Expat's Manual

Life insurance is much easier to deal with on an international scale these days than it used to be. Formerly, you used to only be able to buy life insurance in your home country if you maintained an active connection there (holding a driver’s license, maintaining a bank account, etc.). Because of advances in communication through the internet, however, international life insurance is much more easily obtained.

As a matter of fact, if you already have life insurance through a major provider such as MetLife, you may find you don’t have to change a thing except provide the company with an address change - and arrange payments from your existing American bank account. You could already be covered no matter where you live – again, check with your current provider and see what the limitations of your policy happen to be.

If you don’t currently have a life insurance policy but expect to buy one in the near future, you might want to consider buying that policy from an American company before you relocate (making sure, of course, that the policy does cover you wherever in the world you live). The reason is that insurance companies in the US are under certain regulations that provide you with safeguards that aren’t necessarily in place in other countries.

This is not to say there are not trustworthy, reputable firms worldwide. If you do decide to buy international life insurance down the line after you’ve relocated, just make sure you deal with a firm with a good financial standing and sound ownership. An experienced international insurance consultant can help you make the right decision.