sentiment and the diversion of investment capital to other companies or industries, which could have a negative impact on our stock price and our costs of capital.

New government regulations could also result in new or more stringent forms of ESG oversight and new mandatory and voluntary reporting, diligence and disclosure. As we work to align with the recommendations of the Financial Stability Board’s Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures, the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board and our own ESG assessments and priorities, we may disclose additional metrics against which we may measure ourselves or be measured and tracked by others over time. Our failure to meet expectations of metrics, whether expectations set by us or by investors or other stakeholders, or to any other failure to make progress in this area on a timely basis, or at all, may negatively impact our reputation and our business.

34

It is unclear how increased regulatory oversight and changes in the method for determining as well as the anticipated discontinuation of the London Interbank Offered Rate (‘LIBOR’) as a reference rate, there remains uncertainty as to how the anticipated discontinuation of LIBOR may affect the valuemarket for or pricing of theany LIBOR-linked securities, loans, derivatives, and other financial obligations which we may seek to be held or issued by us that are linked to LIBOR, or how such changes could affect our results of operations or financial condition.obtain in the future.

In the recent past, concerns have been publicized regarding the calculation of LIBOR, the London interbank offered rate, which present risks for the financial instruments that use LIBOR as a reference rate. LIBOR has been the basic rate of interest used in lending between banks on the London interbank market and ishas widely been used as a reference for setting the interest rate on loans globally. On March 5, 2021, LIBOR’s regulator, the Financial Conduct Authority, and administrator, ICE Benchmark Administration Limited, announced that the publication of the one-week and two-month USD LIBOR maturities and non-USD LIBOR maturities will cease immediately after December 31, 2021, with the remaining USD LIBOR maturities ceasing immediately after June 30, 2023. Accordingly, uncertainty as to the nature of such changes may affect the market for or pricing of any LIBOR-linked securities, loans, derivatives and other financial obligations or extensions of credit held by or due to us or on our overall financial condition or results of operations. In addition, any further changes or reforms to the determination or supervision of LIBOR may result in a sudden or prolonged increase or decrease in reported LIBOR, which could have an impact on the market for or pricing of any LIBOR-linked securities, loans, derivatives and other financial obligations or extensions of credit held by or due to us, including our revolving credit facility, or on our overall financial condition or results of operations. For example, on July 27, 2017, the United Kingdom’s Financial Conduct Authority, which regulates LIBOR, announced that it intends to stop persuading or compelling banks to submit LIBOR rates after 2021. Currently, there is not an agreement on what rate or rates may become accepted alternatives to LIBOR; however, the Alternative Reference Rate Committee in the U.S., comprised of a group of large banks and other financial institutions, selected the Secured Overnight Finance Rate (‘SOFR’), as an alternative to LIBOR. In May 2018, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York began to publish the alternative rate. SOFR is a broad measure of the cost of borrowing cash overnight collateralized by Treasury securities. Furthermore, as of April 23, 2018, the Bank of England has commenced publication of a reformed Sterling Overnight Index Average (‘SONIA’), comprised of a broader set of overnight Sterling money market transactions. The SONIA has been recommended as the alternative to Sterling LIBOR by the U.K. Working Group on Sterling Risk-Free Reference Rates.

TheIn response, the Company has incorporated provisions for the use of successor benchmarks (such as the Secured Overnight Financing Rate (‘SOFR’) in the U.S. and the Sterling Overnight Index Average (‘SONIA’) in the U.K.) where required in all of its external borrowing facilities that provide for floating-rate borrowing, including our recently amended and restated $1.5 billion revolving credit facility. Additionally, where the Company engages in floating-rate intercompany lending, we have made arrangements to benchmark the borrowing off successor market rates to maintain arms-length pricing. While we do not expect that the transition from LIBOR and risks related thereto will have a material adverse impact on our financing costs it is still uncertain at this time.given the measures we have taken to install successor benchmark provisions in our floating-rate facilities, there remains the possibility that the transition away from LIBOR could affect the pricing of any future LIBOR-linked securities, loans, derivatives, or other financial obligations or extensions of credit which we may seek to obtain.

We are a holding company and therefore, may not be able to receive dividends or other distributions in needed amounts from our subsidiaries.

