Voluntary Benefits

Ask any industry insider, and they'll tell you voluntary products are big.

I recently faced an insight I didn't want to. The brutal truth came to me: I may have more ex-customers than I have customers. But I defy anyone who's been in the voluntary business for 30 years, as I have, to deny it.

A few years ago, executives at NorthBay Healthcare in Fairfield, Calif., decided they wanted a place on the Fortune 100 Best Places to Work For list.

When Maura Carley's mother was offered guaranteed-issue, group long-term care insurance, she snapped it up.

American International Group Inc. said Thursday that its third-quarter net income rose 17 percent as its core insurance business improved.

Cigna Corp.'s third-quarter earnings jumped 19 percent to trump analyst expectations, and the health insurer hiked its 2013 forecast.