Marsh & McLennan
Q1 2022 Earnings Call
Apr 21, 2022, 8:30 a.m. ET
Contents:
- Prepared Remarks
- Questions and Answers
- Call Participants
Prepared Remarks:
Operator
Welcome to Marsh McLennan's conference call. Today's call is being recorded. First quarter 2022 financial results and supplemental information were issued earlier this morning. They are available on the company's website at marshmclennan.com.
Please note the remarks made today may include forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties, and a variety of factors may cause actual results to differ materially from those contemplated by such statements. For a more detailed discussion of those factors, please refer to our earnings release for this quarter into our most recent SEC filings, including our most recent Form 10-K, all of which are available on the Marsh McLennan website. During the call today, we may also discuss certain non-GAAP financial measures.
For a reconciliation of these measures to the most closely comparable GAAP measures, please refer to the schedule in today's earnings release. I'll now turn this over to Dan Glaser, president and CEO of Marsh McLennan.
Dan Glaser -- President and Chief Executive Officer
Thank you. Good morning, and thank you for joining us to discuss how our first quarter results reported earlier today. I'm Dan Glaser, president and CEO of Marsh McLennan. Joining me on the call today is John Doyle, our group president and COO; Mark McGivney, our CFO; and the CEOs of our businesses, Martin South of Marsh; Dean Klisura, of Guy Carpenter; Martine Ferland of Mercer; and Nick Studer of Oliver Wyman.
Also with us this morning is Sarah DeWitt, head of Investor Relations. Marsh McLennan started 2022 strong, and we are well-positioned for another good year. Our top line momentum continued. We generated the fourth consecutive quarter of double-digit underlying growth, and the highest first quarter underlying growth in over two decades with each of our businesses showing strength.
Our adjusted operating income grew 12%. This comes despite a tough comparable of 20% growth in the first quarter of 2021. Adjusted EPS growth was 16%, the fifth consecutive quarter of double-digit growth. And we saw modest margin expansion despite the substantial investments we made in organic hiring last year.
Overall, a strong start to the year. At Marsh McLennan, advancing good in the world is important to us. In our view, great companies have to not only do well and deliver for investors, but also do good and make a broader contribution to society. We believe in order to deliver long-term value for shareholders, we also have to be a good employer, a good global citizen, and bring our best to our clients.