The Company is organized as a holding company, a legal entity separate and distinct from our operating subsidiaries. As a holding company without significant operations of our own, we are dependent upon dividends and other payments from our operating subsidiaries to meet our obligations for paying principal and interest on outstanding debt obligations, for paying dividends to shareholders, for repurchasing our ordinary shares of common stock and for corporate expenses. Legal and regulatory restrictions, foreign exchange controls, as well as operating requirements of our subsidiaries, may limit our ability to obtain cash from these subsidiaries. For example, Willis Limited, our U.K. brokerage subsidiary regulated by the FCA, is currently required to maintain $140$105 million in unencumbered and available financial resources, of which at least $83$66 million must be in cash, for regulatory purposes. In the event our operating subsidiaries are unable to pay dividends and other payments to the Company, we may not be able to service debt, pay obligations or pay dividends on, or repurchase, shares of, common stock.our ordinary shares. In the event we are unable to generate cash from our operating subsidiaries for any of the reasons discussed above, our overall liquidity could deteriorate.

Tax Risks

If a U.S. person is treated as owning at least 10% of our shares, such a holder may be subject to adverse U.S. federal income tax consequences.

Under current U.S. federal tax law, many of our non-U.S. subsidiaries are now classified as ‘controlled foreign corporations’ (‘CFCs’) for U.S. federal income tax purposes due to the expanded application of certain ownership attribution rules within a multinational corporate group. If a U.S. person is treated as owning (directly, indirectly or constructively) at least 10% of the value or voting power of our shares, such a person may be treated as a U.S. shareholder with respect to one or more of our CFC subsidiaries. In addition, if our shares are treated as owned more than 50% by U.S. shareholders, we would be treated as a CFC. A U.S. shareholder of a CFC may be required to annually report and include in its U.S. taxable income, as ordinary income, its pro-rata share of Subpart F income, global intangible low-taxed income, and investments in U.S. property by CFCs, whether or not we make any distributions to such U.S. shareholder. An individual U.S. shareholder generally would not be allowed certain tax deductions or foreign tax credits that would be allowed to a corporate U.S. shareholder with respect to a CFC. A failure by a U.S. shareholder to comply with its reporting obligations may subject the U.S. shareholder to significant monetary penalties and may extend the statute of limitations with respect to the U.S.

37

shareholder’s U.S. federal income tax return for the year for which such reporting was due. We cannot provide any assurances that we will assist investors in determining whether we or any of our non-U.S. subsidiaries are CFCs or whether any investor is a U.S. shareholder with respect to any such CFCs. We also cannot guarantee that we will furnish to U.S. shareholders any or all of the information that may be necessary for them to comply with the aforementioned obligations. U.S. investors should consult their own advisors regarding the potential application of these rules to their investments in us.

Legislative or regulatory action or developments in case law in the U.S. or elsewhere could have a material adverse impact on our worldwide effective corporate tax rate.

We cannot give any assurance as to what our effective tax rate will be in the future, because of, among other things, uncertainty regarding the tax laws and policies of the jurisdictions where we operate. Our actual effective tax rate may vary from expectations, and that variance may be material.

The tax laws of Ireland and other jurisdictions could change in the future. There may be an enactment of additional, or the revision of existing, state, federal and/or non-U.S. regulatory and tax laws, and/or a development of case law, regulations and policy changes in the jurisdictions in which we operate. Any such changes could cause a material change in our effective tax rate.

Further, it is possible that taxing authorities may propose significant changes, which, if ultimately executed, could limit the availability of tax benefits or deductions that we currently claim, override tax treaties upon which we rely, or otherwise affect the taxes that Ireland, the U.S. or other territories impose on our worldwide operations.

Such new legislation (or changes to existing legislation or interpretation thereof) could materially adversely affect our effective tax rate and/or require us to take further action, at potentially significant additional expense, to seek to preserve our effective tax rate. Relatedly, if proposals were enacted that have the effect of limiting our ability as an Irish company to take advantage of tax treaties with the U.S. or other territories, we could incur additional tax expense and/or otherwise experience business detriment.

For example, in August 2022, the U.S. enacted the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 (‘IRA’), which, among other effects, creates a new corporate alternative minimum tax of at least 15% on consolidated GAAP pre-tax income for corporations with average book income in excess of $1 billion. The book minimum tax will first apply to us in 2023, although we do not expect the IRA to have a material impact on our effective tax rate.

