Regulatory attacks on disability insurance ebb and flow, but consumer indifference to the product endures.
That’s the picture that emerged here at the 14th annual disability insurance seminar organized by JHA, Portland, Maine.
JHA, a unit of General Re Life Corp., Stamford, Conn., organizes these seminars to promote its disability consulting, research and reinsurance services. The 350 attendees at the latest conference included insurance company executives from all over the world, executives from competing disability insurance consulting firms, marketers from companies that serve disability insurers and top disability producers and analysts.
In 2006, worries about regulatory investigations and settlements involving issues such as claim review standards and broker compensation cast a pall over discussions.
This year, conversation focused more on preliminary results from JHA’s 2006 group disability market survey. Early results suggest that enrollment has grown but that full-year sales may have dropped for the first time since JHA began conducting the survey, JHA President Drew King told attendees.
“We’re seeing a workforce that’s crying for some way to protect their income, yet we’re struggling,” King said. “We’re motoring along here in another year of slow to moderate growth.”