We all know how rapidly the worksite/voluntary business hasgrown into a major industry, the most dynamic segment on thebenefits landscape. Over the last two decades, business has beenstrong, and new cases and customers have been plentiful. Forcarriers and brokers alike, it's been a gold rush, with all partiesfocusing on shoveling new business in the front door, as fast aspossible.

But that will change, and is already changing. We now have 38percent of all U.S. employees owning at least one voluntaryproduct, and 71 percent of employers offering at least onevoluntary product. Meanwhile, sales may have experienceduninterrupted growth, but takeovers have grown to 51 percent of newsales, and case retention is dropping as a result. Carriers, onaverage, only conserve about 5 percent of customers who leave theiremployer's plan. Virgin business coming in will have to moderate atsome point.

Meanwhile, profits have been good for carriers. The robust salescoming in the front door have hidden the impact of poor andworsening losses through the back door. But as the pendulum swings,sales, persistency and case retention will all moderate.

Brokers were a major force in driving carriers to enhance andexpand portability options on their products. But these rights arerarely exercised, because very few carriers focus on the back door.Handing a departing employee a brochure (if that even happens) isnot a conservation program.

It's time brokers used their clout to demand that carriers putmore emphasis on issues that keep business in force. Carriers needto be urged to deploy some of those resources to better customerservice, cross- and up-selling, re-marketing, conservation and caseretention strategies. Improving conservation 500 percent fromtoday's average rate is not just possible, it's been done. Thepotential results: enhanced commissions, better-served customers,and more financial success for carriers. But if history is a guide,this will only become a priority once the gold rush ends, unlessbrokers make it happen.

When we compare the carriers we choose to partner with, we tendto focus on front-door issues like brand, products and commissions.We need to do a better lob of vetting our carrier partners byadding service, conservation and case-retention strategies to thecomparative spreadsheet. Only by selecting our partners on theentire spectrum will we be making the best choices for ourcustomers and ourselves.