PHOENIX - Growth, like any other kind of change, can be a funny thing. It can jump out at you from behind a corner, and knock you flat on the floor. It can also creep up on you slowly over time.
This industry is a prime example, as illustrated so clearly at the latest Mass Marketing Insurance Association conference. While growth overall may have slowed the last few years, untapped potential still lurks in the shadows.
Health care -- This monolith of contradiction has endured siege after bloody siege since the dinosaur-like mass extinction of managed care in the 1980s. In fact, the so-called health care crisis has become as clich? -- and meaningless -- as the liberal media myth. The crisis has lingered in the back of the room for so long now that the drumbeat of impending doom sounds more like an annoying buzz. The shaky ground of major medical coverage, and care, remains, but the sense of urgency has naturally faded. The crisis itself is merely a fact of life.
And we've adapted. According to Eastbridge Consulting Group, of all the product lines out there, health care offerings are enjoying the greatest growth right now. Hospital indemnity and supplemental medical -- such as gap plans and those ever-popular mini-meds -- grew more than 80 percent in the last three years.
Retirement -- Everyone thinks they're ready. Few really are. Sounds like the fine print on a sweepstakes entry: "Many will enter but few will win."
A pair of studies hit the streets recently, which revealed confusing attitudes about retirement in this country. In a nutshell, the studies showed Americans have no idea how much money they'll spend during retirement and they expect way too much from a teetering Social Security system.
Despite these misconceptions, there is solid growth potential in the retirement sector.
In fact, one of my colleagues told me just the other day that retirement plan participants rolled more than $200 billion into IRAs in 2004. But defined contribution providers and advisors, he said, lost custody of more than half that. He also filled me in on numbers out of the Money Management Institute, which showed that nearly 54 percent of investors who rolled their IRAs over did so on the advice of a financial professional.
So next time you hear a broker bemoaning the end of an era, remind him another one is on its heels.
Speaking of brokers, it's that time of year again. Readers' Choice Awards are back. The ballot makes its debut with this issue. Take a minute to fill it out and fax it in or visit www.benefitssellingreaderschoice.com. Deadline for entries is Aug. 21 and the winners will be featured in our November issue.
