Business travel insurance can cover your employees for a number of travel mishaps.
It can cover business-specific issues such as extra territorial workers compensation.
It can also cover medical expenses, cancellations, lost luggage and personal liability.
How does business travel insurance work?
Business travel insurance is different from standard travel insurance. It's often a specific type of insurance designed to cover small to large-sized Australian-based businesses. It covers you or your staff for a number of events, just like normal travel insurance, but also comes with some business-specific features, including:
Alternative staff and resumption of assignment
This benefit is also know as the replacement worker cover or reassignment of an injured worker and is designed to reimburse the costs of:
Sending a substitute worker to complete the business duties of a worker that is unable to do so as a result of death, injury or illness or the unexpected return home following a relatives death while travelling.
The insured worker returning to complete their assignment if they are forced to return home after suffering one of the events listed on their policy.
Extra territorial workers compensation
This provides employers with a personal liability benefit to cover any workers compensation it must pay employees if an accident occurs on a business trip.
Corporate traveler family care benefits
Many business travel insurance policies will also provide a range of benefits to provide extra cover for unforeseen events that may occur to the policyholders family while they are away. Some of these include;
Spouse accidental death benefit. This cover feature will provide a benefit payment to the insured person in the event that their spouse dies as a result of an injury while the insured person is travelling. This benefit is generally not payable if death is the result of an injury that was sustained while travelling with the insured.
Education fund supplement. In the event that the insured person dies as the result of an injury while travelling overseas, the insurer will pay a benefit for each of the insureds children. This benefit may vary between providers but will generally be about $15,000.
Spouse retraining benefit. In the event that the insured person dies while travelling overseas, the insurance provider will pay a benefit to cover the costs of their spouse training to gain employment or improve their employment prospects.
Standard travel insurance features included in a business policy
Cancellation cover: The delay or cancellation of a business trip due to unforeseen events is not uncommon. Many corporate policies will provide unlimited cover for unforeseen events and circumstances that are out of the businesses or workers control. Such events may include illness, accidents and extreme weather conditions
Cover for loss of personal items: Smartphones, notebooks and laptops carry much important business information and this is reflected in the amount of cover each of these can be given should they become lost, stolen or damaged. Luggage can often be insured for its full value and arrangements made for hiring costs of replacement items if necessary. This can be further extended to cover documents and other types of work equipment, including samples. Most business travel insurance policies will provide an extra level of cover to account for expensive items that are often required by business travellers
Emergency medical assistance or evacuation: Overseas medical expenses have the potential to cause significant losses to businesses in the event that their worker is hospitalised overseas or is required to be transported home. Many corporate policies will offer unlimited medical cover for workers
Travel delay: Travel delay, including delayed luggage, will reimburse the costs of additional accommodation expenses if the workers transport is delayed for an extended period of time
Political risk and natural disaster evacuation expenses: Covers costs incurred for returning the insured worker to their country of residence or nearest place of safety if they are required to evacuate as a result of political risk or natural disaster
Breach of identity cover: Provides cover for legal expenses, lost wages or other losses that may be incurred following an insured person's identity being taken and used by another party
These are just some of the cover features that may be included in a corporate plan. Corporate policies will generally provide the same features as those offered on regular individual policies.
Business Travel Insurance FAQs
Insurance policies cover items that are generally of a private nature, such as illness or injury and loss, theft or damage of personal belongings. In light of this, the ATO has ruled that insurance costs, including travel insurance costs, are generally private in nature and are therefore not tax deductible.
Most business travel insurance policies have benefit limits for cover against loss, theft or damage of luggage and personal business items. Often these limits are not high enough to cover the replacement costs of expensive items such as laptops and mobile phones.
Fortunately, most business travel insurance policies offer you the option to increase the benefit limit on specified business items for a small extra fee.
Yes. You are usually covered for company owned items if the use of the item is for business related travel.
Gary Ross Hunter is an editor at Finder, specialising in insurance. He’s been writing about life, travel, home, car, pet and health insurance for over 6 years and regularly appears as an insurance expert in publications including The Sydney Morning Herald, The Guardian and news.com.au. Gary holds a Kaplan Tier 2 General Advice General Insurance certification which meets the requirements of ASIC Regulatory Guide 146 (RG146).
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