Does Travel Insurance Cover for a Family Member’s Passing Away?

by Steve Dasseos on September 28, 2011

At first glance, the email question I received seemed simple and straight-forward:

Does this cover for a death in family?

Until I thought about the above question.

In order to understand how I think, and how you can best understand anything I write on my many websites (33 as of today), I start from the assumption that very few people or companies want to ever pay out any money. This may sound a bit extreme, but this is how I think. I think I’ve matured a bit because I no longer see everyone who wants my money as my enemy. 🙂

Back to the above question: I realized that I don’t have enough information to give the correct answer. Therefore, I sent them back this email:

Hi,

Like all insurance questions, the answer to your question isn’t a simple yes or no. I need this information to give you the right answer:

– Where do you live?
– Where does the family member live?
– What is your full prepaid pp trip cost?
– What date was the initial deposit on your trip paid?
– Does the family member have any ongoing medical conditions? If so, have they already taken a turn for the worse?

Surprisingly, I got an email back from them:

I have a mailing address in Los Angeles (this sounds familiar: https://tripinsurancestore.com/blog/how-hard-can-it-be-to-tell-us-where-you-live/. The family member lives at home.

Does this cover for a death in family?

As you can see, I didn’t find out what I needed to know. Therefore, I wrote back and said “Based on your answers, our plans do not cover for a death in family.”

Also, just for fun, I wrote one of my competitors to see what their answer would be. I asked “Does this cover for a death in family?”

The answer I got was: “Yes, all our plans cover for a death in family. If you have a trip cancellation plan, you will receive 100% of your trip’s cost in the event you cancelled your trip.”

All I can say to that answer is “Wow!”. No wonder people don’t trust insurance companies. That’s too bad because it’s the agent who’s mis-representing the insurance company’s coverage.

I hope this makes sense. If you want the right travel insurance advice, call us at 1-888-407-3854 and we'll help you figure it all out.

Now, a word from our sponsor: TripInsuranceStore.com (Travel Forums' Most Recommended Travel Insurance Website)

PS - If you liked what you read, please Subscribe to my Blog.

Previous post:

Next post: