Marsh & McLennan Cos. Inc., the largest insurance brokerage in the United States, reported that its profits for the first quarter of 2007 declined significantly from the year-ago period.

Net income in the first quarter was $268 million, or 47 cents per share, compared with $416 million, or 75 cents per share, a year earlier. These results include 5 cents per share in one-time charges for restructuring and other items; year-ago profits were boosted by a gain of 32 cents per share from the sale of a management services company.

Marsh & McLennan, which has an office in West Des Moines, also is recovering from a January 2005 settlement of state and federal probes into its sales practices. It announced in February that it would sell its Putnam Investments division to a Canadian financial services company for $3.9 billion in cash, a deal that is expected to close in the second quarter. The New York-based company also plans to buy back about $500 million of its stock.

Excluding Putnam results, Marsh & McLennan’s net income from continuing operations was $228 million compared with $200 million a year earlier. Total revenues were up 5 percent to $2.81 billion from $2.67 billion a year ago.