During an open enrollment meeting conducted last year on behalf of a client, one of our advisors began talking about the value of accident insurance to supplement the employer's high-deductible health insurance. Unprompted, one participant's hand shot into the air. Her arm was encased in a cast. The advisor acknowledged her, and she enthusiastically explained how a policy she'd purchased through the company paid all of her injury-related expenses. Without it, she would have had to come up with the money herself. 

“Buy the accident insurance,” she urged her co-workers. “It's worth it.” The group—which totaled more than 100 employees—had 100 percent participation. 

While we are delighted when serendipity delivers an unexpected boost to the sales process, here's an even more startling statistic. This same consultant—Eric Haglund, a principal in Digital Benefit Advisors' Atlanta office—enrolls 75 percent of employees in this voluntary benefit when no broken-limbed employees are present to illustrate his point. In addition, about half sign up for the critical illness insurance he now offers. Although Haglund has been selling health insurance for 24 years, he only began selling these additional policies in 2010. His success is indicative of a huge shift occurring as voluntary benefits evolve and become mainstream.