Homeowners Insureance

Overseas Travel Insurance - A Necessity
Overseas travel insurance, simply put, is travel protection. It is a hedge against unforeseen circumstances. Insuring mitigates risks while providing a financial cushion against adverse financial burdens. Says Anurag Edward, product manager - travel, ICICI Lombard General Insurance Company Ltd, “Travel insurance is generally purchased not sold. It is a conscious call on the part of the individual traveller or even the company to procure one for its employees for their trips abroad.”

The objective is to safeguard oneself from the risks of accidents, injuries, loss of goods, baggage and a whole range of potential calamities. Why is it so important? If you take just one example, say hospitalisation, overseas medical expenses are at least ten times higher and it will be tough going to pay the bills out of your pocket. Also, accidents and mishaps can occur anytime, anywhere and never with a warning. Therefore, it is important to identify the risks faced and insure oneself. As Gautam Bhagat, national accident and health manager, HDFC Chubb General Insurance Company Ltd puts it, “Travel insurance is nothing but a small price you pay for a huge coverage and assurance.” Currently frontline choice of companies selling travel insurance are made up of ICICI Lombard, TATA AIG, Bajaj Allianz, IFFCO TOKIO and HDFC Chubb in the private sector and New India Assurance, National Insurance, United India Insurance and Oriental Insurance in the public sector. In the two odd years post deregulation, the 0private sector has penetrated about 20 per cent of the market while the remaining 80 per cent is being served by public sector units (PSUs). Says Edward, “To penetrate the large PSU domain, we have embraced technology to the hilt and have developed web-enabled online policy issuance modules, which effectively makes the corporate, a master of its own turn-around times as, through this module, the corporate is able to print ‘Confirmation of Availability of Insurance’ at its own end, prior to each trip. And that is what the positioning of Globetrotter, our travel product, is - convenience to fly across the world with ease.”