Expatriate Life Insurance Concerns

Expatriate Life Insurance should not be the last thing on one's mind when moving overseas to take an international assignment. Your family's future may be counting on it.

Any expatriate of high net worth should be encouraged to take out an individual expatriate life insurance plan to cover his or her family during the international assignment. Employer sponsored plans of 1 x or 2 x salary are inadequate to protect an expatriate's financial future in the event of unexpected death.

In addition, highly compensated expatriates may be capped at a $200,000 benefit or another limit set by the group life insurance plan. Expatriates working in most countries can carry $500,000 or more of life insurance for just a few thousand dollars a year for international term insurance. Of course, international life insurance rates will vary depending on age of the applicant and overall health in addition to the host country.

When looking at an international life insurance scheme, one should consider whether the life insurance will only be used for the term of the expatriate assignment, or if the insurance policy will be expected to continue once the expatriate returns to the home country. Some excellent programs will terminate the expatriate the moment of repatriation so please keep this in mind.