For the year, net income was up 39 percent from 2010, or $273 million, to $979 million. Revenues rose 33 percent or $2.76 billion to $11.3 billion.

The firm reports organic-growth increases in both brokerage and human resources in the quarter, with overall corporate increases of 3 percent for the quarter and 2 percent for the year.

During a conference call with financial analysts, Case says the quarter was both “challenging and exciting for our firm,” as the economic downturn and insurance-industry rates still pressured earnings, but “at a lesser pace.”

He says the brokerage segment had a more than 90 percent retention rate in 2011 and won $280 million in new business across retail brokerage.

When asked about Europe, Case says growth was flat to up by low single digits because of the economic headwinds, but he says “we are going to push against [those headwinds] and feel we are going to do well.”

The difficulty in Europe was reflected in the organic-growth numbers where the International segment came in at 1 percent helped by strong growth in Asia, but that was not enough to offset issues with the European economy. In contrast, theAmericasstood at 3 percent organic growth. Aon says this was the result of new business growth in both Latin America andCanada.

On the acquisition front, Christa Davis, Aon's chief financial officer, says the firm does not see a “significant” transaction on the horizon, but would continue to do deals in the $200 million to $250 million range.