Ashley Gheris [00:01:28]:

Hello and welcome to another episode of The Intrepid Traveler. I'm Robin Cline, your host, and today we are dubbing our conversation the not sexy but necessary episode. I have the pleasure of having Chris Siravo and Ashley Gheris from Travel Insured International with me and they are going to help us understand a lot of the ins and outs of why travel insurance is absolutely imperative in my mind. And if you haven't used it in the past, why, you definitely should do differently going forward. So, Chris, why don't you start us off? Tell us, how does one end up in the field of travel insurance?

Chris Siravo [00:02:16]:

Yeah, well, first of all, thanks for having myself and Ashley on the podcast and really excited to chat with you this morning. I've been with the company a little over three years now. I have a travel and tourism background where I started with a historic house collection and worked for a convention and visitors bureau in total for about five years and getting on the road doing the trade events. I was recruited by one of our past colleagues to work with Travel Insured and so happy that I did make the transition, especially with the pandemic in mind. Our company has done a great job with sustaining our workforce and we've been able to transition and work in some other departments to really get a feel for the business. So it's been a whirlwind two and a half years, but really happy to be here. And it's all about the relationship building and connections that we make. They're really lifelong connections.

Ashley Gheris [00:03:14]:

That's great. Yes. And we will touch on that fact later why it is so important to have these relationships. So, Ashley, you are awesome. I'm just going to say that out loud before we even begin that Ashley knows everything about everything in travel insurance, but how does somebody get to that point? How did you end up in the travel insurance business, and how did you get so smart? Well, thank you. So I have a really unique background with travel insured. I actually started at travel insured when I was 15 years old, so I was a child. Right. When I tell people that, they're like, how did you work there as a child? Well, my grandfather started the company, so Pete Garris was our original COO. And then in 2015, John, my father, ended up taking it over. It started as a family company, right. Like, ease of use. I could go to school, I could get out of school early, I could go work. It was great. But as Chris mentioned, over the years, just really building these lifelong relationships made it a really appealing career for me. And then being the daughter of the COO, I was kind of intertwined into every single department. So I've done accounting, I've done HR, I've done claims, I've done customer service, I've done product training. So with having all those beautiful departments kind of blended through my experience is how I really dove deeper into understanding travel insurance and understanding the customers aspect and our advisors aspects versus just seeing it as the boring world of insurance. That's how I got into it. Oh, wow. So it's like a truly, truly in your blood. I mean, it's not just like people like to say that it's in my blood, but it really is with you. Three years old, I was running around the building looking at all of our filing cabinets. It is in my blood. And 16 years later, I'm happy I'm still here. That's great. So you truly have learned all about the business, all the different aspects. And very often we when we're emailing or calling, we speak to people in different departments, and somebody doesn't necessarily know something about the other department. So when I am able to email you directly and ask you questions, so often, you can give me a full answer, which is a real bonus for me and for my clients. In a nutshell, this is going to be something you have to kind of give me the Cliff Notes on because otherwise the podcast could go on all day. Why should you always buy travel insurance? All right, Ashley, you take that one first. Yeah. So travel insurance isn't just what everyone thinks it is. Everyone thinks travel insurance is trip cancellation. Right. So if I'm investing in my trip, I'm only concerned about the cost of my trip. That's where about 95% of the world thinks about insurance protecting your investments. Right. But travel insurance is so much more than that. If you're taking a hiking trip and you trip and you twist your ankle, do you have sufficient medical coverage outside of your home? If I'm on a plane and I drop my air pods into my drink, that is a damaged part of my baggage now, which I can technically claim. So there's so many intricate parts of travel insurance that people don't think of that truly what if whatever situations can happen during your trip. That's why travel insurance is such an important investment, because it really is for what if scenarios that we cannot predict. And yeah, we've had a lot of those the last couple of years for sure. And talk about not predictable. I do want to let everyone know that's listening. We are recording this at the end of June in 2022, and the last several weeks in travel have been really nuts with the airline situation since about Memorial Day, and we will touch on that later. But anyway okay, so, Chris, what's your in a nutshell, why you should have travel insurance?

