There's no doubt about it: There's strong demand among bothemployers and employees for voluntary/worksite products. Buyingintentions are strong, and the untapped market potential is vast.PPACA, the movement of employer-paid products to voluntary, and theintroduction of new product forms have all been discussed. But whatabout brokers? Will they continue to increase their sales to meetthat market potential?

Over the years, an increasing percentage of employee benefitbrokers have begun selling these products, although the majoritysold relatively few cases. Fifteen years ago, Eastbridge surveysrevealed that about 40 percent of them offered voluntary products.Over the last four years, that percentage as reported by Eastbridgeand Benefit Selling Magazine has consistently ranged between 90 and95 percent, and hasn't changed over the last 18 months. In otherwords, growth in voluntary/worksite sales is no longer coming fromnew brokers entering the market. All of the EBBs the industry canattract are already on board the train.

The chart shows the change in sales (new business annualizedpremium) for each high-level segment since 2000.