Good morning, and thank you for holding. Welcome to Aon plc's conference call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode until the question- and- answer session of today's conference. During today's Q&A session, if you would like to register a question, you may do so by pressing star one on your telephone keypad. I would also like to remind all parties that this call is being recorded. If anyone has an objection, you may disconnect your line at this time. It is important to note that some of the comments in today's call may constitute certain statements that are forward-looking in nature, as defined by the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such statements are subject to certain risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from historical results or those anticipated.
For information concerning these risk factors, please refer to our earnings release for this quarter and our most recent quarterly or annual SEC filing, all of which are available on our website. It is now my pleasure to turn the call over to Greg Case, President and CEO of Aon plc. Thank you. Please go ahead.
Thank you, Donna, and good morning, everyone. I appreciate you joining us today. I am here with Nadin Virani, Interim CFO, Andy Marcell, Deputy CEO with responsibility for Risk Capital and Human Capital, and Mike Sicard, Chairman and CEO of USI. For reference, we publish slides on our website that supplement our discussion. Today marks an important milestone for Aon and for the standard of client value and client service available to U.S. middle market companies. As risk and complexity continues to rise, middle market companies are not always offered the breadth and depth of solutions available to the large and enterprise market, nor do they have access to a full range of capital sources to fund world-class solutions.
This is why we are very excited to announce that we have entered a definitive agreement to acquire USI, a leading U.S. middle market broker with deep expertise and specialized solutions for property and casualty, employee benefits, personal risk, and retirement. The addition of USI builds on our successful acquisition of NFP. Together, USI, NFP, and Aon establish the premier U.S. middle market platform. The combined platform extends the reach of Aon's differentiated capabilities across the middle market, which has already proven highly impactful to the client leadership of NFP. USI also substantially expands our direct access to E&S and specialty segments and deepens our capability advantage by meaningfully expanding U.S. middle market flow insight in our ABS analytics engine. Post-close, we are very excited to bring a new standard of capability and service to the middle market through our exceptional client leaders.
The purchase price of $17 billion and $16.7 billion net of tax attributes represents a 14.5x synergized EBITDA multiple, and we expect the transaction to be EPS accretive beginning in 2028. Nadin will provide more financial details on the transaction in a few minutes, but I want to emphasize that USI enables us to create significant value across our entire middle market platform that we could not otherwise capture. This is a truly unique asset that strengthens our capabilities in areas we've historically been underrepresented and accelerates growth across Aon. Before we discuss the strategic rationale in more detail, it's my privilege to introduce Mike Sicard. We long admired the exceptional business Mike and the USI team have built, and in every conversation we've had with Mike, our teams walk away more energized about what we will accomplish together.
I'm also pleased to note that following the transaction close, Mike will be appointed President of Aon and Global CEO of Middle Market, leading Aon's combined platform with a team of leaders from USI, NFP, and Aon. Welcome, Mike.
Thank you so much, Greg. I am thrilled to be here today. This combination represents the natural next step for USI to capture the significant and growing opportunity in the U.S. middle market, positioning us to accelerate our momentum as part of the Aon United platform. We already share a common culture, a client-first mindset, and a belief that the best results come from operating as one team. Aon means one in Gaelic, and similarly, USI emphasizes the USI ONE Advantage. These similarities are a strong foundation, but what excites me most is what Aon enables us to do next. Together, we will accelerate growth, broaden our capabilities, and harness the combined strengths of an integrated platform. I'm excited to lead what will be the premier U.S. middle market platform, delivering greater value for our clients by setting a new standard of content, capabilities, and service.
Thank you, Mike. We'll start with a little background. For Aon overall, it's important to understand that this combination builds on our already strong momentum across global Aon, grounded in the strategies we've executed for nearly two decades. We've taken deliberate steps to build what we believe is the industry's most differentiated model. Our context advantage is underpinned by three foundational pillars. First, our cultural advantage. Aon United is the product of more than 15 years building a truly connected global firm that enables colleagues to bring the full breadth of Aon to every client relationship. Second, our organizational advantage. We fundamentally reshaped Aon, putting clients in the center of everything we do. We integrated our risk capital and human capital capabilities across the firm, powered by our Aon Business Services operating and technology engine. This structure allows our colleagues to serve clients with greater connectivity, consistency, and impact.