Chris Siravo [00:07:22]:

Yeah, I mean, Ashley certainly hit the nail on the yeah, I mean, we could go on for days about this, but really, it's not just trip cancellation coverage. It's having coverage when you're on your trip until you arrive home safe and sound, making sure you know that look you have with all of our plans. An emergency assistance services company that will assist you with getting you to, say, a US approved hospital of your choice. Getting you an emergency cash advance if your debit card is swallowed by the ATM if you are abroad and you want to make reservations for a tea time to play golf, that's something that the concierge can assist with. Those are some of the intricacies that a common person might not know, but really it is also protecting those non refundable monies. It's an investment. It's not just the medical coverage. It's truly an investment. You're spending tens of thousands of dollars for once in a lifetime type trip. You want to protect it, right? Yeah, there's a multitude of reasons.

Ashley Gheris [00:08:33]:

Exactly. And that, I think, is a really good point. There is that there is so much more to it than people realize. They think, like you said, only of cancellations, which are devastating enough when part of your trip, especially if you have a close connection and you're trying to start a trip that has an itinerary that cannot be adjusted, that can definitely be devastating. And we think about medical, too. Let's start with, I mean, there's like a million places we could start with this, but let's start with the medical, because most of the time what I hear when I get pushback on purchasing insurance, that has if I mention medical, people are like, oh, I have insurance, my insurance will cover that. And that's just not always the case. So, Ashley, give us an example of something like that where somebody might think their medical is going to cover it, but it doesn't. Yeah, that's a great question. I actually was just having this conversation with my partner a couple of days ago. He's going to Canada in a couple of weeks and he's like, It's free health care, right? So I don't need health insurance? And I'm like, no, no, no. There are situations that can occur that health insurance isn't going to step in. So, for example, you have a high deductible. I have a very high know, I don't want to be out of pocket thousands of dollars before my health insurance kicks in. So when I'm on my trip, my health insurance also has limitations of where it covers me. Right. So you have to look at your in depth policy terms and conditions before you just assume your health insurance is going to cover you wherever you go. So definitely looking at your policy terms of your original health insurance to know if it does cover you destination wise or wherever you're traveling to, the situations that it won't cover is maybe you need a medical evacuation. Does your health insurance cover medical evacuations? If you are in a foreign country, do they accept your health insurance? So it's so hard to pinpoint certain scenarios, but it all depends on the terms and conditions of your original health insurance plan. And at the end of the day, not everyone is a licensed insurance agent. You look at your health insurance policy and it is the most confusing thing you could ever read. Chris and I joke about insurance language being like, your nighttime material to put you to sleep, right? Oh, yeah. So it all depends on what your terms and conditions are of your plan, because you might be unfortunately shocked when you have a medical claim on your trip. And they're like, no, we're not going to cover this. You're outside your policy territory. Exactly. And Chris, why don't we let you address the cancellation part of it here? So I'll start with just a little example. I had clients recently that went to Greece. Their flight that left the United States, left three and a half hours late. They got to Athens, missed their connection to the next island. The carrier they were booked on didn't have a later flight, so they have to book a new flight on a new carrier. Fortunately, they did have travel insurance. So what does that look like when that happens to somebody? How do they handle that?

Chris Siravo [00:11:35]:

There's a multitude of ways. Whether that's trip cancellation, if they technically haven't left their residency just yet, if they're on their way to their destination and it's on the actual departure date, there's a certain number of benefits that may trigger. They may be eligible for travel delay depending on the length of that actual delay. That could also potentially trigger trip interruption, depending on the nature of what was actually lost on the back end of the trip. Like you had mentioned, they have to catch up to the rest of the group and they can't add on those days. So from a claims perspective, it would be necessary, of course, to go through the claim process for the claims analysts to adjudicate accordingly. There are benefits that will trigger and it's best to have coverage and have a trusted travel advisor like yourself to kind of help them through that process.

