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I have a vacation booked for next month for which I was intending on buying travel insurance. However I just received news that means that I potentially have to cancel my trip in order to attend a funeral of a close relative.

With that in mind I was looking in detail at the cancellation and interruption causes of various policies (selected via Squaremount Inc. )

Typically I see language like

Accidental Injury, Sickness or death of You, Your Traveling Companion,
Your Family Member, or Your Business Partner; which results in
medically imposed restrictions as certified by a Physician at the time
of loss preventing Your participation or continued participation in
the Covered Trip. A Physician must advise cancellation of the Covered
Trip on or before the Scheduled Departure Date.

Combined with

“Family Member” means You or Your Traveling Companion’s legal or
common law spouse, Domestic Partner, Yours or Your Domestic Partner’s
caregiver, parent, legal guardian, step-parent, grandparent,
parents-in-law, grandchild, natural or adopted child, foster child,
ward, step-child, children-in-law, brother, sister, step-brother,
step-sister, brother-in-law, sister-in-law, aunt, uncle, niece or
nephew.

But I am not convinced that this covers cancellation due to the death of a non-traveling family member. Can anyone confirm that my situation would be covered under such clauses or if not point out the type of language I should be looking for?

In looking at more policies I did find one that sort of calls out my situation.

Sickness or Injury of a Family Member not traveling with the Insured
must be because their condition is life-threatening, as certified by a
Physician or they require the Insured’s immediate care. Such
disability must be so disabling as to reasonably cause a Trip to be
canceled or interrupted and must be certified by a Physician;

However this does not change my question.

For such specific requirements, your best bet is to work with an insurance broker to tailor an insurance policy with the wording you require - most brokers will work with underwriters to get such bespoke policies underwritten and thus you can be assured that your exact and specific situation is indeed covered.

However, for an insurer to cover a situation which is considered likely, you will be paying a hefty premium - most insurers will exclude claims where the death of a non-travelling family member is due to an existing and known condition. You will have to convince the insurer that it is worth their while to issue cover, and the only way to do that is to pay an increased premium.

I have seen policies that do provide for a return trip when a close enough relative dies. I can't quote the exact language, but if it is English and that's your native language, it was plain enough. The one I purchased cost 4% of the airfare I had paid for the trip.