Third, our data and analytics advantage provides us with a platform uniquely capable of applying AI at scale. Proprietary data and AI-enabled analytics equip our colleagues with greater tools and capabilities, converting insight into actionable solutions to help clients make better decisions. Importantly, these three advantages reinforce one another, enabling Aon to create innovative solutions, access new sources of capital, and expand the universe of insurable risk for our clients. That is the power of our connected and context advantage. Increasing what we can do for clients, expanding our relevance, reducing the protection gap, and growing the overall placement opportunity. The strength of this model is demonstrated in our performance to the 3x3 Plan. We are winning and retaining more clients, innovating faster, and operating more efficiently. Together, these outcomes are driving sustained through the cycle performance. We are just getting started.
Looking ahead, we see two significant opportunities to reinforce our context advantage, and USI uniquely unlocks both. The first is to advance our leading platform in the large and growing U.S. middle market. The second is to expand direct access to the fast-growing E&S segment, where Aon today has a limited footprint. Consider that the middle market opportunity represents approximately one-third of the U.S. commercial P&C market, with more than 200,000 companies in the U.S. employing roughly 48 million people. The addressable market is over $40 billion. These companies are a critical engine of the economy, and there is greater opportunity to meet their increasingly complex needs. The same interconnected forces of trade, technology, weather, and workforce that are reshaping the risk and people environment for our largest clients are creating even greater volatility in the middle market.
When compared to our larger organizations, middle market companies have less access to the analytics, insights, and capital solutions required to address these challenges and build resilience. That creates a meaningful protection gap between the complexity of the decisions these clients must make, the risks they are exposed to, and the solutions available to address their needs. Aon is changing that. Our investments in technology and talent, enhanced by our proprietary data and analytics, enable our firm to bring capabilities traditionally available at the largest end of the market to middle market clients in a way that is tailored, timely, and relevant. Over the last two years with NFP, we have seen tangible results of applying our context advantage in the middle market, which reinforces our conviction that we are well-positioned to accelerate our momentum with the addition of USI.
I would add the opportunity is equally compelling in the excess and surplus segment, which represents 26% of U.S. commercial P&C premiums, and is growing at an 18% compound annual rate, fueled by the need for increasingly specialized risk solutions. Today, we are only able to write clients with limited direct access to E&S and wholesale distribution largely through our Totalis specialty business. Turning to USI, this addition advances our platform and brings a unified culture and track record of growth, highly developed producer organization, and demonstrated leadership. With approximately $11 billion of P&C premium placement and 2,800 producers, USI builds on the middle market foundation we have strengthened through NFP. Together, Aon, NFP, and USI will establish the premier $6.5 billion U.S. middle market platform. With USI, we will have deeper direct access to the E&S segment and wholesale distribution.
Both the middle market and wholesale channels are increasingly sources of new client relationships, emerging risk, and additional data and insights. In recent years, USI has invested significantly in its people, platform, and technology, which positions the business for accelerated growth going forward. Building on the success of NFP, USI allows us to apply our institutional knowledge across a larger platform, bringing the best of Aon to more clients and more producers, while extending USI's differentiated capabilities into a broader Aon platform. Importantly, we have clear line of sight and a proven action plan to deliver significant revenue and cost synergies that we believe will drive long-term value creation across our combined Aon, NFP, and USI platform. We have been rigorous in identifying where we can accelerate growth through greater producer productivity and retention, broader cross-selling across risk capital and human capital, and expanded access to the E&S segment.
We also see meaningful opportunities to improve efficiency by extending ABS across the combined platform, simplifying technology and operations, and leveraging our shared services infrastructure. These are tangible, identified opportunities grounded in the capabilities we have today and key learnings from the successful integration of NFP and enabled by this transaction. They give us confidence in the growth outlook and long-term value creation potential of the combined platform, and we look forward to providing updates on our progress and performance against the commitments we have outlined today. With that overview, let me turn the call over to Nadin to discuss the transaction terms and financials. Nadin, over to you.
Thank you, Greg. I am truly honored to be here for this landmark moment, discussing a transaction that says so much about the strength of Aon's strategy and the opportunity ahead. I have been leading Aon's corporate planning and solution line finance team for almost two years now, and I am looking forward to playing a key role in helping bring this transaction to life and delivering its full potential. This is a transaction that accelerates our U.S. middle market strategy and unlocks the full capabilities of our platform for our clients, colleagues, and our shareholders. Over the next few minutes, I am going to share some key details on the transaction structure and the significant value creation opportunity this represents. There are three points I would like you to take away from this discussion.
First, USI is a unique asset that establishes the premier U.S. middle market platform and materially expands Aon's direct access to the E&S segment, two of the most attractive and fast-growing areas in U.S. commercial insurance. Second, we are strongly positioned to capture significant value through this transaction. We have done extensive work and identified $395 million in net EBITDA synergies with defined work streams that we are ready to execute upon from day one. Third, as a result of the expansion in our total addressable market and the meaningful synergies we have identified, we have high conviction that this is an acquisition that will generate compelling long-term shareholder value. Let me begin with an overview of the terms of the agreement. Aon will acquire USI in an all-cash transaction for approximately $17 billion or $16.7 billion net of certain tax attributes.
We have a high degree of confidence in our ability to deliver both revenue and cost synergies, and we believe the synergized EBITDA multiple of 14.5 x is an attractive valuation for this unique asset. We plan to fund the acquisition with new debt, raised across a range of maturities, and expect the transaction to close in Q4 2026, subject to regulatory approvals and customary closing conditions. Our confidence in execution is grounded in the context advantage, along with the strong middle market foundation that we have built through our successful acquisition of NFP. This has led to stronger new business generation, higher win rates, and sustained margin expansion. Let me now take you through the value creation opportunity in more detail. Overall, we have identified $395 million in adjusted EBITDA impacts from revenue and cost synergies that we expect to realize across the full middle market platform.
Starting with the revenue synergies, we've identified 23 individual work streams that we believe will generate $321 million in net revenue synergies. This translates to $115 million EBITDA contribution or 29% of our EBITDA synergy target. Specifically, we see a meaningful opportunity across three primary areas. First, through our producers and client leaders. As Greg noted, we expect to unlock greater producer productivity, including embedding Aon's tools and capabilities across the expanded platform. We expect to drive accelerated cross-sell across risk capital and human capital products and solutions. At the same time, we will implement best practices to increase producer retention, building on our proven playbook from the NFP integration. The second area of opportunity is through client retention and growth. Through Aon, NFP, and USI's capabilities, the client base will have access to a broader set of solutions and channels.
For example, we will optimize premium placement by leveraging Aon's existing retail network along USI's own wholesale capability. This allows us to optimize across the expanded platform and capture more opportunities we could not fully address previously. Finally, increased distribution opportunities. Last week, we reaffirmed our commitment to Totalis Specialty by bringing together the capabilities of NFP and Aon. Using this platform, we will further extend the availability of relevant USI solutions. We also expect to optimize wholesale distribution to market partners and expand access into specialty risk markets through our London and Bermuda market relationships. Now let me move to the cost side. We expect to capture $280 million in synergies or 71% of our EBITDA synergy target through 10 identified work streams.
You've heard us talk about the proven capabilities of ABS, and we will leverage these to enhance service levels while reducing cost to serve and the administrative load on our producers. We expect to also capture efficiencies from the benefits of integrating technology systems, simplifying and modernizing the technology stack, and leveraging our AI capabilities to drive productivity across the platform. Importantly, these initiatives will do more than lower the cost base. Underpinned by the scale of ABS and our disciplined expense management, we will improve the client experience and create additional investment capacity for growth. As I mentioned, we have a high degree of confidence in our ability to achieve these synergy targets. As the integration proceeds, we will provide regular updates on our progress against the annual and total EBITDA contribution we have identified.
To enable deal success, we anticipate transaction and integration costs of $160 million and $550 million respectively, most of which will be completed by the end of 2028. In addition, we expect retention costs of up to $400 million spread over three years. In total, USI will add $3.3 billion in revenue and $1.2 billion in adjusted EBITDA on a fully synergized trailing 12-month basis. We expect the transaction to be dilutive to EPS in 2027 and accretive in 2028 and thereafter. Importantly, Aon's business performance remains on track. Regarding implications for financial guidance on the acquisition, we will provide further updates at close. We are pursuing this opportunity while maintaining our financial strength and disciplined capital allocation. We expect to maintain our current credit ratings and to return to our leverage objective of 2.8x- 3x approximately 24 months after close.
The principles of our balanced capital allocation model remain the same. Deleveraging our balance sheet, funding a stable and growing dividend, investing in attractive growth opportunities, and returning excess capital to shareholders. Consistent with this strategy, we do not expect to repurchase shares in the near term as we prioritize debt repayment. Overall, this transaction is a significant strategic step forward for Aon. USI is one of the market's premier assets, and adding it to Aon enhances our reach, our data platform, and our addressable market, deepening the context advantage we deliver to our clients.
The rationale is clear and compelling, allowing us to expand future growth, margin potential, EPS accretion, and free cash flow generation over time. Most importantly, we believe this transaction is a unique opportunity that will allow us to deliver more for our clients, colleagues, and shareholders. I'll now pass you back to Greg for a few closing thoughts before we take your questions.
Thank you, Nadin. This is a landmark moment for Aon, establishing the premier U.S. middle market platform, enabling us to deliver better choice, superior solutions, and greater value for our clients. Importantly, we believe the advantages of our platform will expand over time as we bring more innovative capabilities to clients, create greater opportunities for colleagues, and generate long-term value for our shareholders. Now, Mike, Nadin, Andy, and I would be happy to take your questions. Back to you, Donna.
Thank you. The floor is now open for questions. If you would like to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone keypad at this time. A confirmation tone will indicate that your line is in the question queue. You may press star two if you would like to remove your question from the queue. For participants using speaker equipment, it may be necessary to pick up the handset before pressing the star keys. We do ask that you please limit yourself to one question and then re-queue for any additional questions. Again, that is star one to register a question at this time. Today's first question is coming from David Motemaden of Evercore ISI. Please go ahead.
Hey, thanks. Good morning. Greg, a few times you had mentioned that the deal is expected to accelerate the organic growth of Aon. Maybe you could just elaborate on how much. Is that something that can break you guys out of the mid-single digit or greater organic growth range? And where do you see that coming from mostly? Because it looks like USI actually grew 4% in 2025, which was below Aon. Thank you.
David, love the question. It is exactly the perfect one to start with because fundamentally, this is about serving clients more effectively and serving more of them. This is about organic growth. Look for our opportunities in organic growth to continue to increase over time. Again, step back and think about Aon before we get to the premier middle market platform we are talking about. We have with the 3x3 and all the capability we have built just continue to double down on our ability to bring better solutions, help clients make better decisions. You have seen it show up in our growth rates. By the way, two of the last four quarters, we had 10% organic growth in the U.S. theater and commercial risk, for example. The 3x3 , the capability behind it is working unbelievably well.
It creates great opportunity and leverage for us, which we are now bringing with the Vero platform to the middle market. So step back. With USI, with NFP, with the capability we have got in Aon, when we talk about mid-single digit or greater, this is the opportunity for greater, right? In the end, we are going to continue to build and create here, and that combination has given us great expectations around overall organic growth. So not about NFP by itself or USI by itself or Aon by itself, but that platform, and that will be accretive to what will be a more accretive overall Aon. We have proven it, David. We have seen it inside of NFP, bringing that advantage in a very specific way. Now we are scaling it to more clients in a way that we have high confidence will be compelling. But listen, hearing from you is interesting.
If you don't mind, I think getting Mike just to talk about this. We've talked about this at length in terms of what this might mean and the opportunity in the middle market. Then even getting Andy to chime in on the E&S opportunity. That's a net new piece, right? That's something that hasn't been in the game before. Now we're talking about it in the game, and it really does provide clarity as well on the overall synergy capture. Mike, your thoughts on organic growth.
Yeah, Greg, I appreciate that, and a few thoughts and comments. I've spent my career in this industry and understand and appreciate the true power of the relationships our producers and client team members have with clients and prospective clients. Relationships powerfully and importantly matter. Historically, in the middle market in particular, relationship has been always important, and it's been relationship driven, but relationship alone, relationship stop is just not enough. It's got to be relationship plus. The plus here is the combination of our firms, and it's truly extraordinary. Our combined context advantage, as Greg described, starts with that shared one culture, a similar integrated organizational structure across capital and human capital, property and casualty, employee benefits, and leveraging the power of data analytics brings an enterprise-grade insight into the middle market. I see an exciting opportunity to leverage the data analytics at Aon.