Ashley Gheris [00:12:30]:

Right? I think that's a good segue we'll just talk for a second here real quick about why the fact that I can call you guys and have you even on here today is meaningful, because that means we have a relationship, we know who each other is, and that's an added bonus for my clients. And if other people are listening to this and you work with a travel advisor, going through them for your insurance is an added benefit because they do have these different relationships. That said, if you're not working with a travel advisor, get the insurance anyway, whatever you do. So what's the difference between, let's say I buy my airline ticket and I just check the box at the bottom and I say, I want insurance. What's the difference between doing that and actually having a true comprehensive policy where somebody like I help my clients make sure that their coverages are completely in place. Checking a box is easy use, right? Everyone wants to do that. But there's so many different things that kind of build into the differences. Number one, when you go through a travel advisor, you have that liaison, right? You have the advisor who has the connection with the insurance company and who is always there to have your back. Now, insurance wise, every policy is different. But when you check a box for an airline insurance, there may only be limited trip cancellation, meaning you may only have cancellation for a sickness they're not taking weather, terrorism strikes, school year extensions into consideration, real life situations. Outside of that, too, there may be limited medical, there may be limited baggage that if the airline loses your bags, the airline company can say, well, you had your insurance, we're not liable for it. They don't really take all aspects of your trip into consideration. And then the last big thing is, if you're checking a box for airline insurance, what happens if you have a rental car? What happens if you have a land tour, a hotel? Those are all things that may not be included in that package. So then you're having to coinsure with all these other different aspects and you might have to be controlling five or six different insurance policies versus encompassing everything into yeah, that's definitely a more appealing feature of third party. Absolutely, absolutely. And Chris, so we talked about before we started recording to the differences, know, let's say you're going on a cruise, you're going tour company, somebody that provides insurance. Very often those limits are considerably lower than they are with a third party insurance, like through you all. One example of that I'll give briefly before I give you the mic. So to speak is I had a client that traveled last year, and she had all never used a travel advisor before. After the pandemic, she decided she really wanted to work with somebody. We started working together, and I looked at the insurance policy through the company, which was definitely less expensive, so that was appealing, but the limit was so low. I mean, it was like $20,000 was the upper limit. And I told her, I said, oh, my gosh. I said, if something really bad happens here, you are not well insured. Speak to a lot of the differences there between the companies that include insurance and the third party.

Chris Siravo [00:15:59]:

It's a great point to bring up because we know there are a ton of different options in the industry, but it is about comparing apples to apples and knowing, okay, take the price out of it. Take a look at your client, their medical needs or requirements potentially. You take a look at our worldwide trip protector plan, our most commonly sold plan. It offers $100,000 worth of primary medical coverage. It offers a million dollars worth of medical evacuation coverage.

Ashley Gheris [00:16:29]:

Right.

Chris Siravo [00:16:29]:

You might think that those are more than enough than you would ever need. One thing from a claims perspective is if you're filing a claim, especially a medical one, you want to make sure that you have a buffer as far as coverage goes quite frequently. Talk about one of the highest claims that we paid. In 2019, a gentleman had a heart attack on a cruise ship in the caribbean. We airlifted him, pulled out all the stops, got him home safe and sound just for one traveler. His claim was in the neighborhood of $230,000 worth of wow. Yeah, worth of bills and expenses that we took care of. And I bet my last bottom dollar that if he was on the cruise line travel insurance policy, there would be a lapse in coverage, and he would be paying out of pocket for those expenses. I don't know about you, but I don't have that kind of money to know.

Ashley Gheris [00:17:26]:

