We all know that voluntary is quickly becoming the key driver inbenefits sales. We've discussed the desire of employers to reduceand control benefit costs, the trend toward greater employeechoice, the larger product variety, the impact of Obamacare and arange of other issues driving increased voluntary sales. And unliketraditional employer-paid benefits, half of all voluntary sales arenew coverages rather than takeovers.

Sales grew in the great recession years of 2008 and 2009. Giventhat, is something else contributing to this track record?

First, skeptics have pointed out that more than 70 percent ofemployers now offer at least one voluntary benefit and thesaturation point must be near. But looking at employer data, aninteresting phenomenon appears.

Many employers (30 percent) have resisted offering voluntaryplans and many of these are at the very small end of the sizespectrum. For years, executives cited perceived complexity and thefear of administrative burdens as barriers, but the number offeringhas continued to increase.

On the other hand, those offering only one voluntary productrarely stay at that level for long. Maybe because they haveovercome their fear based on their initial experience, employerswho offer a voluntary product tend to quickly add a second, then athird (and so on) voluntary product. Twenty percent of employerssay that they plan to add at least one new voluntary product overthe next two years. And 21 percent report that they are consideringmoving at least one employer-paid product they currently offer to avoluntary equivalent.

Unlike employer-paid coverages, voluntary accounts represent acontinued source of sales opportunities. Today, roughly 38 percentof Americans own at least one voluntary product and they, likeemployers, are more apt to add additional voluntary products asthey become available. Still, another 39 percent of employees havenot yet purchased, even though they work for an employer who offersvoluntary. Obviously, re-enrollment is a key factor in voluntarysales.

In both cases, the limitation seems to be distribution.Employers are ready and are adding more voluntary products.Employees are accessible and are favorably disposed to buy.

But it's worth noting that the sales potential of neither ofthese trends is dependent on opening new accounts. In times ofeconomic stress, brokers can access both the increasing likelihoodof employers to enhance benefits with a voluntary product and thelarge numbers of employees who have not yet bought or areconsidering buying an additional voluntary product.