A prime example of this, as I've seen, and you may have as well, the Aon's Risk Analyzer suite. Just couldn't be more excited about the organic growth potential that's going to come as part of this platform that our producers, our client team members can now leverage and deliver to clients and prospective clients.
Think about it, David, that's literally the ABS analytics and that platform package tailored for the middle market, sort of in the main. So that's classic middle market opportunity that Mike's talking about a game-changing opportunity for. Then we have a net new area that we haven't been playing in, and that's E&S opportunity. Andy, can you talk about that too, and kind of an additional piece on the organic growth profile?
Sure. Thanks, Greg. USI gives us two things. One is the direct access to the E&S market, and I will come to that. Also, in Aon too, USI gives the USI clients and brokers access to a global retail network, and that is important, and I will come to that second. Firstly, on the E&S business, which is a growing segment of the market, having direct access for our clients fulfills the risk capital promise of agnostic access to capital, which we have been focused on for the last three years. If you think about, Greg mentioned Totalis Specialty , which is our program and MGU business that has $5.5 billion of premium flowing through it, we trade in that platform with 21,000 independent agents. When those policies get rejected by the program, it goes back to those independent agents and is then distributed through our wholesale channels.
We have that business, and we actually want to serve it fully and serve all those independent clients in the best ways that we can and give better choice. Having this direct access will fulfill that, and there will be other specialty ways in which we can do that. Again, to the other point, for USI, our learnings with NFP in enabling a mid-market broker to have full access to a global retail network, Bermuda, London, it helps give clients choice, and it is a direct revenue benefit for Aon, which are managed and articulated and lived in.
Literally, if you think about it, David, we now got the core business. We have E&S. What I hope you take away from this, and we will not spin around all four of us while I have every question, but on this one, it is about organic growth. Organic growth unlocks the value for clients, and just to be clear, it is the shareholder value key. We grow organically, it unlocks everything. What I hope you pick up here is very specific understanding of what it is going to take. We know the answer. Now scaling. Andy just described the opportunity. It does not require new clients. It requires us doing more with existing clients. That is a beautiful thing. By the way, we will get new clients as well. We are going to get both. It opens the door to the synergy idea.
It all hinges back on the synergies and the opportunity to capture the revenue and cost synergies. Just a comment from Nadin on literally how we have line of sight into the synergies which drive exactly what Mike and Andy have just talked about.
Yeah, let me just add to those comments. If I echo what we are really excited about, this deal increases our presence in the middle market and access to E&S, which are two of the fastest growing segments in U.S. commercial insurance. As you mentioned, Greg, when we think about this specific transaction, this allows us to offer more products and services to a larger base of clients, which will support the organic growth. As I mentioned earlier, the synergies that we have calculated as part of this transaction amount to $321 million of additional revenue growth opportunities. Ultimately, if we think about this, expanding our addressable market, strengthening our ability to achieve organic revenue growth of mid-single digits or greater comes as part of this deal, and importantly, through the cycle.
Thank you. Our next question is coming from Elyse Greenspan of Wells Fargo. Please go ahead.
Hi, thanks. My first question, I guess, is on the financing on the transaction. Recognize that you guys have a plan to take up the leverage, right, and then bring it back down over the next couple of years. Is there any way, once we see how this plays out, as we get closer to close, that you guys would consider an equity component to this transaction, or are you fully committed to funding this all via debt?
Elyse, why don't I start overview, and then we can talk specifically about some of the mechanics if it's more helpful for you. Listen, we are very pleased to sort of take this on the balance sheet, and literally preserve the shareholder value creation, which we believe is going to be quite substantial for our existing shareholders. Very much pleased to be able to do that and fully ready to attack this opportunity in that way. You saw us do it exactly the same way with NFP, where we moved up and then we moved down in a very short period of time, faster than we even thought we would. Look for us to push that in any way we possibly can as we drive this, but we are very comfortable with the structure that's going to drive a greater shareholder value creation for our shareholders. Nadin?
