For most brokers, October could be called Calm Before the Storm of Re-enrollment Month. However, it also is National Critical Illness Awareness Month, which is a good reminder that critical illness coverage can be an integral part of a product portfolio.

"The inclusion of critical illness insurance in your product offerings helps to fill gaps in an insured's insurance protection," says Steve Rowley, life and heath senior account executive for Gen Re in Stamford, Connecticut. "Benefits can be added on a standalone basis, as an additional benefit pool or even as an acceleration of benefits, as in the case of riders to mortgage life insurance policies."

Critical illness insurance provides an unrestricted lump-sum benefit upon diagnosis of a covered condition or event such as cancer, heart attack, stroke, kidney failure or major organ transplant.