Does travel insurance cover repatriation?

Most UK travel insurance policies include repatriation of remains as part of their medical and emergency cover, and for a death abroad that clause is usually worth more than the rest of the policy put together. It pays for a coffin, the documents and the transport home to the UK, up to a limit that is often £5,000 to £10,000 and on some policies unlimited. Whether it pays for yours depends on three things: the policy being valid when the death happened, the death not falling under an exclusion, and the insurer being told in time.

What the repatriation clause covers

The cover is for bringing your loved one home to the UK. It normally pays for the local funeral director abroad, the embalming and the sealed coffin, the death certificate and its translation, the consular documents and the transport, by air or by road, to a funeral director in the UK. Most policies also pay for a local cremation and the return of the ashes instead, if the family prefers, and many pay a small sum for the travel of one relative to the country where the death happened.

What it does not pay for is the funeral itself in the UK, and it does not pay for a repatriation in the other direction; a foreign national who dies in the UK is not covered by a UK travel policy, and their own country’s policy, if any, is the one to ask.

The three exclusions that catch families

A condition that was not declared. If your loved one had a medical condition and the policy did not know about it, and the death is connected to it, the insurer can refuse the whole claim. This is the commonest refusal and the one that comes as a shock.

Alcohol or drugs. Most policies exclude a death where alcohol or drugs were a contributing factor, and the local police report or post-mortem is what the insurer reads.

Activities and destinations. Some sports, and any destination the Foreign Office advised against travelling to, are excluded unless the policy was extended to cover them.

None of these is certain. A refusal can be challenged, and the Financial Ombudsman Service takes travel insurance complaints. But a family should know on day one whether one of the three applies, because it decides whether they are waiting for an insurer or paying themselves.

What to do on the first day

Ring the assistance line, not the sales number, and ring it before anything is signed anywhere. The number is on the policy document and on the back of the card. Tell them the death has happened, where your loved one is, and who has them now. The assistance company will open a case, ask for the death certificate and the police or hospital report when they exist, and tell you who they are appointing to carry out the repatriation.

Policies require the insurer to be told as soon as possible, and a claim reported after the family has already paid a company of its own choosing may be reimbursed only in part or not at all. The insurer pays for the repatriation it approved.

Can you choose your own repatriation company?

Sometimes. Some insurers will accept a quote from a company the family nominates, especially if that company is already in contact with the funeral director abroad; others insist on their own contractor and will pay only that contractor. Ask the assistance line directly, on the first call. If they say yes, we can provide the written estimate the insurer needs the same day. If they say no, the choice is between the insurer’s contractor at no cost to you and your own at your cost, and for most families that is not a choice.

If the policy will not pay

Then the family pays, or the employer or the estate does, and who pays for a repatriation goes through what can step in and what genuinely reduces the figure. What a repatriation costs gives you the estimated figure for the country, so you know the size of the gap. The other honest option is a funeral where your loved one died, with the ashes brought home; repatriation, local burial or cremation abroad sets that beside the alternatives without arguing for either.

Before the next trip

Check that the policy names repatriation cover and states its limit, declare every medical condition, and keep the assistance number somewhere a relative could find it. That last one is the difference between a claim opened on day one and a claim opened after a family has already paid.

Whichever way the claim goes, repatriation, step by step is the process the insurer or the family is paying for.