Absolutely, and that's a really good example, and I'll just give one that's similar to that. My own dad, he went into bradycardia, and he was on a river cruise in france, and he ended up going to the hospital there and having to have a pacemaker put in while he was in france. And had he not now, of course he's on Medicare, which that's a whole nother thing, because we'll just say out loud for those that don't know, medicare does not travel with you outside of the so, you know, if you're using medicare as your insurance and don't have any supplemental, even if you have a supplemental, you really, really need the travel insurance. Know, had he not had mean, that would have really been a large bill. And not to mention here we're just talking about the medical, but then you do have, like obviously the trip was interrupted. He had to stay in France longer. My mom had to stay in a hotel. So all of those things are part of the claim too. So I, as the agent, get my client the correct insurance policy, and I always encourage them to make sure that they set up an So. Okay, so Ashley, why is it important that somebody go ahead and set up their account ahead of know, I think our reaction generally is, okay, I've got this email and this is attached, I'm good, which, yes, you're covered. But why do you want to have that account set up ahead of time? Yeah, that's a great question. And we live in a world that everyone wants you to sign up for an account, right? So remembering another password, another login, we don't want to go through that headache. With insurance. It's so important because there's so many features you can do with your login. So having a login with travel insured allows you to manage your policy. So say they end up booking an aspect of their trip that they forgot to tell you. The client can go in and add that to their plan. They can also have quick access to their plan documents. So say it's 03:00 in the morning, they're overseas. Well, 03:00 our time, right? Maybe like 06:00 A.m or 07:00 A.m overseas. And they need to really figure out what's going on with their policy. They can pull up their plan documents and have a quick reference. My two favorite aspects of having a profile is the fact that there is a click to dial on our mobile app, which you can utilize with your profile to call the emergency assistance service. So if you have a medical emergency or a question, it's a quick call, press a button and it calls the assistant service. And then more importantly, we live in a time where claims there's a lot of claims, right? And we want to make sure that to get a claim process quickly, we want to get all the documentation at the same time. So with having a login, you're able to upload all your claim documents. You can see the status of your claim, you can see what we're requesting, and it makes the whole process seamless and quicker. So I'm not saying have a login just so we can have you have a profile with travel insured. Have a login for the ease of use and for the peace of mind for yourself. That's why I think having one is so important. Well, and I really like the fact that you pointed out the three in the morning thing because generally what happens is I'm fast asleep and somebody's halfway around the world and they call me and I'm like, you got to call the travel insurance company. I mean, I'm here to help you absolutely, however I can. But I can't process claims and I can't help you start one. So that's why you've got this account and start with that, and really, they're equipped to help you, too. So I've also heard now, I've not experienced this myself, but I've heard that sometimes there are countries where you actually have to prove that you have coverage and you can get a pre approval through calling travel insured or whomever your company is so that you can get the treatment you need. Is that accurate? Yeah. The hospital guarantee is a real thing, and it's a very scary thing. Imagine being in a foreign country and you have a serious situation, and they say to you, we're not treating you unless you can guarantee you have proof of payment and insurance. That is such a scary thing. So with the insurance, part of the concierge service is a hospital guarantee admission, meaning your client is never going to get turned away because they don't have proof of insurance. So by calling the assistant service, they can do the hospital guarantee. Say the hospital requires X amount of dollars up front, and you don't have those funds. The assistant service can work with you to make sure it's either contacting your credit card company, contacting the bank, or even doing an emergency cash advancements in some very dire situations to be like, your client's taken care of. You will be okay. We're here to help. Yeah, absolutely.

Chris Siravo [00:22:19]:

And the other point, too, just talking about general country, know, when the pandemic first started and then countries started to open back up destinations like Costa Rica, they mandated a certain lodging requirement.

Ashley Gheris [00:22:33]:

Right.

Chris Siravo [00:22:33]:

You've got Turks and Caicos that requires, say, $50,000 worth of medical coverage. Our plans, like the Worldwide Trip Protector plan, check all of those boxes so you have that lodging coverage with our travel and convenience bed rest benefit that protects $4,000 worth of quarantine expenses. Those countries I had mentioned require 2000. So that's a check, and you're getting that $50,000 worth of medical coverage and then some. So you want to make sure that you're checking with Robin, with those destinations that have those certain limits, because if you're taking out the tour operator or the cruise line insurance, there may be some gaps in coverage, and you don't want to find that out when you're about to head out for your trip.

Ashley Gheris [00:23:20]:

Right, and back to that again. I mean, nobody's badmouthing those policies that those companies have, either. Some insurance is better than no insurance. Absolutely. But I do think that a lot of times the insurance policies that come through those companies are as much to protect them as you, too. So you really have to be your own advocate on that front. And Chris, you said something that made me want to go back to so just recently, we talked about at the beginning that this is being recorded in June of 2022. So just like, what, ten days ago? Twelve days ago is when the testing mandate to return to the United States was dropped and I think that a lot of people have shifted in their mind now. Oh, well, it's all good, it's all fine, but there's still the possibility of getting COVID abroad and being sick enough from it to not be able to travel. Tell us a little more about that bedrest option and why that's still something that is good to have.

