There are a half-dozen subtle drivers of growth that account forthe almost unbroken string of annual sales increases for thevoluntary industry. These drivers propel industry sales ahead, evenduring weak economic times, and are in addition to the traditional“more people, selling more” momentum we have been chronicling forthe last quarter of a century.

One of these drivers is the documented tendency of accounts,once they offer a voluntary benefit, to add a second, a third,(etc.) voluntary benefit in rapid succession. This serves as abuilt-in sales accelerator. Once a broker sells an account on avoluntary offering, if she does a good job, she’ll be rewarded witha string of new-product sales in the coming years. Looking atmedium-size accounts that offer voluntary, as an example, 67percent offer three or more voluntary products. That measure is 65percent in large accounts and 74 percent in smallaccounts.

At the same time, these accounts are increasing the number ofvoluntary carriers they use with 43 percent of all accounts usingtwo or three carriers and another 20 precent using more than three.In the past, employee benefit brokers (one of the five majorvoluntary broker segments) have most often relied on their groupcarrier (employer-paid life and disability) for their voluntaryproduct offerings.

These offerings, in turn, were usually very limited to productsthat were clones of the carrier’s employer-paid products, but witha different payor. Over the last several years, as the above trendshave developed, carriers all across the board have been busybuilding out their portfolios. Some of these efforts have been verysuccessful, some have missed the mark, and others are reasonabledesigns that are forced into the previous delivery model thatworked well with group voluntary life and disability (the round pegin the square hole).

As carriers expand their product portfolios and seek carrierswho offer superior value in a product category, brokers need tostep up their game, being ready to identify and offer best-of-breedproducts and administrative and billing solutions that canaccommodate the benefit programs of multiple carriers.