If you focus only on major accounts to drive your business success, take note: It's true the largest groups generated the highest total voluntary/worksite sales in 2025 and yes, these accounts continue to hold the largest share of the market's in-force premium. But Eastbridge Consulting's most recent research on the industry's sales and premium provides plenty of reasons to target more down-market groups.
The "U.S. Voluntary/Worksite Sales Report — Carrier Results for 2025" shows groups with 100–499 employees produced 18% of the industry's new sales last year, even though this segment accounts for just 13% of all U.S. employees. The segment's 2% growth over 2024 was just a bit below the industry average of 2.5%.
The largest accounts, meanwhile — groups with 10,000 or more employees — accounted for a similar slice of all sales at 19%, even though these groups comprise a much larger block of all employees at 31%. Sales growth for this market segment was barely above flat at just 1% last year.
More "small" news
You have to look even further down-market to find the employer segment with the next-highest portion of new sales in 2025. Groups with 26 to 99 employees produced 14% of voluntary business last year, a strong 7% increase over 2024. Continuing down this path, sales in groups with 10 to 25 employees demonstrated significant 5% growth last year, while the smallest of the small, those with fewer than 10 workers, produced a 3% increase — both exceeding the industry average for 2025.
In fact, the only employer segment with higher year-over-year sales growth was the 1,000–2,499 size with a very strong 11% increase. Despite that impressive result, this segment trails the much-smaller 26–99 segment in both total dollars and market percentage of new premium.
As the voluntary market continues its slow-but-steady upward trend, just two employer segments saw sales decreases last year, both of them in the mid-to-higher end of the market. Sales in groups with 5,000 to 9,999 employees dropped a considerable 9%, producing the third-lowest dollar volume of any employer segment. Sales in the 500–999 segment also were down, with a 2% drop compared to 2024.
"Large employers may always offer an attractive opportunity for brokers and carriers positioned to meet their needs, but this research reveals there's strong growth and potential at both ends of the voluntary/worksite market," says JP Soltesz, partner at NMG.
Business on the books
Not surprisingly, the largest groups are dominant when it comes to in-force premium. Those with 10,000 or more employees account for more than a third (36%) of the total industry in-force premium. Include the next-largest segment with 5,000–9,999 employees and the total is nearly half the entire market.
But looking a little closer, some of the smaller employer segments move into the limelight. Remember those 100–499 groups that produced 18% of the industry's new sales last year? They also account for the second-highest block of business on the books from both a dollar and percentage standpoint. The even smaller 26–99 segment stands out with 8% of the industry's in-force premium, equaling or exceeding some much larger employer segments.
Brokers and carriers looking to grow their blocks of business should consider broadening their target markets to take advantage of the significant potential at both ends of the voluntary/worksite industry. Expanding their reach to include smaller employers could create strong new revenue streams in markets eager for the voluntary products they offer.
© Arc, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to TMSalesOperations@arc-network.com. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.