Chris Siravo [00:24:25]:

Undoubtedly, one can still test positive for COVID once you're abroad on your trip. I mean, there's no denying that it's still out there. But also, look at the fact that it's only $13 to add on per person, and it's going to carry over with you until you get home safe and sound from your trip. That will assist specifically with meals and accommodations if you have to extend your stay, you just want to be cognizant of the fact that if you do test positive, you are seeking a medically qualified physician so you have that appropriate documentation when a claim is filed so that we will validate it for you.

Ashley Gheris [00:25:05]:

Right.

Chris Siravo [00:25:05]:

But it really is a no brainer that should be added on. I personally have tested positive over the holidays, but even in my travels moving forward, I know that it's still a possibility that I can test positive once again on one of my upcoming trips. So you can never be too sure that we're out of the clear. And we have certainly seen that particular benefit still continue to be purchased moving forward, especially as it's so inexpensive. And if you look at other companies in the industry, few, if none, really are offering $4,000 worth of quarantine expenses, if you're asymptomatic.

Ashley Gheris [00:25:42]:

Right. Well, and also just talking about limits and stuff, I mean, I think that your limits you mentioned earlier of $100,000 is so much better than most of them out there. And that's why I sell Ural's insurance exclusively. I don't use anybody else. And that's not to say others are bad. It's just that I feel like I know your product and have very good success with working with you all, and I love the so, so that's why I do that. Ashley, tell us about some interesting claims. Like, what are some things that people that have happened to people that people would never dream of happening to them? Absolutely. So when we were talking before, I was going through my Rolodex of all the claims I've heard over the years, and I thought the one I want to talk about is one that actually personally happened to myself because it threw me for a loop. I never thought in my life, the years that I've been traveling, that this type of situation could occur. About five years ago, my entire family, so all six of us were traveling to Hawaii and we were getting ready to leave, and we get a call that there was a mechanical issue with our plane. Right. So when you hear a mechanical issue, you're like, whatever, just get another plane. We'll get out of here. Right? But being on an island like Hawaii, it's not that simple. They actually have to fly in the part from the United States, so from Alaska or from California. So by the time they flew that part into Hawaii, into Maui, there was hundreds of flights canceled. So we ended up getting delayed a total of six days due to a simple part. Right. Wow. So everyone's like, oh, big whoop. Like, six days in Hawaii extra. Like, who cares? Right? But when you're a family of six, there are meals, there's hotel rooms, and the airline was like, we'll give you food credit, we'll give you a hotel credit. But they put six of us in one hotel room. Oh, no. No way. I have three brothers, and I was like, this is not happening. The worst experience ever. And not to mention, we were all, like, in our 20s or our early teens, and it was like, someone's going to get killed on this trip. We need to figure this out. So we called travel insured, even though we knew our policies were like, let's do this as a consumer. And we called travel insured. They're like, this is your travel delay expense. You have X amount of dollars per day per person for allocation. I actually was able to get my own room, thank God. So I was in my own room, and we were able to be comfortable for that delay flight. And every day we were like, cool, our flight is about to take off. And they're like, no, it's been pushed another two days because we have to reposition all these people. So it's not like a crazy, wacky story, but it was something that I never thought a small part of a plane would cause so much chaos. So it definitely was one of the reasons that every time I travel now, not just because I eat, sleep, and breathe travel insured, but every time I travel, I'm like, I don't want to delay. Let's get the insurance. Because it's the ease of use and the accessibility of the plan. Yeah, absolutely. And we were talking about before, right now in particular, there's this domino effect, and that's a perfect example of that when one thing happens, then the next and the next can all be affected. So what about you, Chris? What kind of story have you got for us?