In addition, the U.S. Congress, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (‘OECD’), the World Trade Organization and other government agencies in non-U.S. jurisdictions where we and our affiliates do business have had an extended focus on issues related to the taxation of multinational corporations. One example is in the area of base erosion and profit shifting, where payments are made between affiliates from a jurisdiction with high tax rates to a jurisdiction with lower tax rates. Several jurisdictions have enacted legislation that is aligned with, and in some cases exceeds the scope of, the recommendations in the OECD’s 2015 reports addressing 15 specific actions as part of a comprehensive plan to create an agreed set of international rules for fighting base erosion and profit shifting.

Finally, on October 8, 2021, the OECD announced an international agreement with more than 130 countries to implement a two-pillar solution to address tax challenges arising from digitalization of the economy. The agreement introduced rules that would result in the reallocation of certain taxing rights from multinational companies from their home countries to the markets where they have business activities and earn profits, regardless of physical presence (‘Pillar One’) and introduced a global corporate minimum tax of 15% for certain large multinational companies starting in 2023 (‘Pillar Two’). Significant progress has been made on implementation of Pillar Two, with the Model Rules for implementation being released in December 2021 and related commentary in March 2022. On December 12, 2022, E.U. member states reached an agreement to implement Pillar Two which requires E.U. member states to enact domestic legislation by the end of 2023.

These changes, when enacted by various countries in which we do business, could increase uncertainty and may adversely affect our tax rate and cash flow in future years.

Risks Related to Being an Irish-Incorporated Company

The laws of Ireland differ from the laws in effect in the United States and may afford less protection to holders of our securities.

It may not be possible to enforce court judgments obtained in the U.S. against us in Ireland, based on the civil liability provisions of the U.S. federal or state securities laws. In addition, there is some uncertainty as to whether the courts of Ireland would recognize or enforce judgments of U.S. courts obtained against us or our directors or officers based on the civil liabilities provisions of the U.S. federal or state securities laws or hear actions against us or those persons based on those laws. We have been advised that the U.S. currently does not have a treaty with Ireland providing for the reciprocal recognition and enforcement of judgments in civil and commercial matters. Therefore, a final judgment for the payment of money rendered by any U.S. federal or state court based on civil liability, whether or not based solely on U.S. federal or state securities laws, would not automatically be enforceable in Ireland.

38

As an Irish company, we are governed by the Irish Companies Act, which differs in some material respects from laws generally applicable to U.S. corporations and shareholders, including, among others, differences relating to interested director and officer transactions and shareholder lawsuits. Likewise, the duties of directors and officers of an Irish company generally are owed to the company only. Shareholders of Irish companies generally do not have a personal right of action against directors or officers of the company and may exercise such rights of action on behalf of the company only in limited circumstances. Accordingly, holders of our securities may have more difficulty protecting their interests than would holders of securities of a corporation incorporated in a jurisdiction of the United States.

As an Irish public limited company, certain decisions related to our capital structure will require the approval of shareholders, which may limit our flexibility to manage our capital structure.

Irish law generally provides that a board of directors may allot and issue shares (or rights to subscribe for or convert into shares) if authorized to do so by a company’s constitution or by an ordinary resolution of shareholders. Such authorization may be granted in respect of up to the entirety of a company’s authorized but unissued share capital and for a maximum period of five years, at which point it must be renewed by another ordinary resolution. The Company’s constitution authorizes our directors to allot shares up to the maximum of the Company’s authorized but unissued share capital for a period of five years. This authorization will need to be renewed by ordinary resolution upon its expiration and at periodic intervals thereafter. Under Irish law, an allotment authority may be given for up to five years at each renewal, but governance considerations may result in renewals for shorter periods or in respect of less than the maximum permitted number of shares being sought or approved.

Additionally, under Irish law, we may only pay dividends and, generally, make share repurchases and redemptions from distributable profits. Distributable profits may be created through the earnings of the Company or other methods (including certain intragroup reorganizations involving the capitalization of the Company’s undistributable profits and their subsequent reduction). While it is our intention to maintain a sufficient level of distributable profits in order to pay dividends on our ordinary shares and make share repurchases, there is no assurance that the Company will maintain the necessary level of distributable profits to do so.

ITEM 1B. UNRESOLVED STAFF COMMENTS

None.

