Buying insurance from a Travel Agent just introduces another link in the chain, and complicates your purchase. Sure, you can check on whether your travel agent has a license to sell insurance, but why bother? The owner of Legendary Journeys has a license to sell travel insurance. He also has a “C” rating with the BBB, and has sold a succession of illegal insurance products. Additionally, why should you ask your travel agent to “help you decide which insurance policy is best for you?”. If your travel agent offers a policy which pays him a 40% commission, and another policy which pays him a 10% commission, guess which one he would recommend. There are several websites, including insuremytrip, squaremouth, and tripinsurancestore which allow you to compare offerings from multiple LEGAL insurance vendors. You can do a side-by-side comparison, and pick the one that best fits your needs. If you have a question, you can get an answer before you purchase the policy, and you can also cancel within ten of 15 days after you buy the policy, and get a full refund. You won’t pay any more for the policy than you’d pay if you purchased it from your travel agent, and best of all, NONE of these companies has, to my knowledge, ever sold an illegal travel insurance policy!
Asking your travel agent to recommend an insurance policy is like asking your electrician to recommend a new plumbing system. It’s not a smart idea. Don’t do it.

Here are several areas that may warrant the purchase of vacation travel insurance:

1. Trip Cancellation or Interruption
2. Flight Connection was missed due to airline schedule
3. Travel Delays due to weather
4. Medical Emergency and hospital care (Accident or Sickness)
5. Baggage Delay or Loss

As indicated above, any of these situations can occur during your travel schedule and can become very disruptive to your vacation plans.If you have ever heard of a flight being canceled without notice or multitudes of passengers on a cruise ship experiencing a widespread illness, you know that it can happen to anyone. Those that have the foresight to take out travel insurance will still experience the disruption, but will be compensated based on their policy.

Gravity Gardener

http://gravitygarden.com/why-we-need-insurance/vacation-travel-insurance.html

Insurance will be underwritten by a surety. The cost will typically be based on the cost of the trip and your age. If it is a flat fee, it likely is not a true insurance product. Part of the issue is that agents tend to confuse the two as well since the vendors will encourge sales of their “insurance product” . The term insurance seems to be a handy catch all phrase. Ask and verify that it is truly insurance.

With an overview, it will likely not lay out all the excvlusions. Ask for a link to the insurer’s website or ask to be provided a copy of the POLICY–not the sales brochure.

And finally, NO travel insurance needs to be purchased at the time of deposit. Don;t be pressured. Most policies require binding the policy within 7 to 10 days of the initial deposit if you are looking for some additional benefits–like pre-existing condition coverage. But you are able to purchase a policy up to the day of final payment (for sure) and sometimes up to the day of departure.

Agents are indeed licensed to sell the product in the states where required. But consumers need to be smart.

Don’t buy insurance from the cruiseline, or from the Travel Agent selling you the cruise. I’d especially avoid buying the product from those agencies who have been cited by specific states for selling illegal insurance, but don’t assume that these guys are the only companies that sold the product. There are hundreds more.

Buy from companies like Insuremytrip.com, squaremouth.com and tripinsurancestore.com. They will provide competitive quotes from nationally recognized legal travel insurance companies.

Pick from among these companies, but check on their BBB ratings and the ratings of their underwriters.