As a ministry based in Australia, travel may be a key part of fulfilling the mission and vision of your organisation. Common scenarios include:
- Flying interstate for a conference
- Overseas mission trip
- Training/ workshop events
- Itinerant speaking opportunities
- Flying remote team members to a meeting/event
These sorts of trips carry unique risks which may include medical emergencies, trip disruptions, lost luggage, and everything in between. Not only are these disruptions frustrating, but they can also have a significant financial impact on your ministry. This is why having proper corporate travel insurance is essential to protecting your ministry, staff, and volunteers during these key trips.
What is Corporate/Ministry Travel Insurance
Corporate travel insurance, also called business travel insurance, is a specialised coverage designed to protect organisations and their people when they travel for work purposes. Unlike leisure travel insurance tailored for holidays, corporate policies are crafted around the distinct risks involved with work trips like ministry conferences, interstate meetings, pastoral speaking engagements and more.
The Dangers of Travelling Uninsured
Most ministries don’t often have a surplus of money, and overseas medical costs can quickly spiral into the hundreds of thousands. From our experience, it’s not worth the risk to the ministry not having proper travel insurance in place. Below are some real-life examples from previous ACS Financial clients.
Whilst travelling in the US for a ministry speaking engagement, one of the pastors was admitted to hospital for a sudden acute appendicitis attack. The cost of treatment was nearly $90,000. Some medical facilities in the US may not treat patients without appropriate health or medical insurance cover, leaving you to source providers who can offer discounted or sliding-scale fees or seeking providers who can offer financial assistance plans.
In another instance, a church representative travelling overseas for ministry suffered a back injury. Under the instructions of doctors, it was necessary for their flight to be changed and seats upgraded to business class to facilitate the ability to lie down during the long haul flight to avoid further aggravation of the injury. The additional costs to transit home were paid by the insurer.
During an overseas trip, the church employee hired a car. Unfortunately they were involved in a minor accident damaging the hire vehicle. The Corporate Travel policy was able to cover the Hire Car Vehicle Excess applied by the hire company in the amount of $5,000.
Key Coverages for Ministries
While coverages can vary across insurers, core protections in a corporate travel policy may include:
- Emergency medical costs and medical evacuation
- Trip cancellation/interruption and related transport/accommodation expenses
- Cover for lost, stolen or delayed baggage and personal effects
- Accidental death, permanent disability and income protection benefits
- Extra coverages like political evacuation, kidnap/ransom, personal liability, etc.
Benefits of Corporate Plans for Ministries
By investing in a tailored corporate travel insurance plan with ACS Financial, we can recommend the right coverage for your ministry based on our decades of experience. For example, we strongly recommend that ministries arrange insurance on behalf of all of their team, to ensure all members are adequately covered. Requesting individuals to source their own policies can lead to challenges dealing with sub-par cover and difficulties dealing with a number of different insurers when trying to make a claim on behalf of a group.
Cost of Corporate Travel Insurance
For churches that have their insurance arrangements through ACS Financial, we are able to provide simple Corporate Travel packages provided by highly respected insurers that cover the standard travel requirements of their organisation. These packages can start from as low as $550 providing cover for a mix of both interstate and overseas travel. Customised policies for organisations who undertake large amounts of travel each year, or who require cover for large groups of people travelling on missions trips can also be accommodated. These types of policies will be priced based on the number of trips planned within a 12-month period, destination, duration of trip and the number of people travelling together.
When should you Purchase Corporate Travel Insurance?
It’s crucial to have Corporate Travel Insurance in place from the moment tickets are booked. This policy immediately provides cover against loss of deposits or cancellations that may occur before the trip departs. The other benefit of packaged annual Corporate Travel policy is that it puts cover in place well ahead of time – a kind of “set and forget” for those incidental interstate trips that pastors may take but not think about getting travel insurance for during the course of the year.
How long does it take to purchase travel insurance?
Filling out one of our forms takes the same amount of time to make a cup of coffee, just a few minutes! The process is relatively simple, and with ACS Financial, it begins with filling out a form on our website, which you can access below.
For Australian ministries committed to spreading their message at home and abroad, travel risks are inherent, and to avoid the potential costs of going uninsured, purchasing travel insurance early gives you peace of mind and a crucial safety net. It could be the difference between a travel hiccup and an organisational disaster.
So, as you plan upcoming conferences, missionary journeys or regional tours, contact ACS Financial on 1800 646 777 to see how we can provide you with the best cover.