Benefit Brokers Increase Share of Voluntary Sales

Eastbridge Consulting Group’s annual U.S. Worksite Sales Report found that the benefit broker segment accounted for more than half (52%) of voluntary/worksite sales in 2009. Total sales for the year were about $5.4 billion, and benefit brokers claimed $2.8 billion of that total.

Benefit brokers increased their share of voluntary sales from 46% in 2008 to 52% in 2009, according to the research. “The trend just keeps moving toward the benefits broker being a larger and larger portion of this business,” said Gil Lowerre, president of Eastbridge, in a release of the results.

Most of the other segments saw an increase since 2008, except for career agents, which saw a drop of 27.8%. Benefit brokers saw an 18.8% increase over December 2008, worksite specialists saw a 14.5% increase, and classic worksite brokers saw a 6.8% increase. The occasional producer saw the largest increase (50.1%), though that segment still holds the smallest sliver of sales.

The U.S. Worksite Sales Report estimates sales for the entire voluntary industry, including data on the performance of 60 worksite marketing carriers, both group (voluntary) and individual (worksite) carriers/products. Eastbridge Consulting Group, Inc., is a marketing advisory firm serving insurance and financial services organizations in the U.S. and Canada.