Insurers to clean up travel policy confusion

Travel insurers could be required to produce policy summaries and use standard definitions.

According to Steve Wilcox, AXA travel underwriting manager and member of the ABI travel committee, the

ABI is working on initiatives to improve consumers' understanding of travel insurance.

Wilcox said that a number of proposals were under discussion. These included requiring insurers to produce policy summaries - key points from the main document in an easily-digestible format.

A further proposal is to produce standard definitions across the industry. This would mean clarifying problem words such as 'valuables', 'baggage' and 'relative'.

Recently the Consumers' Association slammed the industry for producing policies packed with "gobbledygook", which consumers did not read nor understand.