The Spokane office of Marsh might seem like a remote outpost for a multibillion-dollar-a-year parent company that claims to be the worlds leading insurance and risk-management services provider.


Its no slouch, though, within the huge conglomerate. It recently was recognized as one of Marshs top two performing operations last year, based on revenue and new-business growth of more than 12 percent and 11 percent, respectively, and client retention of 96 percent.


We really nudged out our New York office. We were actually No. 1 in how they look at it. I was pretty proud of that, says Curtis Taylor, Spokane-based senior vice president and regional manager of Marshs Eastern Washington and Idaho operations.


Taylor declines to say what Marshs revenues were here last year, but claims they far exceeded expectations. He foresees continued revenue growthand some added hiringover the rest of this year and into 2005.


Marsh currently employs about 86 people here, all of whom work in its offices in the Washington Mutual Financial Center, at 601 W. Main, and it expects to add six more this year, Taylor says.


The company offers a broad range of services here, from selling property and casualty insurance to employers and designing employee-benefits packages to consulting on retirement, executive benefits, and professional liability. It serves more than 350 clients in Eastern Washington.


Marsh had employed more than 100 people here a couple of years ago. However, it trimmed the number of employees working in third-party administrationprocessing claims for self-insured employersafter the company made some major technology upgrades, Taylor says.


For our self-insured clients, it was important for us to consolidatereduce the number of peopleto manage more clients with fewer people, he says. Because of its improved operating efficiencies, Marsh was able this year to avoid raising the rates it charges those customers for administrative services, which was a huge win for those clients, considering how much health-plan premiums have been rising, he asserts.


While tightening its labor costs, Marsh still has managed to keep its core-service revenue on a steady growth track here, averaging 4 percent to 6 percent per year since about 1997, Taylor says.


I see continued growth. Continued investments will be made in Spokane and our operations here, he says. He predicts that growth will be driven by increasing business demand for outside expertise in areas such as health-care insurance and risk and liability management.


Marsh Spokanes clients range from companies in the construction, mining, logging, hospitality, medical, and high-tech industries, to financial and educational institutions and Indian tribes.


Mark Neupert, vice president of the Marsh office here, says Marsh divides its risk-management clients into three groupsFortune 1000 companies, mid-market employers that have 150 to 2,000 employees, and those with fewer than 150 employees. Much of Marsh Spokanes focus is on the mid-market group, but it also serves a lot of smaller businesses.


Our client base really stretches the gamut. Our target would be those with 10 or more employees and $2 million or more in annual sales, he says.


Property and casualty insurance constitute the biggest share of the companys business here, but employee benefits have been the offices fastest-growing area, doubling in the last four years, he says.


Because of the cost of employee benefits, which have gotten increasing upper-management attention because of their rapid growth, particularly in the area of health care, we have really begun to focus on ways we can help our employees control and mitigate those costs, Neupert says.


Another area of noteworthy growth for the Marsh office here has been designing and administering pension and defined-contribution retirement plans, he says. It really began to focus on that service about two years ago and now is the fastest-growing office in the Marsh system in that arena, he says.


Business continuity and crisis consulting and safety and loss-control consulting are among the offices ancillary services, he says. He adds, Workers compensation cost containment is a huge issue affecting Marshs clients.


Neupert, a Spokane native who started with Marsh about 10 years ago and worked his way up into management, says Marshs employees here have been very cognizant of the struggles many Inland Northwest businesses have faced over the last couple of years.


Obviously weve seen our clients have to make some pretty tough choices in striving to manage insurance and risk-management needs on a tight budget, he says.


Marsh has been accused by competitors of being driven by the dollars and not being consumer-friendly, Neupert says, but he rejects that, citing a strong philosophy of community support within the Spokane office. It contributed more than $200,000 to philanthropic causes here last year, and its employees donated more than 1,000 hours of volunteer time to community endeavors, he says.


Marshs Spokane operation was founded here as McGovern Carroll more than 80 years ago.


In 1998, after a series of ownership changes, Marsh & McLennan Cos., a big New York-based financial and consulting services company, took over and began operating here as Marsh Inc., Marsh & McLennans insurance brokerage arm. It now simply operates under the name Marsh.


Marsh has 38,000 employees and annual revenues of $6.9 billion and provides services to companies in more than 100 countries.