In-force premiumincreased 4.8 percent in 2018 to an estimated $44.3 billion. Photo:Shutterstock)

According to our annual U.S. Voluntary/Worksite Sales Report,new business annualized premium (voluntary sales) increased at arate of 4.5 percent in 2018, while total sales for the year were$8.513 billion. The first graph below shows the industry's salessince 1997.

The industry has grown at a compound annual growth rate of 5percent over the last 10 years, even with the decrease in 2010. Thegraph below shows the growth curve over the past 10 years.

Related: 10 tips for selling voluntary and newproducts

The top five carriers for 2018 were the same as those in both2017 and 2016:

Bonnie Brazzell and Nick Rockwell,Eastbridge Consulting Group, Inc.

• Aflac (19 percent market share)
• MetLife (13 percent)
• Colonial Life (7 percent)
• Unum (6 percent)
• Allstate Benefits (5 percent)

The top 15 companies accounted for approximately 77 percent oftotal voluntary/worksite sales, the same percentage as last year.Among the top 15 companies, the average growth rate was 3 percent,slightly below the industry rate of 4.4 percent. Two carriers(among these top 15) had double-digit decreases, while four haddouble-digit increases.

Takeover business (i.e., business that moves from one voluntarycarrier to another with a similar product) declined slightly in2018. The estimated percentage of sales that were takeovers (on anaggregated basis) was 56 percent, down from 58 percent in 2017.

In-force premium increased 4.8 percent in 2018 to an estimated$44.3 billion. This table shows the in-force sales numbers for thelast five years.

Next month's column will focus on voluntary sales results byproduct line and product platform. The annual U.S.Voluntary/Worksite Sales Report is the industry's mostcomprehensive and reliable source of data on voluntary/worksitesales and in-force premium. This year's study includes data from1997 through 2018 and detailed results for over 65 carriers. Thereport is available only to carriers participating in the survey.For more information about participating in next year's survey,contact us at [email protected].

Read more: 

• BenefitsPRO 2019 voluntary survey: Change is in theair
• How do you pick a voluntarycarrier?
• How technology is transforming the voluntarybenefits industry