All but one of Eastbridge's annual sales reportsover the last 20 years have confirmed industry growth. This begsone very specific question about the market: What does the futurelook like? (Photo: Getty)

The voluntary industry continues to exhibit signs of growth around nearly every benchmark.More employers are offering voluntary programs and more employees now own worksite products. There arevirtually no producers left in the benefits market who won'tindicate that voluntary is a growing part of their business. Bothproducers and carrier executives expect that the voluntary industrywill continue to grow. Similarly, all but one of Eastbridge'sannual sales reports over the last 20 years have confirmed industrygrowth. This begs one very specific question about the market: Whatdoes the future look like?

Bonnie Brazzell and NickRockwell,
Eastbridge Consulting Group, Inc.

Eastbridge periodically produces forecasting reports to projectthe future growth of the voluntary market. Historically, there hasbeen a strong correlation of worksite industry growth with GDP. However, in recent years, voluntary growthhas outpaced GDP, and the correlation between the two continues todwindle.

Related: 5 trends to expect in voluntary benefits in2019

Our previous forecasting report, published in 2015, offeredthree models: one built around the GDP, and two (one realistic andone more aggressive) built around distribution factors, inclusiveof broker segment trends we know to be influencing the market. Thatreport's realistic model predicted that sales in 2017 would be$8.158 billion. The Eastbridge 2017 Sales Survey confirmed thoseexpectations and found the market sales to be $8.145 billion.

Eastbridge recently published the 2018 Forecasting VoluntarySales report, and we continue to believe that market factors suchas increased takeover volumes; a changing and growing product mix;a continuing shift from employer-paid to voluntary programs; and anincreased focus from traditional employee benefit brokers willcarry on setting growth expectations for worksite benefits beyondthose of GDP.

The 2018 BenefitsPRO/Eastbridge Broker Survey found the numberone need employee benefit brokers cite for their success involuntary is more time to sell. More time is something none of usget, so we must shift our strategies to use time effectively fornew business priorities. Are we focused on the right strategies?Does our agency have a sufficient level of focus and organizationaround our voluntary practice to keep up with the competition?

With so much evidence and recent history to suggest thatvoluntary is the future of benefits, it's hard to believe anyproducer wouldn't be giving more time in their business toworksite.

Put voluntary benefits to work foryou:

• Hot voluntary products andplatforms
• The evolution of voluntary: Finding the bestfit
• 3 steps to cross-sell voluntarybenefits