ASIC to place travel insurers under the microscope

Travel cost
By Christian Fleetwood


The Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC) plan to review travel insurance policies across the board later this year.

This comes off the back of industry-wide concerns over the persistent cause of travel insurance disputes – the third most complained about type of domestic insurance last financial year.

Of especial concern to ASIC and The Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA) is the persistent exclusion of claims for medical conditions, which, The Sydney Morning Herald (SMH) reports, can allow insurers to knock back claims due to pre-existing medical conditions.

Gervase Green, national manager, media, ASIC, told Travel Weekly that the organisation are currently scoping a review for later in the year.

“In other words, that is still very early days,” he said. “Which is why we can’t say what might be involved or looked at, at this stage.”

ASICs executive director for financial services, Michael Saadat, told SMH the regulator is planning further scrutiny of operators in the travel insurance sector.

Saadat told SMH the wording in travel insurance policies often made it difficult to make a claim.

Investigations into travel insurer misconduct come after egregious claims of misconduct by insurers were brought to light by the Hayne royal commission: among them, as Travel Weekly reported late last year, Allianz insurance who were found to be misleading customers as far back as 2012.

Email the Travel Weekly team at traveldesk@travelweekly.com.au

    Latest comments

    1. Biggest joke is not allowing claims if you were drunk. What is the point of a holiday insurance that doesn’t cover you if you are drunk (ie: walking home drunk and trip over and hurt yourself etc)!?!?

      That’s like car insurance not covering you if you are speeding or run a red light. Insurance is supposed to cover a person when they are negligent so excluding being drunk on holiday is absurd (I’m not talking about driving whilst drunk – that woudl be a criminal act so of course insurance doesn’t cover that).

      Personally I’ve never been injured needing attention anywhere whilst drunk, and now I’m 49 it’s highly unlikely I will do so, but it should still be standard coverage.

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