Posted in News on 28 Apr 2021

As international borders open up again HR/ Employee Benefits professionals must examine their corporate policies to reassess risks of overseas travel. Facing issues like extreme weather and political unrest, care must be taken in setting up protocols to manage global risk tracking, traveler location monitoring, incident alerts and more.

Alesco Employee Benefits team provides insurance for a wide range of companies from charities and NGO’s, IT and communications to logistics and heavy industry.

MINING EXPLORATION COMPANY

The company had a group life scheme in place for staff employed on UK contracts, which was limited to death by natural causes only due to working in remote territories. An additional Personal Accident policy was in put in force to cover the death by accident. Upon review it was established that the employees were not all employed by the UK Company and that there were further employees based overseas requiring cover. Alesco established a single Group Life and Disability scheme covering all employees covering death by any cause, resulting in streamlined administration for the client at a competitive price. 

ELECTRONICS COMPANY

An electronics client had an urgent travel requirement for a trip to the Far East for a project with the local military. The company group travel policy excluded travel to destinations in tier 5 & 6 on their local foreign office website and insurers in the local market were unable to provide the cover. The client was travelling at very short notice as the shortfall was only realised at the last minute leaving the Alesco team only two days to source cover. With sign off on the military goods assignment, we were able to provide a comprehensive Business Travel policy for the business trip to an area with recent unrest, ensuring the company adequately covered their staff for this valuable client.

FOOD PRODUCTION COMPANY

A leading fruit producer and distributer had a number of executives flying, in non-standard aircraft, to their plantations in South America to oversee production. Due to a shortfall in their local coverage they had a gap in cover should an accident occur and additional medical expenses were required in their home country. Alesco placed the policy through Lloyd’s of London to cover medical, repatriation and follow home medical expenses under one policy plugging the gap in cover.

CONSTRUCTION COMPANY

A construction client had a large number contractors working on various projects. As they were not employees the client was having trouble place traditional life cover in the mainstream market but due to their Union contract, cover needed to be in place for accidents at work. Alesco provided a solution for the client by putting in place a group personal accident policy covering the death benefit as required plus a range of added benefits such as rehabilitation, hospital and physiotherapy and retraining expenses

PRIVATE INDIVIDUAL BUSINESS TRAVEL

A client had a business travel policy with a mainstream insurer. The client had various ad-hoc trips to Sudan which had to be referred to insurers prior to each trip, which was impractical for the client to advise insurers to obtain the cover required for each trip at short notice. Alesco secured a flexible approach with Lloyd’s of London to offer set pricing for these trips so the client knew costings and an email from the client with trip details allowed us to issue confirmation of cover. An annual policy was set up which each trip was declared under.

GLOBAL ORGANISATION

The company had a large number of employees working for them overseas. As they were not employed on expatriate contracts they were not eligible for the company expatriate medical insurance plan but were not immediately eligible to join the local healthcare system medical insurance which could take up to a year. The client was happy to self- insure these costs up to an agreed level until they were insured on the local healthcare plan, however required some protection if costs rose above this level. Alesco put an excess policy in place for additional medical expenses over the clients’ retention to ensure they kept to their budget.

 

GET IN TOUCH

Matthew Chilton,

Associate Partner Special Risks

+44(0)207 204 8997

 

For more info, read our latest update on hazardous travel insurance.

 

These are brief product descriptions only. Please refer to the policy documentation paying particular attention to the terms and conditions, exclusions, warranties, subjectivities, excesses and any endorsements.