Last month we reviewed the voluntary industry's 2014 sales, which were up almost 4 percent to $6.89 billion. Now let's look at sales by products and platform.

Life insurance continued to take the largest share of total voluntary sales (27 percent) with more than $1.877 billion in 2014. Term accounted for 76 percent of the total life NBAP. Both universal life/whole life and term experienced virtually flat sales (each down 0.2 percent). Total term sales were $1.431 billion while UL/WL sales were $445 million.

Total disability sales were $1.363 billion in 2014 (20 percent of sales). Short-term disability sales still account for the majority of disability sales at 67 percent. STD sales were down 2 percent compared to 2013, but long-term disability sales increased just over 3 percent. With both life and disability sales sluggish this year, you might wonder which products were the “winners” in terms of increased sales. Critical illness sales ($392 million) led the way with an increase of just under 20 percent, and for the first time ever, exceeded cancer sales (down 4 percent to $343 million).

Accident sales were up this year with a 9 percent increase over 2013 and $848 million in sales compared to $775 million in 2013. Hospital indemnity/supplemental medical also saw an increase in 2014 of over 10 percent with $608 million in sales. The long-term care and vision lines also saw solid increases of 13 percent and 9 percent, respectively.

Looking at voluntary sales by product platform, products filed on a group platform continued their dominance over individual products (65 vs. 35 percent). Group product sales grew 6 percent while individual sales were down 0.5 percent.