Has Your Business Expanded in 2012?

Last year we sent out a survey to our readers. Nearly 700 of you responded. The advisor survey was fairly thorough and in looking over it again today one question we asked jumped out at me: “In what product area do you predict your business will expand in 2012?”

The numbers were fairly strong across the board. Participants could list all categories where they predicted an increase in business and the results showed the following predictions:

• Life insurance sales (68 percent)
• Fixed annuity sales (28.8 percent)
• Indexed annuity sales (37.2 percent)
• Long-term care (43.9 percent)
• Medicare Supplements (33.9 percent)
• Hybrid products (24 percent)
• Securities and/or managed money (20 percent)

Only 2.8 percent of you did not expect your business to expand in 2012. We also allowed for write-in votes and the following were among the most interesting:

• Small group health insurance
• Life settlements, disability, CGL insurance
• No clue
• VAs with return of premium
• Takeover of smaller 401(k) plans
• Financial and estate planning
• Worksite marketed products
• Final Expense insurance
• Self-funded group health

As I look over the answers that were collected roughly one year ago, it’s interesting to follow up now and see where your business has taken off or stayed flat. If you were one of the many advisors who took the initial survey I’d be curious to hear if your projections were correct.