Chris Siravo [00:29:21]:

Yeah, I mean, I had one just recently. I was at a conference in Denver a couple of weeks ago, not as, I guess, intricate, but I did hear of a story of a traveler who I think was in Jamaica, and she was actually bit by a just I think she was eating food, and obviously the monkey wanted it. There was quite a big bite, stitches, a whole medical procedure done. So that's really the first that I've heard. Whether the traveler was minding their own business or not, I don't know.

Ashley Gheris [00:29:59]:

Yeah, that's for. The claims department to figure out.

Chris Siravo [00:30:02]:

Right, right, yeah, exactly. That was definitely a unique one that I've never really heard mean, there's a lot of unforeseen.

Ashley Gheris [00:30:12]:

Well, I was telling you before we got on the call too, about I'd read in one of my forums just the other day that a family was in Paris and they were in the park and the kid got bitten in the face by a dog. And then they're in the emergency room and they're getting stitches and they're having to call plastic surgeon and all this sort of stuff. And all of a sudden they're not going to Spain tomorrow. Maybe coming home, we could just go on. But we're not here to try to scare people into this by any stretch. This is not like, oh my gosh, all these horror stories. But there are just a lot of things that really can go wrong on a trip. And kind of my thing is people will say to me sometimes, they'll be like, oh, well, that won't happen. And I'm like, based on what? Based on what would that not happen? I do get people to sign a waiver if they refuse insurance, because it is that big a deal. I do want to talk about what we know in the industry as CFAR and about preexisting conditions and the preexisting.

Chris Siravo [00:31:18]:

Conditions waiver with cancel for any reason. The good thing is that other companies in the industry have retracted since COVID where they've taken certain benefits away. We've really kept cancel for any reason available since, at least since I've been here. And now we offer it in all 50 states.

Ashley Gheris [00:31:40]:

That's a new change.

Chris Siravo [00:31:41]:

Yeah, New York finally died and it's now available.

Ashley Gheris [00:31:47]:

Excellent.

Chris Siravo [00:31:48]:

But essentially it provides 75% cash back coverage for all of your prepaid non refundable trip expenses. You must purchase the policy within 21 days from your initial trip deposit date. So helpful hint is, if you make your deposit today, starting tomorrow, that 21 day window starts to tick.

Ashley Gheris [00:32:12]:

And that's 21 actual days. That's not 21 business days, that's like Saturday, Sundays.

Chris Siravo [00:32:21]:

And you just want to make sure that you are canceling at least 48 hours or more before your scheduled departure date. If you are inside of 48 hours, unfortunately, that will negate coverage. However, we would hope that if inside 48 hours, you would be canceling for a covered reason. But things to keep in mind, like, well, why would I purchase cancel for any reason? Nowadays, pets are, I think, viewed as more important than kids, right, everyone?

Ashley Gheris [00:32:51]:

Sometimes, yeah, sometimes.

Chris Siravo [00:32:53]:

Let's just say you're worried about your pet, whether they're sick or elderly, and you're not sure if you want to take the trip. Well, that's more of a non covered reason. If you cancel your trip due to, say, a pet situation, or there's the fear of COVID still going on, which is a very relevant thing. So if you're not feeling safe or feeling good about traveling to a certain destination. You just want to play it safe and cancel your trip. And you do have those non refundable expenses if you're in penalty and so forth. Again, we'll protect 75% of the non refundables back to you.

Ashley Gheris [00:33:31]:

Right.

Chris Siravo [00:33:32]:

And that is cash back as well. I just wanted to add that point. It's not a voucher. We cut you a check. We send you an ACH payment. So that's nice.

Ashley Gheris [00:33:41]:

Yeah, no, that is nice. And just to be clear, too, the cancel for any reason is an optional add on. So you have your base policy either way. It's just whether you choose to pay a little bit additional in order to have this cancel for any reason option.

Chris Siravo [00:33:59]:

Great point.

