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Independent international health insurance advice for people living and moving abroad

Moving abroad, or already living between countries? We read the international policies so you don't have to. We know which insurers pay and which ones argue. And if the cover you already hold is the right cover, we'll tell you that too.

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Free · 45 minutes · With Robert or Nicole

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2,500+households advised from Zürich since 2017

Expat Savvy AG · Zürich · Independent advisory

Expat Savvy is an independent advisory practice for internationally mobile people — international health and life cover, explained in plain English, by advisors who don't work for an insurer.

Powered by SIP · International cover is placed through SIP Medical Family Office — independent consultants in health management and international medical insurance, established in Switzerland since 1997, whose group companies are licensed as medical insurance intermediaries for the EU/EEA and the United Kingdom.4.8 from 55 reviews of our Swiss practice

What we prevent

Four traps, and all four are avoidable.

Not because you'd be careless — because none of them announces itself, and most can only be prevented before the thing that sets them off. That's the part we're for.

The door that locks behind you

Cover is priced on the day you apply, not the day you claim. A diagnosis, and most insurers treat you as a new applicant: the policy you hold becomes the only one you can hold. It isn't locked, though. Some take you with that history intact — a Swiss corporate member can move to international cover with no medical questions, and come back the same way. Those routes aren't advertised. We know which, and we arrange them.

The gap you didn't know you left

Cover that lapses doesn't resume. It restarts — at the age you are now and the health you have now — and everything you built up is gone. A policy ending on the 31st and one starting on the 2nd isn't a one-day gap; it's a new application. It happens through a move, a change of job, a renewal nobody chased. We put the dates end to end, and then we check them.

The age ceiling nobody mentions at forty

Most plans stop accepting new members at one age and stop renewing at a later one. If a renewal is refused while your residence permit depends on holding cover, an insurance problem has become an immigration problem. Premiums also step each time you cross an age band. The decision that settles all of this gets made in your forties, not in your seventies. We choose for the person you'll be then.

The limit you never read

The premium is the number you compare. The caps are the number that decides what happens — annual maximums, and separate ceilings on mental health, maternity, cancer care, long-term conditions. A plan can be cheaper simply because it is smaller. So we read the policy you already hold before we look at anything that's for sale. Sometimes the answer is less cover than you expected. That's precision, not cutting corners.

Any of these worth a second opinion? See how a review works

Case notes

The three files we open most often.

Not testimonials, and deliberately not named clients. These are the recurring shapes — what people arrive holding, what turns out to be wrong with it, and what we check first. Named case notes with real figures will replace these when we can publish them with permission.

Arriving on the employer’s plan

The most common file we open

Someone lands with cover their company arranged and no reason to question it. The policy is usually real and usually fine for the first year. What it is not is portable: it ends with the job, it rarely covers a partner properly, and the medical questions get asked again at the moment it ends. The work is not replacing it. It is reading it, saying which year it stops being enough, and deciding what to hold alongside it.

What we check first: what happens to this policy the month the job ends.

A family, one move behind them

The file with a second dimension

A household that already moved once and bought cover in the country they left. Two things have usually gone unnoticed: a policy written for one jurisdiction behaving differently in another, and children added at a point that reset something in the underwriting. Neither shows up until a claim. Both are visible in the wording in under an hour.

What we check first: whether the policy follows the family or the address.

Already covered, wanting a second opinion

The file that ends in nothing being sold

Someone with a policy they were sold years ago and a suspicion it is wrong. Often it is. Sometimes it is not, and the honest answer is that the cover is well built, the premium is what that cover costs, and there is nothing here worth changing. That is a complete review and it ends with no additional cover bought, which is the only version of this page we can publish without a client’s permission and the only one that proves the point anyway.

Total additional cover bought in this scenario: none.

We read the paper of 8 international insurers — Bupa Global, Cigna Global, APRIL International, Global Health (Foyer), Allianz Care, AXA Global Healthcare, MSH International, Swisscare. See the profiles

A number you can check without trusting us

Where you move changes the price more than what you buy.

