Traveling and Life Insurance

Things don t always go as planned, especially trips abroad; therefore, it is advisable to obtain a life insurance policy before you travel. This way, you can relax while overseas knowing that your family s finances will be covered if you die abroad. Whether you are about to relocate to a foreign country for a few years or take a much-needed vacation, your travel plans can affect the life insurance policies available to you.

Depending on the countries you are planning to visit, life insurance companies may rate you as higher risk, or even deny your policy application altogether. Below is a guide to the effects of traveling on life insurance:

Travel to Unstable Countries

The main tool life insurance companies use to determine if your travel plans are risky is the U.S. Department of State Travel Warnings. The list as of June 2007 includes:

This list contains countries which the State Department has deemed risky for Americans to visit. Thus, if you state on your life insurance application that you are traveling to one of these countries within the next 2-3 years, most companies will not give you a policy. Even if you do not have plans to travel in the near future, some companies may charge you a higher rate if you have family living abroad, under the assumption that you will visit them in the future.

Note: If you currently have life insurance and did not plan to travel to an unstable area when you first applied, you should still be covered; however, you may want to check that accidental death abroad is covered in your policy.

Buying Life Insurance Before You Travel

Let s say you want to travel to Israel in the next few years, but currently do not hold a life insurance policy. You have a few options:

• Take the trip and hope that it runs smoothly. If it doesn t, however, the costs of shipping remains back to the U.S. or of planning a burial in Israel, could be extremely high.
• Buy a travel insurance policy that includes accidental death. The downside of this is that the coverage may be much less than that of a life insurance policy.
• Lie about your future travel plans. You should never do this, because in the event that your death occurs in Israel, the company will not pay out your life insurance claim.

Life Insurance Info recommends that you start searching for life insurance quotes as soon as possible, whether you currently have plans to travel or not.

Life insurance can help pay for the costs of transportation of remains and funeral services if you die abroad. Some companies can even assist families in the difficult process of dealing with the death of a loved one abroad, so make sure you compare rates to get the coverage you want.

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