Group Disability Sales, Average Case Size Decreasing, JHA Reports

September 7, 2006

Sales of long-term and short-term group disability in the U.S. decreased mid-year by 11 percent compared to mid-year 2005, to just over $1.1 billion. New sales premium for long-term disabilty was down 11 percent to just under $778 million, while new short-term disability sales decreased 12 percent, to approximately $355 million.

The results are from 2006 JHA U.S. Group Disability Mid-Year Market Survey. The thirty-two group disability carriers participating in the survey include the top 20 carriers, as ranked by inforce premium in the full-year 2005 JHA U.S. Group Disability Market Survey.

Total combined — LTD and STD — group disability earned premium at mid-year reached almost $5.8 billion, an increase of 5 percent. The total number of insured employees grew by approximately 3 percent for LTD and 5 percent for STD.

The top 10 carriers held a market share of 82 percent of new LTD sales premium and about 73 percent of new STD sales premium at mid-year 2006, a decrease from a year ago, according to JHA.

“A number of carriers saw a decrease in both their STD and LTD sales premium for the first half of this year as compared to the first half of 2005. It appears that more companies are moving down market, as the average case size decreased by approximately 20 percent. Earned premium for both STD and LTD continued to show slow, but steady, growth,” said Drew King, President of JHA.

Source: 2006 JHA U.S. Group Disability Mid-Year Market Survey Summary Report
JHA is online at http://www.jhaweb.com/.

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