Worldwide cover clause in accident insurance
The clause confirms that accident cover generally applies worldwide and around the clock, regardless of where the life insured is located.
- Clause type
- Extension
- Origin/Market
- DACH – statutory
- Favours
- Insured
- Negotiability
- Market standard
Standard wordings
- GDV AUB 2020 clause 1 (territorial scope)
Purpose
Unlike many other lines of insurance, private accident cover is not tied to a particular place, activity, or time of day. The worldwide cover clause confirms that accidents are covered equally in private life, at work, on holiday, and abroad, so long as no specific exclusion applies.
Effect and limits
Cover generally applies without temporal or geographical restriction, that is, 24 hours a day regardless of the country of stay. Exceptions do not arise from the territorial scope clause itself but from separate exclusions such as war, aviation, or hazardous sports clauses, and potentially from sanctions and embargo rules that may prohibit payment in certain countries. On a permanent relocation abroad, some insurers require notification, since this can change the underlying risk.
Negotiation and practice
For individuals frequently travelling abroad, for example on installation, construction, or aid work assignments, worldwide cover is a key selection criterion; even so, it is always worth reviewing the exclusion clauses, as these can substantially narrow the seemingly unrestricted worldwide cover in a given case. For group accident schemes covering internationally deployed staff, it should also be checked whether country-specific coverage exclusions apply for regulatory reasons.
Worldwide cover is not mandated by statute anywhere in the DACH region; in all three countries it follows broadly comparable market-standard policy conditions.