ITEM 2. PROPERTIES

We operate offices in many countries throughout the world and believe that our properties are generally suitable and adequate for the purposes for which they are used. The principal properties are located in the United States and the United Kingdom. In addition, we have other offices in various locations, including among others, Europe, Asia, Australia and Latin America. Operations of each of our segments are carried out in owned or leased offices under operating leases that typically do not exceed 10 years in length, except for certain properties in key locations. We do not anticipate difficulty in meeting our space needs at lease expiration.

35

ITEM 3. LEGAL PROCEEDINGS

From time to time, we are party to various lawsuits, arbitrations or mediations that arise in the ordinary course of business. The disclosure called for by Item 3 regarding our legal proceedings is incorporated by reference herein from Note 15 — Commitments and Contingencies, within Item 8 in this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

ITEM 4. MINE SAFETY DISCLOSURES

Not applicable.

3639

PART II.

ITEM 5. MARKET FOR REGISTRANT’S COMMON EQUITY, RELATED STOCKHOLDER MATTERS AND ISSUER PURCHASES OF EQUITY SECURITIES

Share Data

Our ordinary shares trade on the NASDAQ Global Select Market under the symbol ‘WTW’ as of January 10, 2022. Our ordinary shares previously traded under the symbol ‘WLTW’ starting on January 5, 2016. As of February 18, 2022,16, 2023, there were 1,1181,079 shareholders of record of our shares.

Dividends

We normally pay dividends on a quarterly basis to shareholders of record on March 31, June 30, September 30 and December 31. In February 2022,2023, the board of directors approved a quarterly cash dividend of $0.82$0.84 per share ($3.283.36 per share annualized rate), which will be paid on or around April 15, 202217, 2023 to shareholders of record as of March 31, 2022.2023.

There are no governmental laws, decrees or regulations in Ireland that restrict the remittance of dividends or other payments to non-resident holders of the Company’s shares.

In circumstances where one of Ireland’s many exemptions from dividend withholding tax (‘DWT’) does not apply, dividends paid by the Company will be subject to Irish DWT (currently 20 percent). Residents of the United States should be exempt from Irish DWT provided relevant documentation supporting the exemption has been put in place. While the U.S.-Ireland Double Tax Treaty contains provisions reducing the rate of Irish DWT in prescribed circumstances, it should generally be unnecessary for U.S. residents to rely on the provisions of this treaty due to the wide scope of exemptions from Irish DWT available under Irish domestic law. Irish income tax may also arise in respect of dividends paid by the Company. However, U.S. residents entitled to an exemption from Irish DWT generally have no Irish income tax liability on dividends.

With respect to non-corporate U.S. shareholders, certain dividends from a qualified foreign corporation may be subject to reduced rates of taxation. A foreign corporation is treated as a qualified foreign corporation with respect to dividends received from that corporation on shares that are readily tradeable on an established securities market in the United States, such as our shares. Non-corporate U.S. shareholders that do not meet a minimum holding period requirement for our shares during which they are not protected from the risk of loss or that elect to treat the dividend income as investment income pursuant to section 163(d)(4) of the Code will not be eligible for the reduced rates of taxation regardless of our status as a qualified foreign corporation. In addition, the rate reduction will not apply to dividends if the recipient of a dividend is obligated to make related payments with respect to positions in substantially similar or related property. This disallowance applies even if the minimum holding period has been met. U.S. shareholders should consult their own tax advisors regarding the application of these rules given their particular circumstances.

3740

Performance Graph

Comparison of Five-Year Cumulative Total Shareholder Return

The graph below depicts cumulative total shareholder returns for WTW for the period from December 31, 20162017 through December 31, 2021.2022.

The graph also depicts the total return for the S&P 500 and for a peer group for WTW comprised of Accenture plc, Aon plc, Arthur J. Gallagher & Co., Brown & BrownAutomatic Data Processing, Inc., Booz Allen Hamilton Holding Corporation, Cognizant Technology Solutions Corporation, Conduent Incorporated, Fidelity National Financial, Inc., Fidelity National Information Services, Inc., First American Financial Corporation, Fiserv, Inc., Marsh & McLennan Companies, Inc. and, Principal Financial Group, Inc., Robert Half International Inc., S&P Global Inc., The Hartford Financial Services Group, Inc., and Unum Group. The graph charts the performance of $100 invested on the initial date indicated, December 31, 2016,2017, assuming full dividend reinvestment.

Unregistered Sales of Equity Securities and Use of Proceeds

During the year ended December 31, 2021,2022, no shares were issued by the Company without registration under the Securities Act of 1933, as amended.

