Independent international health insurance advice.
Moving abroad or living between countries? We compare international health insurance against your life, read the cover you already hold and give you a written recommendation. Sometimes, that means keeping what you have.
In brief
What does an independent international health insurance adviser do?
Expat Savvy compares international health insurance against your life, reads the cover you already hold and gives you a written recommendation.
- Free: 45 minutes by video, then a written report one working day later, whether or not you arrange cover through us.
- Paid by the insurer when cover is placed through SIP Medical Family Office; a higher premium can mean higher remuneration.
- No exclusive arrangement with any insurer. Sometimes the report says: keep what you have.
One review, five clauses — and the trap that hides in each.
International cover is bought on the premium and the brochure. Whether it works is decided five clauses deep — so that is where a review starts. We read each one before you sign anything.
Area of cover · where it is valid
Where the policy is valid
The area-of-cover clause names the countries your policy exists in — and some destinations mandate their local system regardless of what you hold. We read the clause against where you actually live, work and spend your summers.
The trap here
The country your policy doesn’t name.
A claim outside your area of cover isn’t reduced — it is zero. And where local insurance is compulsory, holding the wrong policy is a residence problem before it is a medical one.
Moratorium · full medical underwriting
The underwriting basis
Decided on day one, felt years later. Under moratorium nobody asks health questions at signing — because they get asked at claim time instead. Full disclosure asks everything now and settles it. We put the choice in writing before you make it.
The trap here
The exclusion you meet at claim time.
A moratorium policy looks easier because nothing is asked. What is actually covered is decided when you claim, against medical records you may not control. Sometimes still the right choice — but only ever knowingly.
Inpatient · outpatient · evacuation
What the benefit actually buys
Two policies at the same premium can buy different hospitals, different countries of treatment, and different journeys home. We read the benefit table the way a claims department will read it — because one day it will.
The trap here
Evacuation is not repatriation.
Being flown to the nearest adequate hospital and being flown home are different clauses — and the distance between them is the most expensive sentence in the policy.
Lifetime renewal · age limits
Whether it can follow you
The move after this one is already in the policy: renewal guarantees, age ceilings, what survives a change of country or the return home. We choose for the person you’ll be at the next move, not this one.
The trap here
The policy that expires with your address.
Cover that ends when you relocate — or at an age when re-underwriting means exclusions — was never really international. It was local cover with a longer brochure.
Life cover · beneficiaries · jurisdictions
Life and protection across borders
A life policy issued in one country, protecting a household in another, paid out in a third — validity is a legal question before it is an insurance one. We read all three jurisdictions together, because a payout that cannot cross a border is not protection.
The trap here
A policy from one country, a household in another.
Whether a payout actually crosses borders — currency, probate, beneficiary law — was decided the day the policy was written. Few people are told that day matters.
Five clauses, five traps — and one report that reads them all.
We match cover to your life across borders, and we recommend only what fits — sometimes fewer products than you expected, and often the sentence keep what you have. Every recommendation arrives in writing, with the reasoning attached.
Expat Savvy · 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.
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.
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.
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.
Compare two insurers side by side.
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. Compare international insurers
- Bupa Global vs Cigna Global
- Allianz Care vs AXA Global Healthcare
- Cigna Global vs Allianz Care
- Bupa Global vs Allianz Care
- Bupa Global vs AXA Global Healthcare
- Cigna Global vs AXA Global Healthcare
- APRIL International vs Bupa Global
- APRIL International vs Cigna Global
- APRIL International vs Allianz Care
- Global Health (Foyer) vs Cigna Global
- Global Health (Foyer) vs Bupa Global
- MSH International vs Cigna Global
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. We work through the questions that matter in your situation: underwriting, renewal, exclusions and treatment geography. If you already hold cover, we read its wording and personal endorsements. We identify what is clear and what still needs the insurer's written confirmation.
Your Private Client Report
One working day later, your Private Client Report arrives — around twelve pages setting out what we found, the alternatives considered, available cost information, and the reasons for our recommendation. Any missing documents or insurer answers are identified as open questions. 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.
The arrangement, in plain words.
Expat Savvy is an advisory practice and holds no insurance licences of its own. International cover is placed through SIP Medical Family Office. Availability depends on your residence, the product and the relevant SIP entity; we check the placement route before arranging cover.
We hold no exclusive arrangement with any insurer, and no insurer owns part of this business. That does not mean every insurer or product is available to every client. The scope of a recommendation depends on the cover we can consider and arrange for your circumstances.
International cover is placed on a courtage basis: the insurer pays a percentage of the premium when a policy is placed. A higher premium can mean higher remuneration; this payment model does not remove that potential conflict. Our written report sets out the reasons for a recommendation, the alternatives considered and whether keeping existing cover is appropriate. There is no fee for the review or written report, whether or not you arrange cover through us.
Ask us to explain the remuneration attached to a proposed placement. You can read the reasoning before deciding, ask why an alternative was left out, or take the report to another adviser.
These register entries identify the relevant SIP companies, not Expat Savvy: FINMA intermediary register — Switzerland, SIP Switzerland AG registration F01111824 · FMA register — Liechtenstein, SIP Europe AG licence 10116 · FCA register — United Kingdom, SIP MFO Ltd firm reference 989310. The entities and their terms of business are 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.
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.
Robert Kolar
Health insurance expert
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.
Book with Robert
Nicole Bohne
Life and protection expert
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.
Book with Nicole
Virginie Josten
IPMI expert
Came to insurance from luxury and consulting, where the clients were demanding and the work was international. Then a Swiss insurer’s international desk — cross-border employees, expats and retirees abroad. Legal training and a master’s from Paris Dauphine. English and French.
Book with Virginie
Davide Nezel
IPMI expert
FINMA-certified independent insurance intermediary, who began in financial advice at Swiss Life. He works with globally mobile households, and coordinates with the insurer when a medical need actually arises — which is where a policy is finally tested. German, French and English.
Book with Davide
Chantal Leprêtre
Client Advisor
Client advisor for international private medical insurance at SIP Medical Family Office, the partner through which international cover is placed. She works from London, in English and French.
Book with ChantalIn their words.
“After several bad experiences with other brokers, working with Mr. Robert Kolar was a completely different experience.”
“Robert is the best person to partner with if you need to do difficult things such as relocate.”
“My session with Robert was one of the most efficient consultation sessions I'd ever had.”
“After returning to Switzerland from abroad, Robert was a tremendous help consulting me about all the changes.”
“Highly recommend consulting Expat Savvy before making any online insurance comparisons.”
“Working with Ben was great. Very prompt and responsive. Would highly recommend to anyone.”
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?
International cover is placed on a courtage basis: the insurer pays a percentage of the premium when a policy is placed. A higher premium can mean higher remuneration; this payment model does not remove that potential conflict. Our written report sets out the reasons for a recommendation, the alternatives considered and whether keeping existing cover is appropriate. There is no fee for the review or written report, whether or not you arrange cover through us.
Who are the advisors, and what are you regulated as?
Robert Kolar reviews health insurance and Nicole Bohne focuses on life and protection. Our about page also introduces the SIP colleagues who support international cover. Benjamin Amos Wagner is the founder, not a reviewing adviser. Expat Savvy is an advisory practice and holds no insurance licences of its own. International cover is placed through SIP Medical Family Office. Availability depends on your residence, the product and the relevant SIP entity; we check the placement route before arranging cover. The SIP entities, their terms and public register links are on our about page.
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.
Book a review