Voluntary industry Confidence Index continues to increase, according to Eastbridge’s mid-year 2010 survey.

AVON, CONNECTICUT, USA (Augus 10, 2010)

The latest results of Eastbridge Consulting Group’s Voluntary Industry Confidence Index survey show that confidence in the future of the voluntary industry continues its move back to historic levels.

The overall Confidence Index increased to 99.9, up from 95.9 at year end 2009 and 92.9 in the mid-year 2009 survey.

“We are quite excited to see the index continue to go back up as those in the industry grow more confident of voluntary’s role. The index is at its highest level in three years,” says Gil Lowerre, president of Eastbridge. “We believe this is a result of both our slowly improving economy as well as the opportunities that those in the industry see with healthcare reform and employer efforts to control benefit costs while still providing employees a way to cover their families,” concludes Lowerre.

The index is calculated using three key expectation measures about the voluntary industry:

1. Sales growth
2. Profitability of the industry
3. Employee enthusiasm about voluntary products

“All three of the key measures for the index were up this time,” says Bonnie Brazzell, vice president, Eastbridge, “but we saw significant increases in the questions about industry profitability and employee enthusiasm for voluntary.” Eighty-two (82) percent of respondents expect employee enthusiasm to increase, up from 71 percent as of the year-end 2009 survey. Eighty-six (86) percent of respondents in the most recent survey (conducted in July) believe that sales will increase over the next 12 months.

The Voluntary Industry Confidence Index study is conducted semi-annually and includes responses from individuals active in the market—carriers, brokers, and vendors. Like other confidence indices, the index is a single number that compares the current results to a baseline measure. The first Confidence Index survey was completed in December of 2005; the results from that survey serve as the “base” year (meaning the index was at 100 for that year).

The Voluntary Industry Confidence Index report is available only to Eastbridge Information Partner companies as well as to participants. The survey will be conducted again in December 2010. For more information on becoming a participant, contact the company atwww.eastbridge.com .

Eastbridge Consulting Group, Inc. is a marketing advisory firm serving insurance and financial services organizations in the United States and Canada.