Yeah. I would add that we are pursuing this opportunity from a position of strength, and we will maintain our disciplined capital allocation approach, which we have talked about before. As part of this transaction, we will maintain our current credit rating, and we expect to return to our leverage objective of 2.8x- 3 x in approximately 24 months of close. I just want to reiterate that our principles around balanced capital allocation model remain unchanged, deleveraging our balance sheet, funding a stable and growing dividend, investing in attractive growth opportunities, and returning excess capital to shareholders. Again, as we have talked about, we did this with NFP. We had a higher leverage ratio, and we were able to bring it down. We have a track record of demonstrating that.
Thanks. My follow-up question, there is some adjustments to revenue. I think it is around $60 million, which I am assuming is revenue dyssynergies here. How did you guys come up with that as being the right figure when bringing together right to sizable organizations?
Again, Elyse, we took a very conservative view going back to the baseline core on literally what we are going to build off of as we thought about the synergies. These adjustments reflect literally making sure we are all counting revenue in exactly the same way. We are being very careful about that, and we are very stringent on how we build that baseline. In addition to making sure we build in what is always natural leakage that occurs. I would say if you think about this in the NFP case, our NFP colleagues working together were tremendous. We had incredible experience, producer retention, exceptionally strong, stronger post-deal than pre-deal. That is unheard of. The overall leadership, Doug Hammond, Mike Goldman and all these guys were phenomenal in terms of what we were trying to do with our team.
Now we have got a next generation of leaders stepping up in the NFP world to work with Mike. We are incredibly excited about how that is going to look like. We have seen this movie multiple times and certainly saw it in NFP, learned a lot and feel very, very good about our ability to sort of maintain the platform as we then strengthen the platform.
Thank you. The next question is coming from Pablo Singzon of JPMorgan. Please go ahead.
Hi, good morning. One element of your disclosure today was retention costs, and I do not think you disclosed that when you announced NFP. I guess the question is, can you talk about your, and Greg, I think you touched this already a bit, but your retention experience with NFP and your expectation for USI? The departure of producers is always a key risk for large M&A, and I was wondering how you are thinking about managing that risk.
Pablo, if organic growth was a perfect kickoff question, our retention about our people and our colleagues is right there with it. This is really the driver. It really is all about our colleagues, and I think I would start broad, but I think, again, here, getting some comments from my colleagues here will be quite helpful. Look, principle number one that guides the work across global Aon, guides the work at NFP, is now guiding the work with USI and the platform, this middle market platform we are creating, is a set of principles around this is our talent first, investing in, reinforcing, developing our talent. Then as Mike described, this is not talent which is primary. Absolutely primary. It is not talent, stop. It is talent with greater content capability to sit across the table and wow a client. We put that package together.
That is really what matters more than anything else, and that is where we have invested so heavily to enrich our ability to help clients make better decisions through our colleagues. Again, talk is cheap. You have seen this. Our retention all-time high. Producer retention, as I described before in NFP, if you want a specific example, exceptionally strong. I can go on and on. Sentiment, if you think about where it is at Aon, even more so at USI, but Aon and NFP, exceptionally strong. What I am trying to highlight here before we get to the investment in the particular situation here, which Nadin can talk about, I want you to get a sense for how high a priority this is for us as we think about our ability to serve clients more effectively. Then also be clear, we have done this. We are doing this. This is again, about the concept areas.
It's scaling proven concepts in a way that benefit clients more effectively. That's the whole program. We have it on the organic growth plan, and we absolutely have it on the retention plan. Obviously, we're going to invest resources directly behind that and overall retention and maybe then offer some thoughts here in terms of the broad view on what we've got going on.
Yeah. In addition to what Greg said, I would say that we've shared that we've contemplated up to $400 million specifically in retention costs. We've devised a series of programs and structures that we'll put in place to ensure that we have strong outcomes here. This includes success and learnings from our experience in working with NFP, and we're really encouraged by the strong cultural fit between the two companies. Coupled with best-in-class tools and capabilities in the industry, we believe that Aon will increasingly be the destination of choice for top talent.
Just one quick comment, maybe Mike, from you around this whole talent piece, because this is a place you and I spent a huge amount of time talking about as we thought about this middle market platform and what it might mean for our clients.
