Thursday 10 June 2010

28% of family travel insurance policies do not cover children who live with ex


A report by independent financial research company Defaqto calls into question whether insurance policy definitions of ‘family’ are up to date. Defaqto urges parents to check the detail of their travel insurance policies this summer to ensure they have adequate cover for their children.

Brian Brown, author of the report and Head of Research at Defaqto said: “Many travel insurers will insure your children and step-children as long as they live with you. But if you take children on holiday with you and they normally live with an ex-partner they might not be covered. Insurers only consider them as family if they permanently live at your address.”

There are 423 annual travel insurance policies available and the table in top left shows the proportion of them that provide cover for children in the specified circumstances.

Mr Brown continued: “It’s imperative that parents check the detail of their travel insurance policies to ensure that they have the cover they need before travelling. In particular, couples who are not married, or have children from a previous relationship need to make sure that children are covered when travelling with them.”

Defaqto currently provides Star Ratings for annual, gap year, long stay and single trip travel insurance policies. Consumers can use Defaqto Star Ratings as a guide to help them choose the overall level of features and benefits offered by travel insurance policies. Policies offering a basic level of features and benefits would be rated as 1 Star and those with the most comprehensive range of benefits a 4 or a 5 Star.

Brian joined Defaqto in November 1998 from RSA where for five years he was their market intelligence manager. Prior to that he spent eight years working for both Royal Insurance and British Gas as an IT technical consultant. Brian heads up Defaqto’s Research Centre, comprising a large team that collect and interpret product information, alongside a group of senior consultants who use that information to provide analysis and consultancy services across the financial services market including the pensions, investment, protection, general insurance and banking arenas.
Source: Defaqto

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