Carriers, brokers and other industry professionals rely on voluntary market forecasts to inform their business plans and to determine where they should focus their investments and resources. Eastbridge has published forecasting reports since 2016.

The “Forecasting Voluntary Sales” Spotlight Report analyzes the current sales environment and future potential sales for the voluntary market. Projections in this report are based on Eastbridge’s distribution-based scenario models and our current views of the sales environment. This report includes three different scenarios for consideration, each reflecting a different assumption about growth across the market’s distribution channels.

This year’s report also reflects a change in methodology: After review, Eastbridge has retired the GDP- and employment-based economic models used in prior years in favor of this fully distribution-based approach.   This report includes three different scenarios for consideration.

Specifically, the report includes:

 The history of sales and other forecasts for the voluntary market

• Background information on the voluntary market and distribution
• Actual forecasts for the future using three different forecasting methods
• Comparison of projections
• Other market influences
• Business implications

Unlike most of Eastbridge’s Spotlight reports, this report is not based primarily on research but on Eastbridge’s informed view developed from years of direct experience advising carriers and brokers across the voluntary market and grounded in the segment-level performance data underlying our distribution models.

Carriers can use this information as a platform for internal discussions to develop their own predictions for future opportunities in voluntary sales. These scenarios are best used as a practical tool to support short- to medium-term planning and stress-test internal assumptions, rather than as a precise, long-term prediction of market outcomes.