Purchases of Equity Securities by the Issuer and Affiliated Purchasers

The Company is authorized to repurchase shares, by way of redemption, and will consider whether to do so from time to time, based on many factors, including market conditions. Since April 20, 2016, when the WTW board reconfirmed, reapproved and reauthorized the remaining $529 million portion of the Legacy Willis program to repurchase the Company’s ordinary shares on the open market or by way of redemption or otherwise, the following additional authorizations have occurred:

41

There are no expiration dates for these repurchase plans or programs. The following table presents specified information about the Company’s repurchases of ordinary shares in the fourth quarter and the Company’s repurchase authority.

At December 31, 2021,2022, the maximum number of shares that may be purchased under the existing stock repurchase program is 16,306,580,5,489,619, with approximately $3.9$1.3 billion remaining on the current open-ended repurchase authority granted by the board. An estimate of the maximum number of shares under the existing authorities was determined using the closing price of our ordinary shares on December 31, 20212022 of $237.49.$244.58.

Securities Authorized for Issuance Under Equity Compensation Plans

ForThe following table provides information, on ouras of December 31, 2022, about the securities authorized for issuance under our existingthe Company’s equity compensation plans see ‘Securities Authorized for Issuance under Equity Compensation Plans’ in our proxy statement filed withand is categorized according to whether or not the SEC.equity plan was previously approved by shareholders.

39

42

ITEM 6. [Reserved]

4043

ITEM 7. MANAGEMENT’S DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS OF FINANCIAL CONDITION AND RESULTS OF OPERATIONS

This discussion includes forward-looking statements. See ‘Disclaimer Regarding Forward-looking Statements’ for certain cautionary information regarding forward-looking statements and Part I, Item 1A Risk Factors for a list of factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those predicted in those statements.

This discussion includes references to non-GAAP financial measures as defined in the rules of the SEC. We present such non-GAAP financial measures, specifically, adjusted, constant currency and organic non-GAAP financial measures, as we believe such information is of interest to the investment community because it provides additional meaningful methods of evaluating certain aspects of the Company’s operating performance from period to period on a basis that may not be otherwise apparent under U.S. GAAP, and these provide a measure against which our businesses may be assessed in the future.

Our methods of calculating these measures may differ from those used by other companies and therefore comparability may be limited. These financial measuresshould be viewed in addition to, not in lieu of, the consolidated financialstatements for the year ended December 31, 2021.2022.

See ‘Non-GAAP Financial Measures’ below for further discussion of our adjusted, constant currency and organic non-GAAP financial measures.

Executive Overview

Market Conditions

Typically, our business benefits from regulatory change, political risk or economic uncertainty. Insurance broking generally tracks the economy, but demand for both insurance broking and consulting services usually remains steady during times of uncertainty. We have some businesses, such as our health and benefits and administration businesses, which can be counter cyclical during the early period of a significant economic change.

Within our insurance and brokerage business, due to the cyclical nature of the insurance market and the impact of other market conditions on insurance premiums, commission revenue may vary widely between accounting periods. A period of low or declining premium rates, generally known as a ‘soft’ or ‘softening’ market, generally leads to downward pressure on commission revenue and can have a material adverse impact on our revenue and operating margin. A ‘hard’ or ‘firming’ market, during which premium rates rise, generally has a favorable impact on our revenue and operating margin. Rates, however, vary by geography, industry and client segment. As a result, and due to the global and diverse nature of our business, we view rates in the aggregate. Overall, we are currently seeing a modest but definite increase in pricing in the market.

Market conditions in the broking industry in which we operate are generally defined by factors such as the strength of the economies in the various geographic regions in which we serve around the world, insurance rate movements, and insurance and reinsurance buying patterns of our clients.

The markets for our consulting, technology and solutions, and marketplace services are affected by economic, regulatory and legislative changes, technological developments, and increased competition from established and new competitors. We believe that the primary factors in selecting a human resources or risk management consulting firm include reputation, the ability to provide measurable increases to shareholder value and return on investment, global scale, quality of service and the ability to tailor services to clients’ unique needs. In that regard, we are focused on developing and implementing technology, data and analytic solutions for both internal operations and for maintaining industry standards and meeting client preferences. We have made such investments from time to time and may decide, based on perceived business needs, to make investments in the future that may be different from past practice or what we currently anticipate.