Yeah, thanks, Greg. This is a net plus for our people unquestionably, and I believe as well for the NFP colleagues as well. It's same plus more, right? On a same basis, they continue to be the relationship lead with their clients and prospective clients. Now the more is the already existing powerful solution tool and support platform they have today has now further expanded exponentially, domestic and international, both on the risk capital and the human capital side, access to even more expanded proprietary tools, solutions and programs, technology support and solutions, account management, account executive, and vertical expertise support. It's an exponentially greater capability than they had yesterday or will have upon close of the transaction. This is clearly a net plus for our people.
Excellent. Thanks.
Thank you. The next question is coming from Meyer Shields of KBW. Please go ahead.
Thanks so much. I am just going back to the E&S because I am trying to understand it. Is the plan for the increased utilization of E&S on Aon retail brokerage, or is Aon sort of entering the or re-entering the third-party wholesale world again?
Let us take a step back, Meyer. You are asking about this piece which is straight net new. We have access now to this overall market. We are talking about expanding the access. Again, primary here is matching capital with client need, reduce volatility. That is really what is going on. Greater access to do that. But Andy, how would you describe sort of the steps we are taking to make that happen?
I think in the first case, I used the example earlier about size specialty. The ability to serve our clients in a complete way, accessing the E&S market on a direct basis is going to help our retention and wins and relevance in that space. Additionally, when we think about our specialty business like Global Access with NFP, with USI, how we access directly, which is new for us, the E&S markets, using our analytics and our insights to gain direct to the E&S market is going to be better for us and better for our clients because they have more immediate choice.
There is a point that I think should not be missed, is that how the USI broker network can utilize a global retail broking network produces the greatest yield and the greatest choice. So yes, E&S is super important for us, but actually having a connected placement strategy with USI, with NFP, with Aon as one is the most important step.
Thank you. The next question is coming from Bob Huang of Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead.
Yeah. Hi. Maybe I would like to hear your thoughts a little bit on the technology integration. Is that something you can unpack a little bit more? If we think about USI, right, like the USI ONE system, it essentially is, from our perspective, a very integrated analytics tool that brings essentially a proprietary platform and brings everything together. It also does feel like Aon has something similar along that line as well. As we see the two companies come together, can you maybe just unpack the technology strategy in terms of directional travel of where integrated platform works, or is USI going to be kept on a separate system? Just curious how you think about everything in between.
Love it, Bob. Absolutely fantastic. By the way, we probably won't be able to get into the entire technology strategy and unpack it with a few minutes here on the call, but it's incredibly fundamental. Again, this is the premier middle market platform. We mean platform. This is a connected platform. This is Aon assets, USI assets, NFP assets operating in this middle market platform in the context of what we do across the North American theater. This is connected on areas like analytics and capability. Think about the ABS platform and what we have and how it's been built and evolved over time. Now we're connecting it even more effectively. That's going to come together. I do want to call on Mike again. He and Mindy Simon have spent real time on this in terms of thinking about the opportunities here.
I think Mike come away with a lot of excitement about how we can take principles that are very aligned, objectives very aligned, and do something pretty special to accelerate the ABS capability we've got, and in doing so, accelerate the ability to serve across this platform.
Yeah, Greg, when you and I first started talking, and then when I further got the chance to spend time with Mindy, it's amazing how similar the proprietary platforms and technologies are that we've built over time at USI and you've built with the team at Aon. It's a very similar concept. How do you use data to turn that into insight and analytics? How do you provide a full breadth and depth of solutions that are customized to each and every client? How does one individual relationship person not just deliver their solo expertise? Of course they do. They bring their experience, their knowledge, their relationships. But how do they make sure that they're simultaneously the concierge and conduit to the entire platform of solutions and ideas customized and applied to that individual client and prospect?
What we're going to be able to do now is, I think, a very complementary combination of our technologies. Our USI proprietary technology is heavily focused on the U.S. middle market, and Aon's also has a tremendous strength in the larger risk management segment. I think it's a great complementary tool set that we'll be bringing together.