Ashley Gheris [00:34:00]:

With preexisting medical conditions, I would say probably about 90% of Americans have a preexisting medical condition, or at least they think so in their head. Right. So travel insurance makes it super simple, because it all comes down to the look back period. And look back means what medical change have you had x amount of days prior to purchasing your insurance? So some companies have 180 days, which, let's be honest, a lot of things can happen in six months, right? Sure. Our look back time for right now, and especially looking at our worldwide trip protector, is only 60 days. So when someone says, I have a preexisting medical condition, it's like, okay, have you had any change or in medical history in the past two months, the past 60 days, from the day you're buying your insurance? Right. If they say, you know what? No. Then that's not considered a preexisting. Right. If they say, you know what? I've had a med change. I've had this done, then they'll want to make sure they're purchasing the insurance to qualify for the waiver. And to qualify for the waiver, it's super easy. You have to buy the insurance within 21 days of the initial trip deposit. And again, for those listening, this is for our worldwide trip protector. Some other plans may have different other criteria, but this is for our most popular plan. On top of the 21 days, you also want to make sure that you're medically able to travel. So a lot of times, people will say, oh, I just got out of the hospital. I'm going to go on a trip in six months. I want preexisting. Well, would your doctor say you're okay to travel right now? If the answer is no, then we're kind of treading on some tricky water. Right. And then the last thing is, you want to make sure you protect your full trip costs, because if you cancel, you want to make sure all of your prepaid expenses are encompassed into that. But when you start talking about the look back period, it turns out a lot less people are concerned with preexisting. I've had people call me who say, I've been a diabetic for five years, and that's preexisting? Well, absolutely. If you have to give yourself an insulin injection every day, that is definitely preexisting in your mind. However, if your insulin dosage hasn't changed, your treatment plan hasn't changed, then that may not be considered preexisting. So as complicated as we want to make preexisting, at the end of the day, it's like, hey, have you had a change in your medical history? No. Cool. Then you probably don't have a preexisting. Right. But I want to point out, too, that that is not an added charge. The preexisting conditions waiver is part of let's we're talking about the Worldwide Trip Protector Plan. That is part of that. And the only qualification for that is that you purchase it within 21 days of making your deposit. And it's just if you choose to purchase your policy two weeks before you travel instead of six months ago when you made your deposit, you're just not getting that waiver anymore. Correct, correct. And then again, it all comes down to we're going to look back 60 days prior. So if I buy my insurance two weeks before my trip, has there been any change two months prior to buying the insurance? So there's a lot of great things. And for those that know insurance, like you said, it's not an endorsement, it's not something you have to check a box to add it's. Either you qualify and if you don't, then it's the exclusion, but if you do, it's waived, which is really nice. Yeah, absolutely. Another thing I love about your policies is that you have a 14 day look period, which is awesome. So, Ashley, finish us out with that. Tell everybody what that is. Yeah, absolutely. So every single one of our policies come with a 14 day free look. This is a review period for the plan. So you have 14 days after you purchase the insurance to go through the plan, decide if it's for you, and if it's not, then you can get a premium refund back, meaning for no charge, no surf fee, nothing along those lines. You will get your full insurance premium refunded back to your original proof of payment within that 14 day time frame. Absolutely. Which is, I mean, that just should give another level of comfort about the thing. And if you do decide not to have it, then, hey, good luck to you. Anyway, well, thank you both so much for being here with me today. I really appreciate this and I think that there will be a lot of people out there that find this very useful. And I'm going to drop a link in the show notes about there's a link I have that links to travel insured that I'm going to provide. You do not have to be a client of mine to purchase travel insurance, either through me or directly through travel insured. We're here today to advocate for you and for taking care of yourself when you travel and not to take any unnecessary chances. If you call me or call somebody else or do it on a website, just please do it. Okay? All right. Thank you both.

Chris Siravo [00:39:06]:

Thank you. Thanks for having us.

Ashley Gheris [00:39:07]:

Yeah. Thank you, Robin.

Robin Cline [00:39:09]:

That wraps up today's episode of The Intrepid Traveler. Thank you for listening or watching, and thank you today's guests for joining me. I'll be back again in two weeks with another exciting episode featuring another guest with a story that is sure to pique your interest. Please subscribe to The Intrepid Traveler and give us a review. Once again, today's episode has been brought to you by Klein and Co. Travel Consulting, a luxury adventure and expedition travel planning company specializing in ungoogable experiences.