Online version: http://www.lowtax.net/newsletter/ltx_focus_september08.asp

Dear Colleague,

Insurance is one of those things that everyone hopes they'll never need, and as a result, a frightening number choose to bury their heads in the sand, hoping that their luck will hold. However, by far the most sensible solution for those not willing to trust to fate, is to take out some form of insurance, to protect themselves and their dependants should the worst happen.

The list of places you may be sent - or even choose to go - gets longer every day, ranging from fully civilized and safe places like Paris to really scary and hostile regions such as Iraq and Afganistan. The list of possible (and insurable) contingencies is almost as long, including kidnap and ransom, war risk, health insurance, accident, liability and travel insurance.

Now your company may have taken out a policy on your behalf. If so, lucky you! Although insurance providers and brokers such as Medicare International and Axa PPP Healthcare do offer corporate or group policies for international employers (in addition to individual international policies), the take-up by companies is not as high as it once was, nor indeed as perhaps it should be. Some companies seem to feel that it is not cost effective to provide a decent benefits package for more junior expatriates, preferring to compensate them instead with higher wages and expenses, but they might do better to consider that for an expat, the knowledge that they can turn to their employers for help in times of crisis might sometimes be a more valuable benefit than a slightly inflated pay packet.

There are in fact still many companies that do recognise the importance of insuring all of their travelling employees. Companies that do so will usually look at an international package as opposed to taking out policies for their expatriate employees with local organisations, as the latter can be problematic. Local insurance regulatory regimes can be overly restrictive or exclusive, there may be foreign currency restrictions which prevent expats from receiving benefits in stable currencies such as US dollars, and membership of a local scheme may not be possible for some employees due to the proposed length of their stay.

You can read the rest of the feature here:
http://www.investorsoffshore.com:80/html/features/feature_insurance.html.

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Kind regards,

Kate James