Life insurance continued to take the largest share of total voluntary sales (27 percent) with more than $1.877 billion in 2014.

According to the annual Benefits Selling/Eastbridge Voluntary survey, the debate is over: Voluntary is now front and center for many brokers.

The annual Benefits Selling/Eastbridge Voluntary survey was conducted during March and April of this year, and almost 300 producers responded, representing a combination of employee benefit brokers, traditional voluntary brokers, enrollment companies and agents.

Last month we reviewed the voluntary industry's 2014 sales, which were up almost 4 percent to $6.89 billion.

Every year at this time, we write a series of articles on the voluntary market sales results for the prior year. This article is the first of three on this subject.

Every year at this time, we write a series of articles on the voluntary market sales results for the prior year.

There's no doubt about it: There's strong demand among both employers and employees for voluntary/worksite products.

A few months ago, we wrote about the surge in employee benefit broker productivity: Today, brokers account for more than 57 percent of all voluntary sales.