Military Insurance Guide

What is military insurance, and do you need it? Read our guide to find out.

What's in this guide?

What is military insurance?
Features of Towergate military insurance
What is home service clothing?
Military insurance exclusions explained
Military insurance with Towergate
Products you may be interested in
Read more articles and guides

What is military insurance?

Military insurance is designed to cover a range of possessions owned by military personnel, including uniforms and kit, personal possessions, home contents, buildings insurance for homeowners and damage to service accommodations. This means that regardless of whether you are in single living accommodation, married quarters, privately renting or even if you’re a home owner, we’re confident we have a policy for you.

What is particularly important about our policies is that we offer cover for your possessions anywhere in the world whilst on MOD posting.

What is military kit insurance?

Our most basic cover, military kit insurance - right dress basic, is designed for personnel fresh out of training and in single living accommodation. This policy insures your kit while you’re on deployment anywhere in the world and provides cover for your personal possessions too.

What is military contents insurance?

Military contents insurance is essentially the same as a kit policy but also includes the option to assign specific values to your kit, depending on your role. You'll also be able to add cover for contents belonging to any family member(s) living with you.

This policy is often selected by people moving into married quarters, or serving personnel who live alone.

What is military home insurance?

Military home insurance is designed for military personnel no longer living in rented MOD accommodation who have purchased their own home.

This policy still covers your kit, personal possessions and home contents but has the added benefit of including buildings insurance to cover your home too. It insures the home contents belonging to your family and can often be extended to cover your family's contents away from the home.

What is military travel insurance?

For private holidays and rest and relaxation periods, Towergate can provide military travel insurance. If you’re deployed on short notice and need to cancel your holiday, this policy can provide cover for the costs.

What is military adventure travel insurance?

It is exactly what it sounds like! Designed to cover groups of military personnel on adventurous training expeditions, this is like a travel insurance policy but designed for an adventurous kind of holiday, where activities such as skiing or mountaineering may be on the cards.

What is personal accident insurance for military personnel?

Personal accident cover for military personnel covers compensation for you or your family should you be injured during the course of your career in the armed forces.

Features of Towergate military insurance

Worldwide cover - Our policies cover your personal possessions and contents worldwide even whilst on deployment, as long as this is specified on the policy.
Damage to service accommodation (also referred to as 'licence to occupy') - This covers you for any damage caused whilst living in any MOD based accommodation, up to the value of £20,000.
New for old cover - On everything except civilian clothing and bed linen in which case a deduction for wear and tear will be made. We will always try to replace your goods with the same item or the closest equivalent model.
Flexible claims process - We accept that as part of your job role it’s not always possible to report incidents of loss straight away - for example, whilst on deployment. For this reason, we are flexible with our claims process and ask that you report your losses no later than 180 days after becoming aware of the loss. Please try to report any incidents as soon as you can though - the sooner we know, the quicker we can resolve the claim for you.

Are my goods covered in transit?

We understand that as part of military life, you’re often on the move which can mean experiencing loss or damage of goods whilst travelling from one place to the next. As such, all of our policies provide cover for your goods to the value of the contents sums insured whilst they are in transit (for the purpose of an MOD posting).

I’m moving abroad as part of an MOD posting and need to place goods in storage. Will these be covered?

We can offer additional levels of cover for your goods that are placed in storage, but this is subject it terms. Please speak to an adviser if you think you may need this type of cover.

Are my family's belongings also covered?

Our policies can cover your ‘family unit’, meaning contents within the home are covered. Your personal effects cover can extend to your partner and children and also protects their personal possessions whilst away from the home. You can also add cover for your children whilst away at school or university as long as the address details are specified (right dress and home policies only).

Do you have a specialist policy for Gurkha families?

For Gurkhas with family travelling to the UK, we can cover medical expenses should your family need urgent medical or dental treatment during their trip.

What is home service clothing?

Our underwriters define home service clothing as:

Ceremonial clothing
Items of kit
Medals and decorations normally carried or worn about the person

These will have been issued to you on a permanent or temporary basis for your sole personal use and you are personally responsible for them and do not hold them for the benefit of others.

You may know home service clothing by another name, such as 'full dress uniform', 'dress uniform', 'full dress' or maybe your 'number 1 dress'.

It is usually a special formal military uniform reserved for parades, ceremonies, official receptions and other special occasions. Uniform design may be distinctive to a service (Air Force, Army or Navy) or to a regiment or branch of service.

Insurance jargon buster

An Unoccupied property is one that has not been lived in for than 30 consecutive days or is insufficiently furnished for normal occupation.

An Excess is the payment you make towards a claim on your policy.

Military insurance exclusions explained

As with all policies, certain conditions apply. A full list of exclusions is detailed in the policy documents. Here are a few common exclusions you should be aware of:

Mechanical or electrical breakdown for mobiles, laptops, tablet computers and pedal cycles is not covered on the policy. However, these items are covered for theft and accidental damage.
Service firearms and ancillaries are not something we can provide cover for.
Unoccupied homes are not covered for loss or damage caused by theft or attempted theft. See unoccupancy clause for full description in the insurance jargon buster section. If your home will be unoccupied it is best to discuss this with us, so please give the team a call.

Military insurance with Towergate

As a specialist insurer, we understand what military personnel want from their insurance. Combined with our flexible and helpful approach to customer service, we’re confident that our cover and service will give you financial confidence and provide essential support where it’s needed most. Visit our military insurance page for more details.