Marsh and Aon, the two top commercial insurance brokers, were still searching for their missing six days after the terror attacks destroyed the companies’ offices in the World Trade Center.
In a statement issued Monday, Jeffrey Greenberg, chairman of Marsh & McLennan Companies (MMC), said were about 1,900 people from MMC’s businesses worked in or were visiting World Trade Center. About 313 people who worked for the companies are missing and that two others are confirmed dead, including one who was aboard a hijacked aircraft, he said. All of the missing worked in 1 World Trade Center, where Marsh and Guy Carpenter, MMC’s reinsurance subsidiary, had offices on floors 93 through 100.
Aon reported in a release that 200 of its employees were still missing. The corporation’s Combined Insurance Company subsidiaries h issued a portion of the life insurance coverage of Aon employees in the World Trade Center. If all 200 have died, Aon’s part of the total would be $50 million to $55 million pre-tax, including other policyholder claims, the company said.
Following the disaster, Aon officials asked property and casualty insurers to not cancel or change the terms and conditions of the policies of the broker’s clients and to provide 60-day policy extensions. Most insurance carriers have agreed, according to the release.
Most of MMC’s operations affected by the attack were part of Marsh, Greenberg said. William M. Mercer Inc., the corporation’s consulting business, had a unit at 2 World Trade Center. The 88 people who worked for Mercer Consulting in 2 World Trade Center were relocated to its headquarters in midtown Manhattan, and all computer processing applications have been restored. Boston-based Putnam Investments, MMC’s investment management subsidiary, was not directly affected.