Confidence in the future of the voluntary industry continues to rebound, according to the latest annual Voluntary Industry Confidence Index conducted by Eastbridge Consulting Group. According to the year-end 2009 survey, 18 percent of the respondents expect sales to increase “a lot.” More importantly, only 7 percent expect to see a decrease in sales — down from 19 percent last year.

The overall Confidence Index increased to 95.9, up three points from mid-year 2009 and up seven points from its low at year-end 2008.

“We have been watching the index carefully,” Gil Lowerre, president of Eastbridge, said in a press release. “As noted in our last report, the index started dipping at year-end 2007, in line with the ‘official’ start of the recession. The index continued to trend downward in 2008, reaching a low at the end of the year but trending upwards beginning mid-year 2009,” according to Lowerre.

The index is calculated using three key expectation measures about the voluntary industry: sales growth, profitability, and employee enthusiasm about voluntary products. It is conducted semi-annually and includes responses from carriers, brokers, and vendors. The next survey will be conducted in July.