Vision insurance sales increased a whopping 24 percent last yearover 2013, leading the way in worksite voluntary sales growth,according to industry data.

The info comes from LIMRA's U.S. Worksite Sales survey, which,overall, found that voluntary benefits sales increased 5 percent in2014 compared to 2013. That marks the fourth straight year ofgrowth for voluntary, LIMRA said.

Following vision insurance, critical illness sales grew 19percent in 2014, while accident insurance grew 12 percent.

Each of these products has grown by 12 percent or more in thepast four years, LIMRA said. Life insurance products saw increases,too, with stand-alone accidental death and dismemberment (AD&D)sales up 11 percent and universal life sales increasing by 7percent. The only decrease LIMRA reported was long-term disabilitysales, which declined by 5 percent.

“Voluntary benefits are on a growth trend, in part because theyallow employers to enrich their employee benefits portfolio at nodirect cost,” said Ron Neyer, assistant research director, LIMRAdistribution research. Neyer noted that a recent LIMRA study foundthat seven in 10 employers who offer voluntary benefits said “theseoptions help improve morale for existing employees and assist themin attracting and retaining new talent.”

The LIMRA data mirrors that from Eastbridge Consulting Group,which found that voluntary sales were up nearly 4 percent in 2014.Eastbridge pegged total voluntary/worksite sales for 2014 at $6.89billion, up from $6.644 billion in 2013.