Keeping an eye on the market

With a growing list of new voluntary products available, producers must become more comfortable evaluating a range of non-insurance products in addition to their traditional offerings. (Photo: Shutterstock)

Broker recruitment is considered a pivotal factor in a voluntary insurance company’s success. Historically, employee benefit brokers preferred to source a client’s voluntary products from one carrier to streamline administration. This is a preference that many insurance carriers have catered to in their recruitment efforts.

However, a recent Eastbridge report, Voluntary/Worksite Marketing: An Executive Perspective, found that producers are increasingly likely to seek “best-of-breed” products, resulting in less business going to any one carrier. This statistic almost doubled from 12 percent in our 2017 study to 22 percent this year. These changes suggest that the ease of one-carrier administration is becoming less important than having the right product design.