between Phillip Washington of Stone Hill Wealth Managementhttps://stonehillwealthmanagement.com/ and Susana Gibb.
Phillip Washington
So, we are talking about travel insurance.
Susana Gibb
COVID has changed travel insurance drastically. In so many ways: from the -what’s covered aspect- to how you get evacuated -aspect. There is lots of fine print, so make sure that you are reading the fine print when you purchase one of these for sure.
Phillip Washington
Big picture, what does it cover?
Susana Gibb
Big picture it covers before you even before you leave if you can’t travel, But then once you’re on the trip, it covers you if the plans change, if you get sick there, if you have to get medically evacuated from there, if you get COVID while you’re there and have to quarantine, and while you’re there it will help pay for some of those expenses. It’s pretty detailed out and of course depending on how much coverage you buy and for how long changes the price.
Phillip Washington
When I bought it I didn’t get an option. they are just like- do you have travel insurance? Check the box.
How do you purchase travel insurance outside of like just checking the box?
Susana Gibb
You can go to your insurance agent for sure. We recommend a couple different companies. They also have memberships that you can buy for people who travel all the time. So, buying a year membership might be a better option. You can read in some of the wording that they will come and find you wherever you are if you need to be evacuated. “We employ Navy SEALs, we employ all these ex-military people” to come and find you. They call it field rescue.
Phillip Washington:
That is it sure that this will make you feel good, just having it.
Susana Gibb
You hear stories about people who travel and they get the positive test, trying to leave the country. People have had both good and really bad experiences forced to quarantine. So, there’s things you can buy in the travel insurance that they will evacuate you even if you have COVID. They will get you and pull you out.
Phillip Washington
And I imagine various places react differently to with Covid and quarantining.
Susana Gibb
The other thing people can do is to bring your own rapid tests with you. If you don’t feel great, take your own rapid test, and if it comes back positive, then you self-quarantine and do what you need to do without having potentially the local authorities involved right away. Now that’s depending on where you are, but now you have a little bit of control into what the next two weeks of your experience is like in another country if you can’t get out, versus police in another country that may not operate the same way as the states.
Phillip Washington
When you talk to an insurance agent about travel insurance, because it’s so nuanced that I don’t really want to worry about trying to do this a lot of figure it out myself because I don’t want to get trapped in your country and can’t get back to my kids.
Susana Gibb
That is pretty that’s pretty much it. That is what we’re here for. We just figure stuff out.
