Frommers.com s Top 8 Travel Insurance Providers

The travel insurance industry is full of unclear language and companies hiding behind various names. To help you pick the best policy, we've selected eight companies we're confident are at the top of the heap.

By Sascha Segan

The travel insurance industry is a hall of mirrors, full of unclear language and companies masquerading by various names. To help you pick the best policy, we've selected eight travel insurance companies we're confident are at the top of the heap.

To choose these firms, we made sure they're vouched for by at least one major broker, like InsureMyTrip.com (www.insuremytrip.com ), TripInsuranceStore.com (www.tripinsurancestore.com ), or QuoteWright.com (www.quotewright.com ). Each company offers comprehensive policies directly to consumers, not just medical assistance. It's clear who owns the insurers and who's underwriting their policies, and both the companies and their underwriters get good ratings from AM Best (www.ambest.com . an insurance rating agency) and the Better Business Bureau. They've been in business at least ten years. And they're all members of the US Travel Insurance Association (www.ustia.org ).

We also scanned Google News to make sure there were no recent headlines about the insurer having business troubles. (There are always going to be stories about people being denied coverage; nobody likes an insurance company.)

There's only one major travel insurer that's gotten a black mark in the news recently: Travel Guard was part of AIG, an insurer which had to be bailed out by the government in fall of 2008 because it was "too big to fail." The hullaballoo surrounding taxpayer dollars and executive bonuses doesn't affect Travel Guard's policies, which are monitored by state insurance commissioners.

Here are our top eight travel insurers, in alphabetical order:

Company Name: Access America

Based In: Richmond, VA

Parent Company: Allianz

Founded In: 1983

Underwriters: BCS Insurance Company, Jefferson Insurance Company

Underwriters' AM Best Ratings: A- (Excellent), A (Excellent)