We offer a wide range of international group insurance plans for companies which post employees overseas. If your company is sending employees abroad, then you should contact Expat Financial for an analysis and quote from the marketplace. We represent a variety of international group insurance carriers based in the United States and Europe. One such provider is Aetna Global Benefits.
Operating a multinational organization is more common these days with increased globalization around the globe. Sending an employee overseas is a major investment in company resources, and it makes sense to protect that employee and the company. Expat Financial is a division of TFG Global Insurance Solutions Ltd., which offers international group insurance plans which can provide a global insurance solution for your employee benefit requirements. We can source global insurance plans for multinational companies, Non-governmental organizations (NGOs), governments, international schools and many other entities.
Coverage Options for Global Benefit Plans
Expat Financial can offer the following international group insurance benefits from several global insurance carriers:
- International Health Insurance
- International Life Insurance
- International Accidental Death & Dismemberment
- International Long Term Disability
- International Evacuation and Repatriation
- International Dental and Optical
- Telehealth and Wellness
International group insurance plans can provide significant savings over individual plans because the risk is spread among several people. Some international group insurance plans can also provide international health insurance and life insurance without any medical questions at the time of application. Many plans also offer full maternity and pre-existing medical conditions coverage, which, as noted below, is very difficult to obtain under an individual plan.
How International Group Insurance Plans Work
An international group insurance plan helps employers protect overseas employees through one coordinated policy that is easier to manage, price, and renew than a set of separate individual plans. When we structure a plan for a company, we establish one policy that covers a defined group of employees, often alongside their spouses and dependents, under a single master contract.
We have found over the decades that because the risk is spread across the whole group rather than resting on one person’s medical history, insurers can offer more competitive premiums and, in many cases, waive the medical underwriting that individual applicants usually face.
For our clients with staff on assignment in multiple countries, this matters a great deal. A single group plan can follow employees as they move between postings, so HR teams aren’t juggling a different policy for every country office. It also gives the company one point of contact, one renewal date, and one set of terms to manage, which saves a substantial amount of administrative time compared to a patchwork of individual plans.
Which Organizations Typically Need a Global Benefit Plan
We work with a wide range of organizations that send people abroad, and the reasons for needing coverage vary quite a bit:
- Multinational corporations relocating staff for long-term assignments or short-term projects
- Mining, energy, and resource companies operating in remote or higher-risk locations
- NGOs and humanitarian organizations with field staff in developing regions
- International schools covering teachers and administrators living abroad
- Government contractors and consulting firms with rotating overseas personnel
Each of these groups has a different risk profile, so the right plan design for a mining company operating in a remote region will look quite different from the plan a school might choose for its teaching staff in a low-risk city.
What’s Usually Included in an International Group Insurance Plan
The answer to this question depends on many factors, such as your organization’s goals, budget and requirements. We have found that a structured international group insurance plan typically brings together several types of coverage under one contract, including international health insurance, life insurance, accidental death and dismemberment, long-term disability, medical evacuation and repatriation, and dental or optical benefits. As you would expect, global healthcare is the first coverage that most global HR managers think of, but they often forget the importance of medical evacuation or self-fund it through an access-only agreement through a carrier such as International SOS.
Employers can usually choose which benefits to include and at what level, so the plan reflects the company’s budget and the seniority or risk exposure of the employees being covered. We generally find that expat employees, who are often well paid and a key resource for multinational employers, expect very comprehensive coverage. For example, most global benefit plans will have a zero deductible for medical care outside the USA.
Maternity and Pre-existing Conditions
Maternity coverage and pre-existing condition coverage are two areas where group plans tend to outperform individual policies. This is because group underwriting spreads risk across many lives rather than assessing each person individually; insurers are often willing to include both of these benefits from day one, something that’s much harder to secure on an individual application.
For our group plan clients, we secure global healthcare plans that fully include pre-existing conditions, along with maternity and birth coverage with no waiting periods, as long as these benefits are available based on the number of staff on the policy.
Factors That Influence Pricing
There are many variables to pricing global benefit programs. As you would expect, a few items tend to drive the cost of an international group plan more than anything else: the size and age profile of the group, the countries where employees are living and working, the benefit levels selected, and whether the plan includes higher-cost add-ons like medical evacuation to a home country or long-term disability.
Employee Citizenship
Employee citizenship also affects your rates, as where the employee is from will have a huge impact on claims. For example, American expats are more likely to obtain medical care back in the USA, where the insurance companies are highly likely to experience large claims.
High Risk Countries
Groups based in higher-risk regions, or those with a smaller number of lives, may see less competitive pricing than a large, geographically diverse group, simply because there’s less risk pooling to work with.
This is one of the reasons it pays to work with a broker who can compare multiple carriers, test different plan designs, and challenge renewal terms rather than accepting a single quote at face value. We have extensive experience in working with clients in high-risk countries, even those impacted by terrorism and war. That experience in assisting clients in these regions translates into real-world experience that most brokerage firms lack.
We can often secure global benefit plans that will cover passive war and terrorism claims. Passive coverage is where the employee is not a direct participant in the event but is instead an innocent bystander.
Managing Renewals and Claims
Setting up the plan is only the first part of the relationship. Every year at renewal, we review claims experience, premium movement, census changes, benefit usage, and market alternatives to determine whether the plan still reflects the company’s needs.
If a plan hasn’t kept pace with the company’s growth or its employees’ changing needs, this is the moment to look at alternatives in the market rather than simply renewing on autopilot. We can provide benchmarking studies for most client industries, which is another key advantage of appointing our firm.
We also stay involved when claims or administration issues come up during the policy year, since these are often the moments when an employer needs a broker’s support the most. Having someone who understands both the insurer’s process and the employer’s situation can make a real difference in how quickly a claim gets resolved.
Duty of Care Considerations
Sending an employee abroad for short- or long-term assignments comes with a duty of care requirement for international employers. Obtaining comprehensive global coverage is a key component of your company’s fiduciary responsibility. Significant moral and legal implications are at play, along with your financial and reputational risks. For example, a mining company that has not secured adequate coverage can put its stock price at risk. We wrote an excellent article on this topic, which you can view in more detail:
Is your company fulfilling its Duty of Care to expat employees?
Getting Started
If your company already has employees overseas, or you’re planning on sending employees abroad in the near future, it is worth arranging a structured review of your current coverage, census data, claims history, and renewal options. Our staff can walk through your requirements and return with clear recommendations from across the marketplace. There are no fees to appoint us as the insurer will compensate us, often at no cost to the client.
We act as international insurance brokers who can search the marketplace after determining your requirements and needs. We usually offer one to three different insurance company solutions to a new client. Our company can also service existing global group insurance plans that you may have in place now.
Expat Financial also works with existing clients in the event of a claims or administration problem and also at renewal to determine if the group insurance plan is still meeting your needs. Contact us today for a review of your international group insurance needs. Feel free to email us your requirements and census data, including any relevant details on your existing policy. We will then contact you to review your requirements, provide quotes from the market and our analysis.
