Should You Add Voluntary CI To Your Worksite Portfolio?
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Producers across the United States are grappling with the question that heads this article.
Theyve read a lot about critical illness insurance in numerous insurance trade publication articles, and theyre beginning to hear about it from their customersemployers, benefit managers, and even employees. But is the product right for you and, more importantly, your customers?
Lets look at what is driving producers to introduce CI insurance to clients and prospects.
CI insurance is simple to sell. Why? Because people quickly recognize the need for it when its explained to them. And most people know someone who has suffered a critical illness, so its easy for them to understand the likelihood of contracting a serious illness themselves and the high costs associated with survival.
Then, too, CI insurance is a "hot" new product in the insurance industry. Its attracting a lot of press–not only from insurance trade publications, but also from consumer magazines, newspapers, and other household publications. With more information available, producers are receiving more requests for the coverage.
The consumer interest has been helped along by the fact that the coverage is highly consumer-oriented. For example, the policy typically covers multiple conditions such as stroke, heart attack, life-threatening cancer, renal failure, etc.all under one policy. This is much less confusing to people than having to buy multiple products, each paying benefits for just one illness each, such as cancer. It also simplifies decision-making.
For producers, the sales applications of CI insurance are vastat the worksite, and in individual sales, too. Married couples with children and single heads of households have obvious needs, for instance. So do business owners and self-employed persons, who need to keep the business running or buy out a business associate should critical illness strike.
In fact, CI insurance addresses many needs, including: mortgage protection, breadwinner protection, homemaker protection, lifestyle protection, single persons protections, protection for individuals with limited health insurance, key person coverage, and individuals in special occupations.
You could say most of us have a legitimate, unmet need for the protection, since most everyone is at risk for surviving a critical illness.
Consider: The life expectancy for people today is 31 years longer for men than it was at the turn of the 19th century and 33 years longer for women. Although this is good news, the fact remains that as people live longer, there is a greater chance for exposure to serious illnesses. The lifestyles most Americans lead today (high stress, alcohol and tobacco use, etc.) increase these chances.