With regard to the market for exchanges, we believe that clients base their decisions on a variety of factors that include the ability of the provider to deliver measurable cost savings for clients, a strong reputation for efficient execution and an innovative service delivery model and platform. Part of the employer-sponsored insurance market has matured and become more fragmented while other segments remain in the entry phase. As these market segments continue to evolve, we may experience growth in intervals, with periods of accelerated expansion balanced by periods of modest growth. In recent years, growth in the market for exchanges has slowed, and we expect this trend may continue.

From time to time, including but not limited to the period after the announcement of the proposed Aon plc (‘Aon’) combination through the period that has followed the termination of the proposed combination, we have lost (and may in the future continue to lose) colleagues who manage substantial client relationships or possess substantial experience or expertise; when we lose colleagues such as those, it often results in such colleagues competing against us. Further, the full impact of this competition may be delayed due to the timing of restrictive covenants or client renewals. We believe that this dynamic, which was most pronounced in our Corporate Risk and Broking&

4144

Broking segment in the second and third quarters ofduring 2021, has caused the segment’s near-term growth rates in the fourth quarter and expected intorate for 2022 to be meaningfully slower than other competitors. This dynamic may be difficult to predict, given that the adverse impact in future periods is more significant than in the periods in which employees departed. Growth may also be adversely affected by the fact that 2021 performance in a number of businesses, particularly commercial risk broking and health & benefits broking, benefited from revenue from book sales, which is non-repeatable revenue. It is possible that growth could be different than expected and our results of operations could be significantly and adversely impacted.impacted by this factor going into 2023.

See Part I, Item 1A Risk Factors in this Annual Report on Form 10-K for discussions of risks that may affect our ability to compete.

BrexitOutlook Following Russia Divestiture

FollowingIn the occurrencethird quarter of Brexit and the end of the formal transition period on December 31, 2020, a trade agreement has been established between the U.K. and E.U. As expected, the agreement largely addressed goods and not services, and the Company has therefore2022, we completed the establishmenttransfer of appropriate arrangements forownership of our Russian subsidiaries to local management and, given current conditions, do not anticipate resuming operations in Russia within the continued servicingforeseeable future. The Russian entities were primarily within our Risk & Broking segment. We have estimated that the annualized run-rate impact from the divestiture of clientour Russian operations is approximately $120 million of revenue. Additionally, the Russian business was highly profitable, with operating margins in all relevant E.U. countries. Further negotiations betweenexcess of double the U.K. and E.U. resultedenterprise-level margins. Because we did not receive significant proceeds in connection with the divestiture with which to reinvest in the agreement of a Memorandum of Understanding to address matters related to financial services, thoughbusiness, the outcome of future engagement between the U.K.lost profits will adversely impact earnings, margins and E.U. in relation to services, including financial services and potential impact on the Company, are not yet fully known.cash flow. For a further discussion ofadditional information about the risks relating to lost profits following the divestiture of Brexit to the Company,our Russian subsidiaries see Part I, Item 1A Risk Factors in this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

Although approximately 18%– ‘Our business, financial condition, results of our revenue from continuing operations, is generated in the U.K. on an annual basis, about 12% of revenue from continuing operations is denominated in Pounds sterling, as much of the insurance business is transacted in U.S. dollars. Approximately 18% of our expenses from continuing operations is denominated in Pounds sterling,thus we generally benefit from a weakening Pound sterling in our income from continuing operations. However, we have a Company hedging strategy for this aspect of our business, which is designedand long-term goals may continue to mitigate significant fluctuations in currency.

Risks and Uncertainties of the COVID-19 Pandemic and the Related Economic Environment

The COVID-19 pandemic has had an adverse impact on global commercial activity, particularlybe adversely affected, possibly materially, by negative impacts on the global supply chaineconomy and workforce availability,capital markets resulting from the war between Russia and has contributed to significant volatility in the global financial markets including, amongUkraine or any other effects, occasional declines in the equity markets, changes in interest rates and reduced liquidity on a global basis. With regard to the effects on our own business operations and those of our clients, suppliers and other third parties with whom we interact, the Company has regularly considered the impact of COVID-19 and the wider economic results on our business, taking into account our business resilience and continuity plans, financial modeling and stress testing of liquidity and financial resources.

