Confidence in the future of the voluntary industry continues totrend upward, according to a new survey from Eastbridge Consulting Group.

Eastbridge's Voluntary Industry Confidence Index tickedup three points from mid-year 2009 to 95.9. This is up seven pointsover year-end 2008.

The index is conducted semi-annually of individuals active inthe market, including carriers, brokers and vendors. The latestsurvey was conducted in December and early January.

"We have been watching the index carefully," say GilLowerre, president of Eastbridge. "As noted in our last report,the index started dipping at year-end 2007, in line with the'official' start of the recession. The index continued to trenddownward in 2008, reaching a low at the end of the year buttrending upwards beginning mid-year 2009. This latest uptickcontinues to reinforce the validity of the index."

The index is measured by three points of expectation for thevoluntary industry: sales growth, profitability and employeeenthusiasm about voluntary products.

Respondents believe sales in particular will see a better year.Eighty-four percent believe that sales will increase, up from just66 percent at year-end 2008.

"We are seeing that people are really becoming more positiveabout the outlook for 2010," says Bonnie Brazzell, vice president, Eastbridge. "In the mostrecent survey, 18 percent of the respondents expect sales toincrease a lot, but even more importantly, only 7 percent expectany decreases as compared to 19 percent last year."

The Voluntary Industry Confidence Index report isavailable only to Eastbridge Information Partner companies as wellas to participants. The survey will be conducted again in July. Formore information on becoming a participant, contact the company atwww.eastbridge.com.

Look for Gil Lowerre and Bonnie Brazzell's "What's Next" column every month in BenefitsSelling.