Life Insurance Options for Expat Employers

Providing comprehensive life insurance coverage for expat employees isn’t just an employee benefit—it’s a strategic investment in workforce stability, risk management, and corporate responsibility. This is especially important if you send employees to countries where they are at higher risk from their occupation, environment, infectious diseases, remoteness of the region, and if they are in a potential or current conflict zone.

While security measures, emergency response plans, and medical coverage are often key considerations, one crucial aspect that is sometimes overlooked is life insurance and personal accident coverage, usually referred to as AD&D (Accidental Death & Dismemberment).

Whether your company operates in a conflict zone, a region prone to natural disasters, or an area with limited healthcare infrastructure, your employees’ risks are higher than those in more stable environments. While many expat managers focus on securing their immediate safety, one critical aspect that often gets overlooked is life insurance.

Why Expat Employees Require Life Insurance

Having the right life insurance policy isn’t just about financial security—it’s about peace of mind for you and your loved ones. In an unforeseen tragedy, life insurance ensures that the employee’s dependents are financially protected, covering everything from repatriation costs to ongoing living expenses. Expatriate employers who work and live in high-risk environments and countries should consider life insurance as a requirement to attract and retain employees. Group life insurance for employees should not be seen as a luxury but as an absolute necessity. High-risk areas can be rife with challenges, like political turmoil or deadly natural tragedies; hence, having coverage through internationally based insurance providers is critical for worst-case scenarios. We have created a summary of the reasons expat employees should be covered by a pooled international group plan:

Local life insurance plans are often in a currency different from what your firm is paying the expat employee.
Local plans are not portable, so this could be a bigger problem if you move the employee to a new country, especially if the person has developed a medical condition.
Local life insurance plans for expats may also have coverage restrictions.
Global life schemes give your expats uniformity of coverage.
Local plans will require local underwriting and administration, which is probably not conducive to global HR.
Some local insurers may have questionable financial strength.
A global life insurance plan for foreign employees can help you attract and retain top talent.
Life insurance can help your employees protect their loved ones

Wherever you are sending your global workforce, it makes sense to set up a globally pooled life insurance and personal accident policy. One should also note that a well crafted global expat life program can help your organization meet its duty of care requirements.

Expat Life Insurance in High-Risk Countries

For companies employing expatriates, risk mitigation in dangerous locations and ensuring the safety and well-being of their workforce are top priorities. Sourcing life insurance for expats in high-risk countries and occupations abroad is good HR and essential to meeting your duty of care.

Expatriates working in high-risk areas—such as conflict zones, disaster-prone countries, or regions with high crime rates—face numerous risks. Accidents to diseases and mortalities, the alarms of peril, can overshadow any area connoted as safe. International insurance providers offer specialized policies for such situations, ensuring financial security for you and your family in case of an unforeseen event. Life insurance may provide financial support to ensure your loved ones are taken care of in the event of an unforeseen circumstance. They can also provide coverage that may not have an exclusion for terrorism, war and civil strife as long as the person is a passive participant, which means not an active participant in such events.

2. Comprehensive Coverage Beyond Local Policies

Although local policies afford some level of security, they won’t usually give enough protection to expats operating in high-risk regions. International insurance provides a global vision of life insurance designed for expatriates, covering many risks the organization may not be equipped to handle. Policyholders benefit from expat life insurance in cases of untimely death from sickness or accidents.

4. Peace of Mind for Families

Working in a high-risk area is stressful enough without the added worry of your loved ones’ financial security. Expat life insurance offers the assurance of peace of mind for the working expat and the expat’s family and dependents back home. Knowing your family will have financial security in case of an emergency can alleviate much of the stress associated with working in uncertain environments.

For expat management, having global life coverage in the event an employee dies from an accident or sickness, will help lessen the financial burden for the expat employee’s dependents, but also potentially remove a financial risk to the company as well.

5. Tailored Plans for Every Expat Need

Every expat’s situation is unique. This is where international insurance providers optimize flexibility in designing plans that serve individual needs. If you require further coverage for hazardous work environments, greater life insurance coverage for dependents, or specialized services for medical evacuation, global health insurance plans and expat life insurance plans can be customized to exactly fit your employees and company’s requirements. This level of customization is quite important while traversing life on foreign assignments at a high-risk location.

How Much Expat Life Insurance is Standard?

Most expat employers we see will get multiple base incomes for expats, which we often see at two or three times the annual income up to a set maximum benefit, such as $500K or $1 Million. Other companies purchase a flat benefit amount, such as $250K. Most global life plans are purchased in US Dollars, but they are often available in GBP and Euro currencies. It makes sense to consider your industry and the positions that you are filling and ask for a benchmark, which is something we can assist on.

What About Individual Expat Life Options?

Sometimes, we get requests from companies with just one expat employee, and most insurers require at least two to get a global benefit plan that includes life coverage. While it may be tempting to ask the employee to search the market on their own for an expat life insurance plan, the employee may secure less than adequate coverage at an unfavorable cost. While the market for individual expat life insurance is minimal, we have a few options available for individual expats that can often cover the following:

Life insurance
Long-term disability that pays a percentage of their income up to age 65 if disabled from sickness or injury and unable to work, of course, subject to the plan terms and conditions
Personal accident coverage that pays a lump sum benefit

The employees or managers can get a quote for individual life coverage via our website.

Covering Local Employees

Covering local nationals under a globally pooled plan is extremely difficult and subject to local regulations. If a local plan is available, that may be the better option for most locals, especially in the developed world.

Conclusions for Global Mobility Managers

In conclusion, life insurance is indispensable for expatriates working in high-risk zones. Supported by international insurance providers like Expat Financial, who provide comprehensive global health insurance and expatriate life insurance policies, all worries that follow living in dangerous places can be alleviated. Life insurance shows that, should anything ever happen to you, your loved ones are taken care of, while global health insurance ensures you have access to medical care, wherever that is. It’s an investment for you and your dependents. Don’t wait until circumstances worsen—secure life insurance today and protect your global team.

We should also mention that expat employers should consider long-term disability coverage, but we can discuss this in an upcoming article.