The Federal Trade Commission’s ban on noncompetes will be manageable top executives at Willis Towers Watson PLC said Thursday as the brokerage reported higher revenue but lower profit for the first quarter.

WTW CEO Carl Hess said during an earnings call with analysts that the brokerage uses nonsolicitation agreements in the course of its business and views the FTC ban, which business groups have already sued to stop, as a “manageable situation.”

“Nonsolicitation, nondisclosure-type agreements don’t function to prevent someone from taking a job at a competitor,” and there’s no rule tied to that type of restrictive covenant, Mr. Hess said.

WTW reported $2.34 billion in first-quarter revenue, up 4% overall and 5% on an organic basis from the year-earlier period.

The brokerage said it expects to deliver revenue of $9.9 billion or greater and mid-single-digit organic revenue growth for full-year 2024.

First-quarter net income fell 6% to $194 million from $206 million in the prior-year period. The brokerage incurred $143 million in charges related to its transformation program and restructuring.

WTW’s risk and broking segment, which includes corporate risk and broking and its insurance consulting and technology business, reported $978 million in revenue, up 8% both overall and on an organic basis.

The rise in organic revenue reflected strong client retention across all geographies and higher levels of new business activity, WTW said in its earnings statement.

“Our specialty businesses continue to strongly outpace the rest of the segment’s growth and we also continue to see sustained client retention rates in the mid-90s,” Mr. Hess said.

Specialty lines growth was led globally by financial lines and natural resources, WTW Chief Financial Officer Andrew Krasner said on the call.

The brokerage’s North America corporate risk and broking business saw solid growth driven by new business across construction, natural resources, and real estate, hospitality and leisure lines, and from Verita CSG Inc., its managing general underwriter business.

WTW’s health, wealth and career segment reported revenue of $1.34 billion for the quarter, up 4% on both an overall and an organic basis.

The rating environment remains mixed with some flattening and even softening in certain insurance lines such as directors and officers liability and cyber, Mr. Krasner said.

Increased frequency of natural disasters, social inflation and geopolitical conflicts are driving rate increases in various lines such as casualty, especially in North America, and globally in political violence and terrorism, he said.

WTW realized $33 million of incremental annualized savings related to its transformation program in the quarter, bringing the total to $370 million in cumulative annualized savings since the program’s inception.

The program, launched in 2021, is expected to generate $425 million of run-rate savings by the end of this year, with total program costs of $1.13 billion.

Mr. Hess said WTW has replenished its talent base and going forward is focused on strategic and opportunistic hiring.

“We're not just hiring to fill our bench, we're hiring to take advantage of specific opportunities to create value,” he said, citing the hiring of former Marsh LLC executive Lucy Clarke, who is set to join WTW in the third quarter.