Over the last decade, the mix of sales between group and individual platforms has shifted from predominantly individual plans to more and more group voluntary plans, according to an annual sales study from Eastbridge Consulting Group.

In 2010, individual voluntary sales were just $25 million more than group voluntary. Group voluntary sales were $2.069 billion while individual sales were $2.634 billion.

"As we predicted a number of years ago, the voluntary market is becoming primarily one comprised of group platform products," says Gil Lowerre, president of Eastbridge. Of the top 15 companies, all have some group products and most are predominantly group or hybrid plans. [Hybrid products are products that are filed on a group platform but have some characteristics that are more common with individual plans.]