FEATURE HEALTH AGENTS BETTING ON BENEFITS Combs said that her clients’ employees can call her company anytime to ask questions about their benefits. In addition, her clients will hand off their new employees to her for personalized benefits orientation. Combs hasn’t abandoned the individual health insurance market, but she said her company charges clients an hourly consulting fee, plus it offers an ongoing servicing contract for people who have questions after they enroll. LIMRA figures show that sales of workplace benefits such as group life and accident insurance are on the rise. As of the end of 2015, new sales premium of critical illness insurance increased by 19 percent, or $496.2 million, over the prior year. Also during that period, group disability and accident insurance new sales premium rose by 11 percent, or $2.8 billion and $991.1 million, respectively. Group life increased by 7 percent, or $2.9 billion, and new premium for cancer insurance rose by 5 percent, or $387.9 million.
In-Force Premium (total market)
Group life
+7% $2.9 billion
+2% $25 billion
Group disability
+11% $2.8 billion
+5% $19 billion
Group dental
-15% $5,483,945
+3% $60,276,471
Accident insurance
+11% $991,100,000
+6% $2,422,314,000
Critical illness insurance
+19% $496,289,000
+10% $1,222,535,000
Cancer insurance
+5% $387,985,000
+1% $2,337,872,000
In addition to increasing sales premium, more carriers are getting into the benefits market, said Kimberly Landry, LIMRA senior research analyst. “We are seeing more companies that weren’t selling those products five or six years ago rolling out products now, so there’s
a lot more competition there now,” she said. “A decade ago, what you saw were worksite-focused carriers who were selling individual products in the worksite, fully funded by the employee. And that was their niche market. But a lot of bigger players weren’t competing there and
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InsuranceNewsNet Magazine » March 2017
Source: LIMRA
Sales on the Rise
New Sales Premium