Or the product adds illnesses like dengue hemorrhagic fever to the list of covered events. It's classic CYTT product design — and it's driven by us. We carriers want to differentiate ourselves, and adding a few benefit twists or diseases can set us apart from competitors. Brokers want the same kind of edge. After all, it's more impressive to the employer when you can pile up disease names, extensions and restorations of multiple benefits, etc. as part of the sales pitch for a product.

But employees are paying for voluntary benefits, and they are the ones who need to understand them. Is CYTT what they want?

The key to CI participation is a plan design employees can understand and afford.

In KISS terms, critical illness insurance pays a benefit immediately after a covered critical illness event.  The most common covered events are heart attack, cancer, stroke and kidney failure. When such an event occurs, there will likely be a recovery period, during which there are significant expenses including out-of-pocket medical costs, lost income, travel for treatment, etc. The money received from the product can help during the recovery period.

When considering voluntary marketing and enrollment, KISS — Keep it simple, stupid — becomes essential. An effective enrollment is one in which an employee can easily understand what's being offered, how it will benefit them, and can connect with the product on both an intellectual and emotional level.

Affordability is the other characteristic of a good voluntary product, and all those complicated benefits ultimately increase the cost of products. Employees want benefits they can understand and afford — products designed and supported on a KISS basis. Meanwhile, employers also like KISS enrollments, because they're likely to take less time and are likely to result in fewer questions later from employees about what they bought.