An independent benchmark prices the same comprehensive international cover in fifty countries. Thailand comes out 9th, at about $9,854 a year — dearer than Switzerland at 15th. Mexico is dearer still. The two destinations people move to because living there is cheap are among the ten most expensive places in the world to insure, because the hospitals a foreign resident actually uses are private and priced accordingly.

This is the kind of thing we read for a living, and it is the reason our first question is never which policy you want. Move the profile below from twenty-four to fifty and you will see the second reason.

Show
  1. Singapore$14,231$10,065$13,967$18,662
  2. Mexico$10,018$6,967$9,830$13,257
  3. Thailand$9,854$6,895$9,621$13,047
  4. Switzerland$8,912$6,392$8,017$12,328
  5. Germany$7,307$5,081$7,099$9,741
  6. Netherlands$6,739$4,748$6,539$8,931

Average annual premium in USD for comparable international cover. SIP Health Cost Index 2025, SIP Medical Family Office, data as at August 2025. Bars are scaled against the highest figure in the whole index, so the axis does not move when you change profile. Order stays as published, by average.

All fifty countries, and the three things the ranking hides

How a review works

What a first review actually looks like.

Arranging international cover for the first time, or checking what you already hold — the process is the same, in this order.

The demand intake

Right after you book, we email you a short intake form. Where you are, where you're going, who's coming with you, anything you already hold. It takes a few minutes, and it means the 45 minutes start prepared — with your situation, not with paperwork.

We study your situation

Not products first. Your life first. We look at the country you're moving to and what it legally requires, the country after that if there is one, who depends on you, and where the real exposure sits. We don't quote anything at this stage.

The consultation

45 minutes, by video, in English. Every question you bring gets an answer. We compare the international insurers on how each of them behaves in your situation — underwriting, renewal, exclusions, and what happens on the day a claim is filed. If there is already a policy in force, we go through it clause by clause. Nothing is pitched at the end of it.

Your Private Client Report

One working day later, your Private Client Report arrives — around twelve pages setting out what we found, what we weighed it against, what each option costs, and why we would choose one over the others. What to arrange, what to keep, and where you are paying for something that isn't doing any work. Sometimes the report says: keep what you have. It is yours either way.

45 minutes. By video, wherever you are. Free. Nothing has to change afterwards.

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The Cleveland Clinic charges $1,690 for a written second opinion. Ours comes with the review, and there is no fee for it.

Why you can trust us

Independent by structure, not by adjective.

Comparison sites are paid by the insurers they list. Captive agents represent one carrier. Neither of those is independent, however the homepage words it.

Here is our structure, plainly. International cover is placed through SIP Medical Family Office — independent consultants in health management and international medical insurance, established in Switzerland since 1997, whose group companies are licensed as medical insurance intermediaries for the EU/EEA and the United Kingdom. We hold no insurance licences of our own, and that arrangement covers Switzerland, European Union, United Kingdom.

Working under a principal's licences is ordinary in this industry and rarely admitted. We say it in the first paragraph because the alternative — letting you assume we hold our own paper — is the kind of small omission this page exists to argue against. We hold no exclusive arrangement with any insurer, and no insurer owns any part of this business.

Here's the mechanism, because "independent" is easy to write and hard to check. International cover is placed on a courtage basis: the insurer pays a brokerage fee when a policy is placed. It is a percentage of the premium, which means we have no reason to sell you more cover than you need and no reason to steer you towards the most expensive plan. What we do have a reason to do is place you well — because we review your cover with you every year, for as long as you're our client, and a policy that turns out to be wrong is our problem too.

Check it rather than take our word for it. The entries are SIP's, not ours — we hold no licence of our own to look up: FINMA intermediary register — Switzerland · FMA register — Liechtenstein, SIP Europe AG licence 10116 · FCA register — United Kingdom. The full arrangement is set out on our about page.

Second opinion

Already covered? That's the more interesting conversation.

If you already hold an international policy, bring it. We'll read it properly — what it actually pays, what it quietly doesn't, how it behaves when you move again, and whether it still fits the life you have now rather than the one you had when you signed.

