Eastbridge’s annual U.S. Worksite Sales Report for 2010 wasrecently released and, according to the findings, sales for theyear were down compared to 2009. This is the first time since wehave been tracking voluntary/worksite sales that we have seen adecrease from the prior year’s results.

In this column, we will share some details on the overall salesresults for 2010. Future columns will provide details by productline and by distribution channel. According to surveys completed bycarriers, new voluntary sales (U.S.) totaled an estimated $5.243billion, down from $5.397 billion in 2009.

This represents a decrease of 2.85 percent. As you can see onthe graph, this is the first decrease in voluntary sales year overyear since we’ve been tracking sales. Undoubtedly, the economy andunemployment were major causes of the lower results. Interestingly,despite the overall decrease, more companies experienced increasesthan decreases in 2010.

The No. 1 carrier (with a 26 percent market share) saw adecrease of almost five percent, which made achieving an overallindustry increase difficult. Among the top 15 companies, six hadincreases—four of them double-digit increases ranging from 11percent to 28 percent. Six more of the top 15 had decreases andthree were flat as compared to 2009.

Inforce premiums were also down slightly (-0.3 percent). Thereport estimates the 2010 inforce worksite premium to be between$18.7 and $24.6 billion. In our next column, we will review theresults by product line and product platform.

Gil Lowerre can be reached at (860) 676-9633 or [email protected].

Bonnie Brazzell can be reached at (803) 738-1236 or [email protected].