I just would remind one more thing here, Bob, that is so important. You say, "Well, that sounds like it could be difficult. Are you worried about the integration?" Listen, what has just been accomplished by Mindy, our COO, and all the infrastructure on the 3x3 Plan is massively complex. You did not hear a word about it. That is because it was handled flawlessly. We have a connected global platform across 60,000. The middle market platform is a subset of that. It is within the construct of that. We know that play exceedingly well. It has been proven across global Aon. Now we are going to apply it in the middle market platform. So again, back to the idea of the synergies, the capture, the understanding that Mindy talked about.
We have very specific line of sight led by Mindy across global Aon, now across the North American theater, now in the U.S. middle market premier platform. So this is all connected. This is all turbocharged to win, both individually in a local market area, powered by what we have globally. So we are incredibly excited about the momentum. The other piece that this gives us is, think about it, this is innovation at scale. When we get it right in one part of the world, it is now around the world immediately. That is unheard of in our industry. That is what this gives us. Then finally, if I could, this is about back to AI. We have said it many, many times, AI is not a strategy. The strategy is client leadership, client value.
AI reinforces that, accelerates that, and we have been doing this since 2009 in terms of sort of back to what we have done. So now we are accelerated, as the 3x3 Plan accelerated, and so AI actually helps accelerate what we are doing here as part of the middle market platform. So great question, and a fundamental part of not just our ability to deliver on the strategy, but also capture the synergies that come with it.
Thank you. The next question is coming from Andrew Kligerman of TD Cowen. Please go ahead.
Hey, thanks for taking the question. Congrats on the transaction. Question around USI and NFP. How do those two operations initially look from the get-go? Are they separate entities? Do you not combine them? Where is the brand going to go with those two companies? Just curious, when those two organizations come together and w hat the name is going to be. Is it going to be Aon over time?
Then quickly also on Excess & Surplus, I looked at slide eight and I see that 23% is specialty. A piece of that specialty is wholesale. So I'm going to guesstimate maybe $100 million-$200 million of revenue maybe comes from wholesale. Is that something that could massively grow at Aon from a very small base? I'll stop there. Thank you.
Well, Andrew, first of all, thanks for the questions. Really appreciate you chiming in this morning. Listen, you come back, and we're going to lay this out more and more as we unfold not just the synergies, but some of the overall approach. Understand this is an absolute integrated, connected, premier middle market platform. Under Mike's leadership, when you think about it, Mike Schneider in the role he now plays, he's in Fox in the role he plays at NFP. This is the team coming together, with support from Doug Hammond in an executive chairman role. This is an integrated team coming together under Mike's leadership to really address the questions you're raising in a way that's connected, driven, and all there to deliver better client outcomes, full stop. In doing so, win more clients, do more with them, keep them longer. Organic growth.
That machine, we know how it works. We've proven it, now we're scaling it. So that's how it's going to all come together. The leadership team, as you will see, will be cutting across all three of those groups, one single leadership team. Again, that's why the technology and the business services platform fits within that as well. So this is a very clear, guided plan with a real simple message. The most premier opportunity in middle market for our clients and for our producers, for our client leaders, that by the way, is going to just keep innovating. So where we stop now is just an interesting placeholder. What we want to do is keep innovating around that more and more and more. So that's the thought on the middle market side. Then Andy, as you think about the E&S side, reactions overall?
Yeah, I'd say that when you think about the E&S possibilities for us, you think of it in the context of Totalis Specialty, which has the MGA, MGU programs. USI has a complementary element to that, but most important, has the direct access to the E&S markets with the wholesaler. MGA and MGUs historically has been growing at a 15% CAGR, so we're committed to that space. That additional capability enables us to serve our specialty business in the NFP and Aon network with our, what we think are market leading analytics and will enable us to win and expand our footprint there. The footprint in wholesale at USI is quite small, but by combining it with Totalis Specialty and taking this broader view, we're very confident we can accelerate growth.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, that is all the time we have today for questions. I'd like to turn the floor back over to Mr. Case for closing comments.
Thank you, Donna, and we just want to again, appreciate you all joining on this special call. Obviously, a unique opportunity and moment in our history. As we said at the beginning, less about our history and more about what we can do on behalf of middle market clients with this combined U.S. premier platform, which we're very excited to sort of embark on post-close. Again, thanks for the time today and look forward to updating you on our progress as we move forward. Thanks so much.
Ladies and gentlemen, this concludes today's event. You may disconnect your lines or log off the webcast at this time, and enjoy the rest of your day.