NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - Marsh & McLennan, the world's largest insurance broker posted its first rise in profits since scandal hit the company in 2004 and sees improvements in the business going forward.

But the gains come even as the company said its core risk and insurance services continues to struggle and trends for that business remain murky.

Speaking at the company's third-quarter earnings conference call with analysts, Marsh & McLennan's chief executive Michael Cherkasky said "after the crisis last fall, its hard to see financial trends in the Marsh business" because there fails to be any month-to-month consistency in that line of business.

He said the risk and insurance services business, which reported a 6 percent decline in revenue to $1.4 billion in the third quarter, has been hit by lower new business production.

The New York-based company reported Net income rose to $65 million, or 12 cents a share, from $21 million, or 4 cents, a year earlier, the company said, noting it set aside $232 million a year earlier to settle Spitzer's lawsuit.

Excluding legal costs, restructuring charges and employee retention awards, profit fell 16 percent to $189 million, or 35 cents per share, from $225 million, or 42 cents, hurt by lower insurance premium rates. The expensing of stock options and an increase in shares reduced profit per share by nearly 5 cents.

The company missed analysts expectations. Earnings tracker Thomson First Call expected the company to earn 38 cents a share. Despite reassurances from Marsh & McLennan executives, the company's stock continued to struggle. Marsh & McLennan shares recently fell almost 3 percent to $28.40.

Gerald Bollman, who helps invest $1.2 billion at Great Companies LLC in Clearwater, Florida told Reuters that the company's loss of business is also a concern.

"If you're losing market share you're losing relationships, and relationships in the insurance brokerage business are everything," he said.

But Cherkasky said he was confident that the worst is behind the company, which struggled not only with legal concerns but also faced an exodus of clients. Cherkasky said Marsh & McLennan has had "material big wins from new clients" in recent months and is now responding to a steady flow of request for proposals (RFP) - the process by which a client goes to market to get its business. He said 50 percent of those RFPs are from new clients, indicating improvements in 2006.

"I don't think we're winning our fair share of RFPs yet," he said. "We're winning some and we want to be winning more and we think we will as the story continues to improve."

Cherkasky added that the company hasn't been able to determine what impact the barrage of devastating hurricanes this summer will have on the insurance and reinsurance businesses. He said that some markets, such as reinsurance, may harden as companies demand higher rates to meet added risk. He added that a harder market may have a positive impact on the company's performance in 2006.

Peter Streit, insurance analyst at Williams Capital said the company has had problems developing new relationships but "all of the negative implications from previous investigations should subside over time."

He said the company's restructuring initiatives as well as its attempts in retaining current business should translate in to positive financial performance going forward.

Marsh in January agreed to pay $850 million to settle a lawsuit by Spitzer accusing it of rigging bids, fixing prices and steering business to insurers that paid fees that clients did not know about. The company agreed to scrap those fees.

Cherkasky said that 88 percent of clients affected by the company's scandal have opted to take part in the $850 settlement fund -- a deal which will prohibit those clients from embarking on separate law suits.

The company also completed a 2004 restructuring program, resulting in annual cost savings of $400 million, including $300 million realized through the third quarter. A 2005 restructuring to be completed in early 2006 will result in $375 million of annual savings in risk and insurance services, including $60 million realized in the third quarter.

Marsh & McLennan's financial chief Sandra Wijnberg said the company expects to see savings of $60 to $70 million in the fourth quarter and first quarter savings should exceed $90 million.

The company had been expected to cut 5,300 jobs, or 9 percent of its work force. It halved its stock dividend in March. Wijnberg said the company has already reduced its workforce by 4,900.

And CEO Cherkasky added that while the company doesn't plan a workforce reduction in 2006 similar to its job cuts in 2004 and 2005, the company will continue to work towards cutting costs and improving efficiency.