The results are all in, and 2012 turned has out to be an extremely good year for voluntary sales. This article is our first in a series of three that will share key results from the 2012 sales year.

According to our annual U.S. Voluntary/Worksite Sales Report, new business annualized premium (voluntary sales) was $6.03 billion in 2012, representing a 6.6 percent increase over 2011 results. The following graph shows the industry’s sales since 1998.

Significant sales increases by some of the top players in the industry appear to have led the way toward these solid results. As a group, the top 15 carriers had an increase that exceeded the industry overall. Some had increases of over 100 percent. Just two of the top 15 has decreases compared to 2011. The top carriers accounted for over 80 percent of total voluntary sales.

The majority of this business is virgin business from both new accounts as well as new products and new covered employees in existing accounts. Takeovers (i.e., business that is moving from one voluntary carrier to another), however, are still increasing. For 2012, an estimated 45 percent of new sales were takeovers, up from 42 percent in 2011.

Inforce premium was also up. The total inforce number for voluntary is now estimated at between $21.8 and $28.5 billion.

In our next column, we will review the results by product line and platform.

Instant Insights /

Voluntary sales up 6 percent in 2012

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