A fair share of these end with us telling you to keep exactly what you've got. We'd rather say that than sell you something.

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The team

The people who'll actually review your situation.

Specialists by topic, not a rota. You'll know who you're speaking to before you book, and you'll speak to the same person again next year.

Illustrated portrait of Robert Kolar

Robert Kolar

Health insurance

Twenty-plus years spent on the distance between what a health policy promises and what it pays when a claim actually lands. German and English. He has been the foreigner working out somebody else's health system from the outside, which is its own kind of qualification.

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Illustrated portrait of Nicole Bohne

Nicole Bohne

Life · Protection · Planning

Spent her career inside Basler Versicherung and Zurich Insurance before crossing to this side of the table. Nicole reads a life-cover decision against the whole household — who depends on whom, what already exists, and whether the answer is a policy at all.

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Illustrated portrait of Hans Steiner

Hans Steiner

Pension · Tax · Cross-border

Financial Planner IAF, Federal Diploma of Higher Education. German, English and French. Hans takes the cases where a move collides with a pension, with two tax systems, or with both at once.

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What clients say

In their words.

4.8 from 55 reviews of our Swiss practice on Google

“After several bad experiences with other brokers, working with Mr. Robert Kolar was a completely different experience.”

Dragos H.2026

“Robert is the best person to partner with if you need to do difficult things such as relocate.”

E. Burke-Murphy2026

“My session with Robert was one of the most efficient consultation sessions I'd ever had.”

Milad F.2025

“After returning to Switzerland from abroad, Robert was a tremendous help consulting me about all the changes.”

Steven2025

“Highly recommend consulting Expat Savvy before making any online insurance comparisons.”

Zendaya B.2025

“Working with Ben was great. Very prompt and responsive. Would highly recommend to anyone.”

Michele2025

Read all 55 reviews on Google →

Common questions

Questions people actually ask.

Do I really need international health insurance?

It depends on where you're going, and anyone who answers before asking that is selling something. If your destination has a strong public system you can legally join, you may need very little. If it doesn't — or if you're not eligible, or you'll move again within a few years, or you want treatment outside the country you live in — then portable cover is doing real work. The honest version of this answer takes about ten minutes of conversation.

My visa requires insurance. Doesn't that cover me?

It covers the visa. Visa rules set a legal minimum — a sum insured, often emergency-only, sometimes with a repatriation clause. That minimum is designed to protect the destination country's health system, not your family's finances. A plan can be fully visa-compliant and still leave you exposed to exactly the events you'd want insured against.

Is the consultation really free?

Yes — and so is every one after it, not just the first. 45 minutes, in English, no obligation. International cover is placed on a courtage basis: the insurer pays a brokerage fee when a policy is placed, as a percentage of the premium. So there's no fee for the review, no fee for your Private Client Report, and no fee for the follow-up conversation a year later.

Who are the advisors, and what are you regulated as?

Robert Kolar, Nicole Bohne and Benjamin Amos Wagner — all three named on this site, with their own pages. On regulation, the honest answer is structural: Expat Savvy is an advisory practice and holds no insurance licences of its own. International cover is placed through SIP Medical Family Office, whose group companies are licensed as medical insurance intermediaries in Switzerland, the EU/EEA and the United Kingdom, and we work under those licences. The entities and the public registers are listed on our about page so you can check rather than take our word for it.

What happens when I move again?

That's the question most people don't ask early enough, and it's the one that decides which plan is right. A local policy usually ends at the border. A portable international plan follows you, but the terms of that portability differ a lot between insurers — what happens to your premium, your pre-existing conditions, and your renewal date. We plan for the second move at the first consultation, because it's far cheaper to plan for than to fix.

Ready for a calm conversation about cover?

A first review is free — 45 minutes, in English, wherever in the world you happen to be. We'll listen first. Then you'll hear exactly what we would arrange if the situation were ours. What you do with that is yours to decide.

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Or write to hello@expatsavvy.com — we reply within the working day.