Over the last two years, the COVID-19 pandemic generally did not have a material adverse impact on our overall financial results. Initially, the pandemic had a negative impact on our revenue growth, primarily in our businesses that are discretionary in nature, however we later saw an increased demand for these services, which improved revenue growth beginning in the second quarter of 2021. There continues to be increased demand for our services, particularly those services that address the various challenges in the global labor markets and disruptions to the supply chain. While we believe we have adapted to the unique challenges posed by the pandemic surrounding how and where we do our work, we are also impacted by the negative effect on workforce availability, which could hamper our ability to grow our capacity on pace with increasing demand for our services. We expect the market for talent to remain highly competitive for at least the next several months. We will continue to monitor the situation and assess any implications to our business and our stakeholders.

Supply and labor market disruptions caused by COVID-19 as well as other factors, such as accommodative monetary and fiscal policy, have contributed to significant inflation in many of the markets in which we operate. This impacts not only the costs to attract and retain employees but also other costs to run and invest in our business. If our costs grow significantly in excess of our ability to raise revenues, our margins and results of operations may be materially and adversely impacted and we may not be able to achieve our strategic and financial objectives.

The extent to which COVID-19 impacts our business and financial position will depend on future developments, which are difficult to predict. These future developments may include the severity and scope of the COVID-19 outbreak and the emergence of new variants, which may unexpectedly change or worsen, and the types and duration of measures imposed by governmental authorities to contain the virus or address its impact. We continue to expect that the COVID-19 pandemic and the related impacts on the wider economic environment may cause volatility to our revenue and operating results in fiscal 2022. We believe that, as a general matter, these trends and uncertainties are similar to those faced by other comparable registrants as a result of the pandemic. See Part I, Item 1A Risk Factors in this Annual Report on Form 10-K for a discussion of actual and potential impacts of COVID-19 on our business, clients and operations.

Daily Operations - We continue to closely monitor the spread and impact of COVID-19, including the availability and efficacy of vaccines, while adhering to government health directives. The Company continues to administer its own restrictions on business

42

travel, office access, and meetings and events, where appropriate, but has developed its return-to-work plans with a focus on safe utilization based on appropriate social-distancing guidelines and a continued hybrid work model. We have had thorough business continuity and incident management processes in place and operating effectively for the past two years and will continue to do so through the end of the pandemic.geopolitical tensions’.

Transformation Program

In the fourth quarter of 2021, we initiated a three-year ‘Transformation program’ designed to enhance operations, optimize technology and align our real estate footprint to our new ways of working. WeDuring the third quarter of 2022, we revised the expected costs and savings under the program and we now expect the program to generate annual cost savings in excess of approximately $300$360 million by the end of 2024. The program is expected to includeincur cumulative costs of approximately $490$630 million and capital expenditures of approximately $260$270 million, for a total investment of $750$900 million. The main categories of charges will be in the following four areas:

Certain costs under the Transformation program are accounted for under ASC 420, Exit or Disposal Cost Obligation, and are included as restructuring costs in the consolidated statements of comprehensive income. For the yearyears ended December 31, 2022 and 2021, restructuring charges under our Transformation program totaled $99 million and $26 million.million, respectively. Other costs incurred under the Transformation program are included in transaction and transformation, net and were $136 million for the year ended December 31, 2022. From the actions taken in 2021,during 2022, we expecthave identified an additional $129 million of annualized run-rate savings during the year due to havenewly-realized opportunities and incremental sources of value, and $149 million of cumulative annualized run-rate savings identified to date since the inception of $20 millionthe program, which savings overall are primarily from attributable to the reduction of real estate and technology costs, as well as process optimization. The benefits from the benefits of which willprogram began to be recognized induring 2022.

For a discussion of some of the risks associated with the Transformation program, please see Part I, Item 1A Risk Factors - ‘We ‘We may not be able to fully realize the anticipated benefits of our growth strategy’ and other Risk Factors in this Annual Report on Form 10-K.

4345

Financial Statement Overview

For all financial information presented herein, the operatingmanagement’s discussion of our results of Willis Re have been reclassified as discontinued operations (see Note 3 — Acquisitions and Divestitures within Item 8 of thisfor the year ended December 31, 2021 in comparison with the year ended December 31, 2020, please see our Annual Report on Form 10-K for further information).filed with the SEC on February 24, 2022.

The tables below set forth our summarized consolidated statements of comprehensive income and data as a percentage of revenue for the periods indicated.

Consolidated Statements of Comprehensive Income

($ in millions, except per share data)