Is there such a thing as an "international life insurance"?
December 19, 2010 6:14 AM Subscribe
Is there such a thing as an "international life insurance"?
I've been getting rather frustrated looking for a life insurance policy that covers me around the world. I am an American but have been living in Spain for 6 years and don't know where I will be in 60. (US? UK? Elsewhere in Europe?).
In Spain, at least, they claim that I would not be covered outside of Spain. I have tried looking for some UK or Swiss "expat" policies but they say that since I am not from those countries they won't cover me either.
To add to this I know nothing but life insurance or how it works.
I am 29, married with two kids and am the single breadwinner so want to get coverage for my family. Help me metafilter...
I've been getting rather frustrated looking for a life insurance policy that covers me around the world. I am an American but have been living in Spain for 6 years and don't know where I will be in 60. (US? UK? Elsewhere in Europe?).
In Spain, at least, they claim that I would not be covered outside of Spain. I have tried looking for some UK or Swiss "expat" policies but they say that since I am not from those countries they won't cover me either.
To add to this I know nothing but life insurance or how it works.
I am 29, married with two kids and am the single breadwinner so want to get coverage for my family. Help me metafilter...
There are numerous resources on life insurance, but I admit I was not aware that an insurance policy would only cover you in one country (excluding travel to designated 'high-risk' zones). Perhaps consulting a specialist assessor in this case might be prudent.
posted by malusmoriendumest at 6:27 AM on December 19, 2010 [1 favorite]
posted by malusmoriendumest at 6:27 AM on December 19, 2010 [1 favorite]
You should consider term life insurance, which is a better deal anyway. Change your coverage as your circumstances change. You don't need to be covered now for where you are in ten years; you need to be covered where you are now, if you have dependents.
posted by chesty_a_arthur at 6:33 AM on December 19, 2010 [1 favorite]
posted by chesty_a_arthur at 6:33 AM on December 19, 2010 [1 favorite]
What you need is a real, honest-to-goodness insurance broker, not a local agent who deals with one or two companies. You're looking for something like "The ABC Insurance Group," not "John Smith State Farm." The former is likely to be able to place your coverage with a wide variety of carriers and just be more generally knowledgeable about the products that are available to you. The latter is going to be your standard mom-'n-pop agent that does just fine for 95% of the personal lines market but doesn't have a ton of flexibility or expertise for fringe cases like this one.
Hit up your Yellow Pages.
posted by valkyryn at 6:49 AM on December 19, 2010
Hit up your Yellow Pages.
posted by valkyryn at 6:49 AM on December 19, 2010
Yes. Everything is insurable; this certainly includes your life when living internationally. I don't know where to find it, so I can't be more helpful in that regard, but keep looking and don't give up!
posted by J. Wilson at 7:40 AM on December 19, 2010
posted by J. Wilson at 7:40 AM on December 19, 2010
Term insurance is a better deal, sometimes. It is more standard insurance, where you pay a premium for a certain amount of time and are thus covered for that amount of time. Especially for someone with modest and temporary needs- your family will need a lot more money if you suffer a "life event" in the short term- the family will have to survive without your income, and you'll want to replace that somehow. But once the kids are grown and your wife for example resumes her career, they will *need* less money to survive.
But the other kinds of life insurance do have their places, from a financial management standpoint. They can work like retirement plans or annuities, which have asset value. I believe I heard once that once you get fully vested in a whole life kind of policy, you can even borrow against it.
Also, term life gets more expensive as time goes on- the more likely you are to perish during the term, the higher the premium. Meanwhile, a whole life policy has a more or less fixed payment depending on when you start the policy. The earlier you start, the cheaper it is. Some types even "fill up"- once you have paid in a certain number of dollars, you don't have to pay any more and the coverage still exists.
So one strategy might be to get a whole life policy that will cover burial costs and a small lump of cash to make life a little easier. Say, $50,000. That won't cost all that much, and you will know what that will cost for the entirety of the policy. And then use term coverage to cover the more short term needs.
But, since a whole life policy is pretty much guaranteed to pay out, and the insurance company will charge an amount that pretty much guarantees that they make a profit, you can get almost the same amount of long term coverage with a savings account. Assuming that you have term coverage for the interim, until the savings account fattens up.
Point: get with a financial planner to determine your goals and needs, and then buy the insurance that works out best.
Especially if you are going to be in areas of the world where the actuarial tables say your chances of death are higher. Life insurance is pretty cheap for someone who sits in a suburban first world country most of their lives. It gets much more expensive the more you travel and the more dangerous (per actuarial tables) they are. You might need to go back and forth between the financial planner and the insurance broker a couple of times to fully optimize the costs.
posted by gjc at 8:20 AM on December 19, 2010
But the other kinds of life insurance do have their places, from a financial management standpoint. They can work like retirement plans or annuities, which have asset value. I believe I heard once that once you get fully vested in a whole life kind of policy, you can even borrow against it.
Also, term life gets more expensive as time goes on- the more likely you are to perish during the term, the higher the premium. Meanwhile, a whole life policy has a more or less fixed payment depending on when you start the policy. The earlier you start, the cheaper it is. Some types even "fill up"- once you have paid in a certain number of dollars, you don't have to pay any more and the coverage still exists.
So one strategy might be to get a whole life policy that will cover burial costs and a small lump of cash to make life a little easier. Say, $50,000. That won't cost all that much, and you will know what that will cost for the entirety of the policy. And then use term coverage to cover the more short term needs.
But, since a whole life policy is pretty much guaranteed to pay out, and the insurance company will charge an amount that pretty much guarantees that they make a profit, you can get almost the same amount of long term coverage with a savings account. Assuming that you have term coverage for the interim, until the savings account fattens up.
Point: get with a financial planner to determine your goals and needs, and then buy the insurance that works out best.
Especially if you are going to be in areas of the world where the actuarial tables say your chances of death are higher. Life insurance is pretty cheap for someone who sits in a suburban first world country most of their lives. It gets much more expensive the more you travel and the more dangerous (per actuarial tables) they are. You might need to go back and forth between the financial planner and the insurance broker a couple of times to fully optimize the costs.
posted by gjc at 8:20 AM on December 19, 2010
You'll also want to make sure your broker is a member of some professional association that vets them and has ethical guidelines. Sort of like a CPA of insurance. I do not know what this is. Same with the fin. planner.
posted by gjc at 8:23 AM on December 19, 2010
posted by gjc at 8:23 AM on December 19, 2010
My completely biased suggestion is to look at New York Life. AFAIK, as long as someone has a valid claim, they'll pay it regardless of where you are physically.
That said, if you're using a US life insurance company, it would be useful for the family to have a US-based bank account, even if it doesn't do much. It'll make it much easier and faster to cash the check and have access to the money.
posted by Citrus at 9:08 AM on December 19, 2010
That said, if you're using a US life insurance company, it would be useful for the family to have a US-based bank account, even if it doesn't do much. It'll make it much easier and faster to cash the check and have access to the money.
posted by Citrus at 9:08 AM on December 19, 2010
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It may be simpler to look for two different insurance policies (obviously more expensive).
posted by justlooking at 6:23 AM on December 19, 2010