Studying Abroad – Is Insurance Needed?
While watching the news this morning I was attracted to a commercial for St. John’s University advertising their campuses in Paris & Rome. This led me to think about all the college students I knew who were either spending a semester studying abroad or contemplating doing so.
This got me to thinking so I checked out the statistics(1) and found that there are thousands of colleges and universities all over the country offering hundreds of thousands of students the opportunity to study abroad annually. Add to this the thousands of secondary schools, which also encourage enrollment in foreign travel opportunities and there is a tremendous need to consider a Foreign Package policy to address the needs of U.S. citizens studying abroad. Recently a carrier actually designed an Educator’s International Policy to address these exposures such as:
• Evacuation from a foreign country in the event of a medical emergency, political takeover, military coup, etc.
• Loss or theft of personal documents such as credit cards, driver’s license, passport, etc.
• Someone in a foreign country serves an education institution with a lawsuit.
All these are realistic scenarios which can happen whether or not insurance is in force. With insurance, however, there is expert assistance available to help manage responses to such events. If you are someone who can benefit from this product, be sure to contact your agent today so that he or she can tell you more about what is available in this product.
(1) National Center For Education Statistics – US Department of Education
– Karen Skoler, CPCU
