Aon plc operates as a professional services firm in the United States, rest of the Americas, the United Kingdom, Ireland, rest of Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and the Asia Pacific. It operates through Risk Capital and Human Capital segments. The company offers commercial risk solutions comprising retail and insurance brokerage, specialty solutions, global risk consulting, captives management, and affinity …
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Competitive advantage assessment
Key strengths
Top-Quartile Underwriting MarginsGross margin at 47.7% (top 16%) and operating margin at 25.3% (top 5%) reflect strong underwriting discipline.
Superior Returns on FloatFloat investment returns are strong (signal score 0.95), with ROA at 7.41% vs peers — investment income amplifies underwriting profit.
Key risks
Volatile Capital Returns Signal Cat ExposureCapital adequacy stability is low (score 0.05), indicating elevated catastrophe or reserve cycle exposure.
The dashed ring is the peer median. Defense scores are percentile ranks
against peers, so 50 is roughly the typical company in this group.
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Aon plc ranks #3 of 21
scored companies in Insurance Brokers by moat score — the top 14%.
The widest moat in the group is Brown & Brown, Inc. (BRO)
at 82/100.
Moat scores for companies ranked near AON in Insurance Brokers
How AON scores on the Insurance & Reinsurance defenses
Underwriting Discipline
Score 70
· 25% of the moat score
Underwriting discipline is the core insurance moat, and it consists mostly of the willingness to lose business.
Float Investment Quality
Score 80
· 20% of the moat score
Float is the money an insurer holds between collecting premiums and paying claims — capital it invests but does not own.
Pricing Power
Score 84
· 18% of the moat score
For an insurer, pricing power is the ability to push rate ahead of claims inflation and keep the policyholders anyway.
Capital Strength & Solvency
Score 48
· 17% of the moat score
Capital is what lets an insurer credibly promise to pay a claim that has not happened yet, and it is scrutinised by regulators and rating agencies alike.
Operational Efficiency
Score 84
· 12% of the moat score
The expense ratio — what it costs to acquire and administer a policy — is the half of the combined ratio management fully controls.
Scale & Diversification
Score 80
· 8% of the moat score
Diversification is a real economic advantage in insurance rather than a portfolio preference: risks spread across perils, geographies and lines are less likely to arrive at once, so the same capital supports more premium.
Aon plc (AON) scores 73 out of 100 on the StatsAlpha Moat Map, which rates its competitive advantage as moderate. It ranks #3 of 21 scored companies in Insurance Brokers, the top 14%. The score is a weighted composite of 6 competitive defenses, each measured against industry peers of 20 companies in Insurance Brokers. Its strongest defense is Pricing Power (84/100) and its weakest is Capital Strength & Solvency (48/100).
How does Aon plc compare with other Insurance Brokers companies?
Aon plc ranks #3 of 21 scored companies in Insurance Brokers by moat score. The widest moat in Insurance Brokers is Brown & Brown, Inc. (BRO) at 82/100. The companies ranked closest are Marsh & McLennan Companies, Inc (MMC) at 82 just above it and CorVel Corp. (CRVL) at 72 just below it.
How is the moat score calculated?
Each company is scored with an industry-specific template — Insurance & Reinsurance in this case, chosen because the defenses that matter to a bank are not the ones that matter to a software company. Every defense combines several financial signals, and each signal is measured as a percentile against a peer group of 20 companies in Insurance Brokers. The defenses are then weighted to produce the overall score out of 100.
Why is Aon plc scored with the Insurance & Reinsurance template?
An insurer is paid before it knows what its product cost, and invests the money in the meantime. Profit therefore comes from two sources that must both work: pricing risk better than rivals, and earning a return on the float those premiums create. The Insurance template scores that pair, along with the capital that lets a company survive the year in which the losses arrive together.
Which competitive defenses are measured for Aon plc?
The Insurance & Reinsurance template measures 6 defenses, and AON scores: Underwriting Discipline (70), Float Investment Quality (80), Pricing Power (84), Capital Strength & Solvency (48), Operational Efficiency (84), Scale & Diversification (80). Each is scored independently as a percentile against peers, so a company can be strong on one and weak on another — the overall score reflects how those defenses are weighted for this industry.
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