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Aon helps other companies understand and pay for risks like storms, lawsuits, and cyberattacks, and also helps them run their employee retirement and health plans.
Aon is one of the world's biggest insurance brokers and HR consultants. It doesn't sell insurance itself; it sits between companies and insurance companies and gets paid to figure out what risks a business faces, then find insurers willing to cover those risks. Its clients are mostly other businesses — from small firms to giant multinationals — who pay Aon fees and commissions. The company makes money in two main ways. First, its Risk Capital business (roughly half of revenue) helps clients buy insurance, from property coverage for hurricanes to cyber protection and even complex reinsurance for insurers themselves. Second, its Human Capital business arranges and administers employee benefits like health plans, pensions, and retirement savings.
Think of Aon as a matchmaker with a clipboard and a calculator. A hotel owner worries about a hurricane, a manufacturer worries about a lawsuit, a hospital worries about a cyberattack — and Aon's job is to measure those worries and find the right insurer at the right price. It also runs something called Aon United, a strategy to sell more of its many services to the same clients, and it has been investing heavily in data and analytics, using tools like its Risk Analyzer to help clients see problems before they happen. One hiccup: a planned $30 billion merger with rival Willis Towers Watson fell apart in 2021 after regulators pushed back, and Aon walked away with a $1 billion breakup fee instead.
Aon is headquartered in London, though it was founded in the United States in 1982 and still has a big presence in Chicago. It pays a modest dividend and has bought back billions of dollars of its own stock in recent years. The big risks it faces are competition from rivals like Marsh & McLennan, slower growth when clients cut spending in tough economies, and the constant pressure to prove its advice is worth the fees. For a company that makes money from other people's worries, business has been pretty good.
Saved answer · last researched 11 Oct 2026